zander

I would think it would be ok. the coolers probably had a lot of ice/water/beverages in them also. of course if it flips don't sue me, but I'd do it.

The link for the Masters entry form still isn't working. Can you post when it is fixed?

Instead of going commando, I would start wearing some sort of pants or something underneath your waders. Nuts are what they try to sniff out after all:)

http://www.nature.org/

That is exactly where my father does most of his fishing. There is usually a good catfish bite there year round on shrimp and stink bait. The only draw back is the number of small cats you have to go through to get one of decent size. Another good option is to catch a couple small bluegill and fish them whole or cut up for larger cats off of the third platform (I think, it is the last platform before you reach the end of the walkway). Another thing to consider is how much the kids might be prone to run around. The water is very fast there. Older kids wouldn't be a problem but if I take my 3 year old with me, he never gets out of arm's reach.

This has little to do with global warming but since you asked.... DNA is a small molecular step from RNA (ribonucleic acid). RNA tends to be rather short-lived. It is single stranded as opposed to the double helix structure of DNA. Consequently it is more prone to degradation since it inherently less stable. But with sufficient condentraitons of nucleotides and inorganic catalysts, it can form short sequences naturally. Early life forms used RNA for the storage of genetic information and some still do such as some types of virus. But since it (RNA) does degrade so rapidly DNA has also been selected for as a better template for storage. It still lends itself to mutation (mutants are good a small percentage of the time) through the transcription process (albeit less so than RNA) but is better at surviving a variety of conditions. I used to work for the USDA and did genetic analysis across aphid populations. Specifically I looked at single nucleotide polymorphisms (single base pair differences) in the carboxylase 2 gene. This gene is found in the mitochrondrial DNA of all organisms. The level of conservatism for this gene was so great that I used the same exact molecular primers testing for the presence of the same gene in a bacterium later when I worked as a lab manager for Oklahoma State University's Dept of Plant Pathology. The more you know about this type of stuff, the easier to see how life became what it is today, and how creative the Creator really is. We had a lot of really neat tools in the lab, but they are nothing compared to the toolbox God has made. ANd now, this nerd will get down off the soap box.

I wish I have seen some cool sights like that. Closest would have to be looking a golden eagle in the eye about forty feet away. What made it cool was that I was on the edge of a 1200 ft cliff On Hermits Peak, NM and he was flying along side it. I have seen birds do some really stupid things though. I was fishing by a small bridge in Oklahoma one summer evening. A bunch of poule d'eau's (what we called them in Louisiana I think you guys call them coots) flew past right off the water. They were heading across the bridge to the open lake. Some of the birds chose to go over the bridge, some under, but one bird was just staring back at me flying along and WHAP! right into the side of the bridge it went. A couple more lost their train of that after that and hit the bridge as well. One of those times I wish I had a video camera and ESP.

I have always thought that a picture was worth a thousand words. Here is a link to a researcher in Alaska I think you'd be surprised to see. Whether or not global warming is anthropogenic or anthro-aggravated shouldn't really matter. The greenhouse effect is real and documented. What has not been established sufficiently for ALL people to accept is the responsible agent(s). Nothing we say on the forum is going to make it any more real or more fiction, but it is important to denote that global warming is just that - global. Some areas will become more arid some wetter, Some warmer, some cooler. We are not talking about local climate change after all, it is global warming, so don't read too much into the ice storms we had or the mild summers. I don't listen to Al Gore to tell me about climate change and I hope most people would not listen to Rush Limbaugh for the same reasons. http://www.uaf.edu/water/faculty/nolan/gla...cCall/index.htm

When my parents lived in Florida they had paid good money for triploid grass carp to put in their pond to eat all of this aquatic fern and cattails that were choking it out. They bought 75 carp and within 6 months they had none left. I used to watch the ospreys come down and take them, scared me half to death if I was out cutting their grass and i see a dark shape blot out the sun. They raised a fuss with the fish guy and he brought out some carp that were too big for the ospreys to take, and luckily no gators in their lake.

Amen to that.

