MoCarp

Great trip to take the kids/grand kids https://mostateparks.com/park/mastodon-state-historic-site

more cool stuff http://www.missourilife.com/life/the-oldest-ice-age-cave/

Lots of ice age stuff in the Ozarks, some of the best stuff found has been in our parts http://mogenweb.org/hickory/album/mastodon2.htm

nope

when I started euro style carp fishing, couldn't find much gear like they use.......now you can.....so somebody is listening

a rod is a rod no? a reel is a reel no? if they can mail gear back and forth across the pond then you could too

I went to University to become a wildlife/fisheries Biologist, fell in to sales ( money was too good to pass up) and never completed my last 15hrs, I loved the studies, fell in love with our plants /trees even went on milk runs looking for plants /trees I never saw before from looking for Lesquerella filiformis or Missouri Bladder pod, on glade areas or ash junipers (Juniperus ashei) in San Antonio they call ash junipers mountain cedar very common there...and they cause some nasty allergic reaction when they are blooming call me weird but I got great satisfaction finding a 120 foot tall shag bark hickory on a prairie river bottom creek... never measured it but if its still there in may be record size

Euro guys coming to the states to carp fish "yes they do" they mail their gear! most carp rods are ling 11-13 foot! they carry on bite alarms etc, since 9-11 I'd bet they mail more gear or now that its more available here now. Lady bird lake in Austin Texas as well as lake fork are euro carp hot spots

The fact that you can see how big time bow fishing has effected the population, Imagine what happens when they bow groups push to add game fish? it happened in Texas on catfish, they revoked it after they found biggest fish where getting hammered not good for long term passing on get big genes Rod and reel cat fisherman noticed that big fish numbers dropped like a rock.... in fact remember the guy trying to pass off the huge flathead he shot as a rod and reel Mo state record? http://www.scout.com/outdoors/wired2fish/story/1679147-man-charged-after-claiming-catfish-record

