smallmouthjoe

Too bad, I really enjoyed his writings. I keep a copy of 200 Smallmouth Adventures in truck with me at all times. RIP Mr. Tyron, Missouri Hero.

I was using a 6.5' rod and it was a little short. I may need to break the 7' mark with the float and fly technique. With the 6.5' rod I was still able to get about a 2' leader and cast it pretty well.

Hey man, check out the James River section.

With the temperature going to be near 60 and the day off I had to get out for a float and some fishing. I needed it, the last two weeks of cold and snow had me down and I needed to get out of the city for at least a few hours. So, me and my girl decided to go on a little float on the James. We floated the old standby stretch of Delaware to Shelvin. It was a beautiful day, warm really. We both were getting pretty hot and were peeling off layers as soon as we got on the river. The fishing was slow which wasn't surprising at all. We only caught 3 fish between the both of us: 1 11.5" smallie, 1 13" LM and a 12" spot. They were caught on: Float and Fly with a brown buck tail, Pb&J jig 3/16 with a green pumpkin chigger, and a green pumpkin crawbug. We also saw an amazing diversity of bird life along the way including 3 different bald eagles, one in its second year plumage, that were stalking a flock of Gadwall's and Mallard's. Also saw all the common birds as well including: Belted Kingfisher, Great Blue Heron, Pileated Woodpecker, etc. It was a great day and I was surprised that we caught anything at all. This was the first time I used the float and fly technique and i enjoyed it very much and know that it is going to be a great way to catch fish in the future.

I'm going on a float tomorrow on The James and I'm not really expecting to catch much. The water will still be cold and the fish will still be inactive. I'll fish but I'll probably spend most of my time enjoying the sun and looking for birds. I'll let you know how it goes Jim.

Let me know how it goes guys, I'll be working all day on Saturday and on Sunday I'll have my head stuck in a book all day. The fishing should be good on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe I should just blow off work, I mean come on, it's just money.

The original group of birds we were talking about were wild turkeys and snow goose populations right? I didn't know we were talking about passerines or individuals within the population. Yes, any individual passerine, fundalid, cyprinid, great ape, or any animal is going to be affected by consuming or being exposed to large quantities of DDT or any other pesticide. The original argument that the wild turkey and snow goose populations were dramatically reduced by DDT is what i was countering, not that animals that receive large quantities of toxic chemicals aren't going to be harmed. The addition of chemicals being introduced to our environment is a concern with out a doubt, many pesticides are estrogen mimics and it is hypothesized that they are the chemicals that are causing a lower sperm count in men and causing the testes of some wild animals testes to look more like ovaries.

The reason why they were never impacted by DDT, BIO-ACCUMULATION. They fed too low on the food pyramid.

Was it a matter of the organic material DDT was directly spayed on and then consumed by these birds or was it a matter of bio- accumulation? I have never heard of any lower level primary consumer being adversely effected by the use of DDT, only higher level consumers who would build up large quantities of the chemical in their tissue due to bio-accumulation. I can find no published article on the internet that names DDT as cause of population declines in wild turkey or snow goose populations. It would be pretty interesting if there was a study out there that showed DDT was having adverse effects on animals that occupied lower trophic levels. Interesting and scary.

I'm sorry I thought when you said Ford it was slang for a large bass, like pig, toad, hog, etc. I didn't know you were referring to an actual Ford. Yeah I'd say those aren't stocked in Lake Springfield . Pretty crazy story.

I'm not sure if there is much stocking going on in Lake Springfield. It seems to me that the habitat and the forage are such that natural recruitment should keep the population healthy. All of my good fish caught out of that lake have come on a jig or a SB.

The reason why the MDC isn't implementing a C&R policy on these trophy sections is because they are trying to appease two groups of fishers. They are trying to find a compromise between the full on C&R folks and the more traditional catch and consume crowd. This is what angler surveys are for, a survey of the percentage of people who are wanting to catch the fish of a lifetime compared to the guys who are looking to eat some trout. They consider what the anglers want and then manage accordingly also considering the resources, fish and the habitat.

Sad to see ya go but happy to hear that people with biology degrees from MSU can get jobs. Assuming you are working in the field. Another forum I frequent is Riverbassin.com, they have alot of good guys there and the site has divided the country into regions and divided the regions into local state forums. Here's the one on NC, it looks pretty nice. http://riverbassin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?20-North-Carolina

This is a more likely scenario if man was removed from the equation. The populations of game and fish would once again be living according to rules of ecology and natural selection, no longer inhibited by the medlings of an animal that doesn't recognize its self as an animal. The streams would be clear and free flowing uninhibited by dams, nutrient addition, and accelerated erosion. The food web would be restored to its natural state with apex predators included which would keep in check the lower trophic level consumers so that they did not over exploit the primary producers the whole community depended on. Compared to what we have now, I believe the system would function much better than it is at this time. The trick in management is to balance the human agenda with the natural world. Not everyone can be appeased and no one should expect to have all of their thoughts on "the way it should be" implemented into policy.

