timinmo

As an update my sons spent the night in Miami. 104 miles from the start. Will have to see how today goes.

Way to go. Great fish.

This is a little off subject but as I am sure many of you know the MR340 starts today. For those not familiar it is a paddle race on the Missouri River starting in KC and ending on the St. Charles river front. There were something like 500-600 teams registered last I looked. In recent races the winning teams have paddled straight through in something like 30 to 40 hours for the 340 miles. Most teams will take a more leisurely pace and stop for sleep at various places along the route. There are several classes for both canoes and kayaks. Everyone must finish by Friday, I think about 7:00 PM. Among the racers are my sons Seth and Dan, this is their first attempt at this and the desire is to finish, many teams don't, winning is not on their radar. Anyway if you happen to be near the Missouri River in the next few days and see lots of canoes and kayaks it is the racers, why not give them a thumbs up. If you see a black Bell canoe number 6623 it is my sons, you can tell them I'm worried.

Experience with Shimanos about the same as many people. Never had a Plfueger can offer nothing other than alot of people love them. Several Daiwas that have been bullet proof. Newer LT series unknown as they haven't been around that long, have a BG that seems to handle anything and an older Ballistic, nonLT. I would not mind trying a Plfueger, Berkley has owned them for several years now and I haven't seen many complaints.

I don't know about the lengths, I tend to agree with Jim. I think the kayak part is in the length of the handles, specially if you are a robust figured guy like me. I just enjoy all the crap, some of it I will never own, some of it I can't wait to get my hands on.

Both Daiwa and Shimano have new reels coming out. Daiwa has some new rods as well. Berkley has a whole line of knock off lures based on other peoples designs. Abu has announced some new spinning and casting reels. I haven't heard of any new Lews but would hope they have something new. Many of the manufactures are announcing new stuff at the Classic now so some of the new stuff has been out for a little while. On the other hand sometimes stuff gets announced but then isn't available for some months. Anyway it is an exciting time to me. I will certainly be watching for daily updates. I can't buy it all but it is still cool to look at.

As with all your work Jim, they look great.

So, you do not really need the receipt. Each rod has a serial number and they can tell when it was made. If you register the rod when you purchase it your warranty goes from that date. If you did not register I assume they use the serial number and go from the manufacture date. I am making some assumptions here. What St. Croix will do I have no idea, but I will tell you they have replaced rods under warranty that I thought were clearly abused. What do you have to lose.

At this time Avids, Legend Tournaments, Legend Elite, Legend Extreme, and Legend X all have 15 year warranties. A few years ago the Legend series had life time, I believe. Your best bet is to do what you have done, contact St. Croix. In my "limited" experience St. Croix is the best at standing behind their rods.

Well the moving fur coat was in Barnhart last night. One of my neighbors took pictures. I was hoping to feed it my S-I-L's little dog but got no cooperation.

Fished today Scott, not as much success as you have had.

might try a drag chain.

Good stuff as always.

For any of you in the St. Louis area you can pick-up Ozark Angler stickers at Denny Dennis in Fenton. Ask at the fishing counter. I had lost them for awhile but they were relocated. Limited numbers available.

JoeD, good to see you back. It seems like we haven't seen you in a while.

I have seen them do the Blackwell to 21. I have seen some one picking people up at Mammoth, some outfitter, I assume the park people. So for what Twigss wants it seems like the Blackwell to 21 or the 21 to Mammoth if the guy that does the canoe rentals will do either. Of course it depends alot on how fast they want to go and how many stops they want to make. Three miles isn't bad for 4 hours with a long lunch and some swimming along the way.

If you are taking out at the park where are you putting in? From the 21 bridge to the park certainly will not take 4 to 6 hours unless you want it to. From the park down to Mammoth may be better for you but you need to check with the park about canoe rentals.

The usual suspects. Oh did Mitch get the old guy seat in back?

Good stuff as always.

Yeah, I think that is kind of funny. It was purchased like two years ago. I guess it was not the cash cow that Newell thought it was. The problem that this creates for us fishermen is a disruption in the supply chain, which usually means shortages in some areas. So if you like certain products from Purefishing, and there are alot, you might think of stocking up now. Some of their products have been hard to get already.

That fish is built like me, big around the middle. But beautiful.

Hey is that A-rig water?

Wally my stream is up probably a foot but is clearing up. It looks real good.

My main curiosity was whether the stream bass in the southern part of the state were further along with the spawn. I have seen smallies spawn in mid April and have also seen them spawning as late as the first part of June. I think under normal conditions, whatever that is, Mid-April and pretty much done by the middle of May. Overall I think there are always some early fish and probably a few late ones.

A while back we had a member mention the spawn in mid-May, I believe. Well I was out today for a short time on one of the local flows and saw lots of beds. I don't know what other people are seeing but in the St. Louis area it seems the spawn is going strong. Have you guys in the southern part of the state seen the spawn going on for the last couple weeks?