Randall

the thing about having wolves escape from a place where they have been in contact with people is that they aren't as shy as a wild one would be. it would be kinda cool to have a wild pack around though. several years ago, there were reports of a female african lion having escaped from a place that raises several types of predators near where i lived. after it was sighted by multiple people on our road, the sheriff sent a patrol car to escort kids from the bus stop to their houses every day until the situation passed. the place never did admit to anything escaping, so i'm pretty sure they caught it. having been bred and raised in captivity, it had limited hunting ability, so became a threat to easier prey... livestock, pets, and people i carried a 30-06 in my truck until the patrol cars stopped coming, and i promise you that if i had seen it, i'd have killed it without thinking twice.

they are legal in the fly only area so long as they are on a single point of hook, not scented, and not soft plastic. the missouri law regarding what a "fly" is is ridiculous. a rapala with a single one point hook is legally a fly, along with single point rooster tails, and any other lure you can think of so long as it only has one hook point, is not scented, and is not soft plastic. also, there is a bait only- no flies or artificial lures- area where i have seen people using minnows and other types of natural, scented, or soft plastic baits with a fly rod.

a little trick i use is to open a hot hands when i get in my truck so they're warm when i get to where i'm going, then put them on the back of my hands when i put my gloves on... C L U T C H of course i'm a little sissy boy when it comes to the cold. oh yeah, the chapstick thing works... no idea why, but i was impressed

check the mdc website, i don't recall it offhand but its something like www.mdc.mo.us or www.conservation.mo.us, i can't remember.

YES

if you're talking about the trophy area, i would doubt it. i have a tendency of "shooting" them with my flyrod, but i don't think it'd be a good idea to bring a shotgun.

i'm sorry, i just pictured a little dog running around a tying bench with bald spots on his back while the owner was chasing it with a pair of scissors. as far as the colors go, in my extremely cocky opinion, tan and gray, like the other posters mentioned are about right. size is important too. for lower water, i use 16-18, and 14 and very rarely a 12 for high water.

that looks like the fish from finding nemo... did you tie that?

post some pics and show us how you've been doing. as for the eggs, it isn't that hard once you get used to it. i use my fingers to get a good rough shape after the first cut, then trim it to a nice ball shape.

good thinkin... save time and have a more consistent cut.

i don't think i emphasized how potentially dangerous wading under 3 or 4 generators is... especially right now. its just a bad idea.

if you're gonna wade, you might want to try down by the boat ramp, but i really wouldn't recommend it. with 3 to 4 units running, there's a lot of water, and it gets deep quick. your best bet unless boat fising is just from the bank near the outlets.

the pic looks good to me... it would have looked a hair better if the truck wasn't in it, but thats easy enough to fix.

today when i was skinning some rabbits, i felt like i was wasting the skin. i was wondering if it is worth the trouble to take the time to skin a rabbit like i would a deer to save the pelt? the way i do it now skins and cleans all at once, but it destroys the skin. and then does anybody know how to tan it once i get the skin?

take your pictures, scan the prints onto your computer, if you have a photoshop type program, you can resize the photos to whatever physical size you want (file size will change as well). my photography professor told us to save it as a jpeg as well... somebody correct me if i'm wrong but i remember it being because the file sizes are smaller with jpeg. my avatar was taken by a 35 mm. and i just scanned and resized it to fit.

i didn't say they weren't there, i just said i haven't been able to pick them out and that a couple threads from last winter gave me the impression that it wasn't policed very well. i understand you have spent more time there than i have, and i don't doubt the truth of the stories you told, but i do doubt that violations are as you said, "very common". if people were keeping illegal fish and using illegal methods as often as you implied, i would have expected to see it happen during one of my trips down which tend to occur during the summer, over thanksgiving, and spring break. one would also think there would be more threads here about people breaking the law. i wasn't trying to offend you, i was just posting my observations.

Thanks for the replies and all the info. Bill, i'll probably end up asking lots more questions, but for now, i'm gonna let what you've said sink in and tie some stuff up.

i've been fishing taney for a little over two years, and have never seen a warden or conservation agent. i can pick em out like crazy at the parks, but like i said, i have never seen anybody near the parking lots or the water that i thought was a warden. i was under the impression based on a couple older threads that they don't really police the trophy area very hard. also, i don't recall having ever seen somebody keep an illegal fish or use illegal methods in the trophy area. i do actively pay attention to what people are doing because it helps me pick up new tricks and techniques, and i would be able to tell if they were breaking the law. i doubt that limit and method violations are as common as some people may think.

I took some pictures of where i work. we've been clearing ice and snow for three weekends, and business has been surprisingly good.

slippery, check the fly tying thread, there's a bunch of recipes in posted in the one named "hatchery food" or something like that.

okay, laugh if you want but i'm asking anyways... what causes a shad kill? is it low d.o. or what?

slip out when the superbowl starts? heresy i say. no other time during the year is it acceptable to drink your body weight in beer, break stuff, and get into a fistfight with your best friend, all of which is forgiven on hangover monday (or in some cases, on wake up tuesday).

that looks pretty deadly. i might be tempted to play with the colors though. i'm a huge fan of dark gray swimming minnows, so i have some ideas for it. charlie, i definitely know what you're talking about with the dusk fishing. my buddies had to drag me away from the water so we could get the ones we kept filleted and cooked. feeling the soft hits definitely is the reason i caught as many as i did last summer. it'll be interesting to see if i can pick them up on the fly rod.

i tie them in copper, red, green, and chartreuse. hook: standard nymph hook (i.e. mustad 9671) size 14-18 thread: rusty brown 8/0 bead: gold bead wingcase: pheasant tail fibers under clear pearl tinsel legs: tips of pheasant tail fibers pulled back thorax: peacock hearl abdomen: small or brassie sized wire in desired color tail: biots in either ginger or rusty brown if you want a little extra on it, add rubber legs in an "x" pattern under the wingcase. there have been times at meramec park that i've caught circles around bait fishermen on this fly. i've noticed it doesn't work as well outside the parks.