Justin Spencer

For the most part Eagles are just a glorified buzzard. They are the first on scene to any of my gut piles following a butchering. Last week someone either shot or hit a deer around Blair Bridge and for several days we had Eagles all over the skies that were continually feeding on the carcass. For the most part I think they are pretty lazy and would rather scavenge than have to catch a meal on their own. Glad for this fact as they could really cause problems to sheep and goat farmers if they wanted to.

I have a problem with Bald Eagles taking fish out of "my river", and my favorite duck pond has been plagued by bald eagles, which seem to keep the ducks from landing. Have yet to lose a lamb to one, but even if I do I don't think I'd want it destroyed. I've never shot a bird of prey and don't condone it, but I know there are tons that are shot as their population continues to increase.

Where the heck is Lilley when you need him Red X, Red X Gonna have to get pretty deep into the old pocket book for that one, now Amy on the other hand (not sure what this is)

I've seen the boat, it is in great condition just like it looks in the picture.

Well put Tim and Al. Here along the river we have tons of beavers, otters, muskrats, coons, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, etc. I enjoy trapping and have trapped quite a few of these. As for seeing them out and about it is a rare occurance for any of these animals which have large established populations. For a rare animal such as a puma or bear that is reclusive living in these wooded hills and treacherous ravines if they don't want to be seen they won't be. They know the places humans frequent and avoid these areas. Bear sightings still get people excited and we know they are raising cubs right here in Ozark county yet still seldom seen. I think MDC is just trying to keep their phone from ringing from concerned citizens who would probably freak out if they thought mountain lions were raising young in their neighborhood. Much like sharks, I think many people see mountain lions as nothing but a killing machine that will stalk and kill you if you give them a chance. As someone who worked for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks I was constantly amazed at the idiotic phone calls we recieved and can only imagine the time that would be wasted on the phone if people thought that we had lions roaming all over the state. I wish the MDC would admit there is a possibility of a breeding population, but understand that until they have concrete proof of this it keeps them from dealing with just another headache from a generally uninformed public.

After listening to the debate it is obvious the llama probably pre-buried itself then ate part of itself and died of blood loss, as it seems like no other animals would do exactly what happened to this poor llama.

Don't tell anyone but one day I caught my wife walking around the campground with a shotgun. When I asked her what she was doing she said a hawk had just taken a swipe at one of her chickens, I guess she was hoping it would try again. As humans we always tend to think the predators are overpopulated while the game is not plentiful enough, nature has a way of balancing things out and that usually happens through disease. The hayday of quail hunting came during the DDT years when hawks were scarce and habitat was much better with smaller agriculture practices. Unfortunately we like to hunt the same things as the predators and often blame them for our lack of game. They are just one more predator much like ourselves. It is my understanding that most CO's don't really go around worrying about hawk shooters, just don't go around wearing their talons around your neck. I know of an area in North Central Arkansas where they enjoy running coyotes and trapping and shooting all varmits (including hawks) and they seem to think it has helped the quail population quite a bit. Most of this (other than the hawk shooting) is done legally, and while I still think habitat plays a bigger role predator reduction has seemed to help. This once again puts more value on a game animal over others, but if done legally that is their choice.

I hope the Griefs will play it as well!

When I was in college on family day seems like I ran across a few of those cougars. Those were the days!

I know the picture is bad, could be a bull with something behind it that looks like a tail. What would have killed a llama, eaten half and then buried it?

Creepy did earn a hat, however it wasn't a deer hat. Those will be hard to come by as that color work seems to take a while to do. Of course like everything else at Sunburst, for the right price it can be had.

The article I read said the farmer was missing one calf all together, had one maimed calf, and a cow with claw marks on the rear. If my living came from raising cattle you better believe that would be one dead kitty. As someone who raises a few cattle for my own use I think I would have called MDC in hopes they would trap and relocate the animal, but I think we all know what the odds of that happening would be. I don't know of any restitution that is paid to farmers who lose animals due to predation, that is just part of the game. We have coyotes hanging on fence posts all over the place and they seldom harm livestock but I doubt many feel bad that they are needlessly shot. If this were an endangered species given full protection it would be a different story, but they are not at risk of extinction and while I hope there will always be a few around it seems like MDC would just as soon have them shot to avoid the dreaded breeding population.

Not quite sure

No there has been no follow up, people around here don't care if people believe them or not, they don't want any part of the govt. out prodding around and usually won't go to the trouble of finding other evidence themselves, and if they eat their livestock they'll most likely kill them and face the consequences if their are any. In this area we all believe there are a few lions around but most haven't had any problems with them (other than the llama guy) so why worry about it. As rare as bears are they are much more common than cats and rarely seen, so the odds of seeing, filming, or running over a cat are slim to none when fewer than 30 probably live in the entire state.

