zander

Great trip, great grit and determination. I think I liked the camera work and the editing most of all though. Best stuff I have seen in a long time.

Oops, I didn't realize that it was a bonafide expression. I have been trying to come up with something to add to this thread and have been unable to. No worries laker67, I like your posts.

laker67, if I am not mistaken the limit for trout is now 4, which would make that an Unlawful Limit of Lunkers.

I had to check mine too. -31.6% over the calendar year. Of course no one likes to see it go down, but I keep thinking of all of the shares I am getting cheap now and all the dividends they'll pay over the next 30 years it cheers me up a little bit.

Maybe it is just the fact that I have lived in several states and not a single one of them allowed a person to hunt their own land no matter what the acreage unless they had a hunting permit, but I don't understand why all of the hubbub. The cost of a hunting permit is not out of anyone's budget. It isn't free but it isn't an undue economic hardship. How much do you guys spend a year on hunting stuff? Probably a lot more than the cost of the permit. Do deer cross your property lines? Do you think they forage along a county or state hwy? If I remember right from college the typical home range of a white tail doe in north Louisiana (where I got my degree in wildlife biology) was around 13-15 acres. I still can't believe they LET you hunt without a permit if you own five acres or more. Blows my mind.

Two or three years ago I found a chainsaw case with chainsaw inside by our apartment complex dumpster. It is an old Echo 302S. From the outside it looks in pretty good shape. Air filter was dirty as could be. I didn't try to start it until today. Doesn't fire. There are two sweetgum trees in my front yard I need to replace with something else, my ax took care of the first one today but I'm not putting myself through that again and I would like to get my saw checked all out and running. Does any one know of any good shops in south Springfield or Nixa that they could steer me towards? Thanks.

Unfortunately I had to work today so I couldn't make it, but I have decided this will be the last New Year's Day I volunteer to work so I'll be down there next year. Maybe by then my son will be old enough to be down there be down there with me. Phillip

Bill since you asked for input I'll give it. $1500 per person per week. I'll tell you why I will say that price for me. One is I am scared of big animals (except horses). Two is I am scared of little airplanes, ok actually I am scared of little airplanes and sudden impacts with the ground. Although I am not in the poor house I don't have a great deal of discretionary money after I pay bills and send my wife and son to Europe each year to see her family. Consequently It would have to be the probably non-profitable price I stated before I might have the pro's outweigh the cons (bears and bush-pilots). Last year you had posted a special that was VERY tempting. So tempting that I asked my wife if she would be ok with me going. Unfortunately I still couldn't justify it, I don't know maybe I am too cheap for my own good and it is definately not something for everybody. Maybe one day money and courage will be enough to make a go for it. Hope it helps....

Clint Wilkinson of Wilkinson Outdoor Adventures in Gassville, AR sent me Clint's Emerger which looks pretty neat. Thanks Clint.

It looks as if all of this was dropped. I got this today from the News-Leader: Several proposed changes to Missouri hunting rules that put the Department of Conservation in the cross-hairs of irate hunters have been dropped. Public comment about proposed rule changes has prompted the Missouri Conservation Commission to drop a proposal that the resident acreage for no-cost deer and turkey hunting permits be increased from five acres to 80 acres has been dropped, the department announced after the commission met today. The commission also stopped proposed resident permit price increases. While department director John Hoskins said the department wants to support landowners at a time when acreages are getting smaller, and he said the decision to stop the permit price increase was due to the current economic climate. The Commission also supported ending the proposal to establish a senior “forever” permit. The commissioners were told public comment indicated the permit rules were confusing. During their meeting in Jefferson City, commissioners supported the proposed recommendations regarding gathering basic essential landowner information, but delayed implementation until 2010. Commissioners also supported a minimum legal age of six years of age for deer and turkey permits and simplification of youth permits and cutting the cost of youth deer and turkey permits by half.

Thanks guys, please mail them to my new address: Phillip Taylor, 5682 S. Ferguson Ave., Springfield, MO 65810. I couldn't make it to the TU meeting tonight either. My wife had me search under all of the heavy things the movers are getting tmw for "embarrassing things" as if the total disarray of our apartment isn't embarrassing enough

Unfortunately I will not be attending tonight after all. The movers will be here tmw and I have a ton of stuff to do to prepare for them. I'd much rather be there though and fishing afterwards.

