eric1978

Out of a Gasconade trib... And the ultimate Bubba, a white that Wrench caught out of LOZ...

THAT was a helluva fun day. Mild temps, wild trout, cinnamon whiskey, cattle stampede, and Jesus Ray with a loaded revolver. Good times.

Sounds like my Grampa's tackle box....30 years ago.

My boy can photog. I love the dog in the pickup shot. That's straight outa Life magazine circa 1950...minus the late model truck. Are those loose cans in the bottom of your canoe?

Yikes! But no harm done...equipment can be replaced. Good storytelling. Felt like I was on the raft with you. I didn't get the pucker factor I'll bet you had, though. Be careful up there, Al. Glad to hear you had on your LJ.

I thought that was standard operating procedure...gather as much speed as possible and slide ashore. Is there another way?

Yeah, the otter idea hasn't worked out so great I guess. But they are native, and wanting them eliminated so we can catch more fish is pretty selfish. It was a bonehead move to reintroduce them since there are no natural predators to control them. But the otter thing kinda reminds me of this Daily Show segment from this week... http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-august-2-2011/fowl-wind

I hear ya...I hate killing bass, too, even if they don't belong. But it is ethically the right thing to do. Not necessarily tossing them on the banks, but removing them from the stream in general. And I'd hardly call you a softy if you're capable of pumping a cute little otter full of lead.

Problem is they spawn and make lots more little ones. If we could just neuter them real quick before releasing that'd be koo with me. Too bad we can't.

You eat the ones that are 90% worms, too?

I guess it was a bad joke. I was talking about the budget cuts they passed today in D.C., which has nothing to do with the Bennett Cam (directly, yet).

Didn't you hear about the bill they passed today? Lights out.

Yessir, that's correct. There are some old threads here where guys who know more about it go into more detail about the hybrids. Do a little searching and you'll find 'em.

A large number? What's he talkin' 'bout, Willis? As far as I know, LM and spots can't hybridize AT ALL. Spots can and do hybridize with SM. Maybe that's what he meant. I second the biologist's query...I'd like to see what LM/spot hybrids y'all are talkin' about. That'd be a first for me. Interesting info otherwise.

If it was anyone else, I'd say they were giving you a hard time. But Dano is such a nice guy, I'd be willing to bet he sincerely liked your hat. Jusso ya kno.

Good luck. They're a hot commodity. I saw one at Alpine Shop up here a couple months ago, went back a week later, gone. They're sweet boats and if I wasn't a canoe man I'da been all over it. Gotta say at $1,000 they're overpriced. I think all yaks are. You're still gonna spin at the tailouts with wicked cross-currents in a Coosa, though. You just gotta paddle yourself straight out of those deals, but sometimes it's almost impossible to correct no matter how expertly you prepare and paddle through them or how hard you dig in.

Very nice fish. Just FYI, you'll only find Neoshos down in SWMO around, uh, Neosho. Those are just good ol' river smallies.

That happens in any boat. You have to overcome that with a paddle, not a different shaped craft.

Lake O is filthy, disgusting, polluted, infectious water. To imply anything otherwise is nothing short of delusional. But I still have a ball swimming and playing around in it. And I'll keep on doing it, with effort to keep my lips stuck together as best I can, and in the meantime try to figure out what to do with the extra toes and thumbs I've mysteriously been growing. Until I quit smoking, I'm not gonna worry about polluting myself in other ways, since the cigs will surely kill me first. So while I'm floating around in Lake O on a couple noodles, bring me a beer and a Big Mac and give me a big whiff o' that Sea Ray exhaust. Mmmm, tasty. There's nothing can be done about the nastiness. Just like everything else...until big money interests are removed from politics, progress can't be made. Which I guess means we're stuck with polluted water for the foreseeable future.

This topic has been covered SO many times. Dig back through the old threads...there's enough there to keep you reading for a full day. My advice is to save up a little more money and get better stuff than BPS brand. A Shimano Citica and a low-end St. Croix would be my line in the sand. You'll thank yourself later.

Rent a canoe instead and you can take all the rods you want...and be more comfortable. There isn't one rod out there that can do it all, but if I could only take one on a smallmouth float, it would be a 6' medium, fast action.

Wouldn't that be thesauri? Bummer about your home fishing quarters getting screwed up like that...there's nothing better than walking out your door and down to the river to fish a great spot. But like the others, I'm having trouble feeling sorry for you. The thought of simply being anywhere but here is enough to make any man invidious (you like that one, Cricket?). Be careful up there.

Then you don't need to worry about it...they're native down there and there's no need to remove them.

Some clever mods there. But you're gonna need to replace that zip tie...it's gonna break on you. Maybe not the first time out, but let it bake in the sun for a day or two and it'll become brittle real quick. I'd get a smaller carabiner to fasten it. Nice work! Should be a good little kayak for day trips.

The markings, the rough patch on the tongue, the shorter jaw, and also the spots will have smaller scales on its face. Fortunately, there's no mistaking a spot with a smallmouth, or even a spot with a meanmouth...they're just too different to screw up. I would also suggest harvesting any meanmouth you catch, IF you can positively identify the fish as a hybrid AND it's of legal length. (I'm talking Meramec system only here...don't get all worked up SWMO guys. )