Chief Grey Bear

Hey Buzz Can you post that pic I sent you?

I totally understand that. I would complain to them after every trip that you had an encounter. And get everyone else to do the same. It shouldn't take long for them to start patroling. Call and send email. And keep the emails you send and recieve. This will form a "paper trail" that will document the actions taken if any.

So yer sitting there have a cup of joe and along comes a man floating by yer place drowning. I wonder what lb test the line was?

That is pretty much what we are talking about. I do think that a netrual party must be in the boat though. I can see some prize money being shared if not. And you may still need something like a "hat cam" to be linked up to view the real time weighing.

No CC, you are not naive. It does appear though as if they don't want to protect the resource that puts the money in their pockets either. I think they are the ones that are naive.

If you are not willing to do something about it, as in, alert the proper authority, don't cry about. Basically what you are doing is turning a blind eye to the situation, but then want to complain about. Look, I am on your side about this type of issue but, you can't just simply look the other way. If you and others that are having problems, make a stand, the word will get out that this type of behavior will not be tolerated. I just can't for the life of me understand why people would behave this way in the first place. On the other hand, you could carry a pistol and shoot the motor. That will stop it. I like that idea.

Ya know, the technology is here to stop this slaughter at once. The money is also there to use the technology. I say every boat should have a staff of one that is employed by the tournament that immediately weighs and releases the fish on certified electronic scales. This info can then be stored or immediately sent to the "official computer" at the "weigh in". Keep the top 5 weights, add them, done. No fish harmed. You can still dock an ounce per minute that a boat is late. Beats docking an ounce per dead fish. I think Missouri should step up and demand that any tournament taking place on waters of this state must abide by this or a some similar policy. How many fish must die before something is done.

I don't recall that type of fertilizer. I do remember hauling in tank cars of Anhydrous Ammonia and hauling out cars loads of Ammonium Nitrate. We did spot them one tank of Nitric Acid one time though. We did spot a lot of nitric acid at the other plant. I think they still do. I still recall spotting box cars for dynamite loading at the other plant down the creek. We took to them to KC. I remember they were going to Canada. This was all in the mid 90's, I'm not sure of the operation now.

Make sure you do. It will be an honor and a pleasure to fish with you and your friend.

I am assuming you are fishing south of Avilla and towards its confluence with the Spring River. I am always a bit up stream from there. As for the other two, yeah they have some. Have some that will surprise the heck out of ya too! Center Creek has another powder company that sits right on the bank of the creek and it is still in operation today. As far as I know it is the only powder company of its kind in the US. Actually North America. In the latter days (years) of Atlas they used to make the powder for them and truck it over to them. Atlas for many of its final years produced nothing but fertilizer. If you float it that far, in one day, you wont be able to fish it like you should. That is just too far. Now this is enough talk about these creeks. We need to talk more about the ones everybody else knows of. Buzz and myself are going to be out of commision this weekend but, after that, we should all get together and do a wade for float trip.

Sorry Wayne but Al's post has been seconded by Trav. Sherwoods post makes it unanimous. Therefore it is fact.

I have never caught a brownie in White Oak. I don't think is cool enough or has enough current. Now Spring River, if you can catch them, it has some really nice brownies. They are few and far between it seems but, every one that I ever caught was really big. Take a float from Morrow Mill to Kellogg lake. Work the holes real good and you should be able to pick up a couple. Just down from where the Spring comes back together with itself is a place called Rock Dam. Its not really a dam but was at one time. There are still about half dozen or so large boulders that line out across the river. That is a geat spot to pick up a nice brownie. It will be at the first sign, well the only sign of a bluff at the river edge. Also that spot where the two sides come back together, was a very deep hole. A great producer of largemouth and brownies. Really that whole stretch from put in to take out is excellent largemouth fishing. I don't know what this years floods have done to the brush piles but, take some minnows and some stink bait too. There was a lot of good and I mean good catfishing holes. You should also be able to pick up a mess of crappie with the minnows.

Ha! That is funny Buzz! I thought I was the one operating the Jon?! Creek Wader, you get a hold of me any time you want to do a little fishing. I would more than happy to accompany you and fish. I am figuring you have been RR'ing long enough to have 4-5 weeks vaction. And that is just about what it will take to fish this corner of the state like it should be.

Took Buzz for some good ol' fashioned bridge hopping the other day in Jasper county. We hit different sections of Center Creek, Jenkins, and White Oak. I think I surprized Buzz with some of the spots that I took him too. I think he kinda had his doubts about the quality of the fish that we would find. At one spot we really couldn't fish it like it needed to be due to the higher than normal water. On White Oak, Buzz caught the largest fish of the day. A really nice 2 1/2 lb bass. I hit one spot there that yieled 4 fish on five cast. Two were ok bass in the 11- 12 inch range and two really nice black perch.

