Chief Grey Bear

Right on Brian! Sombody out there in TV land needs to run all three of these guy's every Saturday morning! Really the ideal time would be Friday night! Get you pumped for fishing Saturday! Our most realistic chance at getting these three icons of the fishing world would most likely be with RFD TV. I just checked their site and at the very bottom of the home page is a icon for "Prograam Submission". Click it and fill it out. Or you can use this direct link: http://www.rfdtv.com/corporate/program_submission/ I would encourage everyone to take a moment and submit for each Jerry, Virgil, and Harold. Even if you are not a member of this forum and you are reading this or you are just a lurker, just take a moment to help get these men that started outdoors tv over 40 years ago, back on tv where they belong. And if you are members of other fishing or outdoor or really any other forums, everybody loved to watch these guy's, spread the word! Through all of us and the internet we have the capability to try and get these programs back!

What a trip!!!! Way different than plunking around in the Ozarks!!

Your license allows you to fish anywhere within the borders of the state. Your trout tag allows you to possess them. If you don't intend on keeping any you don't have to have a tag. So the fishing is costing you nothing. In reality this is not any different than any of the other state or private trout parks. Only here you don't have to pay to fish, just park. The MDC does not get the parking fee. This is a private park that has always been privately funded. And I am pretty sure that if those using the park would have picked up after themselves, it would still be free parking. Between the maintenance and the insurance, I'd bet is was pretty pricey to keep open. Then you add the cost of the park ranger and the his housing and it keeps going up. And you don't have to pay if you don't want. The MDC maintains two parking lots just across the road that have all the free parking you will need.

Charged twice???

One more thing I failed to mention. Certain baits, mostly deep diver cranks and bigger spinnerbaits can throw off your tracking. Most notably when used by the front passenger in calmer waters.

Let me crawdad here a little Al. I shouldn't have said I disgree, I should have said, "Let me add..." I didn't mean to insuate that your info was incorrect. As I was reading your post, I kept thinking to myself about this and that and the other. It was a poor choice of words on my part. Just wanted anyone new to getting a canoe also think about those factors as well. Does that make any sense????

I have to both agree and disagree Al. Sort of. If you were to float in an indoor Olympic sized pool, then yes I would agree with this 100%. But there are 3 factors in the real world that change this. First is wind. It doesn't matter what type of tracking you have, wind is not your friend. It seems like even the slightest breeze will always start just after you make your perfect cast and start to turn you just enough to make you want to spit nails! Current would be next. Current can either help you or hurt you depending on other factors. It can make steering easier or almost impossible depending on where you are wanting to go. And like your friend the wind, it doesn't matter how good of a tracking canoe you have, it will take you where it wants to, unless you are constantly correcting. Just a slight adjustment here and there. We all do it one handed as we are fishing. Unless you are fishing one of those ditch channels in the bootheel. I guess, I have never fished one. Then we have probably one of the most over looked and possibly one of the most important asspects, weight distribution. There are two types of weight distrubution. First is side to side. It is very important to keep your weight evenly applied from the left to the right. If one side is heavier, you will have a constant "lean" that will cause any canoe to drift towards heavier side. You will constantly be compensating for this in one of two ways. Either you will be leaning the oppisite direction all day or you will be fishing one handed. Because your paddle will alway be in the other one. Next is front to back weight. It is very important to keep both end of the canoe down in the water. If you are lite in the front, not only will you be catching a lot of wind and spinning like a top, your back end will be catching more current and thus also spinning you. The only advantage, if you can call it that, would be that steering will be a breeze. But that is all you will be doing and you want to be fishing. That is just my thoughts on the subject. I am with you 100% on this.

Yeppers. That is when it is published in the Wildlife Code book and becomes official. I would venture to guess you could speak with your local agent and he may be able to expand on it.

They won't be out until March 1, 2012.

Now here I was being a good boy since it is close to Christmas and I made one little two liner about an observation of this thread and that makes me all that??? Somebody has some issues! But other than that, yeah, lets do some fishing. Trout??? Brownie??? Float?? Wade??? And Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Ha Laker, your right! I think he might have bent it a little.

Welcome to one of the greatest forums on the net! What kind of fishing do you like to do?? Creeks??? Lakes???

Ehhh Drew, why is it everyone always throws out the high end prices to make their argument. A little frugality will go a long ways towards compliance and happieness. siusaluki had a fabulous idea that will work great. Just a little imagination and ingenuity is all that is needed. I guess some are doer's and other are just complainers.

I have slacked off the last few Friday's it looks like. Sorry about that. Here is one from trip earlier this year. Don't let the pic fool you though. That was about a 2 1/2 pounder. He just makes the fish look small.

Nice brownie!

Know the area well. I hadn't thought about that area though. But since you mentioned it, with all the grain fields in the area and the size of the river at that point, I can see how it would be a great spot! Sometime this summer I plan on putting in at that bridge and floating on over to KS on an over nighter. I am figuring it doesn't get floated much due to the lack of access.

