MoCarp

Nice little mirrors ready for a new home!

One things for sure big boats are coming to TR and all the LOZ BS that comes with it.... well we know now why the big push on bigger and better boat docks..because the others will get trashed......and people wonder why I got into the whole euro-carping thing I'm on the bank usually at night...even then I wish I had an RPG to sink one of the floating drunk transports....

The ability of just a few, to hammer fish/game screams the need of more restrictive limits, I can't find any evidence where new restrictive limits have not made the fishing better..but what is better?...numbers? size? diversity? our fish and game managers have their work cut out for them, many user groups want conflicting results at times and for the most part do a great job...it takes a squeaky wheel to get regs changed...spearfishing game fish in Arkansas is an example, how many scuba guys do you know?..but they will go to beaver or Bull Shoals and stab harvest a pair of 8# walleyes...once on stockton saw some guys diving at night with spearguns.....called it it but nothing came of it..........to much ground/water...to few COs.................personally I don't like killing the biggest of most fish as it really has an effect on genetics over time....I still wonder what it was like when 200# blue cats swam the big rivers or Alligator gar over 300#.....I know many people enjoy eating wild game, yet when someone takes 8 deer in a day my gut instinct says they are selling the meat...till they banned the remote boats at Truman tail waters many a pound of blue cat meat went to KC tables, and money changed hands........There was a group of guys with converted school bus complete with a freezer.....All legal,... 4 guys, over 2 days, Could take hundreds of pounds of fillets,... Good money.....it was impacting the size of the big cats............................... harvest pushes down size over time...Because it takes longer to grow a 30# blue than a 2# channel......if people post this stuff on social media how bad is the poaching?????

There was a group well known at Stockton, retired men called "The Sarcoxie Gang" they mastered catching huge flatheads, a 70# were nothing to them, it took a fish over 100# to make them get pumped up...they would put the monsters in a cattle tank for a few days to "clean them out", I went once to help him clean one that weighted 126# on a feed store scaleI.....I asked why they didn't submit one for a state or world record, and Karl in his late 70"s at the time said if we do that everyone will fish for them...he also said the hard part was holding them..not getting them to bite.....I was 19 at the time and worked with Karl, he told me his secrets as he had no children...I also brought back shark hooks from the coast when I went back on vacations to visit my folks in Mobile Al People have always sunk brush at Stockton and the state piles seemed to go poof......the big drought a few years back showed many piles near the signs gone...as a note a buddy and I were making rock piles, and dragging logs into some areas that would be great and a corps person made us stop..... I wonder that.....they stocked Mississippi Silversides in the past so I am sure they where trying to expand forage opportunities LMB seems to have been the focus of management over the expense of other fishes, ........walleyes and smallmouths do better on rocky areas than LMB and smallmouth fishing was def better in the past....Personally I think they should go back to the Muskie/Northern-walleye.smallmouth model....they have tried to get weed beds started on a few areas and there are some....yellow perch would help a few issues, prolific prey for walleyes and smallmouths, meat to keep the game hogs happy....they should stock the native strain of smallmouths in Stockton and set a 18" 2 fish limit out of 6 bass and drop the LMB length to 14"..a few red ear sunfish would also be cool or rock bass....a more diverse population of fishes would be preferable.....walleyes and bass look thin on Stockton, and I know this is heresy but putting a limit on tournaments might drop pressure...

I am speaking from anecdotal experience, and all good science starts with anecdotal observations, the question is how do you quantify (the fishing is better or worse) Stockton fishing IMHO is better for numbers of walleyes but worse for trophies today than 25 years ago, largemouth bass is better for numbers and less for Lunkers, Bluegill fishing is better numbers and size, Crappie fishing is about the same, some years better some years worse....so whats different?.... pumping water....bow fishing pressure increased 100 fold and its effect on other fish....more people taking more fish, yet some fish like channel cat and flathead fishing is the best I have ever seen it...the old-timer trot liners seem to have all died off without passing on their knowledge...nothing is ever simple in the dynamics of a fishery like Stockton lake

wow......this is why people move out west and not want to see people

This is shown to various chambers of commerce as a way to generate money in a small town...as a side note struggling to survive mom and pop tackle shops can sell niche carp tackle and bait with no competition from big box stores..the state is Missouri in this example, however its gets changed to where ever they city/state is....welcome to the future.

Walleyes ran bigger...I could catch a limit of 20-24" most days....smallmouth were plentiful near the dam area..seems the water is much clearer these days...not that it was dirty...you used to see a really big walleye show up every now and then, when I mean big I am saying 14 pounds big..when TR had the drought and all the ramps where way out of the water...it was noticeable how many more people were hitting stockton, as well as it seemed to get worse when they started taking water out for springfield.....

