Trap At The Bottom Of Cardiac?

[Tailwater]

Fished the Meramec last Wed (7/2) and stumbled/slid my usual way down Cardiac. Got to the bottom and noticed a large gauge chain around a large tree with a nice rootwad that I like to fish for BIG browns. The chain goes down into the rootwad and has a blue tag that I couldn't read, but looked like a setup for a furbearer trap. Could also be a water temp gauge, or who knows? The MDC fisheries biologist in the region didn't know what it was when I called him, but furbearer trapping season isn't until the winter..... Anybody have any idea what this could be? I called and left a message for the area agent, but wondered if any fishermen had some inside info.

[Tailwater]

Typed this thread too quickly. The chained object is actually at the bottom of suicide hill, not cardiac.

[Bman]

If you can, carry a digital camera with you. You could have taken pics and emailed them to MDC. For a little over two hundred bucks, ya can get a Pentax Optio W30. It's WATERPROOF so when I get rained on, wade too deep, or when I fall in it's ok. Just a suggestion...

[Bman]

It's a great camera for taking catch & release pix, 7 mega pixels, lots of easy to use auto functions, but you need something else. This Optio W 30 is rated to a depth of only 3M! for 2 hours. Great in dusty cond. also.

[HeyYou]

Just a note: I had got the report from fisheries this summer and found the chain with nothing attached. I was in the area on a violation 10/15 where someone had pictures. The guy with pictures did not call in and I was looking to see if he posted something here and found this thread.

Yesterday and an angler told another angler that he was going to call in a violation. etc etc etc. Bottom line, out of 3 people that I know of that observed the violation, one getting pictures, only one called. I talked to this angler about 2 months ago and we discussed how to report a violation. I told him that the best thing to do is make sure someone calls OGT or the local agent. It is easy to do nothing which is what usually happens. That guy called this time and that call netted 2 bad guys with a load of bait and short fish.

When you find something like this don't hesitate to call. Call OGT. 1-800-392-1111 PROGRAM IT INTO YOUR CELL PHONE NOW There are not enough of us to patrol everywhere.

We need your eyes.

I have not posted this reply because I was not aware of the thread till today.

Thanks to the guy that called.

Your local Conservation Agent