Trav

The heat is great when on Taney.....it is cold all the time...

Al Life moves on like a tide. You have to roll with the flow and hope you can have an influence. You are an influence to many of us.

Never too hot for our Ozark streams! In fact, they are the best fishing when it gets into the dog days. I went yesterday and waded the Finley and James just to cool off a hook (and myself).

Smallies like gravel to spawn. The majority of the lakebed in Lower Taney is muck, layers of leaves, mud and logs. Great for carp though! Oops...did I say that?

Using a Rott is like throwing dynamite into a farm pond....lol

Haha...I will take 3 20inchers and a couple 24inchers to boot!!

I will second Eric's thoughts. Baitfishing is too easy.....I prefer the challenge. However...I will use live bait when fishing for cats.

One good thing about Taney...if they are running water you have some air conditioning..

I think we are forgetting the obvious. If you were king...wouldn't you want to make it private? Just for the king and his friends? Or at least a members only club? I guess I would be a bit of a selfish arse with it. Haha.....

I have a pen sharpener made by Berkley. It does a fair job for on the spot fixes. I personally prefer to change the hooks out instead whenever possible.

So much stuff and such little cash. I might spend a hundred bucks everytime I walk in the door but there is always another hundred being planned for the next trip. Haha

The small streams are the money in this heat. Sweet post Al!

The same thing be said about the cost of fish. We do it because we like it...not for the economics.

I have been saying the heat is a no win situatiuon for weeks. grrrr.....and what did everyone say? "Better than sitting at home." Sometimes it it just better to go bowling.

Trolling is a very effective way to fish Ozark Lakes. I for one don't like to burn the gas but I know a ton of guys who do it exclusively.

Pre 08 flood....Lower Taney was the bomb this time of year when the heat was so bad. I really miss the natural air conditioning the cold water gave me in the late evenings. I am so tempted to go back down there just to feel the freedom from the heat of other lakes. Haha....maybe I should go back and see if those brownies have settled yet? I dont think two years is enough but it might be fun to go down memory lane. I know the bass will be stacked liked fence posts. Typical Lower Taney guys!! They might not be over five pounds but the average is usaully 16 to 20 inches. Fun stuff when getting away from the heat. Hmmm....the little lady has been trying to get pics of herself as she catches every fish native to Missouri. I keep avoiding Taney and she hasn't caught a trout yet. If you keep track of my facebook pics then you know she has caught pretty much everything except trout. Kind of ironic since I spent the past decade doing nothing but junking trophy brownies. grrrr.....I even forgoed buying a trout stamp this year thinking I was too good to catch trout and she is egging me on. Don't get me wrong. I love fishing for trout. BUT! I use plastics and bigger baits. Not a fly guy and hate bait fishermen. Feather stuff isn't my thing. I prefer plastics even when muskie fishing. I just know to give her a chance to catch a picture perfect fish I am going to have to vacate my roots of the lower and go towards the dam. Let us not forget that every brownie over 8 pounds I have caught was with bass tactics in the lower.... fishing log jams which got swept away in 08. I can go to lower Taney and catch bass any day of the week but the trout are very iffy down there these days. Funny suff. I wanted to do Phil's tourney last winter but was worried about the fish surviving the trip from the lower and I didnt have a partner then. Plus the rules said I couldn't use plastics. Bummer.... This year I could actually attack the upper since my lady wants to work on some trout. My issue is always the same. I don't like to fish in the same water as a dozen other boats. Grrr...And i like to use plastics... The lower is a crap shoot. I think too much!!! Might take her to some trout but darn it!...If there are twenty boats fishing the same quarter mile I will use it as an excuse to never to it again!!! Haha....tourists suck As far as the winter tourneys...if Phil wants me in them he has to let me use plastics....lol

Eric, Reading your past posts I think we are more alike than you would want to admit. Haha..You mentioned credibility? hmmmmmmmmm Actually, I bet the two of us can probably be a good team with our mutual skepticism. We can agree to disagree. I think guides are for people who have no clue about fishing or for tourney guys who are too lazy to do a real practice day. I may not do any better than a local guide but I sure do just as well as they do. And they are supposed to be experts? Peace bro Cricket, I have licenses in a dozen or so trades. I really don't see where my source of income has to do with the facts at hand. Arbitrary? I do know if you want to hear a certain answer ...all you have to do is ask the right questions to the right people. It is nothing to read between the lines. Chris, Trust me..I know books are hard to sell. Have been writing like a mad man for a couple decades. I actually was thinking of the lake location analysis as a report here but didn't get much response. Good ideas roll through my head as fast as the bad ones do. Haha Maybe this angle to prove you can catch fish on unfamiliar water will incorporate it some. Techo, You have seen me around here for years. I have a knack I guess. I might be a "troll" but at least I give credit where credit is due. Wink Even if my knack is to go against the popularity of the site. Luv ya man!

