skeeter

Would you mind sharing the locations in NIXA that sell non-Ethanol Pure Gas ? Thanks. I'm through there constantly and have never seen it posted on the Rapid Roberts or Casey's pumps. And yessir, I fully agree with always using non-Ethanol fuel in any Marine Engine.

"donating" their money or items qualifies as a promotional business Income Tax Write-OFF that is definitely not LIMITED to the cost of the items nor just the amount of the cash awards/prizes and is beneficial to most of them since they are reaching their hard-core targets without having to fork over large sums of cash in a "shotgun" approach to advertising. Always follow the money and Tax consequences. 42 years at a Fortune 500 Corporation in a Corporate Hdqtrs. position well aware of how Marketing minds work in conjunction with the Tax Department and the Controller's Group.

And that "hauling all the fish away" needs to be stopped....permanently ! Most of these "tournaments" are Commercial Operations conducted for Profit or a Product Promotion. Release them where you caught them like I hope the one large Tournament organization is still doing.

NWS took awhile but finally posted that it was an EF-0 twister that was 150 yards wide and touched down East of Y Highway to the West of Branson West in a lightly populated area....thankfully! They said the wide-spread damages, including the Marina and so many homes to the West and SW was caused by something called Reverse-side downdraft from the Tornado. While the actual funnel didn't do much damage, that "Reverse-side downdraft" sure did and it wasn't limited to the immediate area around the CF Marina.

Yep, our Son lives down Wooley Creek Rd. and he has extreme Hail damage with saved Hailstones measuring 3 & 1/2 inches in his freezer, numerous large trees snapped off about 10 to 15 feet up from the ground and one took out his Skeeter's trailer when it dropped on it. His dock over in the cove escaped damage but the big Cell Tower up on 76 on top of the ridge West of Cape Fair got destroyed and they are without Internet until August according to T-Mobile. Cell service is spotty at best and many of his neighbors had trees on their homes and shops along with the large Hail.

Notice on all the links posted about where to buy "pure gas" that there is nowhere within a 100 mile Radius of the St. Louis Metro area where non-Ethanol gas is sold. The nearest, as you travel West, is in Rolla. It took a lot of questioning and research several years ago to discover this is due to some "highly secret" agreement made with the un-elected Bureaucrats in the EPA to not sell non-Ethanol gas within that 100 mile radius. Was it really a "secret" ? Can't tell you for sure but it sure seems so due to the incredible difficulty it took to discover this fact and it was impossible to discover the reasoning for it or whom, at the retail end, agreed to this Policy. There is also some "agreement" that may have lapsed by now that only 91 Octane, or higher, non-Ethanol gas can be sold in Missouri while you could go into Arkansas and find both 87 and 89 non-Ethanol for sale. Just a basic reminder that Gasoline and Ethanol have two different Specific Gravities and, left undisturbed, Gas will eventually separate and "float" on top while Ethanol will sink to the bottom of any fuel containment vessel.....and that is right where your motor's fuel intake is located.

The incredible clouds of Pollen from the dang Cedar trees didn't help either.

Yessir, clearly a dratted Yellow Bass. Used to catch them far too often when I would get "persuaded" to fish the Mud-hole called "Carlyle Lake" in SW Illinois. You are correct about the darn things being "more prolific" to the point where they can almost take-over a Lake and are notorious for reducing the creel of both Crappie and White Bass in a shallow, flatland Lake like Carlyle. What their impact will be on a deeper, Highland Reservoir like TR is unknown to me but I don't like seeing/hearing the darn things are here. Maybe the larger Walters will consume them ?

We were surprised, and so was the guy at MDC when I called him and sent photos, to learn that Hellbenders ( mud-puppies) exist in Table Rock. We caught two of them in our crawfish trap about 10 years ago at Baxter Boat Dock and had just read the news about the attempts to re-establish their populations in MO streams and rivers. The MDC guy ( I forget his name ) was shocked and had me send him pictures of the two critters before we released them but when he got the pictures he agreed they were actual Hellbenders. He said they were native to the White River and the feeder creeks but the program was devoted to restoration of them in flowing bodies of water, not reservoirs.

Last sentence.....could not possibly agree more.

It was like one of the talking heads doing the play by play said " Mizzou's Defense is really helping out GA's offense when they need it". Cook is a nice QB and gives it everything he's got plus he is a Scholar Athlete. But he's not a "gamer" since he does not rise to the occasion and folds under pressure.....as was very evident in the second half.

Hydro-tech said flashing the Yamaha SHO 225 ECU allowed the butterfly on the throttle body to come fully open instead of just partially. Made a huge, immediately noticeable difference in performance and hole shot.

Corn Ethanol and Gasoline have different Specific Gravities. Gasoline containing Ethanol will eventually, if allowed to sit immobile for a period of time, separate, and the lighter gasoline will float to the top while the heavier Ethanol will sink to the bottom.....exactly where your fuel pick-up is located in a boat/car fuel tank. Motion will restore, somewhat, the mixture of the two liquids. Ethanol has an affinity for water and will absorb water from the atmosphere and the more humid the percentage of the atmosphere is, the more humidity available for the process. One of the reasons engine builders were finding rusted surfaces in engines they were tearing down. However, there is a move going on to force all gasoline to contain 15% Ethanol and that is NOT a good thing !

