If you're planning on fly fishing in Missouri this winter, don't plan on bringing your felt-soled boots.

The Missouri Department of Conservation has moved to ban porous-soled waders to help protect trout waters from the invasive algae better known as "didymo" (Didymosphenia geminata) or "rock snot."

The new rule is pending public comment to the Secretary of State and would be in effect starting March 1, 2012.

According to MDC Fisheries Biologist Mark VanPatten, didymo is kept in check in other parts of the country by lower pH levels. But Missouri's limestone-lined rivers create higher pH levels that can allow didymo to spread more easily.

"Preventing the spread of this invasive species into Missouri is critical," VanPatten said in a press release. "There is no way to control or eradicate didymo once it gets established in the state."

Missouri isn't the first state to consider dropping felt-soled boots, in fact, Simms even considered dropping them from their line before flip-flopping on that stance earlier this year.

Anyone who's ever doubted you can catch a world record tuna on a fly needs to look no further than Australian angler Davide Fent of Langwarrin, Victoria.

Fly fishing out of Port MacDonnell on May 20, Fent hooked up with this feisty southern bluefin tuna on one of his custom-made flies.

Fent battled the 18-pound, 11-ounce fish for close to 40 minutes before landing what is expected to be the next men's 12-pound tippet world record (currently vacant) with the International Game Fish Association.

Southern bluefin photo courtesy the IGFA.

If you've ever been fortunate enough to fly fish for golden trout in the Eastern Sierra, you've probably run into them on the trail.

Cows. Dozens if not hundreds of them.

You see, the Eastern Sierra is not only home to California's state freshwater fish, but it's also home to a 30-mile cattle drive that takes place right in the heart of the Golden Trout Wilderness each year and is one of the oldest runs in the state.

But as the Los Angeles Times reports, the right of ranchers to continue running cattle in the area is dependent on the outcome of a dispute over how best to protect the besieged trout.

"For decades, activists have been trying to protect the golden trout -- a candidate for listing as an endangered species -- from a variety of threats: livestock grazing, predation by nonnative brown trout and hybridization with stocked rainbow trout," Louis Sahagun writes. "They predict a better future for the wilderness and the trout once cows are driven off."

A better future for fisheries like Cottonwood Lakes, one of my favorite fisheries where California's golden trout roam.

A golden trout released at Cottonwood Lakes. Photo by Brian Milne.

Want to kick off your weekend with a hair-raising outdoors tale about a death-defying bear encounter?

Be sure to read the latest blog post on TroutHunt.com, where Jon Stiehl recalls their run-in with a bear that sent Trouthunter Fly Shop owner Richard Paini to the hospital with a broken arm and mangled hand - the latest in a string of fateful bear encounters out West over the past few months.

Paini's group stumbled upon the bear while elk hunting in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.

"Rich had managed to stick up his right arm for the bear to chew on as he pushed the bear away with his left hand," Stiehl writes, "both of them crashing to the ground about 30 feet away. It looked like a hit from an NFL Linebacker."

Now if that doesn't make you take all necessary precautions when heading out into bear country, I don't know what will.

Here are some additional tips to consider if you encounter a bear in the wild.