Thom

I just purchased a St. Croix rod and really like it. 4 wgt 8' premier on closeout. HOWEVER, I read the 5 year warrantee small print. It basically says....Unless you saw someone step on your rod on the assemblly line don't bother making a claim. It only covers defects in manufacturing and requires a prettly stiff proof to make good on that. Maybe it is only to discourage claims and they will follow through. I have sent my Orvis back twice with absolutely no questions asked. The last time they didn't even charge shipping. Both times the tip was broken and was my fault without question. Not to smart laying a 250 dollar rod on the dock. That is unfortunate that an american company like St. Croix has such questionable customer service. I really like the rod but would not probly (new work I learned on OAF) invest lots of cash in another St.Croix.

I fished circle hooks in Port Aransas Jan and Feb last year for whiting, sand trout and sheephead. As advertised you miss very few and they are always hooked in the side of the mouth. I had several folks on the peir and jetty ask me why they were losing their bait. They asked how I was attaching my shrimp. Same way as them only I was using a blood red circle hook. When they (except for the locals who had turned me on to the circle hooks) did catch fish the fish were bleeding all over the peir while they were pulling out the hook from the fish. I really never thought of using them for trout though since I don't usually bait fish except when I have some of my younger grandchildren with me. The forum strikes another blow for angling pleasure. Great!

I carry a couple of wiss thread clips in my travel fly tying box that I am field testing from my upholstry shop. They take up little room and let you get in tight places. Good for most every application and stay sharp.

I'll bet your right. They got jobs working at the timeshares. The reason I know for sure is that the salesman for Surrey told me that the reason they raised the timeshare maintenance fees from 520 dollars a year to 738 and added another special assessment is that all of their employees were going to work at the landing and they were paying them 14 dollars an hour. Soooooo in order to keep their help they had to pay their housekeepers and grounds keepers 14 dollars an hour. I asked one of the groundskeepers how he was enjoying his raise. He replied "no comprehend english" or something like that. I did find two ladies who were cleaning rooms and asked them the same question. One of them began to laugh and said "yea right" and the other took off and said....I'm going to ask them when this raise starts because I haven't had one in three years. Those wolves have found a retirement job with full benefits at the timeshare trap. Good business: Sell someone a week for once a year for 15000 dollars and then raise their maintenance fees until they resell it to a timeshare resales company for 1000 dollars less fees. Then the timeshars resales company sells it back to the timeshare people for 3000 dollars and then they resell it to another sucker for 15000 dollars again with maintenance fees of 700 dollars a year.

Timber Wolves?

Hey. Not to change the subject but did anyone hear anything about two timber wolves escaping from predator world? Any opinions if they will survive or or be shot or sumpen?

Seems as though I didn't have the camera when I caught fish except for these three caught on Friday at the parking lot walk down below outlet #1. Talk about insanity! I stood in 50 degree water during 20 degree weather to prove that I could catch these creatures and then release them back into the stream. I did escape the 4 inches of snow until saturday when I had to use my snowblower to get it from my driveway to get to the garage. My best flys during the week were #16 1/180 oz brown minijig tied with peacock perl on the front and ginger maribou. real good monday. Anything white...any size...fished any way. multicolored egg pattern orange/peach/red fished just at the edge of the current outlet #1 at whatever depth that ticked the bottom as it drifted. Soft hackle stripped on top when they were hitting on the surface which was very often. DSC01336 DSC01335 DSC01333 Hey mikey: if you view this post notice that the egg fly in the mouth of one of the fish is not perfectly round. I apologized to the fish before I released it. It ignored me and just swam off. BTW...It worked better than the perfect one that I lost on the rocks out the outlet.

SIO I thought you were from near me. I live in OFallon. We need to get together some time. When I usually go to Taney I bring my boat and fish alone except when I can get the Boys off work. Be happy to have company in the boat.

Seth: They did the same thing Saturday. They might be cleaning out chutes one by one. I think they were also feeding on other debree (pellets etc) coming out with the dead rainbows.