Shoal Creek and Spring River will be my haunts when the conditions are right. And you are right, I can not be under power when shooting. I will mainly just go with the flow of the current but, will use it to get through the long pools if nothing is there. I was going to lower it mainly because I can't sit and see over it while moving along. I want to lower it just enough to see over while seated. I had to stand and operate while we were testing. Shoal and Spring are generally pretty open so I should be ok. I am also thinking of doing this to my canoe. Maybe not this year though. When Corndawg and I were out there this weekend, I sure was wishing were were in the canoe floating. And I agree Shoal will be a lot of fun when ponds and lakes get frozen. This wasn't Shoal but last year CD and I were over on Capp's one day in Janurary and rounded a bend and about 25-30 Green heads exploded into the sky. CD about jumped out of waders! I have always seen a lot of ducks on Spring and Shoal in the winter and can't wait to give it a whirl! Thanks for the info!

CD and I have been talking about doing some river duck hunting the last couple of year. I have read quite a few stories and seen photos from the early part of the last century and it just looked a sounded like a lot of fun. Of course I always like doing things like they did many, many years ago and try to keep it somewhat alive for my son to pass on. But I have been know to make a few modifcations. Much like the Duck Master 1. It is not exactly like the early jon boats they used but close. Well, somewhat close. This one is plasctic and has a trolling motor. Compfy seats or at least more comfortable then a wooden bench. It ain't anything like Ducky has, which I have got to get down there and see! We took it out today to do some test as see what we need to change. And there are a couple of things that I need modify. I need to lower it just few inches and it needs a little bit of bracing. Other than that though, I think it is going to work really good. I didn't think any ducks would be on the rivers yet and I was right. It is too early for them but sometimes you never know. We brought our rods for back up pleasure. Bad thing was I left my jig box at the truck. CD brought his spinning rod and a Roadrunner that he tied his self and and he put a hammered willow leaf blade on it. It worked. He scored a nice fat brownie.

Maybe. But shouldn't we wait until those two are caught back at the same place they are tagged before we say they move great distances for the winter??? We all saw what some here thought about a few rogue hatchery trout.

I happen to speak with one of my contacts today and this is exactly what the MDC is doing.

I waited a couple of days for someone to post this but it didn't happen. http://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/conservation-agents-wrap-firearms-deer-season-poaching-cases Great job MDC!!!!!

I think I have to agree that the majority of them stick closer to the home range. I have done quite a bit of winter fishing specifically for smallmouth the last few years. I fished in Dec. Jan. and Feb. I didn't just fish the pretty, sunny days but cold, blustery days too. I fished days that it did not hit 20*. I'll have to go back and look but, I don't think I fished any days that it got into the 40's or warmer. And all I can add to this discussion is what I have experienced doing this. In a nutshell winter fishing was the same as summer, except much, much slower with numbers drastically lower. With that said, I found fish in the exact same area, even same logs and brush, as I did in summer. In one hole where a spring creek runs in, I actually found them just on the edge of the upstream side. Now they could have been in the area of where the spring creek was comming into this creek and darted out to my bait. And what surprises me, is where this spring creek comes in, there is a really nice hole with a good root wad. All I have ever caught is one largemouth. Each time I fished it, I could find him. But never a smallmouth. They always were in the area I described above. One question I would have about this whole thing is if the smallmouth are migrating, why not the bait fish? I don't know how they do it but, those dang ol minnnows on some of these cold winter days are out there doing what they do seemingly without any regard to the temp of the water. Crazy! And then we could get into the whole "how much do fish need to eat in the winter" discussion. I have some in a tank in a non heated room. I know that sounds crazy. It is a sun room that I have as my fishing storage room and they is where I have to keep the fish because of the wife. And that is a whole other discussion in itself but we won't go there today. Anyway, the temp in that room is basically what it is outdoors. Last winter I had about an inch of ice at one end of the tank. Thank goodness the filtration system I have make a little current in the water to keep all of if from freezing. I'll get the heat lamp out this year!!! My point is though, that in the winter I have seen my fish go about a month without eating. Not saying those in the wild go that long, but I am sure they could if they had too. I don't know how much stock I would put into the fish your friend caught as "proof", not saying that is what you are doing excactly, that smallmouth migrate. As a whole. Some years ago there was a spoonbill tagged in either MO or OK, I think it was OK, and it was found a year or two later in South Dakota. Now that is a lot of freaking swimming!!!!! The only real way to find out if they migrate in the winter or not or how far, would be to chip them. And do it on different sized waterways. I think it would be really interesting.

That is not quite correct either. Arkansas was ranked 12th and Aburn was not in the top 25 when they played. http://www.rolltide.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/alab-m-footbl-sched.html OSU played #8 Texas A&M #22 Texas #13 OU I didn't find what Baylor's ranking was at the time of play. They may not have been ranked at that time. http://www.okstate.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/110511aaa.html

No apology necessary. I haven't yet but, I would love to do some fishing in Utah. That would just rock!

You can add this one too. I don't think I have posted it yet anyway. http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/may/16/the-rainbow-connection/