Justin Spencer

Looks like I will be looking for work if this passes. The Missouri Canoe and Floaters association will have a contingency in Jeff City on Monday, please comment if you can, not that they have left much time for comments to be read. The wording in this bill is very strange but seems to take away the publics rights on any streams that have privately owned land along them.

Park fishermen!

Interesting how the banks are all open, yet the few that are there still get shoulder to shoulder.

I seem to every year, it is usually this post that reminds me.

Shucks I was hoping Misssouri would do away with licenses.

Nice to see we can both complain about the lack of conservation agents and not enough enforcement and at the same time complain about the rules and regulations that the conservation agents aren't there to enforce. That is what keeps me coming back to this forum, much like what I see congress doing.

Never have worried about that and never will. Very rare to be pulled over by a conservation agent just driving down a road. Don't go fish a lake afterward with all those fish or you could be in big trouble.

I agree it can be a bit confusing, but from a biology standpoint we should be thankful they don't paint every river and lake with a broad brush or the fishing wouldn't be as good as it is. Just like it not being legal to fill other people's deer tags you shouldn't be able to fill everyone else's creel either, so I understand the stringer thing, but am glad you got off with a warning. For those whos primary objective is to catch fish the regulations are pretty easy to figure, those that just tote a rod along on a float trip are the ones that are usually really confused by all of the trout areas and bait limitations, especially when they come from states where they don't even fish on rivers (many don't even know trout are in our river).

WIHA has really brightened things in Ks. The period between all the leasers showing up and no WIHA was a little bleak, now we just need some good weather for nesting. I do have my lifetime hunting license in Ks. and come back occasionally to chase those wily, noble and delicious pheasant. Underrated for waterfowl also with a few great public areas, and don't forget the strip pits, hell if your governor weren't a complete idiot I might move back.

Don't surrender, we all get frustrated when we think things are being managed improperly, but complaining about a government agency just to complain without backing it up is becoming all to common these days. I understand not wanting to have to get tags and licenses for everything you do, but it is much cheaper and less confusing than in many states. Look at all the deer zones in Kansas for example. The trout tag that you get is so you can keep the trout you catch, outside the trout parks if you want to release them you aren't required to buy the tag, if you want to keep trout think of it as buying the fish from the state who produced them for you to catch and release, $7 will get you a pound or two at the store so that is a pretty cheap for as many trout as you can legally take home for an entire year. The fact is there are more people in the world now and many still want to enjoy the outdoors, this leads to industries being created to accommodate these people (capitalism), sure it seems harder and harder to find "secret places" but that is because there are too many people in the world. Without MDC helping create great outdoor opportunities for the public, hunting would be reserved for the rich or for those farmers who already have land to hunt on. Much of this land would be leased to those willing to pay to have a good place to hunt like it is in Kansas where they have very little state owned land. I have worked for KDWP and can tell you that they have very little to work with and while they do the best they can, the outdoor opportunities in Kansas pale in comparison to those in Missouri, and we have MDC and the forsight of the public passing the 1/8 cent sales tax to thank for it.

Corp of engineers has nothing to do with MDC first off so take that up with them. Tourism is a huge industry in Missouri and MDC plays a large role in it. Trout parks and stocked trout promote the tourism industry which helps resorts for sure, but this reaches further than you can imagine Clay. Tourism creates all kinds of jobs for people that would be on government assistance otherwise. In addition local restaurants and gas stations benefit, as well as all those along the route from the cities to these destinations. Bait and tackle dealers benefit, ice companies benefit and so on and so forth. The forests and fields provide a place for hunters who aren't fortunate enough to purchase land of their own, and these lands are managed in a way that success is there for the taking. Hunters coming to these areas provide a boost to the local economy of these areas as well. It is fine to get caught up in what is perceived as wasteful government spending, but in many cases government spending creates or supports many private businesses that otherwise would not exist. It is easy to say the government needs to tighten its' belt (and in many instances it does), but we must realize that when we cut government spending many times we also hurt businesses that are far removed from what we think of as being government related.

I assume the 5 million figure is in their fiscal report as income from logging. I encourage you to call and get some information from the state as to what and why this was done if it concerns you. I know there are many management practices in place including selective harvest and glade restoration that would result in some income from logging while at the same time improving wildlife habitat. I don't see 5 million in timber coming from this but surely some of it. I hope you will get all the facts, or if you have them please share, before going on the attack. I have personally not seen logging practices on any of the state owned land in my part of the Ozarks and if I do you better believe I will be the first one asking why! I look forward to hearing what explanation they have Rondo.

