Chief Grey Bear

Ahh yeah found it. I thought is was on this page but, I had to go back a couple of pages. I was wondering what the sales tax rate was down there. But I looked it up myself. It showed to be a few different rates depending on what you are selling. But at any rate I picked one out of the middle and it looks like to pay $103k + in sales tax, you had to have sales in the neighborhood of $800,000. I understand your line of thought about Taney now.

What happened to your post about paying $103,XXX in taxes? I had a question about that.

Lost Valley Fish Hatchery Driving Directions Located east of Highway 65 on County Road 620, northeast of Warsaw. Highlights The area is mostly old fields with some forest. Facilities/features: hatchery, nature center, numerous fishless ponds, and permanent stream (Sterret Creek). About This Area The Lost Valley Fish Hatchery is the largest state owned, warmwater hatchery in Missouri and one of the largest in the nation. It is located east of Highway 65 on County Road 620, northeast of Warsaw. The hatchery building houses a 2,000 square foot visitor center, where visitors can learn more about warmwater fish culture, fishing, and the Missouri Department of Conservation's role in aquatic resource management. Visitors may view the hatchery production room from 2 large windows inside the visitor center. The center is open year-round and admission is free. The facility also contains 78 rearing ponds totaling 68.3 acres, as well as a 10-acre ambient temperature pond. Lost Valley Hatchery rears a variety of fish species including walleye, muskellunge, channel catfish, largemouth bass, striped and hybrid bass, bluegill and hybrid sunfish. The facility is being used to research propagation methods for endangered fish, as well as for native freshwater mussels. Fish raised at the hatchery are used to stock public and private waters throughout Missouri. Construction began in 1997 as a project of the Missouri Department of Conservation. 75% of the $19 million construction cost was funded by the Sport Fish Restoration Act, which places a federal excise tax on such items as boat motors, fishing tackle, and boat fuel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service distributes these funds among the states according to the number of fishing permits sold and the amount of land and water. These funds are approved for projects that augment sport fish restoration. To that end, Lost Valley Hatchery is the largest project funded by the Sport Fish Restoration Act in the nation. The Lost Valley Fish Hatchery and Visitor Center is situated on 971 acres in the Leigh flats area east of Truman Lake. Visitors walking through the hatchery grounds can experience a variety of natural settings from prairie areas to Missouri glades. A section of Sterett Creek runs through this valley. It supports native fish, as well as aquatic invertebrates like crayfish, mayflies and dragonflies. The hatchery grounds support a diversity of plant life. There are plentiful cedar stands with mixed hardwoods in a forested section where plants like fragrant sumac, violets and star grass are plentiful. Two natural glades are home to native wildflowers, including purple coneflower, Indian paintbrush, fringed puccoon, prickly pear cactus, and feverfew. Wildlife is frequently seen on the area. The glades are prime locations to see tarantulas, lizards, and scorpions. Uncut timber provides ideal habitat for white-tailed deer and turkey, and even bobcats. Bird species are plentiful, including eastern bluebirds and indigo buntings. Great blue herons, green herons, and belted kingfishers are also frequently seen. Winter bird visitors include bald eagles and gulls. Waterfowl use both the detention ponds on the hatchery grounds and a wetland area created from a borrow pit. Ongoing development includes a birding blind, picnic areas, interpretative trails, food plots and native wildflower gardens, as well as bank fishing access to Lake of the Ozarks.