Went on a float today with Buzz on a stretch of Shoal between Neosho and Joplin. And what a day. Luckily we didn't get any rain to speak of last night. The water has a good color to it but is still running about 2 1/2 feet or so high and running pretty fast. We managed to catch some real quality fish. The smallest was about 10-11 inches. Buzz caught a really nice brownie. Most other fish were all in the 12 inch range. Most were caught on soft plastics but a few did succumb to a tadpolly and spinner bait. We hit one spot that yielded numerous goggle eye all of which were in the 11-12 inch range. Just some fantastic goggle eyes. I have not caught that number, that size in years. It was a real treasure to see them. Usually on a fishing trip, I manage to catch quite a few dinks. But not this trip. They must have been hiding out somewhere as they didn't bite today. And what a variety. Brownies, spots, Largemouth and Goggle eye. Heck we didn't even have any problems with the perch.

I forgot to mention that I do this too when I am on a lake. Good advice. And I have on occasion done this on the creek. It works best at a riffle where it will actually pull your line off of the spool. After letting a few feet go(about the same as you adverage cast) flip the bail and let is work for a few minutes and then just reel it back up. Put your plug back on and start fishing again.

I know Terry. I understood. And you make a perfect point with this post. I have also made mistakes. I'm sure we all have and that gets back to my point of intent. We did not intend to break the law, but on occasion we have. Its those with intent that need to be roped in. And just between us, this board swings to the right. A lefty doesn't stand much of a chance.

Naw naw no no no no. Don't do that. Casting will be way to hard. When you think your spool is full, close the bail. Then open the bail. if the line start stringing off by itself, then yes you have too much line. take off a few rounds and repeat the process. When the line stops springing off the spool by itself, then you will have the correct amount of line on there. After filling your spool a few times you will know where the sweet spot is by looking. Now another great trick that I use is using a filler on your reels. On my ultralite reels, when I used mono, I would wind on a green or blue colored mono to just over half the spool. I would then put on my clear mono that I fished with. That way When I got down to the different colored line I knew it was time to add more. I use about a 75/25 mix. Meaning about 75% of my spool is filler line. I like to keep my spools full. Casting is much easier this way. And by using this ratio, you always have good fresh line. Now that I am using Cystal Fireline, I use mono as my filler. Also you can get a little more of a quailty line such as this on your spool as it will not spring off like a mono or similar type will. I am still using mono on my baitcasters too. I don't know yet if I will make the switch on them. Oh also, when putting on a filler line, I use a larger line. Meaing on my ultralites I was stringing on a 6lb line and using 4lb for fishing.

Of course there can be discretion. Honest mistakes can and do happen without intent. An agent can quickly discern whether intent was involved. Some rules can be very difficult for those new to the outdoors to understand. They may think they are follwing the regulation to a T, only to find out from the agent they are not. At that point maybe a little Andy Griffith justice should prevail. Same thing can go with changes in regulations for the rest of us. Let me assure you the media does not make my desisions for me. After reading many post to this formum, I've got a pretty good idea where people stand on issues. As long as the issue is many miles away. They do change the closer to home they get though.

It made perfect sense to me. Now that juvenile attempt at sarcastic humor you made.....well....

Also riverrat when you are respooling, after putting on just a few feet of line, drop you rod tip and look to see if the line twist. If so flip the spool that you are winding your line from over. That will save twist too. And keep tension on the line while spooling like you said. That is also very important.

That's funny because, that ain't what you call them when they won't let you drill Alaska. And they must know better than others where food comes from, as they seem to be the only ones trying to protect those resources that the food comes from.

I don't agree with that at all. What kind of ethics are were portraying when have someone to do the hunting and fishing for us. By your way of thinking, I can catch and keep 40, 50, 60, or whatever number you want, and keep them all as long as I give them to someone in allotments of 4. I wonder just how long our resources would last doing that. Oh wait, we did do that until about 1937. darn Liberals!

Thanks to all that responded. I have to say I have the same sentiments. Terry - Your thought about the 8 also ran through my head. Then I thought otherwise. Remember, there is another stringer out there somewhere with, I would assume, 4 trout. That would put his number at 9 when I called and if not stopped, who know what he would have ended up with. BUT, that is also somewhat of an assumption on my/our part.

Really! You may want to get to catching some of those. That is only about a 1 pound shy of the world record. You definitely got yourself a state record. Current state record is less than 1 1/2 lbs!