The reason I work for myself now is because I have worked for state agencies and it takes a long time before you make much money. In Florida I had a state truck that I took home and it saved time and money for myself as much of my job was spent in the field and some of my territory was north and some was south of my house (which was a considerable distance from the office). I looked at it as part of my meager salary and without it things would have been more difficult for me. Unlike other government agencies I don't see MDC always begging for money and wanting new taxes for certain things, they seem to work within their budget and for me the bottom line is I like what they are doing in general. They try to take the public into consideration much more than the feds do and while there will always be ways to improve I stand behind them 100% and hope their funding is not changed putting "their money" into a place where other agencies can piss it away on lord knows what. Licenses are dirt cheap in Missouri and probably keep a few poachers off the lakes and rivers.

Should be good for you, water levels will be the key, you will want it a little above normal. I took some guys up there a few years ago and it was well above normal (and rising) and they never complained about places to camp. Low water is the biggest worry as it can be pretty small up there with low water. As far a the restaurant goes they have pretty good food and cold beer so I would give it a thumbs up for sure.

I really don't know about if they can get of a successful spawn or not, but I know there are a few above the dam already and am sure when they decide to run they will be able to get through without much problem with a little rise on the river. Should bring whites and hybrids up too so should make for some fun fishing. Only time will tell how it will effect the trout, but we've had them up before and the ones I caught were just full of crawdads. If our river was full of stupid stocker rainbows I would be worried, but the rainbows here know how to survive so I expect while some may get eaten it won't have a major impact on the bows, now the stocked browns on the other hand may have to toughen up a little. We caught this one above James Bridge a few years ago, full of BIG crawdads, once we caught one the rest disappeared.

Fishhead spin sounds so fancy, when they were talking about it I had no idea it was basically a big road runner. I guess I have been on the cutting edge since I was 10 years old casting them with my Zebco 33. I still love a road runner, even saw a guy with a 28" brown trout caught on a road runner on the NFoW.

Like me!

Ran across this the other day, seems like good advice. http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-fishing-tips-technique/first-fly-rods/

It has been years since I fly fished for bluegill due to my summertime schedule. I always loved poppers, usually just the cheap wally world ones that came in the circular package, and fell apart rather easily. For me, the joy of the bluegill is the topwater strike, I do enough nymphing for trout so anytime I can catch fish on top I will. I guess I probably fished them during the spawn when they were shallow, probably a lot more to catching them other times of the year. Anyone use a dropper off of a popper?

If what Chief said just saves one life then it will be worth it.

Way to go, gotta love those two handers, what a rainbow!

Does that mean you caught a big fish that needed a net?

If we drew fishermen from all over the country we would bitch about crowded rivers and blame them for hurting our fisheries, these smaller systems are very fragile and one bad gigger, one poacher, and even one legal angler can really put the hurt on the population of legal sized smallmouth in a particular stretch.

I have recently become addicted to Phil's ONE CAST on his company facebook page, so I have stolen his idea and instead made it the Sunburst Catch of the Day since a one cast with a fly rod would take about 10 seconds and probably never result in a catch. The catch of the day will be the first fish caught, and I will try to include a little information as to where and what fly the fish was caught on. If I get any other interesting video I will put it up on days that I am too lazy to go actually catch a fish. Let me know what royalties I need to pay you Phil. To view yesterday's catch of the day go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sunburst-Ranch/496246950412392 , (somehow the camera had a mind of it's own and only recorded what it wanted to, but it should get better) if you are not on facebook there are some pretty cool things out there so get on. Hope you enjoy it!

Here is one interesting study, but takes quite a bit of 'ciferin' (http://www3.carleton.ca/fecpl/pdfs/C%20and%20R%20LMB%20SMB%20MS.pdf). I would like to think my fish mortality is lower also, and I know those of us who treat fish right kill much fewer than others, but I'm sure we still kill some. The bass tournament info I found points to 5-10% mortality and in some cases higher. I know from my studies in graduate school trying to raise crappie commercially, that delayed mortality from handling is a big problem with that particular species. In order to keep them from developing fungal infections we had to knock them out for handling and treat them with a slime coat enhancer/antibacterial treatment or they would develop infections and die several weeks later. I think this is what has led me to always try to keep fish wet and only handle them with wet hands. These fish would show no signs of stress until they started developing infections several days later.