Justin Spencer

Looked like a great trip Jeff, what a fish!

Not fishing? Probably can cover alot more water depending on your paddling habits then.

We already have many small non-organic probably not very well maintained dairies in the Ozarks, quite a few right here in the NFoW drainage, you don't really see them unless you are looking but there are more around than you think. If you study up on free range organic dairies you will see the cool thing about them is they are free range well managed pastures that the cows spend all of their time in except for milking times. There will be lots of waste still from the barns, but the article states that because of the location they are larger and concrete lined to lessen chance of raw waste leaching into the soil. Only time will tell how this goes, but I am a drinker of organic milk (don't want growth hormones and other drugs going in to me or my kids) and if I am going to consume a product it would be hypocritical to wish it was produced in someone else's back yard. Mountain Grove has an organic dairy sells in glass bottles with a deposit on each bottle, it's good stuff!

Maybe we could build some kind of climate controlled roof to roll over sections of the river when it's cold and then charge to come fish there when it's cold. Be good for the kids! Eli takes sledding for about 2 minutes, and Molly can't keep her boots on so we are not real good in the snow!

At least this company will be careful rotating their animals, they aren't allowed to use pesticides or chemical fertilizers that I'm sure would have been used by other owners. Anyone who has studied range management knows that if done right it will be a healthy ecosystem in itself that will in some ways act as a sponge, lowering runoff and filtering pollutants. I don't know it for a fact, but assume the land they purchased was already cleared, as most landowners with good forest log it before selling it and then turn it to pasture. I wish all the cattlemen in the area would use this type of organic system and would guess this company will be more carefully scrutinized than most daires because of their size and location. Interesting to me (but not surprising) they said they couldn't find 32 local people to fill their positions and expect to add more in the next year or two so if anyone needs a job give them a call!

We've got minute to win it games going on all over our house, quarters flying everywhere, ping pong balls, you name it it's a dangerous place to be. Now we're getting valentine's boxes ready for school in case they ever go back. Can't convince them to shovel the deck, but I'll keep trying.

60 minutes had a story on Jaguars a few weeks ago, they were in Belize I believe and had a researcher on that had struggled with stuttering and I believe was fighting leukemia. Does that ring a bell Tim.

Looks like we better groom our kids for some kind of job in the outdoors because they sure aren't getting any smarter this winter with all this cancelled school.

The snow in my front yard has receeded over 100 yards in less than 2 days, fastest in recorded history!

Congrats on the diet change oneshot, I think we all could take a lesson from what you have seen.

From my experience weather radios pretty spotty coverage as well, outfitters can usually look at forecast and water conditions and give you a good idea if the river is likely to come up or not.

Winter's the best. Maybe not the fastest fishing of the year, but usually consistent. Don't have to worry about river levels going up and down as much. You see absolutely no one else on the river. As long as the wind isn't blowing fly fishing keeps you pretty warm, as long as you don't fall in (right Ryan?) Fishing might be better in the Spring, but you really can't make plans now and guarantee the water won't be blown out. If you fish from a drift boat, Spring is really hard to beat!

You obviously don't live in the Ozarks because there isn't much corn grown around here for deer to eat. Even if deer have access to corn they don't eat it as their main diet for months while they "fatten up". Check the fat content in ground venison vs. ground beef and then tell me there are no health benefits. All we can do is use common sense and do what we think is neccesary to be healthy. We definitely need to eat more veggies (not potatoes, and limit certain kinds of meat, mainly stockyard beef) to be healthier. I think the supplements and cleanses are good also, but yet another shortcut to try to offset our bad habits. I'm not judging anyone for how they eat, I am far from a good example, but I won't make excuses for why I eat like I do. We all know (or should know) what is good or bad for us, and if we want to eat healthy it can be done in a way that fits our budgets.

If that's the 1-2 inches they were calling for then most of my fish have been 30-40 inchers lately. On the bright side, hopefully the river will start to rise!

Maybe he's eating some tasty largemouth bass you dirty vegans! Remember it can be good for some fish to be kept (especially in lakes), too many fish = smaller fish.

Good points OB, if others can do it, so can we, but many other countries aren't used to our "quality of life" and therefore are willing to pay more for power. We feel cheap energy is a right not a priveledge and complain about prices, including about gas, when it is still much cheaper than in Europe. Simple fact is that we are spoiled, and I'm afraid our complacency is starting to catch up with us. Lucky for me people always seem to need a cheap vacation and camping and floating is as cheap as it gets.

Is there a suitable place in the US for a Three Gorges Dam type project. I know it would never be allowed because it would displace too many people who live in the flood prone areas near major waterways, but the TGD (from what I have read) can produce the power equivalent to over 18 nuclear power plants.

