taxidermist

There are many fish hatcheries that can help you out. Using them of course you would want to buy their fish. I have about a 1/2 acre pond, I have about 25 channel catfish, hybred bluegill and fathead minnows. I contacted a fish hatchery and they explained what fish I should use and why. My pond dont have much structure, plus being small decaying veg. can cause oxygen depletion. So no brush piles. The catfish were underfed so I started feeding them and its amazing how fast they will grow, the gills were about 2 inches long and now are up near 4, them being hybreds, means 97% are male so little to no breeding. This summer the gills should reach a size where they will not be prey for any fish. According to the man at the hatchery I need to stock 10 lbs of fathead minnows this spring and another 10 lbs in the fall. Plans are in the fall of 07 to stock some rainbows, I know they will be ok during the winter but come late spring the pond is to shallow and will heat up to much for the trout, but they should provide some fun for my nephews and wife as she learns to use her fly rod. Yours being spring feed may support trout the year round. Last summer being so dry may have been the determining factor if trout can live year round. There is a lot of info on the internet. The big thing is having good O2 content and temp records to help you decided which fish will work in your pond. Predator fish are going to require more area. One reason I dont have bass in my pond, it could support maybe 5 well, but I can trade off bass for the gills and have alot more fun. Dont stock your pond with sunfish from the local lake or creeks!!! If you do in a few years you will have millions of 2 inch sunfish and nothing else. Thats another reason I went to the hybreds gills, few or no females. John

Slick becomes a regional term. I know the old timers around here call Chubs and small suckers, slicks. There is any number of old timers I can go to and get slicks from their tank to bait fish with. Times change as these old guys die off.

Tilapia are from Africa, they have been stocked in Mexican waters due to the high reproduction rates and the hope these tilapia will feed the locals and the big bass. I recnetly saw where a farm in Kansas has several hundred indoor water tanks raising tils. One good thing about tils is they dont handle water temps under 50F very well. But as we all know that can change too.

Ocuh, not the hook but the ER! They will do it the saemway you would have. When I was a kid I went to the ER one Sunday AM with ahook in my finger. Cost me $135.00 and I ended up telling the Dr. how to remove it. After that I have removed a many of a hook with needle nose, either just rip it out or roll it toward the barb. Many years ago I was fishing a river near Ft. Riley KS. had a nice reallynice wiper on, just as I reached for the fish the hook let loose, got me in of all places my left nipple, now that hurt!!! Not having needle nose with me I drove the 35 miles home fish hook and all or is that in all. I decided with a bit of gruntting and something to bite on to run it on thru and cut the barb. Since then any hook has been childs play!

The Clinton motors dont have much value, were not to good new. I have a 7.5 h I bought new and the carb was screwed up then and still is cant get the darn thing to run right and even tried different carbs still poor.

Thanks, Yes I too have a great amount of respect for Mark!! Hopefully he will get Bull another stocking of lakers. He has been turned down on those but I hear he is looking at it again. The Lakers did great but the normal people that caught them could not tell what species they were. One being my dad and his dufass friends, they filleted some 10lbs trout they caught in the lake!! Dad's buds think they were just freaky rainbows. Also maybe Mark will get the Tiger Musky program back in swing!!

That would sure shut down many Arkansas White River Guides!!! Emailed the Ex and she said that accodring to the Coast gaurd there are rules outlining Nav. water. Her tester told her this. Table Rock gets the Nav, by reason of the Ducks, Showboat and other on water attractions. Taneycomo because of the Gravel barge that work it. Degray gets it because of Ducks, and Ouachita same. Next you get into the dive shops running boat for daily trips on our local lakes. I can see bothside of why it is and why it is not needed. Kind of like joining a Union, great in a closed shop states but sucks in an open shop state. Keeps alot of people from guiding but does not prove that the guide knows how to catch fish.

Good luck. I was also told it only applies to NAVAGABLE waters, not including most corp controled impounded waters. White River chain was exempt, the lower White, Arkansas Mississippi and some impoundments around Hot Springs are nav. My Ex-wife now lives in Alaska and has her license and did not go thru all that, she also did a Open Ocean nav, course. and a coastal nav course. It is the six pax lic. I do know her test part of it was open book. I drove her to the test fac. The hard part is the time on board!! She did a lot of studying for it. Yes, we still speak we just had different agendas in life.

Stop and think about what the real problem for the rivers are? Its not the farmer, its not the rancher its not even the chicken grower!!! It is us so to speak. You run down to Home Cheapo or some other store and buy a bag of Scotts turf grow or some other high powered fertilizer. You dont read the directions just joe blow down the road uses it and his yard looks good. Noone take soil samples into the local County Agent office for testing!! The reports show less than 1% of the home owners use this free or almost free service. The bag says it will treat 15,000 square feet, noone measures their own yard, they just assume its that big and the home owner puts the whole bag on their yard. Now we have the fact there are no buffers to help slow and catch this toxic mess. it runs to the street, to the storm sewer and right into the streams. There is some stats available that you can google it www.epa.gov/twg/2003/proposals/upper_white.pdf www.adeq.state.ar.us/poa/forums/white_river_0011/gen_session_present.pdf www.mo.nrcs.usda.gov/news/news/5th%20Edition%20of%20NL%20Nov%2006.pdf http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=n...amp;btnG=Search Anyway here is the links do the reading.

