Feathers and Fins

So the text was perfect timing Duane lol

Ok simple as it comes only one bait used today Flickershad pearl white #5 27 walleye only 1 legal 53 white bass 6 Bass Bass lol 14 stripers ( rats ) 17 Crappie My brother and I got in to two very good bites one at Beaver shores and One directly across from the 12 bridge launch ramp. Fish were from 14 to 22 fow ( the biters were ) many fish marked as deep as 30fow. Trolling was the name of the game Crappie were all 12 to 13'' size. Windy day for sure but very productive fishing the shelters areas. Fished from 0:830 till 6:30 pm bite was all day no real slack times in it.

Mine can light up Taney on a LATE October evening so much it scares the trout off. ok time to go get some walleye and crappie have fun.

Doc, run the Cutter up in the back of Montne or Prairie Creek. There are tons of sunfish in them. When the walleye get on a great shallow bite I have watched them chasing down the sunfish like a starving man at a all you can eat buffet. Beaver is more fertile than people give it credit.

OK, here is a question I have... This is a fishing site! A much better site than most out there because the members are honest about opinions and keep in mind everyone has their own opinion... So If we do not discuss Lures, Boats and even Vendors I think its a disservice to our fellow anglers. The vendors might not like it because it shows shortcomings in their business and to that I say TOUGH MEADOW MUFFINS. I want to know where my business is weak because I want to improve it. Truth hurts but correcting the hurt sure feels good. If by having these discussion it helps others in buying products that work than this is just as important and ANY fishing report posted. Maybe more so as it save people money in this economy. If vendors are offended you might want to look in your house at clean it.

1/4 and 1/8 are the two I use.

Playing these fronts has gotten interesting. I am finding the bite has been very good the day after it passes on the banks, I know its attributed to the large amount of fresh food washing in the lake. Bass will be moving up on the beds but im betting we are 3 maybe even 4 weeks behind a normal year. Start looking for beds on bluff and rock banks and feeders up in the vegetation that is now under water there has been a lot of bluegill up in them. The bigger bass I am still catching in open water around shad schools some of them BIG females full of eggs. My honest feeling is if tournament anglers would concentrate on those bass we could see a 5 fish limit hitting 25+ pounds but not many people work over those bass going more with typical shallower water patterns. jm2c

Ok that is very cool. great deer hunting and one of the very few areas I have seen turkey around the lake.

I use lead core often and it is excellent at maintaining correct depth control, but really a entire subject to itself. Larger reels to handle the backing the lead and the leader etc. I was going for just a basics for people to get started. But yes its a great way to catch fish. When I run lead core I like to run a minimum of 50ft of leader and if it breaks at all I will redo the entire leader to maintain that exact depth. This is all throw back to a older day stuff for certain I had to remember stuff my grandfather taught me when I got into doing it that honestly I had forgotten about. When I started writing this a few days ago it brought back memories of trolling with my grandfather in his old master craft and so many things he did. Using dodgers and flashers I sometimes think I have forgotten things that I shouldn't have and then it comes back. People today look down on the troller IMO, they forgot that is how it use to be done, some of my fondest memories were trolling deep southern California reservoirs in the middle of summer with grandpa for large holdover trout. We would come to the dock with limits of 3 to 5lb fish and people would stare in amazement. In a time before depth finders even the earliest ones I remember my grandpa telling me you can keep the depth you want by putting a 10lb lead ball on a rope a string and dragging it along side the boat at a certain count ( simple knot in the line ) High Tech back then lol. I often think that must have been how the first downrigger manufacture got the idea.

Randy I would love to work them both over with you and put both our knowledge together to come up better methods of fish catching we could share with others.

Hope it helps is basic I but just so much to cover lol.

There are so many different things that can be touched on with this thread I do not even know where to start. I suppose boat arguments are a good place. I can own any boat I want just about when it comes to fishing but I have to also think about hunting. There is no fiberglass boat that could handle the abuse I put a boat through in the course of a year without major repair bills. That being said when I was looking for my current boat I stopped off at BPS and talked to the people there and honestly felt like I needed a hot shower and steel wool scrubbing after, used car salesmen came off less slimy. Know I bought a Tracker from a local store who’s personnel took time to talk to me go over features with me and have served me well in all aspects since the purchase and they will continue to get my business because of customer service. The biggest part of business that deals with the public is customer service and when I feel that dirty after I meet with someone guaranteed I question the entire company in that department. Which will lead me into this. I would assume you are in a position of some authority at BPS and care about your company that or you are one of the foolish kids on the floor that annoy me to no end and just don’t care about your job. I will stick with the assumption you are of some authority. I just mentioned the kids on the floor for a reason. When I go to BPS and am looking at a product and get told by one of them that product is not as good as a BPS name product nothing turns me off faster. Nor do the annoying twits trying to get me to go to Big Cedar. If you are in authority you may want to make suggestions to try and change that. There is a reason I have stopped shopping BPS the way I used to and it sure aint Cabelas is closer now as I am in Springfield at least 2 to 3 times a month. My money is actually being spent locally because HLS still understands customer service and points people to quality baits that work for the local lakes. BPS use to be my go to place for hunting gear but you can’t pay me to use redhead gear. I do not buy stuff to last a few weeks or season at best or should I say if im lucky enough to have it last that long. It just seems to me that as people have said BPS has become the outdoors walmart and that is a shame as it use to be much higher quality and customer service orientated IMO. I understand fully tournament anglers will preach their sponsors products, they have to! But for the vast majority of anglers and hunters we are not professionals and prefer honesty of what works what doesn’t and the why’s! If people working for a major retailer care and are reading these boards perhaps they should heed whats being said and make the powers that be aware of how the average Joe feels. Because the working stiff is going to find someone who cares and products that work year in year out. No offense meant in any of this but perhaps you are the voice that might get others to listen and correct what I believe will be an earful from members here who are the average Joe. thanks