History on the Distain of Carp I wrote this in 2005 In the 1880’s Federal stockings of Common Carp were intended for the masses-To replace depleted native fishes once relied on for food. The tide of public opinion Started turning against carp starting in the United States around late 1900’s about 30 years after the first federal stockings, of common carp. Carp remained popular in Europe to this day, why? Reputations are shaped by public views-- just as the Carps reputation was shaped by events 135 years ago in the USA, then why was the carp not held in distain in the UK or Europe? It is a myth that Europeans do not have anything else to catch or have few places to fish, Northern Pike, many trout species (even our own rainbows and brookies)--Zander--"a walleye like fish"—even a mega Predator called the Wels Catfish, are available to fisherman from any walk of life, but Carp are still king by a wide margin with billions spent across the EU. Why? Carp became a metaphor for all things poor—carp introductions was not meant as a federal institutionalization of fish farming per say but more like the Brits planting of breadfruit trees as a cheap food source for slave populations of the Caribbean. Or like the potato in Ireland, particularly in the old confederate states during the years of reconstruction carp stockings were considered a food for blacks stocked by the occupying federals to feed the newly freed slaves. The growing animosity that developed over time toward African Americans & immigrants around the time of carp introductions-is well documented. Naturally, any low income population subsists to some degree on hunted and gathered food sources to supplement more modern ways of working and earning wages to put food on the table. Unwanted items, became "poor mans fodder" chitins--fatback--possum--coon--and carp-- plentiful and cheap---any people that ate them, where looked at in the same light--back then you fished to catch and eat--and if your a middle class man and caught some carp the proper thing was to give them to “that poor family down the street” a still pervasive attitude even today. In the USA stocking Carp was intended to supplement traditional food fishes as a sustainable food source in many lakes & streams to augment fish stocks. At the time of the first carp stockings many old south states did not like the idea of the federal government telling them what to do—the confederate civil war veterans, most who would have been in their late 30’s to early 50’s with all the resentments of reconstruction, many viewed the carp as carpet bagger or immigrants fish with all the distain that comes with associated politics. In the northeast a flood of immigration from Eastern Europe where carp had been part of there diet for centuries. In many ways public opinion on immigration today mirror those at the turn of the century. Hunger was an issue in post civil war south and its boarder states--the complete dismantling of the old south plantation cotton economy and the poor food crop production from played out old cotton fields took many decades before the average southerner was living as well as they did pre-civil war--carp where an abundant food possibility--that could be harvested with no more than a trot line an a bit of cotton seed cake--- a rational way to catch carp in southern rivers--many an African American family ate carp--and why not?- considering how little cost was involved and the poundage of quality protein that would feed the large families at that time. Many lakes & streams where still distressed well into the 1950’s & bass, crappies and catfish were unable to compete the way carp and gar can in contaminated waters because of the ability to take oxygen from the surface in low in oxygen environments due to pollution. Carp and catfish feeding in bottom silts can release nutrients that can cause algal blooms. When the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus increase in a water body, the right combination of temperature, sunlight and low flow can trigger an algal blooms that can reduce Oxygen concentrations. That with fishing removing predators that could consume baby carp produced waters out of control. Common carp quickly became considered a "poor mans fish" that’s was given to the states as a means to feed the poor minorities and immigrants. That along with the ability of the carp to dominate or take over distressed aquatic environments, was an uncomfortable metaphor for the northern business folk swooping down on the south to take advantage of new business opportunities (carpet baggers) or the huge wave of emigrants entering the northeast. it’s not surprising how the view of carp happened the way that it did The Brown Trout also once had a negative public reputation but seemed to weather the negativity, were as the carp elsewhere did not--possibly because the numbers of browns where not as wide spread as carp--and as trout were not a major food source for those who subsisted to some degree on wild caught foods in areas where they where stocked, primarily African Americans and eastern European or poor whites -- ---Even today trout fishing in most areas of the USA if not the world are demographically upscale " meaning trout fisherman on the average have a higher income level " just look at an Orvis catalog and you can see what I mean--which is one reason browns never sank to the level of distain as the carp. A proper game fish for wealthy Victorians was trout and the early rise of sport fishing was about the fly and the fish that could be caught on a fly. Then later-in the south’s warm waters--the bass--which was the southern equivalent –in fact southern old timers called largemouth bass "green trout" and the fish where much less available and rarer than carp at that time, remember this is before many large man made lakes that where built after 1930. Into the boom years of lake building 1950---1975 where almost billion surface acres of new largemouth and also carp habitat where constructed which coincided with the exploding sport fishing movement aided by the advent of spinning reels with monofilament fishing line. Up until post WW2 early sport fishing gear was generally expencive. Only now in the history of fishing in the United States has an atmosphere of fishing just for the thrill of the fight has become the dominate view of those fishing today In the past you fished to eat, not for the sport, that idea popular with turn of the century era President and avid sportsman Teddy Roosevelt who was keen to enjoy the outdoors this was well written about in the press and generated much interest in search of sport. He so loved the outdoors he establish many National parks as we know them today. Still you hear people say to you " why the heck would you want to fish for carp--bony things aren’t worth eating fish.” Old attitudes diehard. As you develop as an angler eventually the logic of why you fish kicks in with years of personal catch experience, even average size carp give the fight of a lifetime with many long drag smoking runs, isn’t that the point of fishing? Enter the growth of Euro-Carping over the last 20 years in the US , since 1990’s the rod and reel euro style carp fishing world has grown exponentially here in the USA. Forward thinking State fisheries agencies have become more understanding on management of common carp In Texas some waters have slot limits to maintain trophy carp fisheries. Arizona stocked 70,000 Mirror carp in a lake to control insect populations and give anglers sport. People even have carp tourneys that release carp, one man won $250,000 at a big carp contest in Texas. ,

well when they are gone they are gone, find out later whoops they helped the fish population in unknown ways..case in point, alligator gar, Trash fish in the past now they are raised in state hatcheries around the country German Brown Trout are non-native and were and in some places considered "invasive" they used to be hit in the head and tossed on the bank.."cannibal trout".... rainbows and browns are not native in most of Missouri watersheds.