I am looking for a 20 hp or less used 2 stroke. $500.00 or less 9.9 or so is fine. Will trade taxidermy work.

I have used Green yarn balls in the Catch and release areas with good results, espcially the C&Rs down in the mid stream areas. The area down from Rileys on White River, I drifted green match the hatch yarn balls and did very well. lots of solid 3 lb fish Rainbows. Have not tried it on other areas. Yes it was carolina rigged.

We are not going this weekend, just don't have time. I have a smallmouth bass, two german browns, one rainbow trout to get finished this week. Three are reproductions and I always make modifcations to the fish blanks. Many corrections!! Most are cast and have major flaws I cannot allow out my door. I am working on a brown for a client, that I had released three times. Yes I get sad when I know it was one thats been around. Its a nice male not jumbo but nice. I am planning on going to a taxidermy competiton next weekend and need to get these finished. Worked on the Sotar airbrush today, making sure no parts are needed also the Paschee, just one of those no suprises when I start painting. If I do get a chance to hit the water it will be near BSD, with shad running thru?? Maybe to many people. We are planning on going to Pomme someday. Wife's Mom lives near Greenfield so just another 90 minutes up the road but thats in a couple weeks.

26X14X14 6.37 pounds, unless the fish is from slow water like a lake, then it may weigh less. Fish from fast water are more muscle than from slow water. So muscle we know weighs more than fat. I marked 6 inches from the ruler on screen on a postcard ,and placed the marked card verticle on the fish, there was a bit of extra for overlap so I allowed 7 inches also allowing that the fish is curved,,a 14 inch girth. Nice fish I would love to catch it.

I use a Pasche VL for most work, it is a good durable airbrush. You can get excellent detail. You can also set it for single action. The deal with single action is get a good one those cheap off brands suck. Pasche makes an H series, which is great you adjust the fluid with on hand and air pressure with the other. The trick for detail is to get the right amount of retarder to allow the paint to flow easily and the air pressure. Tamaya (sp) makes model car paints that are water cleanup and they are very good for lures, you just need to clean the lure weel before applying. Plus you get a great amount of colors in the amounts you may need. I use a Sotar 20/20 for detail painting the price in around $200.00 but you can do without it. The next thing is a compressor with a storage tank, you have to have the tank and then a regulator and a moisture trap, without the trap your painting will suck!! I use one at the tank and one near the airbrush of gloss gun. www.bearair.com www.dixieart.com VLset for $68.00 includes hose and three tips, plus jar and color cup, airhose. Thayer-Chandler makes a great airbrush Cresendo, its forgiving!!! Lots of t-shirt guys use these. Double action, good value maybe be a better airbrushe than the VL. I stick with the VL because I have tons of VL parts after buying out a small taxidermy supply company years ago. There are few parts that need replacing unless I drop the darn thing.

Does anyone know what happened to Mark, I was living at Batesville and he left the AGFC as the area Bio? I am betting we could get some good info from him. Thx John

People there are already movements to limit the amounts of fertilizer applies within the White River Drainage. This includes the farmers too. There has been several meetings in Boone County AR concerning this and teaching farmers about application on sloops. Next thing to come is looking like only commercial licensed applicators in the next five years. My brother has a lawn care business and 1 of only 2 licensed in Boone County for commercial weed control, he is in the thick of what is going on. Boone County AR is the largest producre of BEEF in the state of ARKANSS!! So yes, things are moving. Its slow because we all know what happens when you try to force people to immediatly do something. As to looking more outside the typical White River drainage, look at where I live in Newton County AR, I can see thousands of acres of land that have been cleared for cattle pasture. This is Buffalo River Drainage that as we all know drains into the White at Buffalo City. The Buffalo is not the same Buffalo I grew up fishing. I dont think the retirement dollar produces as much as other think. It produces some gas sales, some tackle sales and some boat sales, but not all those retired folks fish even weekly. and they certainly dont spend near the dollars one reason is these folks are on a restricted income. They dont have unlimited income as many would think. Thier expense go up just like the other we all endure. 2 stroke motors, again you cannot just outlaw something, it takes time to get things working. i.e. noone makes 2 stroke motors any more so yes they are being phased out. Like the CARB rules in California, someone has yet to make a 4 stroke that will do the samethings Mr Wotton pointed this out. Look at the 2 strokes lining the dock at Gastons,, maybe that would be where to start??? Then maybe as the White River ages we should look at different species, the water warms and the species change and maybe someday trout will be a thing of the past. Who knows someday Northern Pike and Musky may be the hot species in White River. The Brookies were all killed out after the first two stockings and its just been this last try that Brookies have made it. I know in Germany the Grayling are tuffer than the American Grayling, maybe someone should look at that?? Who knows someday White River maybe the hot spot for smallies. I did catch a pure old largemouth bass between gastons and the dam last week!!! So is the water warming up enough to support these again? Also look at how Branson has grown, look how Harrison has grown, look at how the area around BSD has and is grwoing, then Mt Home area. I can remember just a few years back when noone would buy land around Peel!! I have seen the Overlook above the Norfork, I agree it sucks but just how long ago did Braircliff happen. Gads hwy 5 was a desolute place back 20 years ago. Things change some we can control, some we can place blame on and somethings are going to happen no matter what we do. We are lucky to have the ability to go gishing anytime and almost anywhere here in the Ozarks, we are lucky to say the lest.

