Capt E

Ok... I can't stand it anymore... I'm shutting down the office and heading that way... hopefully in a couple of hours I'll be in the water...

Marty, Thanks for the report. I'm taking my boss fishing on Stockton early Sunday morning, hopefully the ski boaters will still be sleeping in.

Np Terry, yeah, I am talking specifically about the Spring River in SW MO. That is the one referenced in the Globe article. Both it and the North Fork of the Spring are out of limits for e-coli and phosphates. However the e-coli was described to me as 'off scale high'. The other guys are completely right about the local officials acting as if this the the first they have heard of it, they respond that it's not all that bad and try to divert the attention toward immigrants bathing in the river or ag. They never seem to address the real issue. I had a cousin hired by the city of Carthage to explore the cave under the city about 20 years ago. After he reported that there were a lot of older homes dumping sewage into the cave the project was promptly cancelled.

I grew up on a 160 acre farm in Vernon Co. Our farm was split in the middle by Clear Creek. My grandfather always made sure that our cattle never had free access to the creek. Yes, we had to run them through the ford to get to other pastures but it was done as little as possible and as quickly as possible. I spent a lot of summers mending fences up and down that creek. He always taught me that if we didn't take care of the land, it would not be able to take care of us. Like I said before, the stream teams have done DNA testing and have determined that the high levels of e coli were specific to HUMANS!

I'm not trying to start an argument here, but I believe that a lot of the e coli that is being found in the Spring River is specific to human waste. I completely agree though that farmers should keep their livestock out of the rivers. If they need water they should construct ponds.

Hi All, I'm a new member to the OAF forum, but I've been reading it for a few months now. I've been away from fly fishing (if you wanna call beating the water with a noodle fly fishing) since moving back home from the Tacoma area WA about 12 years ago. I was self taught back then and picked some really bad techniques, so it will be like starting all over again, maybe even worse. I got my wife hooked on fly fishing a few months ago and that eased the way for me to get a new set up without a lotta fuss. Anyway, I hope to get my new rod tomorrow and will be trying to hit the trophy area on Taney Sunday. I'll be the one beating the water with a new noodle, hoping for a dink. Thanks in advance, maybe now I'll have something to contribute.

WhooHoo! I just got approval from the finance department to get a new rod and reel setup! I'm gonna try and make it to your shop tomorrow, hopefully you still have some things on sale.