Many States have VERY liberal and antiquated harvest rules, how much it too much?

Thats a fish point, Had a buddy get his new bass boat stabbed, last spring on Grand, to say he was pissed was an understatement.....thats why people go stand on their docks and (are unfriendly) to the bright lights and noise of a Bfing boat.......tired of hulls getting hit, sunk PWCs damaged docks ETC...

That is exactly what brought about the advent of a boilie...Crawfish and the nibblers can't steal your bait...you will catch more chubs in a minnow trap baited with boilies

If you want to catch suckers Hair rigging micro boiles will work hundreds of recipes on the net, but use this as it has worked in the past, it mimics the amino acids found in earth worms and a few other bottom critters they eat, work in a minnow trap too... 50g semolina flour, 50g corn flour (masa) 50g dried squid whizzed to a fine meal in a spice grinder 25g milk powder (powdered dairy creamer works) 2.5g each of citric acid, MSG, brewers yeast, and sea salt, mix this to 3 eggs that you add 5ml of tai fish sauce... mix drys shaking in a ziplock, mix wets, in a bowl pour drys in, make a well in the middle add wets....mix with a fork.....if it sticks to your hand add more masa, if its too wet, add an egg... roll into tiny marbles and boil in a pot till they float, dry for a day then freeze.... you can use canned smoked Oysters in stead of the squid...just add wets to wets also try fishing in riffle areas at night pre baiting helps mix instant grits and plain old oatmeal with a can of oysters.... lob in a few golf ball sized chum balls one day, then fish the 3rd day but only chum one or two balls where you are going to fish, basic rule is chum little but often....

Read a study from Eastern Europe recently on testing waterfowl's ability to pass larva and eggs of aquatic organisms, they passed viable fish eggs, they were fed....not a stretch eating a few clams and pooting few that could survive, as well as sticking to feathers etc, would explain a lot of "invasions"

Look! A MAMOTH!

I am sure our parents thought bell bottoms and scooby doo vans with beds, side pipes and panel art were just as ridiculous, I don't think it was even legal run a tattoo place in some states until the 80's

or your future daughter in law

could be worse, this is a bow-fisherman..or future jet boat owner

better?

I understand that flames blasting off to heavy metal and Jet boat tours does have a negative persona compared to this^^^^^^^^ Thats the point, if its not broke don't fix it? you have to push the envelope to make things better....would it be more fun to catch bigger fish? instead of 50 fish with a handful of nice fish? would it not be more fun to catch 25 fish all 18" or better? but self funding a project is worthy to say cutts, and tigers wouldn't grow to large sizes is IMHO is like saying rainbows and browns won't get big, since Taney produces world class fish...it would be a stretch to predict cutt, or tiger growth rates, other than what rainbows and browns do now, last time I looked Growth rates are good..would you rather catch fish dinners? or bigger trout? I would like to see a tag system on Browns on fish a year nothing under say 24" but only one can be tagged out per year, fish can be grown HUGE before stocking..just takes money....there are countless trout hatcheries around, outsourcing is a time honored way to light a fire under stagnated government handling of projects, I'd bet a pretty penny that the federal dollars spent on taney trout production could get you the same fish 3 times the sizes put in now.... prob suck when Taney would put out World record cuts, .....I understand that fishing at the las vegas of trout fishing loses some of the magic, more people will come spend $ to fish in taney to catch and release huge trout...the fish sandwich crowd not so much..but a brace of 18" bows should make them happier than 4 ten inchers, If I was tasked with enhancing trophy trout opportunities I would outsource it to a private hatchery in state, fish would get raised to a large size and stocked in lower numbers.... granted this is a different situation, but there are places you see trout stocked at 10# ....

what kind of boat? pics?

for the record no trout are "native" in Missouri, some may be naturalized, I look at it this way other states have no issues hatching Cutts or Tigers. browns are one of the tougher ones to raise, there are strains of cutts that get bigger, way bigger.... but stocking bigger fish and raising the keep size to 22" on browns, Tigers and cutts. brookies prob would stay in the upper reaches until winter, and a 3 fish a day limit would be fine, because how many trout do you REALLY need to eat?, a $10 stamp would be a small price to pay, personally it should be $25, and a requirement to fish in the upper trophy area. grow the fish a bit bigger before putting them in, "20 Pounds? Not Too Bad, for an Extinct Fish" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/us/lahontan-cutthroat-trout-make-a-comeback.html