Thom

Zander: I couldn't remember the name that my Nephew had told me but yes it is the blue tongue virus that is the disease that they are encountering in Illinois.

Good news Terry. Our Bible Study class is praying for you. glad to hear that your new vocation is working out also. God is good. I recall the He said "...all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose..."

Thanks Whodat. I'll give it a try. Since I broke one of my spinning rod the last trip down I needed a good excuse to replace it and now I have it. Of course I may need to replace the reel also because most of the sage fishermen that I know emphasize the importance of balanced tackle.

I don't know about what diseases the elk might be bringing in but I have heard from deer hunting friends in Illinois that 20 to 30% of the deer coming into processing plants this year are being conviscated and destroyed due to a disease that discolors the tongue and taints the meat. Unfortunately the hunters have lost not only their deer but their tags are not good for another harvest to replace the one lost. I hope this doesn't move over the rivers to Missouri. When I lived in Valmeyer in Illinois I ofter saw deer swim across the mighty missippi when our dogs spooked them when rabbit hunting in the Miss bottoms. I was told that larger problem was more in the eastern and central forests of Illinois.

Whodat: How much water was running when you were fishing the rapala and what kind of rapala were you using? I will be down a week from today for 5 days and don't plan bringing my boat unless the weather is good. I am kind of limited on wading due to a bum knee. I do real well on diving and stumbling sometimes though. Can you give me any idea on how you were fishing the rapala. I usually fish a fly rod but am usually up for anything that is working for a change.

Dano: It is always refreshing to see the words gentlemen and sportsmen together. It makes our experience on such a great forum much more rewarding when we can exchange information, vent our frustrations. and still retain our class. Thanks to you and Phil for your patience to allow us to express our opinoins but still keep it above board.

I have a badly damaged prop in my garage now from trying to be to accomadating to a fellow who had waded to the edge of the channel in the restricted area and then was fishing into the 2 to 3 foot water. I tried to go behind him and got into the gravel. I dedided then that in the future I would just say to the wader sorry but it is too shallow to go around behind you. I have had a couple of guys give me dirty looks but you know the guy fishing in the channel from the edge didn't offer to repair my prop either. I know that this is a little different situation but a little common sense and courtesy goes a long way. My goodness it is a large stretch of water to fight over a small spot and so easy to be courteous and respectful all in the name of good sportsmanship. It is also a good idea to PM someone if you have a problem with them. I have done this many times in the past and found that they were very happy to reply back and resolve the disagreement in a civil manner. Actually met a couple of the guys later and had a very cordial and enjoyable conversation.

I had a guide on the San Jaun do exactly the same to me. He placed his two clients about 6 foot and upstream from me and almost where I was ending my drift. I guess I was in his honey hole. I was doing well there so I just moved toward his clients and closed the gap to 3 foot. He walked over to me and asked me to move down and I said no. I had driven about 150 miles from my condo in Colorado and wasn't about to move. I still was catching fish but I don't think his cleints could have caught fish if they had the hole all to themselves. Since I was catching way more fish than both of them one of his clients closest to me asked me what I was using. I obliged him and even gave him and elk hair caddis and a hares ear ,two of my most productive flys, to make a dropper. He tied one on and immediaely caught a fish on his first cast. It made my day. After all it wasn't his fault that he had got bad advice. He turned out to be a real nice guy. I eventually moved on to another good spot. There is so much good water and tons of fish there It seemed strange to me that the guide had to have that exact spot.

In regard to Rolan last comment, " I like the lighter colored line" I have always wondered how the color of the fly line affects the presentation or the stealth of the line floating on the water. I seems to my novice mind that the bright orange and other colored lines would spook the fish more than the lighter lines or the green or brownish lines. Maybe not but I always select a line that is not as visible on the water. Maybe the fish see the line differently that the angler. Any thoughts or comments?

Rusty: You make a good point. I have found that many of these so called charities give very little to the intended receipent. That is why I give most of my charitable gifts through my Church or the food pantry, resale shop and thanksgiving baskets, angel christmas tree etc that we sponser. 20% of our budget goes to these kinds of organizations. All of these give 100% of the gifts to receiptants and all of us are volunteers. I do have some local charities that I also give to such as Salvation army etc so I just trust that God will see that it gets to the needy. I don't think He really needs my help other than giving.

UMMMM LETS SEE? Mizzou by 7. MU 34.... OU 27. If Mizzou can play as flawless as last week it may even be more of a spread.

Phil: Thanks for the information. Most of those patterns are what I done well with a couple of weeks ago. Especially the Brown and olive jigs on 1/100 silver head tied with red thread dressing on the eye. I also had very good success on a hares ear tied with a short hares mask tail and natural rabbit dubbing on a 2487 scud hook with a tusgsten 3/32 brass colored bead head. I expect to be down the week of the 9th for 5 days to give your predictions a test. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough for me to pull my boat down. If not I will brave the tailwater.

Great game on both sides. Lots of class and maturity shown by both teams and coaches. Really the winner was decided by the team making the least mistakes. Now on to San Antonio......Go Mizzou!

Ecce38: Great story. Go for it if it works. What it tell me about both of you is are mature adults. Divorce is a difficult experience but with understanding both can make it through it and still be friends. I have done some counseling with marriages that ended in divorce. Those who carried the battle on and on only punished themselves. Those who let it go and moved on often becoming friends survived with little lasting damage.

