What A Mess!!!!

[SilverMallard]

Unfortunately when people become successful they quit thinking what is good for them is good for everyone and start believing it. At that point they run rough shod over everyone and everything in their path.

So only losers (Unsuccessful people) can be trusted to do the right things?

Johnny Morris spends millions of his own dollars on wildlife conservation and ecology programs. Without the success of his stores, he could not do that. And if his stores were full of "junk," they woudn't be so successful. Sounds like a lot of sour grapes to me.

[Guest lbt]

Yes I said "JUNK"

Can you name any products that Johnny carries in his store that is made in the good ol' USA. Yes there are some products but for the most part they are made over seas. I'm sure there are a few guns and few waders that are still made in america. I don't mind to pay a little more for american made products. Thats why I support Mom & Pop shops.

The reason that there are maybe some sour grapes is because of what people will do to make him happy or just any one they know has a lot of money and pull. It has to stop some where some time. If the average joe blow does somthing like what happen at the BL he would be getting pants sued off.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Yes I said "JUNK"

Can you name any products that Johnny carries in his store that is made in the good ol' USA. Yes there are some products but for the most part they are made over seas. I'm sure there are a few guns and few waders that are still made in america. I don't mind to pay a little more for american made products. Thats why I support Mom & Pop shops.

The reason that there are maybe some sour grapes is because of what people will do to make him happy or just any one they know has a lot of money and pull. It has to stop some where some time. If the average joe blow does somthing like what happen at the BL he would be getting pants sued off.

Let me start by saying the I don't like or dislike Jonny and Bass Pro. I frequent the store on average of about once every 5 years.

And on that note, I must agree with SilverMallard. He sells the same "junk" they all sell. Only more choices of colors.

Don't blame big business for their success, they only sell it. We buy it and make them who they are.

Oh, and according to SilverMallard, I am the most trusted person in the WORLD!!!

[WebFreeman]

A shimano reel is Japanese whether you buy at BP, Walmart, Cabela's, Fin & Feather in Spfd or Phil's shop. As far as made in America, there is a reason Japanese cars outsell American, and if you've ever shopped for a Honda, new or used, they are not the cheapest. Small, locally owned stores provide a service big stores can't, but when it comes down to it, they all sell pretty much the same stuff. Maybe the BP house brand stuff is crap, but it's half the price of the "name brands", so what should we expect. Are Always Save green beans the same as Green Giant? That's up to the individual consumer to decide. I'm not the biggest Johnny Morris fan, but he started small the grew. It's the American dream, isn't it? He's certainly not the only tackle store around.

[Midge]

I have to agree somewhat with Silver Mallard. Personal attacks on Johnny morris are a bit of stretch guys. I happen to like shopping at Bass Pro Shops. They carry a lot of products for camping and hiking that we would be hard pressed to find elsewhere in our area.

Having said that; I strongly disagree with the way this situation was handled. I would like to know what a biologist thinks about the effects of what they did. One of the problems we run into with taney is the fact that it is 100% man made, and people like Johnny Morris may not understand the extent of the damage this can cause to us local fisherman who can't travel to Argentina to fish whenever they want.

As for the "Junk." We are now living in a global economy and not all of us can afford to buy Sage and Winston rods that are made in the good old USA.

Don't get me wrong. I agree with most of what has been said, but we have to take a step back and look at everything. We, the consumer, benefit a lot by saving some money from these big name stores.

[gonefishin]

So only losers (Unsuccessful people) can be trusted to do the right things?

SM sometimes you are a pain in the butt. You always read negative things into what others say but then, maybe I should have been more descriptive in my statement.

My point is that when people become super successful, I am not talking about average successful people, the ULTRA successful tend to think of their selves as something better than average and that only they know the right thing to do in all situations and at all times. For example; most Hollywood Stars, Bill Gates, Jane Fonda, Donald Trump, OJ Simpson and so on. You have to admit these type of people think they are 'special'. The only real difference between them and "losers" (your word) is they have the bucks to get what they want be it illegal, immoral or just plain old eccentric.

Do I think "losers" can be trusted? Obviously NO. Do I think the people in between those two groups, in other words average hard working people, can be more trusted to do the right thing? Yes I do.

I did not personally attack Johnny Morris but since it was mentioned let me ask a question would you have felt justified in doing what he did to Taney just to put more bucks in your pocket?

Johnny Morris spends millions of his own dollars on wildlife conservation and ecology programs. Without the success of his stores, he could not do that. And if his stores were full of "junk," they woudn't be so successful. Sounds like a lot of sour grapes to me.

To this I will ask a couple of questions. Does doing the above give him the right to destroy Taney or does it just further his ego? What gives him the right to say which conservation issues should have money spent on them and which ones should be exploited just as long as he makes bucks?

[Guest lbt]

I think that I might have stirred the pot by attacking Johnny Morris, but I think that there are a lot of peopel out there that do not understand by shopping at Bass pro you are putting money into his pocket, and just more fuel to the fire and by doing that people will always turn there head and let the big guys do what they want.

You do not have to buy the top end to be able to buy in america the last time I checked you can by a SAGE that is made in the USA for around 200. Thats what I perfer. I do also understand that you can pick up just about anything that has to do with the outdoor industry else where and yes it may not all be made in the USA.

I perfer the made in the USA label but I will always buy from a mom and pop shop.

[Bill Babler]

Boy's, I for one am not blaming Johnny for our troubles. This is the good ole, US of A and he is for sure one of our most reverned entrepreneurs.

I don't even know if it was his doings that caused the water shortage. There are many powers in Branson that make these decessions. I would have just hoped the MDC would have had a little back bone and said No, you will do great damage to this enviornment by lowering the lake. Use another method.