My link is in a thread below "Since we are all talking"....It has some great info concerning MDC trout program. In fact it about 35+ pages of nothing but trout. I can't disagree more though with the rest of your statement. NC's have a great value for children of larger population centers that for one reason or another don't have a good chance of getting a good idea of what the outdoors are and are about. There is no telling how many children are affected in a positive way. And some of them just may become our next bioligist and continue work for the MDC. That was not really what I was refering to, but that was a hilarious spin none the less. Pat yourself on the back for that one! My point is that $13 million is nothing to sneeze at. That is a lot of money for those folks that make at least a portion of their living from what trout have to offer. As for the free pie, it sure is free. The cost of those trout and the cost of maintaining that lake is shared by everyone, but that $13 million ain't. With all due respect eric, I don't see it that way. I understand your point though. But not everyone has the opportunity that most of us have to drive to a place like we know that has trout. Plus even if they did, I don't think we would want them fishing some of the places we do. I think you would find to many corn cans and worm boxes. I also understand your point about where the revenues should go. But I also understand that they can't all go for programs that benefit just what I like. Even if it is for hikers or bird watchers, at least the money is going to preserve or ehance something in nature. And not some silly skateboard park or other silly things.

In a report from the MDC that I linked in my post below, it is stated that the economic impact to Taneycomo lake is in excess of $13 million a year. I wouldn't mind having me a slice of that free pie.

On second thought, I would like to change my stance on this. I got to thinking about this today and decided that if tax money is going to be used for something that I and some others may find wasteful and maybe even somewhat ridiculous, I would much rather see it used for matters such as this as, say, welfare. The idea behind such government programs such as welfare, though a good idea and needed by some, is grossly over abused by the majority. I am not making a political statement as much as I am a comparison. I don't care what team is in power, that is one program that I think we may all agree needs an overhaul. I guess really to get to the meat of what I am saying is, I would rather see our tax monies spent on habitat restoration or any type of outdoor, wildlife project. Sorry to ruffle some feathers over this as I am pretty sure I did.

...trout, and rightfully so this time of year, I thought I would post this. I am not one to chase the trout truck or fish for them during the warm months. But I sure do like to chase them during the late fall and winter months. Anyway, it is just a little dated but a great read none the less. Be sure to read all of the pages. It is a little long but worth it. http://mdc4.mdc.mo.gov/Documents/25.pdf

It was without a doubt another great Olliefest. Complete with typical Olliefest weather. Looks like though due to the huge turnout, next year we resort to an invitational type Olliefest. And of course to be eligible, one would have to have attended a previous Olliefest. So for those that attended the first three, they will be able to attend future Olliefest. Congrats to all that attended. We had one minor mishap at this years fest. Buzz was disqualified from the competition due to his failure to arrive at check in at the appropriate hour. By fishing longer than the allotted time, he had to forfeit his catch for the day. And of course he did not agree with this ruling but the Board of Directors discussed the matter and came to a unanimous agreement. He is a loser!

Way to go there boys! Those first pics on Spring in OK?

Yeah, back to habitat. Habitat for the next truck load of trout. I really need to get down there some day though. I need to get some return on my investment.

Any way you look at it the guides benefit the most. We are all paying to contribute to their lively hood. Wether it be structure or trout stocked for their clients. But I do love reading here their bashing of the MDC. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

Yeah I can bring the pot and the grate. I can bring some wood too. Maybe just do it at the lower end with a real fire???????? May need a little warming up.

No I haven't. But I know somebody has. I found their paddle in a log jam.

You number 1 and 2 culprits are fescue and clean fence rows. Or you could say the number 1 culprit is cattle. Missouri is #2 behind texas in cattle production. And most of that is in SW Missouri. That and everybody has to live in the country theses days. There are houses freaking everywhere now. You can tell where the parents have passed on and left the farm to the kids. It has a bunch of houses on it now. How great it must be to visit the old home stead with the children and tell them all the great stories of yester year. All the while looking at a bunch of over sized over priced homes! BTW, I didn't know turkeys could digest bone. I have never heard of them coughing up a pellet like Owls.

I think it got by everybody !

Beautiful pic's for sure. I just may have to add that one to my itinerary. There. Added.

