stlfisher

You can't compare the farthest places in the SEC to the closet places in the Big 12. A more accurate comparision would be Lawrence and Manhatten to Knoxville and Lexington. Columbia, SC and Gainsvile to College Station and Austin. Farther yes, but millions more ugh...no. Enough to spend all the extra revenue...ugh no. Mizzou actually researched this remember. If it was so much they wouldn't haved moved. So MU is responsible for the future of KU? Really last I checked there were two completely different instituitions. Nebraska, Colorado, or A@M share no blame? The would have to under your philosophy. Texas no blame either while they hold the conferance hostage? Why should any univeristy put up with that? Blame the uneven playing field in the big 12 for these instuitions leaving. That is the issue.

Travel cost are minimal in the grand scheme of things and Austin, Texas is farther than all but two SEC schools. The way the schedule is set up Mizzou will not have to travel to Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina in the same year. Your complaining about travel to the SEC, but want Mizzou to join the Big East or The ACC? That travel would be much much worse. The Big East is not a good conferance anymore...this is were teams now go with no other options. The ACC won't take MU anyway...they will fight with the Big 10 over Notre Dame. The SEC is a much better fit than both of these conferances. Why you want to stay in aconferance with an uneven playing field is beyond me. Yeah, but not as annoying as Bill Self continually crying about Mizzou leaving. He is a phenominal coach, but he makes KU look bad every time he cry's about it. And so far I think I am the only one giddy about it on this board....so blame me.

I would agree that Missouri will need to remain competitive in the SEC and not fall into the bottom threshold of the conferance. It may take awhile for them to compete consistenly, but I think they can do it. Not saying they will win championships, but they do need to be able to compete in the top half of the conferance on a consistent basis. I think they can do it. .

OTF I am not trying to mean, but dude this isn't rocket science. All this talk that the move to the SEC is not good for anything besided football is just flat out wrong. It is not that no one hears your arguement, it is just your arguement is not reality. The revenue from football does fund those "other sports that no ones cares about". Those sports don't bring in revenue....they cost the university money. Without the revenue from football you don't have funds to support many of those "other sports". The move to the SEC will be beneficial on a whole (yeah wrestling will have to find another home) to the majority of athletic programs within the Missouri athletic departmenl. Part of this benefit will be additional revenue to support those other althetic programs. If the Big 12 collapsed all those "other sports" would be in danger of being cut for lack of funds. Playing in the WAC or the Big East is not an attractive or lucrative option. Bottom line is football does, on the whole, support the majority of althetic programs at a university.

Which is why football, as a money maker, is so imporant to the universities and why conferance alignment is as well.

I don't disagree with parts of your statement, but the reality of the situation, in the current environment. is that colleges are driven in large part by athletics especially football. It is a part of how they keep the doors open. In a perfect idealistic world that wouldn't be the case, but it is. You don't compete you loose out. You may not like it and I may not like it, but it is what is. Mizzou needed to do what they needed to do to put the university in the best possbile situation for long term sucess. In my opinion they have done that. All the talk about tradition, and what is fair is fine and dandy, but staying in the big 12 was a huge risk for Mizzou. Why do you think KU was so angry Mizzou left? It wasn't only about tradition...It was about KU having few options if the Big 12 fell apart. The reality is conferance alignment for a university is critical. And I never said there weren't good schools in the Big 12 and there are top tier programs, but it is not stable and not managed fairly. It is shame that some schools don't really have other options. Mizzou didn't want to be one of them, Nebraska didn't, Colorado didn't and Texas a@m didn't.

Florida might be a stretch to travel, but yeah when I was in college we took every chance we could to road trip. If girls were involved even better. Took a buddies minivan, grabbed some beer and off we went. Slept in the car and still talk about those trips today. Those are things I remembered from college not what I learned in a classrooom. Nevertheless besides gas and beer it isn't like you are dropping a ton of money...and you are talking about 4 road games a year with travel to Florida, SC, and Georgia only every other year. I'd rather go to Florida than the any other midwestern city. Even then this is only until they can come to an agreement of the divisions long term. What reason would SEC fans have to come out in the past and talk smack when we haven't played them yet? There would be no reason. I bet Arkansas fans are ready to talk a bit. The SEC does draw larger crowds than the Big 12 (fact) and is considered (could be debated) the premier football league in the country. Why wouldn't you want to be a part of that? I am bit blown away that people wanted to stay in the Big 12. I don't know why you would want to stay in a league in which some members are favored over others. It is bascially cheating. Who stays with a cheating spouse? Because of tradition? What would that say about Mizzou as a school? The SEC has no penaltly for leaving the league...you can leave whenever you want...yet no one does. I wonder why that is? Man up take your shot at the big boys and see what happens. You might fail, but it is better than staying put and taking scraps from the table.

IMO the atmosphere at an SEC game would be much much better. It is second to none and so are the campuses. They live for Saturday football in those communties and draw 100,000 a game not to mention the tailgating. Rivalries will develop and the only rivarlies I cared about in the Big 12 was Nebraska (who is gone) and KU. I rather go south in the winter than hang in the Midwest. I am sure the students would rather see tan coed's in October and November than midwest chunks preparing for winter. Imagine if we beat Alabama (I know won't happen) or Georgia at home? Columbia would erupt. We will have a natural rivalry with Kentucky in basketball and Arkansas will become a heck of rivalry (especially with Mike Anderson on campus). We will play KU in basketball in a few years in KC...the money is too good for KU to pass up. Traditions are nice to an extent, but times change and exciting times are ahead. If I was a student I would be seriously excited about joining the SEC and juding from the students reaction they are decidely in favor of it.