No one helped or seemed to care about the lake. That is what was the real shame.

The upper stretch of this lake needs a designation, to stop these types of infringments. Without it, and the way it is, to the money people it is just a stocked trout pond to be used and abused.

I absolutely have nothing againt Johnny, but I am not as enamered by him as S Mallard. For the most part his philenthropic achievement, all have a motive, as do most of ours. The only difference is that his have huge dollars attatched for minimal efforts.

Great example, is when we cleared our property to create the Lodge, we were asked by MDC if we would dontate the stumps and root wads for Table rock lake fish cover.

MDC showed up with a highloder, and two dump trucks. We worked for two days and loaded close to 100 stumps, in which they deposited in the lake, using Bass Pro's custom made boat. This boat is designed to do this exact work and Johnny Morris does own it. MDC ownes the highloader and trucks, and we all furnished the work.

Two weeks later the MDC forwarder me a press release from Bass Pro, claiming, over a 1/4 million dollars in habitat restoration they had just completed on Table Rock. No mention of me or MDC.

Lake Biologist at the time said pretty lame, but about par for the course. You can pretty much figure if they claim a million, it is probably closer to a thousand from our experences with them, and frankly who cares? MDC even ran the boat, so there was not even a bass pro employee envolved.

As for the merchandise in the stores, The name brands they carry are as good as it gets. It is when you get into the Bass Pro Brands, that you get in trouble. However, again, they were designed to sell at a price, not to be the quality of a Columbia, or an Eddie Baur, or The North Face. You will and I cannot stress this enough, get what you pay for at any of these Fishing Houses. I feel this is the way it should be. Is it junk? Don't buy it, buy the Bob Timberlake Suitcase instead of the BP, its your choice and your money. You know what your getting.

We have also mentioned to the people at not only Big Cedar, but also at the BPS at the Landing, that your merchandise is for the most part of no use to us on either the rock or taney. One of my good friends is a manager at their fishing dept. They know this!!!! It is not designed to be. It is there to sell the the tourist, it is there to sell volume, it is there for eye appeal and to make money period. They carry a almost completely different product line than the main store, and only 1/8 th. of the products. They can only stock what they can sell due to the small size of the store. They feel over 90% of their clientel is not from this area or planning to fish. They are shopping as gifts and taking home.

You don't build a store on 10 percent of the business, and they have not. Sour Grapes, but very wise marketing.

Our problem is not Bass Pro, it is the people that allow this wonderful piece of heaven to be treated like that, not the treaters.

Maby I am very naivue, but if it was BP that caused this, and someone had gone to Johnny and said, Johnny this is going to do some real damage to the eco-system and if you will think of another method, we will make sure everyone knows you are behind this fishery. You can bet your last buck, he would have seen the press clippings on the wall and we would have never had this disaster. Instead we would have had another news release about habitat assistance and another 1/4 million dollar gift from BP. I think that would have been much better, true or false.

No one did this or stood up for the lake. I don't know who or whom is responsible, but someone is. Maby I'm to blame, Maby everyone of us that love this fishery are to blame for allowing this to happen, I wish I knew.

God Bless, everyone on this taneycomo forum, we all know you care as much as we do.

[SilverMallard]

gonefishin,

It's a pretty simple answer you seek. This is America! $$$ talks and BS walks...always has...always will. The folks who have it purchase the right to make those decisions. The rest of us who do NOT have it cannot afford to make those kinds of purchases. But the real point about Johnny Morris is this: it's very easy for us lesser mortals to villify these people every time they do something we don't like. But the reality is that they...like us...are a mixed bag of good and bad - positive and negative. But money is like a big ole magnifying glass: it just makes everything about you BIGGER.

BTW, Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Dale Carnegie, Betty Ford, Oprah Winfrey, The Dahlia Lama, Billy Graham, ...I could go on and on for days like this...these were all people who met/meet your definition of "super-successful" or "super-rich" or whatever it is you think you're talking about. Yet, on par, most folks wouldn't accuse anyone on that list of being an overbearing SOB except Abraham Lincoln. And most people think he was a saint IN SPITE of the fact that he was an autocrat who trashed the Constitution in order to save the Union. (that means a guy who doesn't give a crap what anyone else thinks is important or how things should be done, and just forces everyone to do everything his way)

The point I was trying to make is that you are over-generalizing. Saying "all super-rich people suck" is like saying "all black people steal." It's bigotry. You gotta expect to be called on the carpet politely when you say something like that.

I would completely agree with you if you said something more like: one of the big temptations of success is falling into the trap of thinking your priorities and your ideas are ALWAYS superior to those of others; or if you said: SOME super-successful people forget that they aren't always right and become overbearing and insensitive to their own detriment and the detriment of everyone else around them. But that's not what you typed. Your statement clearly implied that ALL super-successful (revised version) people are like this. And that is an untrue and unfair statement.

I'm sorry you see me as a pain in the posterior. Perhaps if you typed stuff that was more accurate and true and less offensive, narrow-minded, and full of bigotry I wouldn't bother you so much because I wouldn't feel compelled to point these things out to the other readers. But I REALLY DO try to take it easy on you. LOL

[Guest lbt]

Silvermallard,

I'm not sure who you are and I'm sure you do not know who I am but after reading a few of you post and the post that you have put on here to like the last one. I would have to think that you might have some ties to some money. From the way that you sure stick up for the big boys.

You make yourself seem like an athority and after a search I find nothing that says what your athority figure comes from. You always have an oppinion and it seems that you have to be right or it's the highway.

I know that you type LOL after your last post but I think that you truely belive that you are above some of us on this forum.

I for one don't care for it.