skeeter

George Carson was the outdoor writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and was replaced, after his retirement, by Bill Seibel, his Son-in-law. I had the pleasure of knowing both gentlemen. When the Globe was "absorbed" by the St. Louis Post-Disgrace, they had an "outdoor" writer ( Tim Renken I believe ) already on staff. George passed away and Bill went on to become an N.R.A. instructor and more of a fisherman of the modern type than George had been. George was actually more of a shooting enthusiast who would put on his annual demonstration of shooting aspirin tossed into the air with a BB gun at the original St. Louis Sports and boat show held at the Arena on Oakland ! That is a fact and I witnessed it several times as he could hit 9 out of ten airborne aspirin. He had an entire theory about "pointing" a gun, not aiming it that he passed on to many. I can't imagine where George would have come up with the idea of Lake Trout in Lake Sherwood but Northern Pike would have made it but not been able to reproduce.

Fellas, as, always, thanks for all the replies and good ideas. Like I said, the entire neighborhood is up in arms over this ( literally ) and no one is going to back down, we are fed up to the eye brows. It is an intrinsic, God given right to defend one's self and property. There are enough Nam vets here that did tours with firing restrictions to know when and where not to let go. You want to catch them with the portable tanks they are taking in their boat or their siphon hose stuck in your filler neck. The suggestion made about locking fillers was on the money and PERKO does make some but they are not unversal fit by far. This entire problem will only become worse as fuel climbs in price ever further. If you sit back passively and take no action this problem will only continue. I posted about night fisherman being wary around public Marinas because owners are blaming night tournaments !!!! They have no basis for that but that is what they are telling people complaining. Gasoline on the water hit $4.75 yesterday with the latest delivery. Honest fishermen have no worries but I would not be pulling up to the stern of any moored boats and laying hands on them if I were you. This may draw some unwanted attention.

Bill, Wanna' put any bets on " I won't shoot over $gas theft " ? We have a little law enhancement in Missouri commonly referred to as the "Castle" law where you don't have to drag their body inside any more after plugging them. My attorney advised last night the law could be extended to cover boat or car theft if you get the right prosecutor or judge. The entire neighborhood is fed up and it's time for some down home law enforcement. I catch 'em and it's "DEAD BANG ! " Enough is enough........ The entire boat is locked thoroughly and even locked to the dock with security cables. If I could devise some locking method for the gas fillers I would have them. Yes, I'm experienced and old enough to know about marine theft on docks and have taken all reasonable precautions including the significant hassle of removing all tackle and rods every night. Four years ago the water patrol told me Table Rock had the highest incidence of marine theft in the state so there are a bunch of crumb bums that think it's easy pickins and it's time to teach them a fatal lesson. OO buck = no survivors on full choke.

Warning !!!! If you keep your boat on a lift or tied to a dock on Table Rock overnight, gasoline thieves are targeting boats with filler openings on the stern of the boat that are easily accessed from the water after dark. I personally lost 35 gallons in the past two weeks. Our area has been hit hard and we have formed a neighborhood watch that will take turns standing armed guard on the dock at night and there are enough people pissed-off to spell each other frequently. We figure this is the only solution as no one makes locking gas caps that fit our fillers. Water Patrol and Sherriff are helpless so it's up to the property/boat owners and we are resolved. If I were a night fisherman I would keep a far distance from public Marinas which are posted anyway with no fishing signs so suggest you not try sneaking in on the trolling motor. If any of the guilty parties are reading this ( which I seriously doubt ) I hope to heaven it's my turn when you come back as I shoot to kill and have had plenty of practice at it in the past thanks to Uncle Sam. I want to watch you bleed and hope you enjoy the six foot hole they will put you in if the turtles leave anything to bury. It will be worth the price of admission to jail and a bail bondsman and attorney to snuff your miserable life. Think this is an idle threat ? Please try it again and see.....

Warning, If you keep your boat on a lift on Table Rock, gasoline thieves are targeting boats with gas filler openings on the stern of the boat that are easily accessed from the water at night. Our area has been hit hard and we have formed a neighborhood watch due to the current price of fuel and have decided to stand armed watch at night, spelling each other frequently. Everyone is mad and fed up and we are pledged to shoot on sight. We believe this to be the only way to prevent this as there are no locking gas caps available for our style gas fillers and besides, I want to watch them bleed.

Bill, I'm wondering if you have tried to fish LOZ out of say a 21 or 22 ft. bass boat ? Good Luck, and I hope your life insurance is paid up if you fish in daylight hours !!! I have to agree that tying up or anchoring next to a bridge pier in the middle of a busy day needs to be re-considered but what several of us are trying to get across is that the LOZ menace of larger and larger boats is headed to TR and has been increasing every year. I know a guy on the water as frequently as yourself has to have noticed this... We're not whining, we're stating facts and this will negatively impact you and your clients in the warmer months if allowed to continue. The time to act on length limits is NOW before it gets away from us and completely ruins the lake for fishermen. Sharing the water is what it's all about but endangering people's property and lives because you have to impress everyone with your wealth and power by floating your Queen Mary is unacceptable. When these enormous boats run on an inland lake no one is safe and they are the ones who need to share !!