I have thought about buying a pair of those shoes. I'd be very interested to hear how they perform on slick rock.

I don't know Justin. Tailgating to to the SEC schools would be much more attractive to me as a student than some of the Big 12 schools. The atmosphere alone would be worth it to me. Arkansas, Tennesee, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Mississippi, Alabama, and Auburn are not that far and all of these are drivable over a weekend. The students can make it to these games. The longer the road trip the more fun you will have (and more trouble you can get into)! For a college student that is pretty attractive.

I think the Texas thing is overhyped a ton. We didn't play that many games in Texas each year....maybe 1 or 2 and maybe an occasional bowl game. I would think the SEC brand itself would attract enough players to keep the pipeline open. If Texas A@M is our yearly rivalry game look for it to be played at neutral site in Texas which would give us our one game a year and then possbily a bowl game in Texas. In reality we aren't losing that many games in Texas.

I have had good luck with the Cabela's RLS reels for my 5 weight.

I bought a Grey's reel...I will have to check and see what model, but it was a real cheapy....$40 buck maybe...so i got what i paid for. I will need to upgrade that shortly. Thanks for the info regarding the Sage freshwarter line. Heading to the Cabela's site to see if it is still in the bargain cave.

I suspect the flies you may be casting are a bit too big or too heavy or your leader is too light. As others have said try slowing down and definately don't flex your wrist. Wait to feel the rod load. Also, if casting heavy weighted or wind resistent flies use a short leader of 8-10lb mono as that will help turn over the fly better. Doubling hauling will also help and is easier with a heavier rod...won't wear you out as much. I love my new 7 weight but super heavy flies still can hing a bit if not casted properly. Try using a lighter or smaller fly at first until you get used to casting it and then work your way up to the heavier flies. This way you will find out what weight and size flies you cast the best and then stay in that sweet spot. This has worked well for me. If I remember correctly is your 7 weight an Echo Ion? Those are fast action rods so if your other rod is a medium or medium fast it will be a bit harder to feel your rod load on the 7weight. The upside is once you get it down you will really be able to wing it.

I like to think so:) I figure I have more than made up for it and hopefully lots more fishing ahead.

I recently bought a 9ft 7wt Sage Vantage from Craig at Hargroves and I am very happy with the rod. It cast nice has enough backbone to through some weight and handle some bigger fish. Doubling hauling is a breeze. After using this rod I have to say I much prefer the medium fast action as opposed to the fast action on my 5 weight. It is not one of the higher priced models, but for $225 it seems like a good value to me. The only dissapoint is the reel I bought was crap. It was a cheapy, so I am gonna need to upgrade that, but overall the setup has performed really well and it is very easy to feel the rod load. I would certianly recommend the Vantage for anyone looking in that price range.

I use mostly 10lb mono for most of my applictions. Never really felt the need to switch to anything else. The only time I use anything different is when I am lake fishing with jigs for largemouth or throwing topwater frog's in the slop. Then it is usually a heavy braided line.

No canoe's our personal watercraft are allowed, but you can rent a john boat for a small fee....I think $5 or so. Most of the lakes are pretty small, but you can also rent a trolling motor for the bigger lakes. Not sure of the price though.

It seems kinda silly that Jet boats can deystroy the types of water they were designed to run on. Yet many consider them essential pieces of equipment to fish. IMO if you can safely wade it....you shouldn't be able to use any motor on it (except maybe a little trolling motor on the back of canoe). .

Not a bad field trip at all. My childhood field trips were to the symphony. That sucked.

I don't usually fish for spawning fish on beds but do fish during the spawn for those fish that are done fooling around and the ones that may be getting ready too. They don't all do it at the same time. Noticed some largemouth in pond's last weekend that were getting ready to spawn and few on beds. That is just crazy early to me. Anyway, my all time favorite bait for pond largemouth is Zoom's horny toad. I let it sink and slowly twitch it back or carolina rig it. It works on top too, but I have made a killing fishing it deep... the way it is not intended. For my fly rod I usually throw a Bugger, a slumpuster, and some clousers in minnow and bluegill colors. Popper's are a blast too. I have some big stuff tied up to give it a go tonight.

It may not always be pretty, but you gotta give KU credit for getting it done. I acually picked them to win the tourney in one of my brackets. I figured I hedge my bets. If they lose i am happy and I if they win I am richer. Still think Self is winey little punk though.

I do think a C/R tag and C/K tag might be simple enough. It will never happen that is certianly true, it wouldn't be perfect either. You woulds still run into the issue of if you caught a fish with a C/R tag and the fish was going to die what do you do then. Maybe make an exception if you had a C/R tag, but hard to enforce.

I buy the tag, but I agree with your premise that those that use the resource the most should pay for it. I always felt the those that keep fish generally impact the resource more than those don't.