Here's a pic of me fighting that brown at cave riffle, for those who don't know where it is look at the water and maybe you'll recognize it next time you float through. Pretty good shot of the hat as well.

She made one but everyone kept telling her they were just house cats or labs in a tree, since the setting was in Missouri where there are no breeding lions. This made her mad and she threw away the pattern.

I agree, however since the lady saw it herself and said it was a lion I believe her. You know how cell phone cameras are, most not real good, she just happened to get as shot as it walked through her pasture. As for the black I would say that is just shadow on a poorly lit subject in the distance. I personally think most black panthers are either house cats or black labs. I have personally mistaken deer sneaking in on me with their head to the ground for mountain lions until I see them spook and see the white tail, so I am usually very skeptical about these sightings.

A group of neighbors of ours about 2 miles away have been reporting the occasional mountain lion sighting for over a year now, one said he had a picture of one on a trail cam (I never personally saw it). And recently a llama in this area was killed, half eaten and then found partially buried. A friend got this picture two days ago using her cell phone from her deck. I'm sure there are other explanations as to what it might be, but knowing her personally (she says it was a lion) and seeing what sure looks to be a mountain lion in this picture I tend to believe that is what it is. My thought is would a young male (which most are thought to be in Missouri)hang around the same place for a couple years without getting any booger? Makes me think it is either a female, a male who has set up territory here (making me think females are nearby), or an escaped pet (in which case I think it would be sighted very frequently). To my knowledge they haven't reported it to MDC (most govt. agencies not thought of highly in rural ozarks) so don't expect it to be in the news anytime soon. Obviously not big population of pumas in the Ozarks but I think there are more of these secretive cats around than MDC wants to admit. Language from them saying they were relieved the one shot was not a female, as that might indicate a reproducing population shows they don't want to prove there is a resident population in the state for whatever reason.

I'd like to try and link the fish kill and the bird kill together somehow to support a conspiracy theory. It is odd that it is only drum that were affected and looks like the kill occurred in a short time frame, as did the bird kill obviously. Why could it be just the drum and no other fish. I say it's due to the large earbones of the drum which enhance hearing and allow for orienting in dark or turbid water. The long lateral line, which extends from the gill to the tip of the tail, also increases the fish's ability to locate and attack prey where vision is limited. Could this make them susceptible to some sort of sonic boom that might not kill other fish with a less sophisticated sensory system, my answer is yes. Usually hypoxia will kill the larger fish first and smaller fish many times will survive so I don't think this is a good explanation. It has to either be Aliens, Wonder woman's crazy plane, crazy atmospheric booms that humans can't hear (but blackbirds and drum can), or maybe a fight between Clinton and Huckabee that caused some sort of reaction among certain species of animals. Either way it is quite strange, quite interesting, and may be the beginning of the end. I suggest viewing the movie 2012 and start building a spacecraft that will get you to the moon. Fella's it's been good to know ya.

Let's go with rent.

I think you are partially right, they were 16" a couple weeks ago, but ate all those stocker browns they put in at an average of 6 1/2 " and grew real fast. Lots of fat otters and big browns around now! Pretty sweet cap huh, hope we don't get it X'ed out on the forum.

Took a few of our customers out today (won't call it a guide trip because I fish and don't tie their stuff on or feed them or any good stuff). Fished from Kelly to Sunburst and didn't catch tons of fish but it was steady. Caught most small bows on eggs, a few on bead head prince type flies, and one on a streamer. I caught a 22 1/2 " Brown at cave riffle on a bead head something I tied, and Jerry caught a 21 1/2 inch brown on a streamer right in front of our riverhouse just before dark. Biggest rainbow was maybe 14" with quite a few smaller guys. Nice day, no one on river, but man is it low. Great for wading, but had to get out of drift boat just to get through some riffles. We need rain!

Time to start trout fishing. Bass fish in summer/trout fish in winter, trout have been biting well, not sure about spin fishing for them in winter, maybe someone has tips. I would say ultra light with indicator and small maribou jig.

Had a great time yesterday, fun for me to see some different water. The Eleven Point is a great river and fishery and I'm always amazed at how the Ozark rivers all have their own character and can be so different. I was pleasantly surprised how well we did following Brian's boat, and from what I heard the 3rd boat which was Gates may have caught as many as either of the first 2 boats. Tons of eagles, had a deer swim within 20 feet of the driftboat, and stayed warm with a little help from the Hot darn, what a wonderful day.

Your fish taco comment makes me a fan right off the bat!