Quillback

What's a "RAM" mount?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LMF91QjYeC4

Personally, I'm pessimistic the spread of the Zebras can be stopped, unless drastic measures are taken. I fished Grand Lake this week, there aren't any signs that I saw at the boat launch warning people that there are Zebras in Grand and what precautions to take to stop their spread. Not to pick on water skiers and PWC users, but I bet 75% of them don't know what a zebra mussel is. Probably quite a few fishermen are unaware also.

Yes congrats on your move, if you're moving in on the 12th, I assume you'll be fishing on the 13th!

Started out by netting shad, got a couple dozen for catfish bait, then went looking for white bass. After futily searching for whites for a couple of hours, I started drifting shad for cats and caught a couple of blues, biggest one about 6 lbs. (See Pic). Beautiful fall day, which made up for the slow fishing.

Just out of curiosity - How much do you get for an otter pelt?

Wily - You're right, guess I had Grand Lake on my mind..

I swa a guide report where they say they are picking up the Whites between Drowning Creek and Goat Island, but that's a long way from twin bridges. Jaybird, I'll be interested to hear how you do up by Twin Bridges.

Being a member of Red Sox Nation, it brought a smile to my face to see the Yanks go down. Go Bosox!

http://www.ffk-wilkinson.com/

KC beat the Chargers, who woulda thunk that?

Here's some other reading material that mentions Zebras in the Great Lakes, in all it seems they are not good for fish populations. http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/_files/factsheets...0Assessment.pdf I would mainly be concerned about the impact of Zebras on Shad populations in the large reservoirs being that the Zebras will compete for the same food that shad utilize.

One negative consequence I read today is that the Pot Shoals net pen, located on Bull Shoals lake, which raised 156,000 Rainbows, 77,000 Cutthroat and 105,000 channel catfish last year, will not be able to stock fish in other waters as there is a danger of transporting Zebra larvae with the fish. The hatchery folks were scratching their heads trying to figure out what to do, maybe they'll come up with a solution.

I just read an article in the paper that claimed Zebra mussels had been found in Grand Lake. Not good news, it's probably just a matter of time before all the lakes around here have them.

I fly a lot for business, if you're making a connection chances are you'll get delayed or your flight may get canceled. Make sure you get a morning flight if possible, so that if you're delayed or canceled you can get another one out later in the day. This summer has been one of the worst in the history of US aviation industry as far as the number of delays/cancellations.

I might head to Grand this weekend, did the latest rain screw up the lake again?

Hey Walli - Leave a report here if you don't mind when you're done fishing, I may be going up there myself the week of 10/8 and would like to hear how you did.

$10 ain't bad for five fish.

OK, I have seen those spotted bluegill myself, but not since spring.

Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West (Paperback) by William L. Shea (Author), Earl J. Hess (Author) Very well written, good maps, the authors also write about events prior to and after the battle, it's interesting to read about where in SW Missouri and NW Arkansas these events happened.

Here's a website that you can use to run retirement scenarios. It's easy to use, but it's different than most retirement calculators in that it gives you a probability of your chances of meeting your retirment income goal based on savings, and income from pensions and Social Security. Not that you should accept this or any retirement calculator as being 100% accurate. http://www.firecalc.com/index.php

If you're investing in stock mutual funds you don't get an interest rate, your investment will grow (or shrink) depending on how the market does. You can contact your 403B plan adminstrator and see what choices they give you for investing your money in. If they are mutual funds ask for a prospectus, the prospectus will list past performance, check out the past 10 year performance which will include the bad years 2000-2003. You can also Google the fund and probably find past performance. However a big caveat that you will always see: "Past performance does not guarantee future results." Morningstar.com is a reputable mutual fund rating service, you can go to their site and see how they rate your funds.

Yes Seth you are making a good decision to begin investing at such a young age. Does your employer offer a 401K plan? If so, take advantage of it as you can contribute money pre tax and your gains will not be taxed until you retire and start withdrawing money. You can probablty also contribute pre tax money to an regular IRA or a Roth IRA. I would recommend mutual funds where your money is pooled with other investors and invested in the stock market. Money magazine has a lot of basic investment information, get a subscription or go to your local library and read some back issues. A lot of mutual fund companies have info on their web sites also, google Fidelity, Vanguard, T Rowe Price for starters. Usually if you go to a place like Edward Jones they'll charge you to invest your money. That works for some people, but doing it yourself is not that complicated and you'll save a lot of money over the long term.

I read some Guide reports where they said they were doing good near the dam and in the Elk river area for whites.

I saw in the Arkansas rule proposals that they have a proposal to ban the use of "Non-native" fish for bait.