jdmidwest

Cedar Plank Fresh Alaska Silver Salmon over an alder fire on the bank of the Portage River chased down by a stream chilled Alaska Amber. Morels would have made it even better.

Weather spotty, temps up and down like the water. Trout fair on powerbait and antron eggs. Some have reported that they caught several daily limits on a good day, but you have to stomp in front of real fishermen to be successful..

I would think they need a home more than a kayak. Where will they store it?

Looks like the locals stripped the cab, engine, and front wheels off the semi that was attached to the trailer.

You boat is covered like any other trailing device when it is attached to your insured vehicle for liability only if it hits something else. But in order to cover it physically for comphrensive claims, it will need it own policy. I don't think a homeowner policy will cover it if something happens. It will not cover a car or motorcycle if you have a fire in the garage. Speak to your agent about your concerns. If it is a nice boat and an investment, I would look into a policy that covers it. And some states require it on the water for liability.

Carry a small handheld NOAA weather radio and keep abreast of the weather conditions. They will post flash flood warnings in advance so you can plan accordingly. Check it often if there are storms are rain in the area. Some watersheds can collect enough water far upstream to flash flood a lower portion that does not get any rain. Research the river and learn the local towns so you can tell if you are in an affected area. I would carry a light weight tent with some weatherproofing, just in case it rains. A thermarest mattress should do fine. Probably a 50 degree bag or a nice blanket that time of year. Assuming you are floating a MO stream, you are legal to carry openly anywhere you go with a handgun and concealed if you have the permit. Concealed is best as most river rats are scared if they see you packing heat openly and will ask questions. Ark is different, they prohibit carry in stream access areas and some other goofy stuff. Read the rules. Hopefully there will not be a burn ban this year in MO, we have busted the drought. So you should be able to collect deadfall. But a firewood supply along the river is always iffy if it is a popular stream, it gets picked clean. Portable stoves are usually not included in a burn ban, just open camp fires.

I personally prefer people to wear earphones on the river. It does not disturb nature as much as the speakers do....

It all boils down to man's intervention in the whole thing. The manmade dams create choke points that allow the fish to become easy targets. The dams impede the progress of the fish to their natural spawning patterns so they have to be regulated in some sort of way. Paddle fish have suffered from all of this so they had to be protected. Man has depleted other fish that produce the caviar in other countries where it is relished as a delicacy. Man has created an artificial market for the paddlefish eggs and generated the demand. Why are the paddlefish only in season during the spawn? Are they so elusive you can not catch them any other time of the year? Are tailwaters the only place to catch them? How does one possess a fish but not its eggs? Do you have to clean them on the water? Do you only catch females? I would think you would want to release the females and let them spawn and eat the males. I only ask because it is one of the fishing sports that I really know very little about and have never attempted to catch one.

Anybody get any snow today? Last year I was mowing the yard by now. That is a big change in climate if you only look at things short term....

What is this Facebook thing? Sounds like a hassle....

But you don't need them after 65. You still have to buy the deer and turkey tags

Snow is in the forecast for several days around here this week. At least we have winter this year, kind of. 75 here last Friday. Sat., I started the morning with a T shirt, ended the day in a blowing norther wind with the t shirt, denim shirt and a heavy quilted flannel jacket. My bees are so confused.

Beware of kits, they are usually full of junk you don't need. Vise, good pair of fine sharp scissors, cheaper pair of larger scissors, dubbing needle, good bobbin, bobbin threader, whip finisher are good for tools to start. As far as smallie flies. Size 6, 8, 10 streamer hooks. Size 10, 12 dry fly hooks. Olive, black, purple, chartreuse, yellow, and white chenille and marabou. Some brown, white, olive, chartreuse, or yellow saddle hackle for feathers. Hares ear dubbing. Pearl or black Estaz chenille. Gold beads and dumbell eyes, some gold bead chain. Black, white, brown, and red 6/0 thread. Black flat foam, maybe brown or yellow, you can find that at craft stores. Sally Hansen Hard as Nails nail polish for thread cement. Spool of lead wire for weight.. Look around and see what you want to tye and pick up the materials you need instead of buying a kit with materials. I fish mostly streamers, buggy nymphs, foam hoppers, and poppers. I usually buy poppers, they take alot of time to tye. I always spend $20 each time I see a new pattern on materials and probably have around 2k in my tying materials, tools, and vises. And I still need to pick up a few things. To start out with, I would suggest some woolly buggers to learn on, then move on from there. Find a mentor or take a class to learn, it will help greatly. Buy a few good books.

What about the Mars scenario? It was like Earth for a while, till something disasterious happened to change it.

No matter how much safer they make cars, they still seem to kill thousands of people every year. Everytime some person decides they need to drive, they run the risk of an accident happening. A gun is always loaded, and should be treated accordingly, Period, end of story. The story does not go into much detail, but it looks like it went off twice. That would rule out accident. Millions of people carry guns loaded on a daily basis, the actual percentage of gun related accidents is pretty low. Police, military, sportsman, and armed civilians carry around loaded guns daily. But it really sucks to hear about an accidental discharge hurting another person.