Most vegetarians I have known are not self-righteous like the true vegans. I personally don't want to be a vegetarian but understand it much more than trying to aviod any food that comes from an animal be it milk, honey, etc. A mostly vegetarian diet can be a very healthy one, but the vegans I have known always look wormy and malnourished.

10 pounds of my beef which is only grassfed has a much lower footprint than the fertilizer/water/diesel for planting and harvesting the corn that is probably found as the staple of most vegans diet. Unfortunately even vegans probably rely on corn (corn syrup) in many of their dishes. I would guess lots of the vegans fake meats are made up of corn and or soy which relies heavily on inputs of carbon to finally make it to the shelf. Vegetarians may have a smaller footprint in general, but those that grow their own meat and raise much of their own vegetables have the least food footprint of all and eat much tastier meals!

Funnier than that, the bull came with the name, however when he was purchased by the previous owner his name was Robert (which also happened to be the new owners husbands name). Therefore they started calling him Richard, but she told me if he didn't answer to that to call him Robert. I've never seen him react to either name, he's a cow for goodness sake! Thank you, getting old have to think about which one this is.

At the risk of upsetting some of you I would like to share a quick story. Our first month at Sunburst (when this section was still open to bait fishing) we had a distant relative here fishing with corn. I went to the river to see how he was doing, and to my horror there were 4 or 5- 12" rainbows laying on the bottom of the river dead in front of him. I was torn as to the fate of these fish and decided I would take them and at least make a meal of them so they wouldn't go to waste (last time I've eaten a rainbow from the NFoW by the way). I pulled them from the river and laid them on the bank, and while doing so a man came UP the river dragging a canoe behind him (don't ask me). He evidently saw the short fish and when he arrived back at his truck he called the authorities (right thing to do). Unknown to me the CO arrived and watched from a distance as my great uncle (by marraige) fished. I had taken the trout to the house already and put them in the fridge and had gone back down to the river as it was almost dark. My relative, who was doing almost everything legally, had put one fish in his bucket because it was bleeding and figured it would die and I would want it. When I went down the fish was still very much alive so I told him to release it. I placed the fish in the water and revived it, and left with the fish facing upstream swimming in place. As we walked out the CO approached us and asked if we had any fish in the cooler, we said no, and he confirmed this with a quick search. He then asked what we were doing with a fish down at the river. I explained that the fish had been hooked deep and we thought it might die, but when we realized it would survive we let it go. The CO then said to take him to where the fish was released and if he found it dead we would be guilty of wanton waste. Luckily we got to where the fish was, and it was still swimming in place, and as we arrived it darted off. Don't think the CO was very happy, but he left us with a warning. Don't know what he would have said had he seen dead fish laying on the bottom of the river: is that also wanton waste or just part of bait fishing. Needless to say, I'm glad they extended the Blue ribbon area down to Patrick (although wish we could still gig here) as I haven't seen a dead fish on the bottom since. I guess using this story as an example, bait fishing can be pretty tough on the fish if you are not careful about it. I think if bait is legal they probably shouldn't have a minimum size limit so that gut hooked fish can be kept.

I forgot about the fishing advantages of nuclear plants. We lived in Port St. Lucie for a while and the Nuclear Plant on Hutchinson Island was a great winter fishing spot for tarpon, jacks, manatees, etc. But was closed to fishing once 9/11 hit us. Wolf Creek near Burlington, Ks has some outstanding walleye fishing and I think they even limit access to the lake which makes it even better. As fishermen we take advantage of nuclear and hydroelectric depending on the type of fishing we prefer, why not more dams on the muddier rivers of the midwest, no one seems to complain about the damming of the Neosho, or rivers like it.

I fish them just like Al, usually in a two fly rig. They are a must use in the low clear water of summer and autumn, my favorite is a red butt. I catch fish on the swing also but don't specifically swing them.

