jdmidwest

Nice shop with lots of knife accessories. But I always am looking for older stuff that I collect. They only carry new production stuff. There is a shop in Metropolis that buys and trades, I usually see him at the shows. There were some knives at the show. A few had some nice Custom Work Others had cheaper no name stuff from chinards.

Stopped in and met Mitch and Hogwally. Put 2 more faces to crew from online here. Great bunch of guys with a great product. Gonna try them out on the next trip to Pickwick. Also noticed that all Tritons, Rangers, and Trackers are starting to look alike. Picked out a nice Lund Deep V that I took a liking too. Might be a retirement boat. Lots of goodies there. Crowd tapered off around 2 where you could look around. Had a great lunch at Berts Chuckwagon in Collinsville before we went in. Ran up to Troy and checked out GPKnives, nice shop with some great products. Picked up a few things there.

Looks like I will be there after noon if everything works out. Looking forward to meeting more of the gang.

I see alot of them daily around Cape Girardeau.

But its going to be so nice outside this weekend. Upper 50's and sun on the first weekend of the New Year. Following a ripping cold front screaming thru on Friday bringing more rains. Decisions, decisions.

Love them or not, they do alot with the money they have alotted to them. A year in perspective. MDC Notable News from 2018 Where else could you find a 2 headed Rat snake? They have one in Cape at the Nature Center also. Missouri is full of genetic deformities........

In reality, the trout program is a joke at all areas except below the tailwaters. Most areas the trout replaced native smallmouth bass habitat. At least in the tailwaters that were made too cold for the smallmouth to flourish by man, there is a reason for them. It is a put and take fishery from its beginnings. They are not native to MO. They may have been around many moons ago when the state was cooler by Ice Age. It causes more issues, has the most screwed up regulations, and causes more people to act like idiots in a crowded sporting situation. Not the best sporting situation in the sense. But it is fun. Offers a year round fishery. And is funded by those that buy the stamp and tags. I fish the local ponds when they stock them, usually a way to grab a few hours fishing in when nothing else is going on. And other states around us do it too, but not as efficiently as MO does. I have fished winter trout in IL, KY, and TN. It is always better here or in the streams that Arkansas continues to stock all winter.

Don''t know about the kicking part. I have been told they will spray runny diarrehea when alarmed as a defense response.

100 yard shot is a walk in the park with open sights if your eyeballs are still working right. AR mil spec sights are great. Zero at 25 yards and dope the ranges to figure hitting point down range. It is a fast, flat shooting round with a great ballistic coefficient to carry on for several hundred yards without much adj. In .556 or .223. I grew up on open sights, I tend to train new shooters on them when possible. Scopes tend to distort your problems. Open sights make you work out your problems. First, you need a caliber that will zero at 100 yards. 22 lr is not good past 40 yards without some doping. You need faster velocities that hold up speed out that far. I have grown to be a .17 hmr fan, its like a lazer out to 100 yards and beyond. Low recoil and flat shooting. Plenty of pop to zap most varmints at range. Armadillos deliver a nice popping noise when hit with a disruptive 25 gr hollow point. It sprawls inside and delivers the coups de grace quickly. I did nail one with a 150 gr sp 30-06 one time that exploded. But it was the only thing in my hand at the time. If you shoot alot, and shoot many types of rifles, then it will become second nature. Open sights work great as long as you take in account the ballistics of the rifle you are shooting. Alot of smaller fast moving bullets travel flat in the first 100 yards.

There was a time where the fly rod was the only thing going in the history of fishing. If you fly fish and do it well, then any species can be had well with the fly rod. Spin rods and Bait casters have their limits. But fly rods can do it all for the most part. They are the only thing going for small, light imitations. I started with bait casters and spin rods. Found a cousin's fly rod in the shed and started using it. Started tying flies. Years later, they were the only thing I used on all species. Then I got lazy and picked up the spin rods and bait casters. Started fishing out of boats. Not really lazy, just older and wore down. I still like the fly rod.

That is a pretty far stretch. Good shot. I would have a hard time doing that shot with a 22 rimfire. But the .17 hmr would walk it in.