SIO I fished outlet #1 last week 12 to 16 th. Yes if the pattern remains the sam this week it is fishable. Outlet #2 wasn't too crowded during the week either. It was really crowded friday and Saturday but it should be better during the week. There is usually always room on the down stream side of #1. If they run what they have been the last few days you can usually find a place to fish as long as you get there before two oclock. It seems as though some of the guys were getting there after work and before dark. It hasn't been too crowded early morning either this week. There has been about 2or3 feet of gravel exposed from the steps all the way around to the tree line. I fished most days without waders so I could wear a heavier coat. The corps automated message says they were running 4 units when I was there but they opened it full out later in the day and there was more water than earlier. BTW. I had good luck this week fishing on the dam side of the outlet throwing into the current and letting it drift to where the rocks are exposed during low flow. I got good action on multicolored egg pattern. peach/red/orange and also on a # 16 brown minijig. also white a good color this week.

Whodat: Nice talking to you at Taney yesterday. Right after you left I landed a real nice brown and then two rainbows in about 30 minutes. I was fishing white maribou with a touch of pink at that same spot. The farther out I throwed the better the bite. I was doing better when I skipped off the bottom but it cost me a couple of jigs.

Sorry I missed you guys. I was down at the dam about 7:00 and talked to a couple of guys from Kansas. They were having limited success on white jigs. I couldn't believe that the water had rose another foot since the afternoon. It was rolling all day friday but the fishing got hot a couple of times at outlet #1. I think they were flushing some small rainbows and debree from one of the pools above.

I was fishing the bank down from outlet #1 yesterday. Lots of folks out. I had some luck jiging a 1/32 white maribou. Caught a nice 16" Brown and two 15" rainbows. Interesting though. I called about 2 AM and the the recorded message said 0 unit running. Didn't last long though. It was rolling bly morning. The weather was a little better yesterday but the water never let up. I went back to try a while after dark and the water was up another 18 inches. I will post some pictures tomorrow of fish caught this week. I just got home. I know what you are talking about with the wind. It rocked my Tahoe all the way to Rolla and the snow and road conditions were terrible. I did pick up a OAF hat on the way home. Nice Hat!

Lets shoot for Friday night. I will call you and Lenoard when I get down there to set up a meeting place etc. This will be my first night fishing experience so I am looking forward to the new experience. When my two sons were still at home we were staying next to Lilly's at lazy valley and they went out about 11 oclock on our boat just in the water near the dock jigging black maribous. About 2 oclock I awoke to a 5# rainbow swinging in front of my face and then an hour later they came in with another 4 # er. They were bouncing off the bottom with dark colored jigs and jigging up to the boat. The next morning the guy that owned the dock asked us to catch fish for his brochure. We did and really had a nice stringer of fish. We were on the brouchre for a couple of years. Very few of our fish go to the stringer now. Most all are captured on film and quickly returned. I sometimes look at some of those old pictures of fish caught at Taney in the 70's and wonder if restrictions were on the water then that are now what a fishery it would be. My two boys & I are almost only C&R guys now except for a few stockers once and awile the frying pan.

Mikey: One of the tricks to getting good shaped round balls that aren't fuzzy (whoops I hope everyone knows that the subject is glo balls) Is: 1. Having good sharp sizzors when you cut. 2. Make the cut quickly and as straight across (perpendictular) to the yarn as possible. Sometimes the temptation is to cut slowly and carefully. Wrong! A quick snap of SHARP SIZZORS will produce a better round ball. I don't know if you have tried Mcfly yarn. It is more forgiving and tends to cover up any fuzziness. BTW I have had good results with glo balls that I have tied when I first started tying that are not exactly perfectly round and a little fuzzy. I think as long as the size is right the astetics are mostly for the fishermen than the fish. I say this because I seem to have good success with glo balls that I have fished and have gotten really beat up. Not having another the same color I left them on and sometimes the bite is even better. Go figure? If you continue to have problems with getting a round shape they do sell a sizzor that has a round blade for trimming. If you get the technique down you won't need them though.

Thanks Duckydoty and Leonard. I will be in touch when we arrive. Unfortunately I will be staying at one condo Monday and Tuesday and another the rest of the week. So later in the week will be better for me.

I will be coming down all next and will be at Fairfield from Wednesday to Saturday. Any suggestions for what to fish and where. I usually bring my boat but with the weather predicted I am only going to fish with waders and a bad knee. If you are interested in going in together for coffee, to rent a boat or with a guide PM me before Monday morning. I don't have access to the web while at Branson.

