Thom

I am still curious on how you came up with pepsi being anti gun? I googled and search the web extensively and can find nothing to support the acusation. I don't think i would like anyone saying I am anti anthing without proof. I may have missed it but lot of people depend on pepsi for their jobs. Let's not give them a bad rap.

jcoberly: You might want to check your sources. NRA doesn't list pepsi on their list of corporate sponser supporting anti gun laws. Mcdonalds which sell only coke is also on the NRA list. http://www.gunowners.org/fs0302.htm Click on their site. BTW The Royals, The Chiefs, The Rams, The Cardinals are all on their list so I guess I can't see anymore football or baseball games this year. Put me down for Pepsi. I also like coke but prefer Pepsi. I am also opposed to gun laws that restrict my constitutional right to bear arms.

Because of my bad knees I usually fish out of my boat. I respect the waders and will slow down when I see them in the water for what ever reason. There is so much good fishing on Taney I don't need to swamp anyone or fly by them as full throttle weather in a boat or wading. There will always be those who totally disregard others. That's life in a free society. If I let a fool spoil my day fishing I am the one who suffers and my grand kids who are often in the boat fishing with me sees a bad example. I have seldom been on Taney that I couldn't find somewhere the fish are biting and what was on their menu that day.

I just bought a Vizio for just under 800 dollars with a two year extended warrantee. I am completely satisified. I have not yet subscribed to digital but still get lots of other channels that I didn't get before. The picture quality is great. Very easy to use and lots of features. I'm not sure that I will even get the digital set box for now.

Bill: Every time I fish Taney I encounter what you described. I tried being polite by swinging way out on one occasion. It cost me a prop. It cannot be done in the stretch you described. I can't imagine why anyone would be right in the channel fishing. I have much better results hanging out of the channel the water is so slow that there is not a drift. I just throw into the drops or a little longer cast to the bank. I am not that good a fly caster but I have no trouble reaching the productive areas and not setting right in the channel. Needless to say I will not bend another prop for a thoughtless angler setting in the middle of the channel. I always slow down and say something cordial and excuse myself as I go by. Reasonable sportsmen will acknowledge that gesture other idiots cannot be satisfied anyway. By the way I sometimes think that the bite is often better when a wake of a boat goes by, especially fishing under a indicator near the edges of the channel. I think the boat turbulances stirrs the bottom and gives some movement to the fly at the same time. Kind of a boat shuffler effect. OH! OH! I don't to open that can of worms especially in the restricted area.

I know the drum make a strange sound by themselves but if you put a few fiddlers in the grease with them they can almost play bluegrass. Just make sure the grease is hot enough before you put them in the pan or they may taste a little crappie. I know those puns sound a little fishy but it's the best I can do this early in the AM on monday. BTW Mikey....Great picture.

Using my photo graphing and sizing calculater and running the figure through the formula for numerical scaling: The coordinates for the middle picture are 38 X 24 X 36.

David Mac: You have received some good advice from others but let me recommend purchasing the "Home Waters" Mid South fly fihers book. It is available at Feather Craft in St. Louis. It not only lists all of the accesses on the Little Red but has a great map in the fly on the back. The first time I fished the LR I used the map and found several walk in areas and other spots that were immediately productive. There is also a list of recomnmended flies at the end of the article. The book also covers Bull shoals tailwater (white River), Norfolk tailwater, Beaver, NOrtlh Fork of the white, Spring River, as well as fly recipes and pictures in the back. One of the frequent posters to this thread, John Berry, wrote the section on Norfolk tailwater and Dry run creek.

Dave: If you check the majority of both houses and the Chief executive branch is actually made up of DNR "Dose Nasty Republicans". I just couldn't resist.

I have been out of town for a while but it is good to see as I return to the forum that all of you guys are still wrong about most things as I usually am but SM in his infinite wisdom will straighen you out if you are just wise enough to listen to his authorative infinite knowledge. So shape up. OK I've got the red target on my computer back .... so shoot SM My turn.

If you haven't participated in one of the efforts to clean streams you don't realize the impact that senseless acts of "hooray for me and you know what for you people" are. Tons of debree including glass bottles is removed from streams each time we go out. I know that it does infringe on some of the responsible folks convience but as usual unless laws are not written and enforced we will all look back later and see what the consequences are. One of the weaknesses of a free society is that jerks use their freedoms to abuse the rights of others, thus laws to regulate their behavior are needed. I don't like it but what else can you do. The old days of vigilante behind the barn justice are gone In OFallon MO where I live one of the streams has been so filled with debree that the city will have to contract out a six figure cleanup to bring it back. I fished this stream when I first came here and help clean it up. The fishing is not worth the effort now due to the siltation of erosion from the dams made by junk in the stream flooding the banks. It is near a park and the erosion from the junk fill in the stream is taking one end of the park. There are even 50 gallon drums in the stream as well of hundred of bottles cans and plastic bottles and bags. I think we need to support the effort to clean our streams and hope that it will solve the problem that no one can deny exists.

I think the motto "leave nothing but your footprints" is excellent and what we must encourage in order to insure our children and grandchildren what our bueatiful country has left for us to enjoy. I do make one exception. "I try to leave some terrified fish that I have caught and released back into the stream" Fish fear me? I wish. The only fish that I usually inadvertantly kill are those who die laughing at my fishing methods and hand tied flies.