As torrential rain loomed in the forecast yesterday, I felt an overwhelming need to try my luck before the river became unfishable. Unfortunately a number of events tried to prevent me from my relatively simple goal. First of all I had scheduled the demise of our beloved steer "Inky" for yesterday morning so these proceedings took a few hours out of my morning, and while providing a lovely meal of fresh liver and onions it cut in to my precious fishing time. An unseen consequence of Inky's butchering was the violent reaction Richard had to the loss of his pasture mate. At first Richard just bellowed and made pitiful sounds, a reaction to the smell of blood on the ground, or a sadness he felt to the loss of his friend, that's for you to judge. I really don't know, but what I do know is this perceived sadness soon changed to rage, and Richard decided he no longer wanted to be fenced in. After breaking free once, Amy and I were able to coax him back into his pasture where he remained for most of the afternoon. Fast forward to 1:00. With Amy getting ready to head to the chiropractor and the kids in school I slipped on my waders, tied on a hot flash and began walking down the hill to slippery riffle. As I approached the river with trout on my mind I heard Amy yelling from the deck to come back to the house. I quickly returned to the house slightly out of breath, and was informed that the school had called and Molly needed to be picked up as she was sick. With Amy headed to town I loaded a booster seat in the van (yes the same van that transports the drunks and fishermen to the river) and headed to Dora to pick up my sick kid. After picking Molly up I returned home eagerly awaiting the return of my beloved wife hoping she would be here in time for me to continue my fishy conquest. Fast forward to 4:30. Amy returned from town and graciously allowed me to suit up and head to the river for an hour or two of fishing. I stepped into the water eagerly casting to a riffle that I was sure would be teeming with hungry trout. After about 10 minutes of futile casting I was able to coax a tiny rainbow to bite my fly, and while this may seem insignificant I was thrilled as I have slowly been improving my left handed fly fishing technique and now am starting to catch fish. (The tennis elbow I am suffering from has not been improving much so I decided to start fly fishing left handed which is much like starting over. Amy and I fished on Wednesday from Patrick bridge to James and casting and catching quite a few browns improved my confidence in my off handed presentation.) I continued fishing for 10 or 15 minutes to no avail and decided to change to a smaller beadhead stonefly nymph that friend and local guide Kyle Kosovich had given me earlier in the week. Another 10 minutes passed when my line was suddenly shaken by what I perceived to be a better fish. My assumption was correct as he swiftly ran downstream upon feeling the hook pull in his mouth. This run was stopped in it's tracks as the fly line rudely wrapped around the reel handle and held fast. Fearing my line would snap I frantically worked to unwrap the line and allow my opponent a chance to run and wear himself down. I accomplished this task and was then faced with fighting a good fish offhanded, with my reel still set up for my normal left handed retrieve. Prior to catching this fish I had simply been stripping in the smaller fish as there is really no need to get them on the reel unless they are big enough to take some drag. This fish was big enough and I struggled mightily to get him on the reel where I felt confident I could then fight him. After getting him on the reel he continued to run downstream in a series of quick short bursts which I countered by flipping my fly rod over and reeling with my right hand. I soon realized I wasn't gaining any ground, discovering I was actually panning line out to him by reeling this way. I changed the direction of my reeling and brought him toward me ever so slowly. Throughout this process my unseen quarry continued making run after run forcing me to rethink my tactics. I flipped my rod back over and held pressure on the fish using my good arm, anytime he would let up I would quickly switch to my bad wing, bracing the rod with my elbow and quickly reeling in as much line as possible. Once he began resisting I would again switch back to my left arm to continue the fight. This circus went on for several minutes until this hard fighting rainbow finally began to give up. As I brought the fish to hand I was delighted to see one of the most colorful rainbows I have ever caught, and while not the biggest at around 17" it was one of the hardest fighting trout I have ever caught. After snapping a quick picture I began casting again and after a few minutes heard Richard bellowing and carrying on again. Hoping the wily bull had not flown the coop again my fears were realized when I heard Amy yelling my name at the top of her lungs. As I emerged from the river I was amused to see Amy on the mule chasing around our herd sire in hopes he would return to pasture. As she was doing this she informed me that there was someone here to talk to me, and to my chagrin it was a longbearded Ozarkian deer hunter looking for his deer stand that he believed I had stolen. I did in fact have this deer stand but it was given to me by my neighbor who had found it on his property. Needing another stand, I had promptly put this one up along a deer trail I felt looked promising. While this man was chasing me wondering about his stand, I was chasing Richard who by now was chasing the dogs who were also being chased by Amy, it looked like my fishing might be over. I sent this man to the neighbors house, as he still believed he had permission to hunt there, and I assured him when he returned I would take him to get his stand. While he was gone Amy and I attempted to coax Richard back into his pasture, which I doubt would have held this Edwin Moses of the bovine world anyway. Richard continued to get more upset, and this normally gentle Dexter bull quickly took on the persona of legendary bucking bull Red Rock. As we discussed our next course of action, ZZ Top in camo returned for his deer stand and confessed that while he was given permission to hunt the neighbors land years ago, he had not been back in contact and assumed this was a lifetime deal, which it was not. After delivering some firewood to some nice ladies in the riverhouse I took this man to get his stand and sent him on his merry way. As I headed back to deal with Red Rock I was stopped by fellow fly fisherman Steve Farr who generously handed me a much needed adult beverage. After consuming this tasty brown ale I concluded that Richard would probably be okay enjoying a night of freedom either staying close to the barn, or heading up to be near his ladies on top of the hill. This morning Amy found Richard up by the mailbox and was able to reunite him with his beloved herd of Dexter cows. I thought this time of year was supposed to be relaxing.

If you had the choice would you have a coal fired plant, nuclear plant, or solar plant built within 10 miles of your home.