Help me out with this. I have been trying to figure out this style of boat. You state Striper Boat. But I see flats on the ocean. Stripers tend to be trolled. In deeper waters that need taller sides to handle larger waves from wakes and winds on open waters. Where does this type of boat excel in MO Ozark area? BTW, nice boat.

I hope they are just building up numbers for my grand return. The surgery 3 years ago knocked me out of 2015 season. I made a feeble attempt at 2016 for a few trips. Did not buy a stamp for 2017 and 2018, shoulder whacked from second cancer surgery. My hunting buddy has only killed 3 ducks this season as of last weekend. I have noticed only sporatic movement in the migrations while out fishing and deer hunting. Geese were on the move this weekend, an event that usually is done by this time of year any other. Goofy weather. Screws up my fishing too.

Catfish boats were not out in that. They were out in force in Oct. They even had a derby one weekend I was down. That point marker and the river above produced some great catfish a few years ago while we were bass fishing with Tube Jigs. It is an excellent place to catch cats. We have done so many times.

They will eat you out of a bunch of grain. I have rabbits and deer come in to eat what they kick out on the ground. Nothing goes to waste in nature. Make sure you have a good air rifle handy, it seems to draw the feral cats. A good supply of birds has cats coming from all around. I opened the back door today and found one on the back step. I bounced it off the boat and it did not leave. Picked up a rock and nailed it good, it seemed to take the hint that time. Lucky for it, its Christmas. Any other day, it would be over the fence for coyote bait.

I was able to squeak out a day trip to Pickwick on Sat. I caught a rock, buddy caught a leaf. Story of my life this fall. Day after a ripping front and lots of water. TN has the second wettest year on record this year. Pickwick was putting thru 148,000 cfs on Sat. Launched out of Yellow Creek and fished that arm for a while. Ventured out on main lake and run up a ways. Water was muddy and current was strong. But, they were keeping the main lake at winter pool, so falling water turned them off. Pulled out and went below on the river. Fished the walls for sauger then down river for bass. A rigs, Jerk Baits, Tube Jigs, Cranks, Jigs tipped with Power Bait trailers, we hammered them all. Nuttin. Did marvel at the workmanship on the point marker for Yellow Creek. Don't know what the fellows at TVA were doing when they made it. Looks like they kept stacking the base and it kept falling off the shelf. Made a pile and then balanced the last one. Low water reveals many funny things.

Feed them and they will come. Go to a local Farm Store and buy the grain to feed them. I use Hen Scratch for the most part, cracked corn, milo, and wheat. Cheapest thing out there now. I also have a feeder of black oil sunflower to feed the Titmouse and others that like it. Unless you have deep pockets, avoid the gourmet feeds in little bags. 40 lb bag of hen scratch was $7.99 and 20lbs sunflower seeds around $9. I go thru a bag of hen scratch about every 2 weeks.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Probably been eating plastic.

Its Christmas, they are all shut down and on vacation anyway. Probably have a hard time finding someone to put up barricades. Don't be skeered, its all a farce as usual.

I have caught many a channel cat on purple wooly buggers. I am sure a squirmy worm would catch any redhorse.

Separate accounts and split the bills works good in my family. We both have our bank accts and we share the bills. Splurges are on each others dime and eliminates any conflicts. I spend within reason and spoil the crap out of my only daughter. She has repaid me many times over with her kindness and reflection of my good raising. Grandkids get way more than any grandparent ever spent on me in a lifetime in one year. But I know my grandparents would have given me anything I asked for. It is the season to be grateful for so much more than money. Life is short and you only get it one time. Growing up, one of my Grandpas gave me 5 silver dollars each year. The other gave me 5 two dollar bills. I still have some of them somewhere. They gave me other things later on in life that shaped my future.

Truck like that can pull a big boat. Small boat would get lost in the mirrors. He needs a 21' deep v.

Both. I consider it wasted because it was not spent fishing.

Spend more time on the water. This year I wasted alot of time catching up for lost time in 2017.