Bird Watcher

you might send a pm to RPS. He's probably neck deep grading papers, but he might have an idea what's going on and probably wouldn't care to tell you if he knows something.

Hey Mic, The best place place I know of to look at Eagles isn't really that scenic. They congregate by the hundreds around Wheaton MO in late winter. If you catch it right it's nothing to see 2-300 of them in one place. The other places I have seen a lot of them would be up and down the Elk River drainage system in McDonald County. If you get way up the Indian Creek and Sugar creek drainages in Late winter there are always a lot of them around. I know there's always a lot of them on any of the area lakes during the winter. The other place I always see them is around large concentrations of waterfowl. If you find a large group of ducks or geese in January or February there will usually be Eagles following them around. I've actually lost 5-10 ducks over the years to Eagles. They will swoop right in and pick a dead or crippled duck off the water if there's one around.

I picked up a couple Wally Marshall "Tuxedo Black" 7' rods this spring. I really like them for any type of casting application. I have a 10' BnM, Sam Heaton that I really like for fishing vertical around pole timber or on the outside of docks. and a little 4.5' browning micro that I use for shooting docks or fishing inside of docks. I kind of like to have a long rod, a medium rod, and a short rod laying on the deck when I'm crappie fishing. I spool them all up with 4/15 braid and usually have some kind of little UL shimano reel on them. I couldn't really even tell you the make of my reels.

hahaha! I guess it's the ol Arkie in me showing through.

Good Job DD. Doesn't the season close 10/16?

Probably around the 2nd or 3rd week of September

Funny, I must have picked a 5 gallon bucket of paw paws behind the house this year, we eat them fresh, frozen, in ice cream, and make bread out of them. It didn't seem as many as other years, but there were still plenty. Paw Paws are one of the most nutritionally complete fruits in the world and the only one that contains all essential amino acids.

That's awesome.

I guess every body of water is different. There are times of the year when Herons and egrets tell me more about the predatory fish than any type of gull or tern, but then there are times of the year when the gulls tell me where I need to be, but again I look more at how they are behaving. Some days I'll sit with my binocs and look at birds in all directions before I start the boat and head off, But I'm looking for frantic, concentrated bird feeding. What species tends to matter less to me. That being said, I don't think I've ever fished around Pelicans although there are usually large flocks of them on grand this time of year.

Hence my name. Actually, I agree with both Wrench and F&F I watch the pace of the feeding birds. If it's steady and prolonged, they are probably just working bait. That doesn't exclude the presence of game fish, it just doen't necessarily confirm it. If they go in frantic bursts of feeding with a lot of waiting in between, those birds are probably keying on a nearby school of predatory fish that keep bringing schools of bait to the surface. That's my .02.

I've had some days up Elk River from Grand end of Feb early March that would just make me sound like a liar so I won't even start. Nothing those guys weigh in during the classic would suprise me.

I don't know exactly what you mean by "purposely', but if I see a big one I will definitely try to catch it. I very rarely set out to fish for any type of Black Bass these days, but if I see a big 3# plus Kentucky while I'm fishing, I'll "purposely" to get it to bite every time.

I've felt that same way many times. I think they kind of get a bad rap a lot of times. They aren't romanticized like the smallmouth and they don't get as big as the Largemouth so I think they get lost in between the smallmouth purists and the Big fish largemouth chasers. They've saved my day a lot of times and no one can say they don't scrap hard when hooked.

that has to be the best drunk post in OA history. I might take it to the sig line.

Not to mention a timely text message from the billethead clan probably kept me from attempting to committ a game violation next weekend Thanks again Marty.

I went twice this weekend hoping to find some corals, chantrelles, or boletes. nada. I only went behind the house, maybe I should have traveled to a better place. good for you.

Good Job Marty. That pond with the Mrs. looks great. Looks like the rain helped the grass and the water level.

you're a lucky man. good for you.

Good deal.

It's ironic you mention that. I witnessed no less than 4 major tree falls or major limbs falling Yesterday afternoon. It was really weird. I attributed it to dead wood getting waterlogged from the rain. I'd take anything we can get on the rain. I didn't think the rain last weekend would amount to much run off, but it did-a little. The tributary I was fishing started rising about 3 or 4 pm Yesterday afternoon. not a lot, but the current picked up and the level came up a few inches.

Hopefully optimistic. We are now right in the center of the models. They change every day though.

Taste it. If it tastes like bacon, it's a pig. If it tastes like honey, it's a bear.

Looks like a Yeti that had some of those Arkansas peaches.

"I've been at this 2.5, 3 years and I have a river runs through it on Blu Ray....I've watched it 27 times, so yeah, I guess you could say I know what I'm doing"...I'm still busting a gut at that one.

Saw this on another site. I don't know if it will help you out or not. http://globalflyfisher.com/video/meet-hank-patterson-your-fly-fishing-guide