I was secretly thinking of European grayling as well. Big browns would feed on them pretty heavily. Or why not European catfish? (see pic)(95% kidding)The last time I went home with my wife to see her family I wanted to go catch one of these. I asked at a sporting goods store what kind of bait to use. You'll never believe what they told me. They said catch a small bird or small chicken, burn the feathers off and fish with the body. How did someone figure out that method???? By the way, never caught one.

I have fished the lake a few times. You can rent a boat from the marina. It is definately a rental boat, I don't care for them all that much but they float and move and are small enough to be legal so what can you do? There are a lot of catfish in there and crappie too. There a lot of pictures of walleye in the marina but I have never caught any. As far as depth, I think I remember my fish finder saying 85', could have been 65' though at the deepest.

lake springfield crosses it maybe that was it

It was my experience in grad school the heads of departments and probably agencies too were better politicians and administrators than researchers.

As a conservation group, though, they would not be in line with their mission if they didn't look at variables which would have an effect on trout populations. Good conservation practices are of course very important but are not the total answer if abiotic factors are influencing the populations. By considering those variables BETTER (or more effective) conservation policies can be developed.

If I wanted to take a look at it, where would I need to be looking for it?

I have the Redhead boot foot Bone Dry neoprene waders. I really like them. I did have a small leak in the boot portion which was easy to fix, but you wouldn't have that potential problem going with the stocking foot version. Just my two cents.

I remember working deer station check points when I was getting my degree in wildlife management down in Louisiana looking for blue tongue virus. Sounds like the same thing. I don't remember every seeing one that had it although I did see a lot of Cajuns who shot deer slightly larger than a swamp rabbit, to them they were monsters.

I just felt compelled to respond to the reply by JS. Leonard can attest to this, but I have to sheepishly admit that when I first started fly fishing I WAS fishing in outlet 2 by myself and still couldn't catch a thing. I am man enough to say it:) Of course I feel like I know more now, but I could have tried fishing that outlet the whole night and wouldn't have probably even snagged a fish if Leonard hadn't helped me out. So there really are people bad enough to need a guide in the outlets:)

Met up with Leonard and Centerpunch last night. The cloud cover kept us from freezing too bad. We were catching rainbows mainly on sowbugs and scuds in gray and olive size 10-14. We did manage to catch some browns as well. Some of the rainbows were full of eggs. Left about 2:30 in the morning and had the pleasure of driving back to Springfield with it snowing. That caught me by surprise. Sorry for the bad picture quality.

http://charteredwaters.com/fishing%20repor...s/111207-11.jpg this is a picture from his website that he says is the W2 egg pattern.

working for a credit card company this is very common, especially around the holidays. Everyone wants a nice Christmas but not necessarily with their own money. In this type of scam, Phil would charge a probably stolen or counterfeit credit card number and send the $8000 in cash (yeah right) to another bank acct. This is real money that when the credit card company realizes the gig will be lost. Meanwhile Phil will have his $10000 charge charged-back from his merchant acct and he is the one who will be $8000 short.

I'm just a year or so older than you and have fished up until a couple of months ago strictly non-fly. I have gotten addicted to it and here is why for me. I lived a lot of my life in Louisiana where you couldn't see anything in the water, much less had the chance to wade fish in areas without having to worry about big snappers and gators. I was never bothered by them, but when you happen across one fifteen yards away from you in messes with your mind a little:) I like seeing fast moving water, once again not very much of that in the state of Louisiana. My father grew up in Kansas and loved Louisiana for all of the trees in had. Me, I like driving through the wide open prairies of Kansas while my dad hates it. As far as outfishing them two to one, maybe at times, but I have seen a lot of people catch dozens of trout in an afternoon and some people fish the lower lake all day with hardly a nibble. Luck moves around the lakes and skill has its hand as well. I never thought I'd like it because I thought I'd be cold and wet the whole time. I had that preconception from freezing my tail off in a duck blind all winter. But you move around more fly fishing and stay warmer that way. My two cents worth.

Those are some nice pictures, although the third one makes me glad I am not a scud having to look at that terrifying monster lurching towards me. That just looks vicious!

That's why I asked the question:) A Mtn Dew would definately help my reaction time, even if it would increase the frequency of my trips up to the bathroom. The loop to loop is also a good idea. Do you use regular 8-12 lb mono flourocarbon fishing line or do you use the stuff advertized as tippet?