The BP in Springfield only has the Musky version, I forget the size, maybe 10 or so. I got my seven at the sportmens outlet on Bennett. Cool place, you should check it out the next time your in Springfield, that or just order a smaller size off of the internet. This was the first trip where I used one and I was really just using it to see how it looked. The fish was just a nice surprise, and the logperch was just a helpless victim. I cant wait to try it out on some summer fish, I think it will really produce.

Hilarious, I think my gut are going to burst out of my sides.

I got a chance to go fishing today and I was determined to do so come snow, ice, or flood. The weather was really not bad at all, yes a little chilly but the snow and the river made for some beautiful scenery. The fishing was pretty good, I expected to catch some LM with the snow and all but I only manged to catch 2 spots (13" and 10"), 1 smallie (13") and 1 log perch, yeah that's right a log perch (Percina caprodes). The log perch and the better spot came on a Rapala sub-walk and the other two came on jigs. Great day and since I start the whole school thing tomorrow it may be my last chance to go for awhile.

It seems like every time I get a couple of days off lately the air temp plummets into the realm of being unbearable. This next weekend, the last free weekend I'll have until mid May looks pretty ugly the last time I checked. Soon spring will be here and we won't have to worry about freezing and we can all get some more time in. The jig bite on that lake is something I don't see a lot of people exploiting down there. Shallow, Murky, Tree Falls, and vegetation = pitching a jig to me. Of course there aren't many fishing trips where pitching a jig isn't involved at some point with me. I may try some suspending jerkbait action the next time I go there, I could use the practice.

Went to Springfield Lake today to try out my special lady friends new kayak she received for Christmas from yours truly. It's a nice little kayak that's a lot better than the O.T. Rush I started out with. I would like to thank Larry at Ozark Mountain Trading Company for the kayak and all the information, I'll definably be going back. The fishing today was slow only managed one fish but it was a pretty good one. There was a fellow I talked to who said there had been a nice crankbait bite lately but it wasn't happening today, I had no love on cranks or spinnerbaits. The one fish I caught came on a 1/4 finesse jig in Missouri Craw with a black neon chigger craw on the back. It was a nice LM about 21" or so and probably around 5lb's.

I love this jig, just a good looking jig. I would eat it if I was into invertebrates.

Bought a new pair of hip waders last week and wanted to try them out so I hit The James today to see what I could come up with. Fishing was slow which is to be expected in the middle of winter, but i did manage to catch four fish. The biggest of the day was a 14" smallie and the second biggest was a 12" LM and I also caught two spots that went around 10" or so. I missed what looked to be about a 15-17" LM because I can't set the hook properly, but I'm satisfied with a 80% landing rate. All fish were caught on a homemade 1/4 football head jig in green pumpkin with a flash of yellow in the skirt and a green pumpkin chigger craw as a trailer.

I would think that clipping the adipose fins off of the stocked trout would be a good way to clear up this debate. It may take a lot of time (years) and effort(=money) but I think would be the best way to find out the proportion of stream born trout in the river when electrofishing. Random genetic sampling would be no good due to the fact that the fish would be almost genetically identical and finding the mutation that causes the difference in spawning success would be like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

Hey Folks, I'm looking to buy a used kayak to give as a gift. Doesn't have to be anything special just looking for a decent recreational kayak. Thanks,

I'm going to try to go somewhere tomorrow even though we're getting a good storm now and a nasty cold front following it up. The girlfriend whats to go even though it's going to be in the mid-twenty's tomorrow. We'll see in the morning if she's still so enthusiastic about going. The three species of Ambloplites: rupestris, constellatus, and ariommus, is something that has caught my interest this semester. I find it pretty interesting that they were only fairly recently distinguished as separate species. Apparently before they were distinguished as separate species MDC was moving them all around mixing the three. I've been thinking about graduate research on them but who knows.

Well, I guess I'll see how good that Columbia is. Just ordered it. It has to be better than what I have now and even if it is junk I can still get a better one. But it does look pretty good and I've never had a Columbia product that was crap so I think this one may do the trick even if it is a little heavy. Thanks for the help guys.