There was a little article on feral hogs this month in the Missouri Conservationist. you can find more info here http://mdc.mo.gov/landown/wild/nuisance/hogs/

Michael Kyle donated a BTG leech, a Blue Thunder midge, and a RR#33 midge. Bob Story sent me the crackleback. Thanks to those of you who made that donation possible. Thanks again to all of those who have contributed. I'll be at the TU meeting at the hatchery on the 11th, if anyone wants to hand them off to me and save themselves the postage.

I talked to an uncle of mine over Thanksgiving who lives in Wichita and works at the old Coleman factory. Things are really slow there and everybody is worried about getting laid off. My wife works for a hospital so her job is safe. I bought a house last week and then almost got canned this week because of my mouth. Learned my lesson pretty quick. The night before I found out whether or not I'd get the door shown to me I was looking through the job ads just in case and there really wasn't a whole lot out there. Powerball has yet to pay off for me but given how things are for so many others right now I feel like already won it in a way.

Normally I never have to log in whether I check it from home or from work. Recently though I have to log in almost every other time.

Luckily enough I had that day as a vacation day so I'll be heading down for it and will post the minutes. If anyone needs (or would like) a ride down from Springfield let me know. Got room for four (or five if you can fit in my son's car seat). I could even stand to fish a bit after the meeting Phillip

Nice size brownie.... nice looking colors as well. Good job.

FYI we just bought a house and are in the process of moving 5 years worth of dust collectors out of our apartment into the new house. I have updated the address on the top of this thread, and to keep you from going back to the top, you can now send your flies to: Phillip Taylor, 5682 S. Ferguson Ave, Springfield, MO 65810. The good news is also I am 5 miles closer to Branson!

My apologies Cricket, I didn't realize you were an actor/performer. I thought you were a car salesman, maybe I'm wrong. I know that many actors/performers are straight. So are many dancers. There are also many who aren't straight, and the glitter, rhinestones, and showtunes of Branson are not exactly something that your typical straight guy would want to surround himself with on a daily basis. I know this because of how much my wife has me watch Bravo TV As far as the ax murderer idea, it would probably end up like a Rocky Horror Picture Show which would just cause things to get worse. So Cricket, no I don't have anything against metrosexuals. My knuckles don't drag the ground when I walk and I never lettered in football. I have friends that are gay, but none of them would go to a place like Taney and do those types of things. Bottom line is it is indecent, straight or gay, and we all agree on that.

Not to stereotype too much, but I can't help thinking that a lot of these guys are probably performers or dancers for the different shows in Branson although the one Bman described wouldn't fit the bill for that. It is sad to hear that, it is one of the things that I hate about Lake Springfield too. One of the previous posters said they feared "exposure", obviously not physically exposure. Thinking back to my crazy college days, I can't think of anything that would have freaked me and my girlfriends more than if someone caught us and was veeeeeeery vocal about it, you know make a big scene out of it we would have never left the dorm room. The natural thing to want to do is probably gag, then walk away. But I bet if we were to act like a bunch of crows on a hawk, things might change out there. My opinion.

In Louisiana when I lived down there, there were lots of folks who would trap them, take them off, feed them grain for a while and then make boudin out of them. I imagine there are a lot of cajuns that moved to the Dallas area after Katrina who would be willing to do that for free (meat).

I'll stop by and pick them up Thursday or Friday. Thanks Michael.

Thanks Brian and Dano, yes go ahead and send them when you can, I'm in the process of moving but I will still get mail where I am now until the end of December. Once again pester all of your fly-tying buddies to participate too, this is going to be a big deal when it is all said and done and they'll kick themselves for not taking part when they could have.

For whatever my opinion is worth there is nothing like trying both out in a store with a helpful salesperson and getting their input. As far as 8 1/2 vs 9 feet, no matter which one you'd get, you'd get used to casting either and they both will do the job.