LarrySTL

Videos ? darn, I can just barely take a still pic. Speaking of which, I have this really nasty looking black spot on the nail of the big toe on my right foot. As the nail grows out, the black spot moves toward the tip of the toenail, but really slowly. Right now its about halfway there. If I can get a pic of it maybe I will post it as proof. That could be both proof that I have a black thing on/under my toenail, or at least proof that I can take an identifiable picture. I think Jerry R mighta nailed it by noting that most of the rants seem to come at a certain time of non-daylight. I wonder if there could be two levels of posting privileges, unrestricted for those with a moderately clean track record, and a level of restricted privileges. I'll suggest one catagory of restriction as "no posting for three hours after the bars close". We could use good ole majority rules for placing people on restriction.

Smalliebigs, the plain Cheetos, or the jalapeno ones ?

I've been lost in the woods but haven't had a heart attack and none of my parents, grandparents or siblings ever had a heart attack. Maybe thats lucky cardiovascular genes and mediocre sense of direction genes. Its easy for me to leave a compass in the glove compartment of my car, just like I leave a notebook, a tire gauge and a small flashlight there. I have only needed to change a tire in the dark on the shoulder of an interstate highway once, but I was real glad I had the flashlite. My space blanket, folded up, is about the size of a deck of cards. It lives in the milk crate with the rest of my "I might want this while wading" stuff and when I go, I pick up the crate, and put it in the car. Elapsed time about 15 seconds. Add perhaps 15 more to put it in my pocket or fanny pack if it might get cold. My anti snake bite plan is "dont with snakes." My anti blood clot plan is an annual physical, an 81 mg asprin daily cause the doctor says so, and four days a week in the gym mostly on aerobics. My cholesterol has been between 159 and 175 for about ten years. I have zero control over what some other driver does that might kill me. I put dying because of the other driver in my "thats a chance inherent in sucking air" column. I have some control over whether I die from a car accident thats my fault and I try not to drive like an idiot, particularly at highway speeds. I wear the seat belt. I quit smoking long ago but I do take a bic lighter with me if it might be cold. I've had skin cancer, so a tube of good sunscreen is in the milk crate too. So's a half of a roll of TP, but I might look for a pack of biodegradable baby wipes. I've been gnawed on by chiggers in the past so a can of strong bug repellant is in the crate. None of this is stuff I "worry about". I doubt that many other folks here worry about it either. The memory of the chigger bites is all the empirical evidence I need to keep the bug spray with me. I find that skipping certain threads and certain posts here is statistically relevant in preventing certain parts of actual reality from plaguing me. Your mileage may vary.

I got lost twice my first year prowling around methland. Once I tried to take a shortcut on the inside bend of a stream, walked too far into the trees, etc etc. The other time was driving and the map had country road numbers, but outside the car it was street names, so I am looking for Co Rd 172 and seeing Smithfarm Rd. The cell wouldnt get a signal there, of course. I got back eventually and promptly bought two compasses, one boyscout size one thats in the glove compartment, and the other the size of a nickle thats on a small nylon strap with a carabiner. I wouldnt want to navigate with the small one, but having N S E W to solve "which way is the darn road from here" was good. I clip the small one to my fannypak or if I am not even taking that, I clip it to the paracord on my swiss knife. I do think about "what if I get soaking wet". I probably ought to think more about "what if I break a leg", let alone if I get soaked AND break a leg. I also maybe should remember that even in July, if I fall in, get soaked, break a leg and the temp drops into the 50s that night, I probably should not think of the space blanket as a seasonal thing. Thanks for the suggestions on supplies.

Just an FYI regarding water temps, Saturday afternoon I dunked a water thermometer in the lower Meramec, call it in the general area of Fenton in some shallow slack water. 41 degrees late in the afternoon on a very warm day, so you can bet it was in the 30s earlier in the day, let alone earlier in the week.