I am not sure about the Olivia but I purchased a vizio about a year ago and I am really pleased with the quality of the picture and the features. Even thought all are made in the same place there are lots of difference in the quality of the sets. I purchased my vizio after looking at the customer comments online and found that anything 37 in down had rave reviews of customer satisfaction. Wallmart offers a 32 in vizio at the regular price that is very competitive and has good contrast and pictle numbers. It also has good connective features HDMI inputs which will be important after 2009 in order to get connected without hanging 9 cords to the back of your set. It also has compostite video in case you want to go to external speakers and some have pc inputs for hooking up a computer or vcr with a hard drive.

Zach was hunting near Kirksville on his grandfather's farm.

TG: The great thing about fishing is it is like a cafeteria. You select what you like and go for it. Personally I get as much thrill putting time into trying to outsmart the fish with the flies that I tie. I just came from my fly bench tyeing some flys for my Pastor who is going to Taney over the holidays. They are the flies that worked for me last week and I hope they are still good for him. I really enjoy fly fishing with a fly rod even though I am just a novice compared to some. I enjoy it but I also enjoy fishing for bluegill and crappie. Sometimes I wonder if it is all worth the effort and then I meet up with fellow anglers like I did last week and fellowship, swap stories, exchange flys and methods. My question is answered quickly.....YES IT IS WORTH IT. Lots of fun, great people, great outdoors on and on. Actually you get to be a kid again and can just enjoy the recreation that you enjoy. BTW, I have been fishing for over 60 years and still get a great thrill out of it. My uncle started me out when I was about 8 years old and I have been in love with it every since.

We had a great time last week fishing out of Lilley's. The folks there really made us feel welcome. I can't say enough about the folks on the dock and in fly shop. They gave us first rate serice even though it was a slow week. I fished mostly downstream from fall creek picking up fish on most of what I tried. Hopefully I can post the pics of the most productive flies used and some of the fish I caught and released. I did well on my favorite hares ear and had some success with zebra midges (black thread silver wire and copper tung head with copper wire wrap). My best go to was a brown maribou jig tied on a gold or silver 1/100 #10 hook and second to that was a green jig tied the same way. The fish seemed smaller than usual although they were steady all day. I did well just off the gravel in 6 to 10 foot by short creek all the way up to the end of the condos there catching my largest fish about 1/3 of the way out from the drainage tile at the end of those docks. I also did well just below fall creek marina on both sides and in the middle picking up 20 plus fish each time I went out. Again the brown jig produced every time I went to it. It seems that the red thread finish on the jig head helped the bite. I don't know if all of the pics posted coreectly but you can get the idea. Largest fish 16" most 12 to 14.

This is a picture of my grandson's latest deer harvest. He bagged it during youth hunt and it was over 200 #. Leonard, this is the same grandson that you took night fishing along with us this summer. He also got a turkey this season. In the words of a famous american "what a country" Yakov.

Hey Terry great idea. I tried it and it worked out great. Well actually I didn't roller blade on the treadmill but I did watch the video several times and forwarded it to my email friends. That actually took several strokes on the computer. This week while I am eating a piece of the pumpkin chiffon pie I might do the thread mill roller blade watching thing again.

Yes Terry, we were pleased. You know you are at a good eatery when the waitress places the other orders on the table and you wish that you had ordered what they had instead of what you got. Sorry I didn't linger to look at the interior much so I can't comment on the aquairum. I had an important appointment waterside at Lilley's marina with some of Taney's residents, namely Bow and Brown. Lot's of interesting hangings and decor throughout the restuarant though. We are coming back again in December for 5 more days so I will check it out then.

I was one of the first customers to be served at the new resturant on the Landing riverfront. It is built from some of the structure of the old Demitres Greek resturant but was mostly taken apart and rebuilt with a rustic interior simular to the interior of Bass Pro shoppe. A new addition was added but is mostly kitchen. We were greeted with a huge staff and assigned to a table right on the waterfront. Our watress, Angel, and her fishing buddy (co host) were very helpful and attentive. The menu ranged from Salads from 6.99 to entrees reasonably priced in the midrange. For example a generous serving of large breaded shrimp with side dishes 13.xx dollars. My wife, her caretaker and I ordered from the lunch menu items. Questidillas, Large greek salad, and my 1/2 pound hamburger with a large serving of fries and slaw came to a total of 27 dollars. It was all we could eat. Actually my wife took home half of her salad and I helped finish the questidillas. I ordered my burger medium but it was well done but still tasty. I would recommend it for an interesting eating experience and friendly Branson syyle athmosphere.

DC: I was one of those guys and it was tough that morning. I caught a few using a hares ear but went back in the afternoon before and switched to 1/100 oz green jig tied with red thread on the front. Fishing both sides from fall creek down and just out from the condos picked up about 20 small fish. I was just fishing it near the bottom about 6 foot under a small float. Bearly teasing the float so it would dimple the water two or three times then letting it sit for a few seconds and doing it again. I talked to another guy in the area and he was using a brown jig and doing much the same. He told me he had stuck around 30 and I saw him land and release several just down from me in the afternoon. Amazing what a difference it makes when you have the menu for what the fish are eating. Thursday and Friday it was much the same. I tied several small brown maribou jigs and could catch fish steadly throughout the day. The wind made it tough to stay in the fishing lanes but it was probally also helping me catch fish. Another big difference was that I switched from 6X to Orvis 7X and it improved the bite also when the water was still. The fish were mostly 12 and 13 inches with a few 14's. I just got home but I will post some pics later of some fish and on what flys were working.

Sorry for the misinformation. Actually I will be down to Taney from the 12th to the 16. Thanks for the info from the PMs etc. I have a little of everything ready and will be getting together with a couple of fishing buddies that week. Hopefully I will have a good report and some pics to post during or after the trip.

Quote "thom if you dont mind answering, what tracker location gave you the poor service" I will PM you with the info and the reason for my comments, but it wasn't Branson or Springfield.