When I first started chasing the different strains a couple of years ago, my only source, the MDC stated that there were no shadow bass on this side of the state. Only Ozark and Northern. And there started the confusion. I was looking for the difference in the speckles. It was when I started trying to compare the blotches that I started confusing myself. If you will recall I PM'ed you a couple of years ago with some questions about this but you were in Montana away from your sources. Anyway, instead of following my instinct, I lead myself astray. I began to confuse the blotches with the speckles. I was finding these shadow bass but only head waters of some of the creeks. Down lower all I would find was the northern. What I was thinking was that I was finding Ozark or another yet unknown strain outside of the White River water shed. I had begun documenting my findings an was making a list. Thanks for pointing that out. The great thing now is, I don't have to go looking for the Shadow Bass. I have now caught all strains of bass native to Missouri. And the really cool thing is I can do it and not travel more than about 30 miles! Actually I can do it all in one county! I think I can. That county may be missing one strain. Ahhhhhh, I smell a new challenge!

One thing I forgot to add, The Nothern will have the bright red eye also. They also have the bigger eye that bugs out and thus gave it its nickname goggle eye. The Ozark has a smaller eye and not near as brightly colored. It is more of a dull red.

There are three strains of "Goggle eye" recognized in Missouri. The Northern Rock Bass inhabits the northern Ozarks streams and the tributaries of the middle Mississippi River and just a small area of SW Missouri. The Ozark Bass is found in the Ozark region of Southwest Missouri and, according to the MDC, nowhere else in the world. It is known to be in only a few counties along the southern border and north of the White River Pomme de Terre and Sac river basins. The Shadow Bass is centered in the southeastern Ozarks from the Spring River to the White in Arkansas. It can also be found in the Bootheel region of Missouri. I am not really familiar with its dristibution in Arkansas but I would believe that some can be found there in the northeastern part of the state before the waters flatten out and slow down. Now for identification. The Northern Rock bass Color, as well as the other two, can vary but is generally dark brown to bronze. It will have a distinct pattern of dark spots arranged in parallel lines along their sides. The Ozark Bass has dark blotches in an irregular freckled pattern. Such as the pic above. For the Shadow Bass, it displays broad dark blotches arranged in a vertical pattern. I am gonna have to head east one of these days so I can catch a Shadow bass. Doing that I will have caught all strains of native bass to Missouri.

Had the great pleasure of entertaining drew03cmc today to some good ol' Missouri Ozark creek fishing. Buzz, Little Chief (Dylan) and I met up with him at Capp's Creek this morning about 7 am. And boy, you just couldn't have asked for better conditions. Cloudy, cool and rainy. The only thing we didn't have was wind. Thank goodness! We decided to try our luck for a little trout action first. Andy had never fished Capp's before and we started at the lower access. After making all of the introductions, we soon were suited up and fishing the first hole. Action was pretty slow. Little Chief had the first two bites but was not able to hang on. We soon started our migration up stream. It wasn't long and Andy had his first Capp's trout. And then another. And another. Buzz ended the day with two and Little Chief and I both had two. One of mine was a Brown. After finishing up with Capp's, we decided to take Andy over to some water on Shoal to get him his first Neosho strain of brownie. We didn't have him on the water very long before he had that accomplished. It wasn't long after that, that he connected on another first. His caught his first Ozark Bass. It was a really nice big, beautifully colored specimen. In all he caught 3 species of bass, one species of trout, and a real nice creek bluegill. Oh and 1 rainbow chub. Good going Andy, hope to fish with you again someday.

Didn't the MDC just spend about $5 million of our tax dollars on that hatchery down there?

No lunkers for me or KC. We headed well down stream looking for something else and we found it. We ended up with three of these and it was all worth it. I did miss one really nice fish in the 20inch range though. What a fighter! Alas it was not to be. This time!

Where did the one in pic two come from?

Hey we are in the same neck of the woods! I have a son Dylan, 11, and a daughter Sierra 9. Dylan and I go fishing dang near every weekend and we both would consider it an honor to help you out. We do a lot of wade fishing as well as float fishing. We have plently of room for you and your boys to come along. I was born and raised in this corner of the state and fished ever puddle that held water. Dylan isn't far behind me now. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. You can either ask here or send a PM.

Hey you coming brbf? Me and KC will be heading down out of the park. You can go with us.