Part of the problem with fishing next to bridge piers is that not only do you get the wake directly off the play-boat's passage but then you get the reflected wave from behind you as it bounces off the bridge pier. That's what makes tying up there so dangerous and I'm certainly not implying you shouldn't fish there but be prepared to "fend off " when irresponsible boaters go by. Where two wave peaks intersect going the same or in opposite directions, the wave height is double what the original wave height was. That is what has swamped several large craft at Lake of the Ozarks. Think I have said this before but I'll say it again. A hull length limit needs to be established on Table Rock right now. Either that or maybe make the entire lake "no wake " if your craft exceeds a certain length ?? They screwed up at Lake of the Ozarks and didn't install a size limit before the gargantuan boats owned by the "look at me and my new toy " crowd ruined that lake. As a result they have many "battleships in a bathtub " running around ruining everyone's days and property. If you've fished TR for a few years you've seen play-boat sizes and their numbers and the seemingly accompanying lack of common courtesy growing and growing. I have no idea where to start with this and hope others that are fed up have some ideas ??? Who do we contact ? How does this get started ? What kind of an organization will it take to get this needed regulation off the ground ? Thanks.

Amen to the Sea Foam, really does help. Baxter Boat Dock is a source of gasoline minus the dreaded Ethanol. Passed a station in Green Forest AR yester day on the main highway that advertised no ethanol in their fuel. Ethanol is a scam and a source of engine problems. Several of our lovable Missouri State legislators have discovered they shot themselve in the foot by "mandating" ethanol content as they are cattlemen and Ethanol drove up their feed prices 200-300 % !!! Serves 'em right for not doing their homework and listening to the well funded ethanol industry lobbyists!!! There's plenty of oil out there, you just have to convince the extremist tree huggers to allow it to be drilled for or extracted from oil shale.

If you can read Bill's report and not get the immediate " I gotta go fishin' right now fever " I think you may need one of those defibrillator gizmos to get your heart started again ! Outstanding as usual and I sure thank you for it. I'm stuck for another day recovering from yesterday's knee surgery but if I have to crawl into the boat Saturday I'm doin' it. Great tale, thanks as always for your time.....

Slipknot you just got about $5000 worth of advice from the best there are around these parts. I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in about spoons. If you can still find a Kastmaster ( actual brand name ) spoon anywhere these days in shiny chrome finish with a white feather trailer on the treble hook, buy one for each person in your party. You can throw these things about over the horizon on a good spinning rig with big enough line guides to allow the line to come off the spool quickly. Use a high quality ball bearing snap swivel to attach to your line as they will twist the line and you're not going to be retrieving them slowly. Cast beyond where the whites are coming up ( if possible ) and chasing and retrieve through them, preferrably in front of them if you can figure out the direction they are headed as they chase the shad. Most days you don't have to do anything fancy, just turn the handle on the reel and they will bust it. When the fish go down and look like they have stopped, many times you can fan cast the area and allow the spoon to flutter down 10-20 feet and catch another fish or two or even the Kentuckies or Largemouth that sometimes follow underneath the whites picking up the scraps. Locations given in previous posts are the best and sometimes, if conditions are right those big four pounders will corner a school of baitfish against a pea-gravel bank right alongside a long sloping point. Best of luck to you and hope you find 'em.

ROTFLMAO !!! Got to remember the rooster tail trick but I think Water Patrol might have a problem with that. Thinking of the Water Patrol, I know you guides know most of the officers. What do they say about operating a boat too close to a boat that's obviously not under-way and is fishing ? Will they respond if you phone in registration numbers and boat description ? I know they are busy but let's face it, someone is going to get swamped or hurt as most of those people are drinking all day long. Time to stop this before it get's like Lake of the Ozarks.

Rolan, Should be some Yamaha Marine dealers in the greater K.C. area selling Yamalube. If not a marine/outboard dealer, possibly a powersports dealer selling Yamaha bikes, ATV's and those Yamaha Jet Skis ?

Have to agree. At the waters edge in front of our place I couldn't tell from a distance why all the roots were washed in to the shore at the high water mark. Getting closer I discovered the topsoil was gone and these were live roots exposed on top of the shelf rock. The "mulch" ( I don't know what else to call it ) that washed in will probably provide a great bed for any seeds to germinate in and we have beaucoup amounts of that "stuff " all along our shoreline. Stuff looks to be about three feet deep in spots and will harbor insects galore so have actually been considering how to get rid of it. Burning ? probably won't burn, just smolder forever or until the next monsoon. Guess the termites and ants will be real happy. Bad year for ants anyway.

