Ham

Thanks Ron, Let me know when you want to jig up a metric tonne of trout or you want me to buy some worms and gas for the Walleye boat.

Fatty Z's on sale at Tackle Warehouse. I'm not buying any, but 25% off ain't bad.

I'm pretty sure I've heard that guy.

Discounted model of Wiley X Sunglasses. They were listed as shooting glasses on Midway USA and retailed for around $80.00. They're used but in good shape. I need RX lenses these days. $30 or best offer You can google for specs. I can't seem to get a link to copy.

Yellow Billed Cuckoo. They winter in South America. Primarily feed on caterpillars. Very distinctive call that is often heard, but rarely seen.

I had time for a shortish trip today. I'm going to be volunteering at my daughter's High School Prom tonight. I had to give up learning more about my Hummingbird from Don House and J.E.V. tonight, but that's part of the Dad deal. I'm going to eventually be moving to Marion County and I'm going to have rapid access to Jimmy Creek so I'm going to learn more about it. Today was a bit of a tough lesson. It apparently doesn't warm up very quickly. I was pretty surprised this morning when I slid the Bass Cat into the water to see 46' and change. Hmmmm not what I was expecting. I really expected mid 50's and warmer in the way backs of coves or pockets, but the warmest water I saw was 51' right before I took out. Water was pretty clear with stain way back the main creek. NOT muddy by any means but more like two foot of visibility rather than 10 foot of visibility. I did all my fishing between the Fairview launch and the CCC launch. I was expecting a Wart bite and my heart was kinda set on that deal. I did catch one nice smallie on the Wart, but that was all. I got a chunky LMB and a keeper Spot on a squarebill. I got a 16 inch White Bass on the pan fish A rig. I got a few more bumps on it, but only caught the one White Bass. I'd love to tell y'all to go get some White Bass, but I saw almost no surface activity to lead me to believe a lot of White Bass have moved back into Jimmy Creek. I saw lots of other folks fishing in areas I expected the White Bass to be in, but no one was catching. I tried dragging a 3/8 oz FB with a Hula grub off points in 15-30 foot of water. I felt real good about that, but got ZERO looks. I threw a McStik and a Pointer 100 in a lot of likely looking spots working a variety of retrieves. I stuck with it a good while and got ZERO bites on it. I got my last fish of the day on the Ned Rig. It was about a 13 inch Spotted bass. 3/4 of the way back a secondary creek where the channel swung into the bank. I had tried everything else on it and knew it looked like it had to have a few fish. Mr Spot tried to swim off with my Zinker. I fished about 7 hours for 5 fish. All my fish were decent chunks. The two spots would have kept and the White bass was nice. Weather was cool, but pretty. I heard my first Rain Crow of the year. I'm thinking he got here a little early. I sure expected to catch more fish, but that's fishing.

I love it. I know I must be sounding like a broken record here, but it's so good. The casting distance, the thin diameter, the abrasion resistance, the sensitivity, and the added visibility are all reasons I love it. Do I wish it cost less? Sure. Do I wish it didn't twist? Sure. It feels a little funky to my fingers; almost like they treat it with Teflon or something, but the feel of extra fish in my hand makes me forget about it. I have very few floobies. (where the loose loops spill off from underneath the outer layer of line on the spool). You really need to be careful when this happens though or you'll get a knot and have to cut it out and uni to uni the two parts together. Floobies in Nanofil are not as difficult to get out as floobies in mono are to get undone, but not near so easy as braid. I haven't had any line failures. I had multiple times with the first generation of braids where a quick wrist hookset would snap the line. A big hard slow pull was fine, but a quick wrist set and it would fail. Not at the bait, but some where randomly between the bait and the rod tip. Understand that when you fish 8 lb Nanofil that it's 8 pound line and NOT a 20 lb line with 8 pound diameter. I always use a leader rated the same or less than the Nanofil and the leader gives before the Nanofil does. Fish it a while and let me know what you see. NO product is going to please everyone, but I'm interested in your take once you fish with it. It'd be really interesting to have three identical rod and reel combos with 8 pound nano, 8 pound mono, and 8 lb diameter braid and fish the same baits with them for a day. I've done really close to that and I found myself being regretful when I had the rod without nano in my hands.

Nice fish and nice jigs. I've only caught a few big crappie on the fly, but it sure was fun. I caught a few in really clear water where I was able to see the big girls slip up behind my little clouser and suck it in. It was pretty great. I agree completely that there is a small window of oppurtunity to do this Again, I love you jigs. I really like the Matzu black nickle sickle hook in a jighead. I was given a few and then paid to have a lot more made.

Wow Kyle that certainly makes for an interesting trip. I think I'll stick with boring trips. Glad y'all caught them. I'm usually not on the creeks this soon. Apparently, that's an oversight on my part. Best Wishes on the nuptials. I hope to meet the wife one day and I hope for only the best for you both. It's best not to argue jurisprudence with a couple of angry gun bearing land owners in the dark. I'm certainly glad cooler heads prevailed. I have NOT done overnight trips on Crooked Creeks for just that reason. I knew there was limited spots to camp and that the land owners considered there to be NO appropriate spots to camp. Keep us in the loop and let me know if you need numbers of people in attendence in Yellvillie.