BTW: the pic on my avatar was landed and released about 2 minutes from coopers creek area.

This is a great site. Check out these sites and phone # Check this link out: http://www.taneycomoresort.com/ is the downtown branson camp sites but is far down from the best fishing in my opinion. Cooper Creek- 417-334-5250 Coopers creek has cabins and camping sites and is located next to the MDC Boat ramp. It is an excellent area in the bait area and just minutes by boat from the trophy area. Both Coopers creek and Lilly’s next door have slips for rent at very reasonable rates.

No problem. My gas guzzling 4WD Tahoe could still make it through the mud. It has an E85 fuel efficient ethanol system that will burn the high ethanol but what they only tell you in the very very small print is that your gas mileage goes down 5 to 7 mpg. At least the profits stay in the USA ...I think? I'm retired so I just go out to eat 2 or 3 less times a week and fill up my tank on the savings. The deer,quail, turkey and fish in my freezer only cost me roughly $75 dollars a pound. (thats including the overhead of $300 dollar fly rods, misc. firearms and a $20000 dollar boat.)

Ecce38: Great pictures My second love of nature next to trout fishing is bird viewing. We go to Post Aransas Texas for a couple of months each year in the winter to view birds and fish the flats. I usually take lots of pics but mothing near the one in your home page. I run into a guy there that shoots through a spotting scope with a pentax and really gets good pics. You are not allowed to get too close to the whoopers so the scope is necessary.

This is the only reference to scuba diving on the corps web site of regulations: Rule 327.5: (a) Swimming, wading, snorkeling or scuba diving at one's own risk is permitted, except at launching sites, designated mooring points and public docks, or other areas so designated by the District Commander. ( An international diver down, or inland diving flag must be displayed during underwater activities. Unless it is posted as prohibited as is the case on the tailwater side is not off limits. It is not posted on the lake side. This is what I was told by the corps personnel also. It is strictly up to the local corps commander. That is why at some dams you will get fined for approaching the dam on the lake side. It is posted as off limits. This is the complete document: http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/opto/article.asp?id=77

It was voted down in St. Charles county (adjacent to St. Louis) The #1 reason....We don't want the people from St. Louis coming out hear iand stealing from us. Yea I a their and I am going to steal a TV, put it under my arm and ride back to St. Louis. It's grid lock on the highway to and from St. Louis morning and evening. I often ride the nearest metro at UMCL to Ball games, Keil events and Hockey. It is a snap and I have never encountered a problem. I must drive the 18 miles to the UMSL campus to get to the nearest terminal. That's about six dollars for gas to the terminal and $2.50 round trip to any event down town. If I drove all the way to the stadium it would be $9.oo for gas and $10 to park. Fighting the crowd to the highway home. I think "we have met the enemy and it is us". Hey this is great I think we are all agreeing on something. Progress?

Try this report that comes out weekly and can be subscribed to on this site for email weekly. click on site http://mdc.mo.gov/fish/fishrt/ . The report for Salt river is listed near the one for Mark Twain and only reviews the tailwater but would reflect the river conditions father down. I am not sure where New London is.

Actually I just brought up the subject because I was wondering why there was so much concern on one side of the dam and on the other side anything goes. It snowballed from there. I don't think terrorists would be interested but a disgrundled guy like the one at Virginia Tech....Yes. And I will guarnatee you that the technologly is out there for a self serving genius everybody is picking on me type that is a little deranged to implement. A guy actually said he could dive down and put his hand on the wall of the dam. DUH!

Terry: I have looked at several wading sticks and after trying them I thought they were kind of hard to collapse and the better ones were around 80 dollars. I stumbled (no pun intended) on one at wallmart that comes in a couple of colors and it collapses like one of the gadgets used to put in light bulbs in a high ceiling. It was only $9.95 and works great. My grandkids are kind of dissapointed though they kind of liked it when granddad put on the clown act in the river. I baptised my new cell phone last summer in the name of the father, son and clumbsy stobborn fisherman. So far the walking stick is working good but I will need to come up with another act this summer for laughs and grins.

"First off, we must determine if the fish was female before we can blame Clinton... " Beesonism Terry, I can always count on you to make my day. I'm sitting here at my puter and laughing out loud on that one. Hope no one is watching...they might think I'm reading the St.Louis Post Dispatch editorial page.

Apparentlly none of you guys listen to Rush Limbaugh's the smartest man in the world. If you did you would already know that IT WAS BILL CLINTON'S FAULT! He was the Govenor of Arkansas and if he would have had some insight this could have been prevented. Now I think we have all of the bases covered.

Terry: After my total knee replacement I did try the aqua theraphy at Taney just 4 weeks later. I also in addition to the aquatheraphy I used a lot of stumpling recovery quick steps, rock kicking, and a short session of dog paddling back up to my feet sets. I quess if someone was watching from the stream the might have thought I was shuffling or had been sampling some of the missouri gold weed. Knee surgury may be a good excuse for putting of yard work but it is not an acceptable excuse for putting of any trip to the stream. A little humbling but well worth the effort.

Aw that must be the mainstream, drive by media reporting there. There could not be that much damage from a 50 acre lake. If I were on a web cam you could see my tounge firmly implanted in my cheek. The devestation from the break of just 50 acres escaping literally decimated up to 5 miles downstream. It still hasn't recovered.