Hypothermia can be a very sneaky thing. Many years ago I was fishing Table Rock in the early spring with a friend in my boat. It was a 40-ish degree day and I was wearing a non-waterproof snow suit. After an hour or two a cold light drizzle started and I thought about putting my raingear on under the snow suit but didnt. An hour or two later I was pretty wet and disoriented but didnt realize it. We were just a few miles from the boat dock in an area I knew very well when my friend noticed I was staring at a lake map "trying to find" a particular main lake point that was about 200 yards from us. He asked me a few simple questions, was unimpressed with my answers ( since I didnt know anything about where I was or what we were doing ), and insisted on him driving my boat back to the dock immediately which I quite reluctantly agreed to. At the boat dock we went into the office and I stood in front of a desk-size heater of some type, taking off several layers of damp clothes. It was about 20 minutes til I started to shivver and about an hour until I felt somewhat normal. If I had been in the same situation and been alone, or if my friend hadnt been so insistent that we go in, it could have gotten really ugly. Now I am one of the guys with the space blanket tucked in a pocket if its not the middle of summer.

The Texas tackle ones will cost you about $ 15,but they are totally worth it.

Nope but you were close. Its the sidewalk just on the west side of Blueberry Hill in U City.

I am guessing that Snap means this http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/illinois/anniversary-gift-turns-into-fatal-hike-for-father-two-sons/article_3083ef0f-ed8c-562a-ac13-32875df04085.html

Ok, about ten posts ago I promised this fish porn to everyone. By popular demand and for absolute proof that I caught some smallmouth one day in Nov, here is one of them. For those who wonder, yes, I am worse, actually far worse, at photography than at fishing. Hopefully not too many of you will recognize the great secret place from this pic.

Ok, to make everyone's holiday season, I will tell you that I personally took the methland truck pic in my avatar. Even more wunnerful, when I get home I will post my most recent SM pic taken last month showing the world a great closeup of the back of my left hand, my left thumb, and the gaping mouth of a monster 12 or 13 inch smallmouth.

Here's another Yes vote for ZZ Top !

...sidewalk vendors selling cooked bugs....

I know a woman who is a native of Thailand and lived there til she was about 20. She tells me, and I am afraid she's not yanking me around, that some type of large bug ( cockroaches or beetles of some type, I forget which) are so popular as food there that the big cities have sidewalk vendors cooked bugs. Says they are about the size of your little finger. Yum.

I was a Marshall in the Bass Eilte at KY Lake in june 2010. I was out there three days and it was a great learning experience. I had Dustin Wilks, B J Haseotes, and Yuzeki Mayazaki ( thats close, but probably not correct). None of them talked much in the boat, and I didnt either but I enjoyed it and learned a lot of remarkably different things from each of them. For me it was totally worth the money and the trip.

Hopefully the zombies will bring a dictionary with them. A month or two ago, I had been wade fishing and covered a lot of water that was about bellybutton deep. To return to my car, I got out of the stream and walked back along the edge of a field. There was a farmhouse I'd guess was 600 or 800 yards away with some people outside. I may have been trespassing; I really couldnt tell. I am glad to report that none of them decided to repel me by shooting me dead.

I'd go with small to medium size jig and pig with real pork rind. Black or black/blue if the water is pretty murky, otherwise experiment a bit with color. Small plastics like finesse worms or french fries, could work. Jerkbait if there is some deep water with a steep shoreline and with water clear enough you can see the bait at least two or three feet deep. Maybe small/medium size cranks on a warm or windy day; wiggle wart, etc. Work everything slow to medium.