It wasn't just the loud exhaust from the straight-exhaust V-8's they were running, it was having the inside of your home lit-up so you could easily read a book at 3 AM. Of course we still have the night-time bright light thing going on including the clown at Baxter who always runs all the way back to the launch ramp with the huge LED lights blazing and blinding other night anglers.

From the MDC website "fishing regulations": Number of poles and hooks If you use more than three poles (or two poles on the Mississippi River) at any one time, the additional poles must be labeled with your full name and address or Conservation Number. Regardless of the method or number of poles, you may not use more than a total of 33 hooks at any one time; except on the Mississippi River the maximum is 50 hooks at one time. If fishing on the Mississippi River and on other Missouri waters at the same time, no more than 50 hooks may be used and not more than 33 on waters other than the Mississippi. Hooks on trotlines must be staged at least 2 feet apart. Hooks on any type of line, as well as the line itself, must be attended every 24 hours or removed. SIX trotlines put out along "The Wall", not one of them marked, comprise far greater than the allowed "33 hooks".

If you are one of those night-time anglers usually fishing "The Wall" on the same side of the Indians as Baxter Marina.....BEWARE ! Some unnamed soul has put out and then left behind several Trot-Lines along the steep shoreline and Bluff face there and they are creating a mess with the usual bait-grabbing hang ups trot-lines create. They are unmarked with no required name or address of the person installing them and run parallel to the shore.

Never could figure out all the hoopla about Presley. Wife and I ( 1 pre-boomer, 1 extremely early boomer) both considered him a "Greaser". You'd have to be of our age brackets, probably, to understand the meaning of the term. Glad you enjoyed it....and him. Meanwhile, the bite in the far backs of coves with run-off water running into them was ON !!!

You nailed it when you said the Lake was almost "James River Green" ! Had the Econo Lift crew convert our lift back from the Tri-toon BARGE to accommodate the new/used Skeeter and the shallow water above white air tank on the submerged econo-lift was Pea Green and the lake bottom at the slip site, which is always visible, has disappeared entirely. Assuming this is temporary due to a Phytoplankton bloom from the extended heat wave ?

Interesting question. Yes, I've noticed definite current dozens of times on The Rock and there is an "Eddy Current" where the two Indians empty into the White along the face of "The Wall" at Baxter. It definitely flows backwards just like you'd find on a River or Stream there and it's not wind, but current.

After my '98 225 2 stroke Yammy was ruined by Mud-Dauber Wasps, I learned to keep a vented engine cover on the motor cowling at all times.....the hard way ! Finally found a good, used 4-stroke 225 SHO VMax on the new/used Skeeter we just bought and wondering if any of you guys/gals have bought vented covers for yours and where you found them ? There's a source in Australia called OCA for vented splash covers but no one seems to re-produce the colorful OEM graphics from Yamaha on their covers . Dratted Wasps !

We pass by this site often. Our area's residents call it "Mud Mountain". Only thing is there isn't much "mountain" left after they took at least 40/50 vertical feet off the top of "Dreamcatcher mountain" and dumped it down the sides of the slopes to make more flat area to build their project on. The latest there is a steep road they cut into the sides of the valley to the South in order to access the Lake. They better get huge income to pay for the earth moving and rock drilling they have done there to create their uglification of the Ozarks.

"Only" 13.33 inches recorded at Baxter for May's total and the "tipping spoon" in my Vantage VUE weather station was disabled by a spider web for two rain events so that total is too low. 0.62 inches so far today.

6.67 inches here at Baxter since just Sunday, May 1st. Recorded on our Vantage Vue Weather station's rain gauge and confirmed by a mechanical or static rain gauge. ( yeah, I'm a weather-geek ! lol ) Lake level this morning at 0900 923.74 and forecast to go over 925 but that may be too conservative and need updating. Here we go again ! Better weather, by far, in the forecast so break out the shorts and sunscreen.

Good question. If it's an MLF derby or a similar tournament that catches and releases at boat-side and is not a "fish transporter" it would have to be the Cormorants...especially during the spawn. I just saw hundreds, yes, hundreds of them this morning, flying away from out in front of the Baxter Marina and the size of the flock is GROWING ( possibly doubled or even tripled the number of birds ) from when they were first seen here about a week to 10 days ago ! Looked like they were possibly headed over to Flint Cove because they weren't trying to gain a lot of altitude. There were four distinct, separate flights of about 50-60 birds each. No Pelicans with them this time.

Very true and I had a report from a different site that those Cormorants have been heavy over on Taney. Those are some fish-eating machines that fly with their wings assisting them underwater and any time they overpopulate an area the fishery declines. Just ask the Smallie anglers up on lake Erie.