I am thinking about giving musky a try, my buddys up north say when the ice goes out and its been cold here in North ARKANSAS. I am wondering if there is any ice on Pomme?

Taint no big secret to that spot. I fish the upper sections above Pyatt a lot , you need land owners permission, which makes it a bit hard for anybody other than locals to fish. Aslong as you are releasing the fish many dont have a problem nut you need to ask!! I have a spot where I take one of the infamous game and fish guys, we are planning another trip. He dont know ehre it is because I take him in from the back roads.

I hit the upper portion of Crooked Creek today, darn cold but darn good. I lost my last white stump jumper or road runner, they are about the same. anyway I caught 6 nice smallies in the 2 lb range. The water is milky with the perfect turquoise color. I fished the deep holes where water runs in and cast up stream bouncing the lure into deep water slowly. I caught another 2 under 1 lb. I just had to go, was heading past it to get hay for the turd herd 15 horses. So on the way back!! I also like latter in the spring when the water is warm enough to wade, to use silver rapalas as the water is dropping and colored the same. The upper section is down HWY 7 toward the former Dogpatch. It is more privatly owned and you do need permission.

I hate to be a doomsday sayer, but I have watched all the ecoli and salmonella problems over the past few years and I dont think its accidents. I think it is planted and I think its going to become worse until we Americans wake up and realize that along the Mexican Border Terrorist come thru daily. Yep, I have Peter Pan with that number and have been sick several days over the past few weeks from it I decided. PB dont last long around here. Just expect these micro biological attacks to continue and get worse.

I dont know about the hieght gauge. Here is what I can tell you, since last fall Crooked Creek has been up several times, what we call a gully washer. Enough so that even the normally underground portions has been flowing heavy above ground, you could float it, if it was not for the brush. What happens is the gravel will move in and out of holes, some holes will fill up others will wash out, thats just the way Crooked is. Other smaller streams in the area do this also. So the best you can do is comedwon to float it and if its up head over to White River or Buffalo River. There is always somewhere to fish. John

I just started fishing White River (again) after retiring from the Army in 1998. What is the White TOILET PAPER looking crap I see in the summer??? Also last week as I fished the upper White below the dam, I see guides dragging the bottom, I thought that had been outlawed? I don't know what the object is they were dragging but i suspect it was to slow the boat down, it also stirs the moss and grasses to get trout to feed. Next question is why do guides from a certain resort do this and other not? I will also point out that I have seen Mr Wotten on the river many times and he is one of the most courteous guides!! He has never crowded anyone and always stays as far away from other boats as he can. Other guides should take lessons from him!! John

No info about electronics. I have been studying fish eyes for several years. I also SCUBA dive. Bass have trouble seeing what is under them. When you look at the eye anatomy, you will see there is a thicker area up near the front of the eyeball, this gives the fish a better image of things infront and on top of it. Also you have to look at the how the eye sets in the head, on bass most times it sets almost outside of the head more so that the so-called frog eyes. This you can see at BPS aqauriums and yes its the same as in wild fish, some more some less. I have also seen this in the tanks in Athens TX. and Cableas in KC. if you really start looking at the eyes of live fish in their enviroment, you can see better how fish can see whats around them. Next you have the line down the side on all fish, its part of the ear system, actually nerve endings that connect to the otolith(SP) ear stone or ear bone. While I dont have fancy electronics (Eagle Supra Rpo portable) I can figure out how deep a fish is on it and drop a spoon by measuring line out on top of the fish I am finding and trigger a bite. Near Beaver Creek yesterday I found bass at 9 feet over 23 feet of water and pink sluggoed three of them. Carolina rigged with a 1/8th ounce bullet sinker and 8lb vanish. I lost a good bass at the boat and caught 3, 16 inch largemouths. Not bad for 60 minutes of fishing, just to dadblame cold for me. I know the better sonars you can see your lure on but for those of us who just can seem to turn loose of $500.00 for equipment there is still the slow old, measure the line out and sluggo methods. I am always slow to learn current technology, I figured out last week I can run the fish finder and by adjusting screen speed and sens. I am able to run at full throttle. Now for my little 4hp Mariner its not bass boat fast, but still hauls my butt at a pretty good speed. So for those of us who cant afford the latest and greatest in sonars, there is till hope. John

The boat was there Friday, I posted it on here. It looked like an older tri-hull. You have to pay attention when fishing any waters that are like the running portions of White River.

Where do you fish for Pickerel?