I am not nearly as knowledgable as several guys here, but this is my $0.02 on streams in colder water, based on my entire career experience which was this past Saturday. I went wading in the upper end of one of the smaller rivers, not Al's Big River, but about the amount of water you'd normally find around Bootleg on the Big. I had caught a good number of fish there once in May and a stupid number of fish ( by my standards anyhow) in 2 or 3 hours on a second May trip. Some of those on the smallest Spook and a 1/4 oz Torpedo, and some on various plastics on a 1/8 jighead. All of them were in the water at the very upper, or very lower, ends of the fast narrow water with gobs of water willow in it. Same places this past Saturday got me zip, zero. Water depth was 8 inches or so shallower than in May, flow was about the same. Water temp was 56 or 57 on my $ 10 thermometer. So I started fishing other stuff, including the deeper slower water, the largemouth looking stuff. Below one big wide gravel bar that choked the water down to maybe 15 feet wide, there was a big long slow water pool with a very few big trees down in the water. So I thought about Al discussing wintering holes and about Smalliebigs saying plastics on wood, in their recent posts and started throwing small plastics ( 5 inch finesse worm, light brown with some flecks in it on that 1/8 jighead and immediately got bit. Tiny bluegill pecks, not quite as fast and not quite as many as the typical bluegill-machine-gun pecks. To catch the fish I eventually started delaying the hookset slightly as striking fast was just jerking water. 13 inch smallmouth. There were about 5 big trees in that pool. One fish on the upper end of each of the first three trees. A fish on the upper end and one more in the middle, of the second tree. Nothing on the downstream tree. One fish was on the smallest size Brush Hog. No strikes on a medium size Brush Hog. One midgit ( six inches ?) angry smallmouth and a lot of nothing else on my beloved 1/4 oz Spook. Total of six fish including the midgit. 2 SM, 4 LM. Five of em cookie cutter 12 or 13 size ". All fish hooked in the mouth despite the somewhat delayed set. My new-guy conclusion is that I dont know if they migrate; I didnt cover enough water to have an informed opinion. I know the MDC talk at SMA this spring convinced me that in bigger rivers, they sure migrate. I do know the bass had bailed from tthe type of water they were using in late May and were in big wood in the deepest slowest section in perhaps a mile and a half of river. I'll call it a mini-migration. Your mileage may vary.

Last winter I was asking the same thing and got a wide variety of answers, some of which were for gear that I am sure is great, such as high end Simms, but which cost way beyond what I was looking to pay. One common point was get stockingfoot breathable waders which I did. I ended up looking at BPS and Cabelas house brands and since I live in StL, trying them on. Sizing was all over the place. I ended up buying a BPS house brand pair of waders that was stickered at $ 159 and on sale for $ 99. I bought BPS house brand boots, lug soles, $ 59 list, on sale for $ 29. I have used the waders a few times early this year and was perfectly content with them. I dont expect them to be as good, nor to last as long, as a $ 400 name brand pair. They keep me dry and the breathability is quite good. The boots are a funny fit. I am normally a 12 or 12.5. I bought 12 because anything smaller was too short for me. Size 12 in BPS's "normal" width is very very wide and BPS doesnt make anything narrower. I have worn them a fair amount both this past spring and wet wading this summer. I need to wear bulky sox with them, and needed a pair of gaiters to keep all the gravel out. The lug soles are fine and by my newbie standards, they grip well. Far far better than sandals or gym shoes. When these things wear out, if I am still wading I will buy better boots and might buy better waders. I'd say I am happy with the waders and content for the $ 29 price with the boots. I totally agree with the need to try waders and boots on in person. This is not "do what I did", but hopefully different perspectives will be helpful to you. Larry

Thats still five more fish than I caught at this desk today !

Scott, I am much more interested in whether thats a bullfrog pattern tiny torpedo in the LM pic than I am in your shorts !! Nice fish tho LOL

ARGHH.... I can't ! Whaaaa...

I called a MDC office about a month ago, I think it was St Charles, and they didnt have it yet and didnt have a timeline. Hopefully, the previous post is accurate and it will be out fairly soon. I have a friend who is an author of some niche books and he has switched from small production hard copy physical printing, which requires him to have a couple hundred printed at a time, to some kind of digital deal ( he doesnt physically do the production) where he can have pretty much any number from one on up. He says he makes almost exactly the same amount of money per book under both the old, and the new, methods. I was wondering if MDC would do that too, since it would let them keep it available at virtually no cost to them and they could still make a couple bucks when one of us buys a copy.

F & F congrats on your good news, keep it up !

And sadly, my guess is that with the tax rollback staring Congress in the face right after the elections, no matter how the elections come out, good decisions on things like this will become number 14447 on Congress's collective "things to do" list.