Forsythian

X3

Thanks for the feedback... unfortunately, I was called to work out of town and was not able to baby-sit the auction. I see where the pack went for $3.19, so evidently some of the OzarkAnglers' contingent got into a fierce bidding war. That hefty price, along with the considerable shipping charges, tells me that the winner was motivated by sentiment rather than profit. For that I say "bully" and a hearty "hiho" to the lucky lad (or lass). My only hope is the card set is opened and enjoyed, rather than getting socked away. Now, back to my search for a Winston 5wt or 6wt medium action under $250. I might as well be looking for sasquatch.

I was surfing through ebay, and found this set of bass fishing pros' trading cards currently on auction. I was wondering if anyone knew the chances that there might be a Paul Dallas card in this set? The set is unopened, and I don't want to contact the fellow who is selling these cards for fear of tipping him off of the extraordinary profit possibilities! Thanks for any help or advice you can give me!

Not sure how we missed you Andy... I imagine we were a couple of hours behind you. We camped across from Stinking Pond camp on Sat night, pulled in there about 5 I reckon. Slept in, had a big breakfast, and didn't get back on the water until noon on Sunday. The trip did little to wet my appetite... I've got an eye on the calendar, will be going again soon I hope. I've got a new job and a new email address, I'll PM you with it. I'd enjoy fishing with you this winter if we can swing it!

Sounds like there was a sea of humanity just ahead of us! We launched 2 canoes at Greer on Saturday noon, took out at Whitten on Sunday about 4. Didn't fish much, didn't catch much... BUT, the weather was awesome. At the takeout on Sunday, there came a group of kayakers from Oklahoma... some sort of club. They were decked out in spandex and lycra, and were led by a drill seargent who urged his troops to maintain "pace". Good entertainment while we were packing up.

Bass fishing in the heat of summer can be real good. I've been meaning to spend a day between Rockaway and Empire Park, just haven't found the time yet. For one thing, they hadn't replaced the splash boards last time I checked... a guy could get his boat stuck if they shut off the water in Branson while you were out. Maybe the splash boards are back on (?)

Wow! That's some crunchy granola right there! Your moral certitude is fantastic.

Got out for a couple of hours yesterday on the Elbow arm. I took some time out from my busy day of getting absolutely SKUNKED to retreive a wiggle wart from a stickup. It was tangled pretty good in an old rope, so I cut a baseball-sized chunk out of the whole mess and brought it home. Well, upon closer inspection it looks like there were 4 or 5 zebra mussels fixed to that rope. So before I bug my local conservation agent, I am wondering whether this is old news and I'm out of the loop? Or is this a bad surprise?

Conservation is good. Pollution is bad. The climate changes. Facts all. Anthropogenic global warming is not a fact. Anthropogenic global warming is a theory that has become a religion. I don't know how else to explain the fervent faith and the myopia it takes to worship a 200 year temperature graph in the face of 4.5 billion years of cataclysmic climate change. Entrenched climatologists are not scientists, they are incestuous statisticians. They cite each other's work and suppress debate. Their genetic purity will eventually undo them, but for now it's a nice gig. I say good for them, they are proving better capitalists than the evil geologists. While the geologists make a good living, the climatologists are international rock stars! The earth is becoming flat again. I need another beer.

Days like that keep me going... the memory of the last trip, and the planning of the next. Dropped by the ranch on my way out and finally got to meet Justin... nice dude, great gig!

This Monday started like any other... get the youngun on the bus at 7:30am, then drive East on 160 for a mile or so to work. But, I had other plans this morning. I drove right on by work, and 90 minutes later I was pulling up my waders at the Patrick Bridge Campground. A bag of jerky, a couple of bottles of water, and a hip flask of spirit. Iced guides, bald eagles, and absolute solitude... there's something about winter trout fishing, isn't there? If you've been, you know what I mean. One thing that always strikes me is the angled sunlight. For somebody like me who isn't the most-stealthy fisherman, it's a big advantage. Anyways, caught a couple of decent browns early on a "smallish" black stone. A couple to hand, and a couple more that came unbuttoned. Tried a big brown stone in some of the deeper runs with no luck. Fished a prince nymph for quite some time with a nice bow to hand, along with another couple of quick "unbuttons" of unknown variety... not sure what's going on there, bad technique I reckon. I wish I could go again tomorrow.

4 units this morning... suppose they'll run it hard all day? the wif has my *&$% truck and I am dry-docked and jonesen.

Key takeaways in this thread are Nickleback, Dave Mathews and Chesney... uggh! Nobody's mentioned Little Feat. You gotta have Fat Man and Willin'. Thumbs up on Avenged Sevenfold. You hear screaming, I hear passion. I've got 5 cds of KSHE classic one-hit wonders that never get old (you want cowbell? Black Cloud by Trapeze has cowbell!) My secret wimpy guilty pleasure is Natalie Merchant. Go ahead and laugh, I don't care.

Finally got out for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. They (Taney County) have made some improvements to the road and the ramp... the low road has been raised a couple of feet, and there is fresh black top. The top of the ramp was extended (with a decent pitch). Kdock veterans will be amused to know that they even painted some stripes in the parkin lot! Tried 2 patterns... the first was to chuck-and-wind the windy banks in a couple of major creek arms running North, thinking the last couple of days of a hard South blow might have packed some shad up there. No luck. Water temp in the creeks was low 60s. The second half of the trip the wind layed down long enough to drop a spoon at the mouth of a couple of deep main lake cuts, and the shad were there. Caught a nice mess of whites, with a couple of short blacks mixed in. The wind picked back up and chased us off the lake about 3pm. FIsh were 25- 30 feet deep. Water temp on main lake was upper 50s. Coulda swore I still saw a thermocline about 22 feet. Good luck if you get out

HA! It's all yours! The water witch deal really happened though. Wasn't stormy either, I recall it being a nice spring day. Whoever said dust devil was right... more of a dust devil than a water spout. Hey Mitch, I asked your ex last night, she said you were indeed "okay"

I can't imagine going through life without a little faith & imagination... must be kinda boring.

Anybody ever see a water witch? It's what I call one of those mini water spouts. I experienced one while fishing my neighborhood pond in St Louis County. I was probably 12 or 13. It started on the far bank, maybe 50 yards away, and came in a line right towards me. I remember being mesmerized by it, kind of wondering what was going to happen. It came straight to me before quitting right at my feet. It sounded like a turbo-charged eggbeater turning the water, but when it came up to me I don't recall feeling so much as a puff of wind. It was maybe a foot tall at the most. Weird. As a kid I thought of it for a time as a totem or talisman.

Gavin & CWF, I'm thinking the Beaver hole camp would be a good place to set camp, then do some grabbing from that low bluff. Tons of suckers there as I recall.

Brian, do you have any yaks or smaller boats you're getting rid of? Just wondering if I ought to bring some extra cash with me this weekend ;-) Ken

Dave Mathews sure can fish!

Honestly, I'm not very educated on the various strains of cutthroats. I caught one other cutthroat on the trip, in Monarch Lake. The Monarch Lake cut looked alot more familiar to me, similar to the cuts I've caught on the White. This one here, I'm not sure of its ID to be honest.

HA! Actually, that was my filet board ;-)

Just got back from fishing the Colorado and tributaries in and around the Arapaho National Forest... last Friday I completed my first-ever grand slam! Caught this jewel on a dry, in a creek not much wider than the desk I'm typing on, and about 10,000 ft. elevation. me happy!