Al...You always find a way to gain my admiration. Your wealth of knowledge never disappoints me. For the record, I was in fact arguing (sarcastically) against the otters with my "predator" comment. We know wolves, cougars, and bears are not compatible to a high dense human population. As far as the otter hounds,... After hundreds of dollars of property damage I trained dogs to keep otters away from my dock on Taney. It worked. The damage to my boats and the disappearing foam came to a screeching halt. One bad thing to the concept though. My dogs killed them to the point they eliminated the population from the entire shoreline where my dock sits. I knew my property wasn't being "vandalized" anymore but I felt guilty for the approach I took. Truth be known, some species of wildlife have lost their niche in the ecosystem and we can only blame the human race for this obvious reality. I am all about giving nature back what we have taken from it but until there can be a natural balance to population control; it just isn’t fair to the wildlife. Sadly, unless the wildlife has value to humans there is no motivation to control populations. A perfect example is the whitetail deer. My Gramps used to tell me stories about how barren the Midwest was of deer in the 30's and 40's. Thanks to hunters and the desire to use them as a game animal they have rebounded to the best numbers since before the depression era. Deer have humans controlling populations though. Otters have no value and even trappers are looking at just a few dollars for their pelts. It is no secret trappers are a dying breed because the money just isn't there anymore. So where is the population control? Where do otters actually fit in with the current status of the ecosystem? My issue is not with the otters themselves. It is the fact they rape the waters to survive. The fish are of more value to humans than otters are and this debate will always be a hot topic as long as humans are there to defend the fish and complain about the destruction of personal property. Another example is the beaver. I think the beaver is the forgotten ecosystem builder. Yet, since they back up water and flood property they are thought of as hazards instead of natural habitat architects. Some species of animals are just abrasive to human development. The only people who give a crap about the wildlife are those who don't have to live with them, a very sad but honest fact. So they will never have the people who should care about them on their side. I am talking about land owners. Al is right. Wolves and bears would not make it. Just look at the debate with the cattle farmers near Yellowstone with the wolves being reintroduced there. Yet, without those types of predators, species like otters should be introduced with caution. Some species should never be the Alpha predators. Personally, we all know what is killing the streams in Missouri the most. It is not a bunch of ravenous otters. It is humans with the nasty septic systems, dredging for rock, dams which block migration and the creation of sedimentation and the poisoning of natural aquatic plant life with foreign species. I can see both sides of the debate but to me the otters have found themselves on the wrong side of an infestation argument. Validating their necessity is going to be a hard sell. If you are some city slicker who thinks the great outdoors is a big zoo, you have no clue.

I sure do miss those river floats. It really started to get inconvenient for me to get transportation back to where we put in. Kind of slacked on the stream fishing. It does sound like the best bites in this heat are those spring fed streams......

I heard a rumor that MDC might be laying off ten percent of their staff. I doubt if they can afford to buy it.

Bman>>> Would rather be the only tree on the hill than be stuck in a log jam. In a lightning storm you get all the attention. Haha

A balance would be to make sure there are natural predators to control the otters.....

That is funny.....

I knew this would stir up a dog pile. My opinions usually do though...Haha... A troll? Very amusing but I am not denying the accusation. My ego does have an orbit of its own. Guides offer a service which can be a frivolous expense. The essence of the book is to express if you catch fish at home then you don't really need a guide to fish new water. As far as credibility....I am not claiming to be better than a guide who knows the lake. In fact, I am approaching this by putting myself on unfamiliar water. Or at least water I have only fished a few times over the past decade. I am going to new water doing nothing to prepare myself other than researching reports like those found here at OA then comparing them with reports taken from those who hired a guide. My results have been without surprises. I have been doing just as well and not spending the expense. Part of my execution is treating a single body of water as several little bodies to avoid intimidation. Granted, when those who had hired a guide hear of my results they are more inclined to agree with my opinion and yes some did have expectations. So it isn’t an unbiased pool of opinion. And there is always hindsight. Anyway, we all know Trav enjoys a good dog piling. I love to hear and read comments of those who defend what I am trying to disclaim. It is what makes healthy debate. I will make an effort to share the pros and cons of guided fishing but I am writing this to prove it is a frivolous unnecessary expense.

Doesn't he own Virgin Records?....Hmmmmmmm....