drew03cmc

Agreed both sides lack common sense on another note, what exactly do you have against the MSA? I'm a member and I'm having trouble understanding exactly what your beef is. Mitch, the MSA is singularly focused on a small portion of the Ozarks and on ridding the Ozarks of spotted bass, which, per the USGS, belong in the entire Ozarks region.

TC, keep the rod out of your mouth. You never know where it has been. Here is mine. First largemouth on a baitcaster

Why should brown trout be protected more than rainbows? They are both hatchery maintained in Missouri. Let them get caught, ate and restocked. That is the life cycle of a brown trout in Missouri.

Only if you believe that there is one. I don't and as such, believe that if we want them gone, man has to do something about it. Nope, just someone else claiming there is an infallible almighty being where there is no proof of it. These creatures evolve in a certain place on the planet and man, or nature forces them to adapt to a new area. OB, we don't normally agree on much, but you hit the nail on the head here. Wrong. Stocked trout come from other stocked trout in most hatcheries. Prove to me that Missouri's stocker trout come from wild fish. You can't. At one point in time, the brood fish were actually taken from a stream where they were native, crossbred with another species and then put into the Missouri fish system. There is nothing remotely wild about trout in Missouri with the exception of the streams where the fish sustain themselves. Water buffalo were and are a wild animal. Do your research before making such claims. There are Asiatic Buffalo or Wild Water Buffalo, which are wild and native to southeast Asia, and only about 3400 animals exist. Now, at some point in time, some of the wild buffalo were domesticated for livestock use, but some were able to stay wild. Stocked trout DO wander off and become feral. We don't call them feral, we call them holdover fish.

Water temperature today at noon was 59 degrees. That is what Bennett flows at all year long, and you can wet wade in it from April through September. Wet wade, 'nuff said.

Would you be interested in a case of Boulevard Wheat and Rob Zombie's Hellbilly Deluxe with a couple scratches on it? Good luck E. That pole should be a nice deal for someone stripping on Taney.

That hog could mess you up if you let him get close.

A fast six would probably be a minimum for the big articulated bugs.

Well...who knows.

I hear ya, and I don't mind getting my chops busted at all. I like reading about this information, but perhaps we should adhere to conservation data referring to the four states containing Ozark Mountains in this section. Maybe the world conservation news should go in General Discussion?

What does this have to do with us? Really? Is anyone here shooting cows? I don't think so. Belize is a ways away and there is a reason people were hunting water buffalo.

Down around Cape, you will drive past several good streams going to a periodically mediocre stream. Namely, you could hit the Black, Big, Meramec, Huzzah and St. Francis off the top of my head. All of those are better (read: more consistent) fishing streams than the Bourbeuse.

I assume you have read John Gierach's Fly Fishing Small Streams. In that book, he says multiple times that if he is getting refusals, the first thing he does is correct presentation, and never carries anything smaller than 5x. He fishes streams that are more clear than Crane being that there is little to no mud in the systems whatsoever. I would venture a guess that when I fished Crane in March it was relatively normal on flow, but yet I caught fish on 4# copolymer line.

Springfield isn't quite SWMO as far as smallmouth fishing. In my opinion, Springfield to Lebanon on 44 is smallmouth central. SWMO would include the Spring watershed, the White River tributaries and the Elk watershed. I haven't read the book, but I would assume that the James and Finley are in it.

Same fish, no, same hole, yes. Chief did well on the fly rod. I was impressed.

Ness, you honestly think that 4# is too heavy? Funny you should mention that, as I have caught fish on Crane on 4# Vicious Lo Vis Green. I guess that is just me though. Before you downsize anything, try a better presentation. I caught trout on the fly down there on 4x tippet. Funny, that is what the diameter of that 4# line I use is.

That is either a white or hybrid. How many tooth patches were on the tongue?

They are most likely whites or hybrids. Either way, they are a lot of fun and you can get a nice meal from them if you catch enough (within legal limits of course).

I can handle my complexity like a champ, but there are some that favor other types of beer, notably Natty Light, Natty Ice and Bud Ice...(vomits in mouth a bit).

You don't read much, eh? We had a discussion about this a couple weeks ago. I definitely drink PBR on purpose. It is more complex than something like Bud Light, not to mention cheaper.

I saw this years ago. That was caught in 2008 on Rainy Lake, not Turtle Lake. Thanks for posting it though. http://www.everydayweekender.com/56-inch-55-pound-mammoth-pike-caught-on-rainy-lake-in-ontario/

True dat.

Chief, I like that picture story you showed us of Corndawg using a worm for the first time successfully. Very nice.

I have had my best luck on fresh chicken liver. Turkey livers are tougher, and as such, easier to keep on the hook. I don't catfish a lot, so my opinion is based solely upon a small sample size.

Chief, you are correct, but you have to look at it another way. People have created carburetors that enabled cars to run 100 mpg and guess what happened to them. The government bought the rights to it and buried it. They (politicians) are getting rich off of fossil fuels, and see no need to stop that. We (the poor SOBs that cry when we fill up) have no dog in the fight other than our money. If we quit spending money on fossil fuels, the prices will come down, but that won't happen either. Fossil fuels are here to stay, regardless of what we want or need.