Great advice. I cast with my right arm and reel with the left hand when spin fishing and fly fishing. Being right handed all my life has led my left hand astray. I have never been too ambidex in anything I do. But now I have developed this thing called a "tennis elbow" so I may have to learn to switch. Not really sure what brought it on, but I remember drawing a bow last fall and felt a pop. Since then it has been sore and I have been limping it along. It is bothering me right now, I have been using a drill and a screwgun all afternoon. I was thinking stiffer rod and heavy line with the tube jigs would be better with a casting rig. And faster retrieves would help too when I need to drag them in. I have been tossing 1/4 oz jigs so that seems to be border line. A friend has tried to get me started into the plastic world of worms. He has been trying to get me to switch to a casting rod for them. Looks like another investment. What line weight would balance a 1/4 oz jig and 3 1/2 inch tube?

Al, what baitcast rig do you recommend? I have not used anything but spinning gear in my entire life. Other than fly fishing. I use the shimano's with the quick fire system and never have a problem with covering water while in a yak or canoe floating along. But, I have entertained the though of the baitcast system. But it was for boat fishing in lakes and casting worms and other soft plastics. I am also tempted to get one for fishing tubes out of a boat on the streams. Interesting thread, lets hear some more thoughts on the matter.

Looks like the boat may be hot. Sides are too low for what I am looking for.

Devils Horse is a good one too in gold or firetiger. Torpedos of differents sizes in frog, black, and firetiger. Black of a night or near dusk is deadly.

Trout stocking takes place in the spring to allow them optimum temperature and abundant food source. Put them in the fall and the temps get cold and food source drops off. Plus, that is about how long it takes for them to go from an egg to the stocking size. Trout have an optimum temperature to feed and thrive. Too high in the 70's and they stop eating, too low, metabolism slows down to conserve energy. 55 to 58 is optimum if I remember, similar to our spring water. Unless it has increased, Current River only gets 8000 browns, average 1000 per mile of river stocked, which is the park to Cedar Grove. What is the length of the area from the spring branch to Scotts Ford?

When a hive of bees gets too crowded, tame or wild, they will turn out some queen cells and make a new queen. When she hatches and gets ready to fly, scouts go out in search of a new hive location. The queen and part of the worker bees leave in a swarm. They may light in a tree or bush till the scouts find a suitable home. When they do, they all move in and start a new hive. Tame bees are managed to avoid swarming by adding more boxes for them to grow into. Wild hives in trees are limited to the size of the opening. Swarming takes place in the spring of the year for the most part. You can set out boxes in areas with wild bees and bait them with a pheremone lure. If one finds it and moves in, free bees! Install them in full size equipment and new hive of bees added to the apiary.

If you don't know him, astronaut Kelley is Gabbie Giffords husband and co partner in the Americans for Responsible Solutions. ARS is the most recent anti gun group to appear on the scene trying to limit our gun rights. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/09/Gabby-Giffords-Husband-Buys-AR-15-Announces-He-s-Not-Keeping-It-After-News-Leaks-Out Kind of ironic isn't it.

Yesterday, I was able to pull all of my tomato stakes out of the main garden and take up the rabbit fence that protected my beans last summer. Cleaned out the flower beds and another small garden spot by the house. Painted a nuc to use as a swarm trap for feral bees and put it out next to an open feeder. Wild bees drank up a quart of syrup next to it in about 4 hours. Dang ole time change, rolled over this morning and looked at the clock 8:30. Clouds keep me sleeping in later than planned. About an hour later I realized it was the time change. Tilled the main garden to cut stuff up and just lightly ruff up the surface some. Winds and sun the last few days had dried it out pretty good. Started sprinkling about the time I shut the tiller off. I spread a couple of bales of rotten straw that I had been weathering since last spring to add some organics to the soil. Gathered up a bag of lime and the hand spreader just as the sprinkle turned to drops. I managed to spread the lime before it got too heavy. Finally the rain turned to a steady shower so I gave up and got out of my wet clothes.

You could have told him about the Conservation Agent watching up on the hill or tell them you passed one in the bushes downstream that checked your license, that usually breaks them up and gets them off the river. But they will just move to another spot or change clothes. Ark. has a toll free number to report stuff like that, a license number of a vehicle and description of the violater helps. 1-800-482-9262 is the hotline number for Ark. Text 847411 if you have AT&T if you want to go that route. http://www.agfc.com/enforcement/Pages/EnforcementHotline.aspx

But herons were almost extinct a few years ago then they made a comeback, so you really have to take the increase in numbers of predators in the mix. How much gigging actually occurs in the upper portion of the Meramec anyway? The water is pretty skinny to run a jet boat. As far as stocking goes, our limited number of hatcheries limit production of trout to about the same amount as they raised back in the 80's. There have been improvements with O2 systems and better facilities, but they really can't keep up with the numbers of fishermen. It would be interesting to see the actual numbers raised over the last 30 years verses the number of fishing licenses sold. I think Shepard of the Hills is the only one that raises browns. The others located in the trout parks raise rainbows.