In the early 90's I found eastern chestnut trees some over 70 foot tall and straight as an arrow. it was at Lester R. Davis forest, just across the south entrance at Prairie State Park north of Mindenmines if those survived, they should be huge by now, easy to find the little grove of them, not far from the road 3 or 4 berms east of the entrance to the forest, cool place lots of stick piles that are pack rat nests, I keyed one out for a botany class (Julian A. Steyermark key book)... kept coming back as a eastern chestnut, that couldn't be I thought...had to be a Ozark Chinquapin and turned it in as such, he gave me credit, but wanted to know exactly where I had found them..If I remember correctly there is a planting list of Davis woods, it was kind of a test area to see what would grow on reclaimed spoil banks lots of non-native trees, have not walked it for 25 years, bet the trees grew a might https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/davis-lester-r-mem-forest

I remember seeing a computer model at University that suggested the Ozarks would get cooler and wetter under "global warming" the earth IS getting warmer has been for 12,900 years since the last ice age climate change amplitude before younger dryas and after being wildly variable compared to the last 10k years the "norm" for the earth is warmer than present according to present data, are humans causing warming? here is an interesting take http://sacredgeometryinternational.com/randall-carlson-climate-change-real-deniers

Viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) I think Stockton Lake had a big white bass kill in the 80's like that

Telling my secrets here but a 1/2oz to 1oz rooster tale in white, black or brown with a gold blade works awesome get them with a single hook you lose less fish also a black with copper blade crawled on bottom is a smallie slammer leave the braid at home quality fresh camo / green is a must as is a quality SMALL swivel if you look hard enough you can get them in a red or black to get your spinner deeper a loosely pegged bullet weight in color or spray the new lead color with WD40 to knock off the shine use the least weight you need, quarter your casts across the current they usually slam it as the spinner swings back upstream a little flutter or a speed up sometimes triggers a follower to hit, salmon sized browns are in Taney, sometimes fishing a lot farther down lake near brush holds the biggest fish, if you roll a monster remember and try him again later in the day or another day the REALLY big fish have home range we are talking huge fish here

Mammoth, mastodon teeth, Bison antiquus, Irish elk, many other fossil can be and are found in SWMO, NWAR, SEKS, NEOK

that weird rock just might not be a rock!

Arrow heads, and cool megafauna ice age fossils get washed up after big floods like this

I have fished and caught most everything, bow-fishing isn't evil, yet it needs more regulation IMHO the bulk of "rough fish" in most waters are native buffalo/suckers and gar its been my observation after a guy gets tired of a night of bow-fishing fish don't get disposed of properly much less eaten...Many states allow bow-fishing of game fish within limits, new laws requested via bow-fishing orgs Nothing grand about twacking a 10 pound walleye, or 8lb bass taking the biggest fish of any kind over time reduces the sizes..."its a DNA thing" bighead and silver carp? take them all..... but the sky is falling on invasive species is a farse, gobys in the great lakes? wow small mouth populations soared zebra mussels in the great lakes? water clarity went up and wow walleyes can spawn on shell beds... I'd bet if the buffalo herds still numbered in the multi millions on the great plains we would hear how some rare plant was getting destroyed ill get off my soap box for now...

"Residents kept awake by fanboats on Kings River" http://bransontrilakesnews.com/news_free/article_70707cd2-a14a-11e2-a1da-0019bb2963f4.html

"Bowfishing tournament in Mississippi River draws complaints" http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/bowfishing-tournament-in-mississippi-river-draws-complaints/article_56050ce1-3d0c-570a-b94a-e263f9c3f6e9.html

found this article thought it was relevant "Fish expert blasts bow fishing tournament" http://www.news-leader.com/story/sports/outdoors/fishing/2015/06/12/fish-expert-blasts-bowfishing-tournament-says-gar-important-ecosystem/71137342/

One thing that is good via a big flood it renews the rivers/creeks... moves rocks and gravel, new wood/brush piles flushes out old dead/no Oxygen silts, put more nutrients into the system, I have seen huge gravel bars become fast deep runs, and deep runs become gravel shoals usually catch more big fish for a while, I think it moves them from normal haunts

"May 20-21 The U.S. Open Bowfishing Championship (Ultimate BFC Qualifier), Springfield, MO" " All invasive fish harvested from the event are used to produce organic liquid fertilizer in partnership with northwestern Illinois-based Schaffer Fisheries. The process maintains the hormones, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids and minerals to produce high-quality natural plant food." "Bowfishing, which combines elements of fishing with archery to harvest rough fish species, is one of the fastest growing sports in the outdoor industry. Unlike traditional game fishing, bowfishing uses specialized bows to target species including carp, buffalo, and gar that plague lakes, rivers and streams around the country. Removing these undesirable species improves habitat conditions for native game fish." key words are undesirable -plague,- invasive...I remember when bounties where on 'gator gar down south, now they are managed, "Removing these undesirable species improves habitat conditions for native game fish." heard that before Looks like someone wants to sell more boats.....just saying