Capt. Don, Guess I haven't kept up on baits. Please, who makes the Mikey Jr. and who sells them in the area ? Like you, I am tired of Red Fin and playing around with them. Topwater's what it's all about for me. Thanks much.

Unfortunately, the ones that will live are the ones I would like to see gone or reduced and those are the Sycamores.

Hey I'm a little bit Swiss ( hate to admit ) and this positively sucks ! Aren't these the same people who kept all the gold and valuables the Nazi's stole during WWII and were just forced into returning ? What does that say about these people and their government ?

I heard some bad things about those pythons the people are releasing down there after they grow too large. Another bad news species. Hope folks are using their vehicle tires to " slice and dice " the things lying on the roadway. That's enough to keep a guy from wade fishing and you sure better look up at any overhanging limbs. What's next ?

Owners had 80 or so loads of gravel brought in Friday and graded into a higher road so you can access the tiny little bit of the parking lot that is still above water. Looks like they added about 150-200 feet of ramp so you can walk out to the dock now but it's so long they need a rest area complete with porta-potty about halfway Big effort by the Pollards and appreciated by all the frustrated boat owners. Adjacent campround is now open too but ramps are still under water. They think they will open the services on the dock about midweek with gas then becoming available. The Lake actually came up a bit between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning jeapordizing the new road !

Was reading in the St. Louis paper lately where MO Legislature discovered they shot themselves in their foot when they passed this moronic "mandate" about ETHANOL content of gasoline. It seems that some of our "Esteemed" lawmakers that voted for the "mandate" are cattlemen and they have discovered their feed prices doubling and tripling due to higher corn prices. Talk about poetic justice The newspaper further reported there was a move to repeal the "mandate" but since the session ends Friday 5-16 and there are many more important issues that have not been acted on I don't know if the "repeal" will take place. We can only cross our fingers.

Maybe the darn things will eat the Asian carp since they are both of Chinese origin ! Seriously, this presence in Arkansas waters is very bad news especially with all the high water. I can't recall where I saw it but there is an experimental program to process Asian carp into some sort of animal feed. Let's all hope it works. Anyone else hear about this ?

Champ 188, You may recall when MDC instituted the 15" limit back in the late 70's the howls of protest that went up could be heard in China they were so loud but, as you say, it worked out for the best in a big way. Here we are about 30 years later and this old geezer has observed the fishing pressure to have about tripled with hardly a week going by without some sort of large tournament(s) drawing many more boats to the lake. IMHO it's time for MDC to be doing some additional management to this fishery and something to encourage or even mandate "Boat-Side" release when angling in a tournament would be very beneficial. Of course the tournament organizer$ wouldn't be happy with that because you then couldn't have the hoopla at the "weigh-in" holding fish in plastic bags and hoisting them into the air for pictures and media coverage would be eliminated.

Techo, Certainly agree with you about not having to pass another law. However, it's obvious that since an association the size of FLW doesn't provide a boat that there is no choice. Folks don't, and most won't "do the right thing" especially when the ALMIGHTY DOLLAR is involved as it has to come out of someone's pocket or someone's budget reducing their profit and THAT is what it is all about !!! You may have read mine and another member's postings and outrage about "bed-jerkers" and what that is doing to the future of our sport.. You think these big tournament organizations care about that I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Phil, Quite sure there are many of us who would greatly appreciate it if you would keep posting those Corp reports especially during this high water period. Understand your frustration but any information those of us who aren't on the scene can get is very interesting and we are grateful for the time you spend on updating us all. Sounds like the COE makes predictions like the weather forecasters and are only right part of the time which is because they too are dealing with Mother Nature and are now in reaction mode and can't really plan ahead. Thanks much.

No one can really answer this or even make a semi-accurate guess including the COE. We're in the wet season and everything depends on how much precip we continue to receive. All these lakes were sold to Congress as "flood control" projects in the 1950's not just for the White River but the lower Mississippi too and that is precisely what they are now being used for. Power generation was # 2 and a distant third place was recreation. This time of year with the typical clash of warm humid air from the Gulf meeting cold air from the North it all depends on whether fronts are fast movers like yesterday's or if they get hung up on the MO-AR border and then low pressure centers move along them. Fast movers typically yield far less precip than the fronts that stall out and hang around for days acting like a railroad for low pressure centers. The concern most experienced folks have now is the tri-lakes are full to capacity and have no flood storage capacity left. You couple that with the intense political pressure coming out of the Agri-business interests in Arkansas and the flooding potential along the lower Mississippi in Louisiana and I personally don't see the water levels getting anywhere near "normal" until after Labor Day but again that all depends on what is to come. This is the Midwest where any type of weather can and will happen. The region just came out of a protracted period of drought and now the pendulum has swung the other way. The bright side is it's gonna' be a helluva' spawn

And a BIG AMEN to that, Brother.