That's the thing Phil, I was raised to always tell the truth and I do my best to always be truthful in my fishing reports. I carry the clicker so I know how many fish I caught. If I say I caught 23, I know that it was at least 23. It's much more likely I forgot to click a fish than that I clicked twice AND I don't count that fish unless I touched him. If a fish gets off boatside, I did not catch him. I didn't used to need a clicker. It was rare to catch more than 20 or so in a day when I lived in Louisiana. It isn't common to catch less than 20 a day around here especially when I'm on a river or fishing crappie. I'm still surprised by how easy it can be to catch fish up here IF you get on the right bite. I'm too happy to keep it to myself sometimes. I'm sorry if that comes off as bragging. I don't mean it to be bragging. I know there are a LOT of good fisherman. I know that on most days a lot of guys are gonna catch more fish or bigger fish than I do. I get frustrated when other folks are catching them and I'm not, but I am really only fishing against myself and my expectations for myself.

First of all, I think the BASS pros are entitled to an opinion about the lake. They spend lots of days on the water all over the place, they know a liittle something about fishing. Now, if they let one tough day color their opinion that's silly. I don't think their opinion should carry any more weight than Sac River Jim's or mine or anymore else that fishes here. But, management decisions should be science based in conjunction with the desires of the local fishing community. We've had interesting discussions about the 15 inch spotted bass limit before. We can discuss it again, but those that are passionate about it are not likely to change their opinions.

Save the amount that you would be spending on the boat each month in a dedicated account (ie pay yourself that boat note for two or three years), then, go buy your boat outright with cash if possible and if not finance it for no more than three years. Stop reading here if you don't want to read all about my boat history. . . . . OK, you were warned. My first boat was a tiny bateau. 14 foot Starcraft with a 32 inch bottom. I bought it for the Princely sum of $560 dollars. When I could afford it, I put a Yammy 15 HP outboard on it. I loved it. I caught a ton of fish out of it. Really got a lot of use out of it. It was in the family from 1986 until 2006. I saved and bought a Stratos 186 VF. I loved it . I caught a ton of fish out of it. I bought it for $7000 and sold it for $5600 three years later. I took the money for the Stratos and used that as a down payment for an 18 foot aluminum bass boat style boat for the Red River fishing that I knew was about to dominate my fishing. I loved it My Dad and I had SOOOOOOOO much fun in it ; I'd have to write a book. I fished out of it for >10 years. Got my money's worth for sure. I was saving for a Bass Cat the last three years I was in the G3. I really wanted to pay for the Bass Cat without having to take out a loan, but the Yammy on the G3 went kaboom and that threw me off schedule. I got some money out of the motor and some out of the hull. I combined that with my savings and got my Bass Cat Cougar (lightly used). I financed it for three years paying the same amount I was saving. I paid early when I could and paid a little extra when I could and paid the boat off in 30 months instead of 36. So my Bass Cat is free and clear and I love it. I've caught thousands of fish and hope for many more years of service. The point being I've loved all my boats. I've caught a lot of fish and mave very happy memories in all my boats. AND most improtantly, I've never let spending on my toys put me in a financial bind. I wanted a Bass Cat for at least 20 years before I got one, but for various reasons it wasn't the right time to get one until recently. I've made tons and tons of bad decisions about money and spending, but I've been disciplined when it comes to buying boats and I like to think I've made good choices.

Berkley seems to be just as proud of their fluro as Seaguar is, but you can at times catch it on sale and stock up if desired. Thanks for the heads up KJ.

Does anybody remember tfish4bass? He loves to spinnerbait fish and was on a huge bite. For whatever reason, he really overshared and GAVE his stuff away. A friend went with him on a trip and it was the real deal. I tried it on my own and again it was the real deal ; Cost me a bunch more money in spinerbaits Because his stuff was so different from the norm on Table Rock, multiple people called him a liar and I think he's gone away, I haven't seen him post anything since. Why didn't people just spend some time trying the wonderfuI information he gave away?

Good on you Rick. That's a wonderful thing to do.

It is an ugly trend that ppl are so quick to think someone is a being less than truthful if the poster is on a better bite than most. I had a really, really good day yesterday on a local lake that I'm not even going to talk about because no one else is on it and I don't want to be called a liar AGAIN.

That's freaking great!

Wow.

If you can't beat em join em, I'm not planning on fishing against DD.

I really, really like Stockton as a multispecies lake.

DD look into getting a drift sock to slow down those dead drifts. A little hassle, but it can be so worth it. Make sure you get one that's big enough. I have a nice one from Cabela's and I'm thinking about adding a second one.

Bigger crappie than I caught at Taneycomo.

Hey Mitch, 4 lb line might be optimal, but I'm going to go with 8 lb first and drop down to 6 lb IF I must.

I caught a nice bass on my first cast of Day Two at Toledo Bend and had a little background anxiety building until I caught a few more fish.

I also bought a bunch of the dced single tail Hula Grub and cut them to make a half price Ika, but again that has a on the water modification that lead to a re-designed mold. Ikas rock in flowing water. They stay down much better than a tube.