As I have comnmented before. This forum is like a cafeteria. Take what you like and leave the rest for others. Most of us don't like the strong offensive comments that very rarely get on the forum but that's life. The personal degrading comments that a very rare also are annoying but it takes all kinds. As long as my scroll button still works I just consider the source and don't let them rent space in my head. Terry and others add lots of interest and flavor to the forum as well as very useful information. Their banter and joshing of each other reflects friendship and personality and I hope that it continues. BTW Terry you must have finger cramps after the long post in this thread but it was so interesting that I read it all. Mrs Ducky you add another interestion dimension to the forum. Keep up your posts. Thanks to Phil and his tolerance the forum is not censored strickly. It gives all an opportunity to express opinions if we stay within reasonabe boundaries. I tend to learn as much from those with whom I disagree as I do from those whom I agree with. If I disagree I often check my sources to see if I am right or wrong. If I agree I don't so we might both be wrong.

When we say wading with lots of water on were talking knee deep. It makes landing and releasing fish easier. There are places that you can stand just in the water without getting in lots of current.

I will be arriving at Branson on the 12th (Monday)and leaving on Saturday. Any idea what the generation pattern will be next week? I don't plan to bring my boat because of the cold weather ane generation patterns that have been happening latelly. I usually fly fish but will bring spinning gear also. Any suggestions on what's working at the dam and what and where to fish? Any ideas will be appreciated. Is it possible to wade fish at the campground downtown or down stream from the boat ramp by the bridge and do well?

I agree. One skin will last forevr. I bought 2 or 3 masks olive, natural and rust several years back at feathercraft to use for dubbing and tails on hares ears and haven't even make a dent in them. I do ocassionally keep a belly or shank piece for the white color or greyish fur but I just let them dry out and put them in a plastic bag. They keep well and last forever. Just cut off the fur and put it in a blender with what ever you want to add and then package it. If you are going to keep it for a while it is a good idea to mix in a pinch of powdered insecticide or a small piece of a moth ball to keep it from getting infested. I just let one hang on a nail near my tying bench one time and when I went to use it it crumbled into pieces from some kind of insect infestation.

So interested in the content of the forum I didn't even notice. Phil: I know how to change the skin on the forum but if you find a simple button I can click on to change the skin on this 67 year old relic fumbling on a keyboard let me know. MY SKIN is getting quite worn with age. Tried the default button but still ugly in the mirror. Kind of like when I got on the fortune scale to weight recently. The card that came out instead of a fortune read: ONE AT A TIME PLEASE!

One of the tools we use to protect our water quality is a TMDL study. That stands for the Total Maximum Daily Load calculation of the maximum amount of a given pollutant a waterbody can absorb before its quality is affected. That sounds like a mouthful, but think of it like this; when you don’t feel well, you often take your temperature. If it’s above 98.6 you generally take steps to bring your fever down to normal. A TMDL works the same way. It tells us something is wrong with a body of water and indicates a course of treatment to fix the problem. There are a wide range of things that can effect the rating. There are different standards for different streams depending on the use of the stream. Cold water fisheries, warm water fisheries, recreational waters, water supplies all have things that are measured. Things that affect the trout fisheries are dissolved oxygen, sediment from runoff, pollutants etc. That's why it is important to quickly report any unusual stream discrepancies to MDR when observed.

Two years ago I counted nearly 400 at clarksville dam with my spotting scope on the Miss river. Last year when we went there we found over 70. The eagles congregate at the dams when the river clogs with ice. We will visit this year again since the ice should be filling the river soon. Even though the eagles are coming back they are still protected however much of the funding for such issues have been cut off and volunteers can only do so much.

Nibblers are the crappie bites or nibblers sold at most bait and fishing places. They come in a jar and in different colors and look like 1/4 in marshmellows. Red or white worked good for me. Fishing with minnows and jigs on Lake of ozarks last summer they were the difference in catching a crappie once in a while and catching them consistently. I also found that the red hooks really enticed the bite. You can buy jigs for placing the plastics on now with red hooks also. Hey polock: I'm dissapointed. I was looking forward to seeing you at the darn with your power bait, corn and dynomite. did rainbow scare you off?