straw hat

Actually a foam filled bass boat with 900 lbs of positive floatation will sink. Mine did. I had a long talk to the Coast Guard office and they explained it this way. The 900 pounds of positive flotation is a rating for the boat and its recommended motor. If you install more than 900 lbs in the boat (batteries, gear, people, trolling motor, etc the edge of the boat will drop below water line and the boat will sink. Of course the batteries. outboard, and many mechanical items are in the back of the boat and pull the rear down first. It will sink like a huge bobber going down. lol I talked to Ranger and they said if loaded to heavy they certainly will sink and it happens a lot of times when people use two outboards, 3 or 4 batteries as well. The Coast Guard directed me to a website database with their records of boat sinking. You would not believe how many bass boats sink on LOZ and other local lakes.

I had a bass boat of mine sink on me about 20 years ago. All my friends and workers said I was crazy because bass boats don't sink. I had a picture of it but many still wouldn't believe me. Either that boat partly sunk or it is the biggest bobber I have ever seen. lol

I just heard back from the Conservation Commission guy I talked to last weekend. He confirmed the new length limit on Spotted bass and said that all agents have been sent an email notifying them of the new limit. I hope they read their emails. lol

OK, just got off the phone with a MDC official. He said the new regulation on 12 inch spotted bass was passed to late to be in the new fishing regulation code book. They are trying to find out why the Secretary of States office has not been notified and made an official change to the regulations. This official said he would also contact the Enforcement division and see if they new what was going on and what their position is at this time. When he calls back I will let you all know what he says.

This is straight from the official Missouri State Regulations maintained by the Secretary of State's Office in Jefferson City. 3 CSR 10-6.505 Black Bass Section (4)(2)(b)(1) 1. All black bass less than fifteen inches (15") in total length must be returned to the water unharmed immediately after being caught from Blue Springs Lake, Long Branch Lake, Longview Lake, Mark Twain Lake, Smithville Lake, Stockton Lake, Table Rock Lake, or Thomas Hill Lake. During my call to the office they said they were not aware of any changes to the regulation nor are there any plans to change it. Don't you love how our government works?

I see that the USGS has updated their information for their collection sites in the USA. The following site shows a brief explanation of the new data format. Looks interesting but as of this point Stockton and the rest of the southern Missouri lakes do not have a new page yet. https://help.waterdata.usgs.gov/news/Feb-12-2019

April is the hot time in that area. Plenty of walleye and crappie (usually).

The only problem was that my wife caught the two biggest smallmouths. (sound of crying). lol

Well the wife and I ran down to a mile or so from CC today. The water is fairly dingy and 44F. We know a point on the end of a bluff we can walk to. On the point is 4 or 5 stumps and 5 or 6 big rocks. This is within a few feet of the main channel in 5 to 8 ft of water. We always hit this spot during warm weather periods in Feb and/or March and always manage to catch a few nice largemouth up on that shallow water warming themselves. Usually not huge but 2 to 3 lbs. Well today we caught 9 bass with 4 being keepers. There were 2 at 16" each, one at 18" and one at 20". The real surprise was they were all smallmouths. That was a blast for some bass fishing from the bank. It surprises me because we do not usually catch many smallmouth around CC and never caught any off that point before. A nice day on the lake.

Look for shallow areas near deep water. They often lay next to dark objects on sunny days to warm up. Good luck.

I don't understand. about 4 months ago I called both SOF and SOF and SOF said they do not rent guns for on site use and Cheorokee told me they only had 2 rifles and 2 shotguns an d they were older models just for people who had never experienced firing a gun. Anyway, thanks flysmallie/harps. I guess I will get back on the phone.

They do not rent handguns, only rifles and shotguns.

That would also work well if you had a match ready. lol

Yea I agree snagged but luckily she is not the type to panic and she is familiar with my rifles and shotguns and has shot them plenty but she still does not like guns. Its funny, I am not sure she could pull the trigger if she was seriously threatened but I think she could blow someones head off if they were actually attacking me. lol

I hope they are not having any hassles either. This is nothing new. In years past it was just a evil stare or an off color comment like "why don't you Japanese go back to where you came from and in her case that would be Eureka Springs, LOL These we just ignored but things have worsened in the last 3 years and getting law enforcement involved, well not much they can do without witnesses or identification (other than a lot of paperwork lol). We do have a camera installed in our vehicles now. I am going to have a long talk with my wife tonight about maybe getting a taser. Are there permits required for that as well? Anybody know.?

I totally agree with you terrierman and am considering backing of from the whole thing except for maybe me carrying one. The wife has a deep seated dislike and fear of guns but as a husband I really worry about her safety when she is alone. I don't even know if she would use it if she were alone. You never know about that type of thing until the situation arises.

My notices say that tho1mas just posted 8 minutes ago but my page does not show a post from him. Tho1mas, you may have to repost.

She carries pepper spray with her now. I just don't know if that would be enough or not. We both used to jog a lot and ran into some very aggressive dogs. We have sprayed a couple and they just pause, lick their lips and then keep coming on. That does not give one much confidence.

JD I fully agree. You can see some of my history in terrierman's reply I made above BUT like you said the gun world has changed a lot since then. One thing I was wondering. The conceal and carry classes I have been looking at require you to bring your gun with you. This would mean that we would have to pay $60/each for the safety class, test fire the guns, select the one we want, buy them, then retrain with the conceal and carry class. At this point I am leaning toward billethead's offer. Try his gun, if we like it then buy one and take it to the conceal and carry class and then the range. I think that may be the easiest route.

Terrierman My wife is an American but of oriental descent. Since the Trump campaign there has been a steady increase in the number of threats she has experienced. Some of the threats center around illegal aliens should be deported, which do not even apply in her case, and others that illegal aliens shot be shot on sight. When she goes out in public I ride along with her to run interference but I would like her to be more secure than that. Besides, I can't always be with her. In addition I have grown up with guns (shotguns and rifles) and was taught to be a very gun safety oriented person. I even taught gun safety when the regs came out in the late 70's but the world has changed considerable since then.

OK, Just got off the phone with SOF in Ozark. First of all they require us to take a handgun safety course ($60 each), $50 to rent the gun and the lane for 1 hour and then the cost of shells on top of that. Ouch. They estimated a total around $200. He said the safety courses are usually fairly full so that would leave me out anyway. Right now I have to go give mouth to mouth to my wallet as it fainted when it heard those prices.

I know that many of the websites recommend the shield for a ladies handgun. Thanks for the advice.

OK, Second question. Why can't you speak to the gun buyer (eg. wife) when buying a fire arm. I am an old foggey and all my weapons were purchased before the background searches were required. Yes, I am older than dirt. lol When we went up to the firearms counter at Academy Sports she asked for recommendations for a handgun for ladies and the guy recommended a 40 caliber and I interrupted and said that she might want to consider a smaller caliber because of less kick. The clerks immediately backed off and called the manager. I was told it was illegal to discuss firearms with the purchaser and was escorted from the store and have not been allowed back in the store to even buy a t-shirt. We went to Bass Pro and they told me that while discussing firearms with my wife I would have to back up around 20 ft and would not be allowed to communicate with her. Why do they do that? Just curious.

I just want to say that all of you have been a big help. Thank you so much. I will contact SOF tomorrow and if that doesn't work out will be contact with Billethead. I have a couple other questions I will post later today.

That is really interesting. I called them about a week ago and they said they do not have any handguns to test fire. I am definitely going to call back. If that doesn't work out I will probably contact you Billethead. Where are you located (in general).