VERY NICE ONE

Many people ask me about how I troll so effectively and the answer is many years of trial and error! I hope people find this information useful and productive. First thing I want to discuss is knowing your boat by that I am talking about several factors such as speed it travels at idle and how to increase or decrease that speed without spending tons of money on add-ons. For instance I know with my boat a 190tw tracker with a 90hp mercury fully loaded I can troll at 2.5mph yet if I fill the live well to capacity it will slow me down to 2.2mph if I drop the trolling motor it will slow me down to 1.6 mph ( all speeds on the Sonar ) Knowing that information allows me to adjust speed very easily by removing some water from the well or lifting the trolling motor or any combination of those, I will even add weight to the boat before leaving the house or degrease weight depending on wind conditions. You have to play with your boat and weight. I also have employed a sock or bucket if needed. After learning the speeds of the boat the next thing I want to do is find the sweet spots on the boat for setting rod holders. For my boat I have one right next to the steering wheel and one across from it and two more up near the bow. The bow mounts are for use when I’m on the electric trolling motor or running planer boards and the other two are for when I’m on the big motor mostly. The third is dead center of the boat behind the middle passenger seat. The center holder is for a pure flat line that runs on the surface normally floating fly line and a fly on it. Next is learning the lures! Some lures work well others work great. The Berkley Flicker shad and Rapala SR series are my two favorite baits for trolling as they run true and are easy to figure depth accurately. Not all baits dive as advertised on the package and you must learn where they will run with the line you are using and how much line out. Finally the reels used are very important. For starters I suggest a good line counter reel as it will aid you in learning how much line out. As you progress and gain knowledge you can switch to spinning gear. Spinning gear you need to learn to count at a constant steady count each time. I see many people stop the line going out way to soon, even when with me I have to tell people repeatedly to not flip the bail until I tell them. It is a paranoid thought they are letting to much out and won’t be able to fight a fish on a long run. Trolling reels should hold at least 200 yards of line and letting out 150 feet is nothing to worry about. Those are the pure basics. Now how do you ( know ) what each will do? This is where time on the water is vital. Find a long flat with a known depth. Set out a buoy marker at one end and maintain a constant depth lets use 20 feet of water. Maintain that depth for at least 500 yards or more when you start getting out of that depth drop the other buoy. Now you will want to start trolling the baits. Make a pass with no baits in the water buoy to buoy and write down your speed. Then fill the live well and do it again writing the speed, next is to do it with the trolling motor down. Play with different ways of weighting down your boat and removing weight and write it all down. Next is to put out the bait I suggest doing this without hooks as you are trying to learn the depth of the bait. Doing the same procedure as listed above let the bait out slowly until it starts barely hitting the bottom and mark that amount of line on your note book along with the speed of the boat. Then let out more until the rod tip is bouncing hard, this will show you the information to write down for when a bait is barely hitting bottom and when its slamming the bottom. Make numerous passes on that line buoy to buoy playing with speeds and line out distances. Do this for multiple depths starting at 6 feet of water and run it all the way out to 25 feet of water. It can take you most the day playing with all types of factors from lure to boat speed and line out and wind conditions. When you have all that done you will know where your baits run with a high degree of confidence. I try to learn at minimum of 10 baits so I have a good arsenal. Flicker Shad for instance I have learned the entire series; color I do not worry about it’s the bait itself you need to learn. After all that you are ready to start trolling. I talk to many people who think it is a matter of putting baits out and start motoring and hope a fish jumps on the line. Sure anyone can do that but it’s pure luck if they hook up. Just like a bass fisherman working over a point for bass that takes his time and methodically picks the area apart a troller must be able to do the same thing. Both are specialty fishing techniques. Knowing your species is the next important key element, some species prefer to align themselves in different position depending on current of the water. Wind creates a current as does generation and paying attention to those factors will help you increase your catch. Many days I have caught fish trolling in a certain direction but not another. If you are catching fish for instance trolling south but come across the same area going north and get no bites I will run the south troll and at the end of it reel in make a wide birth of the pattern and run to the starting point again and maintain that south pattern until it stops paying off. A quality depth finder will pay off high jackpots especially those with side scan technology. First thing they do is show you where the fish and bait is concentrated on the up/down but typically threadfin shad prefer open water and this is when sidescan shines as you can quickly locate the area they are in. I try to never run over the top of the bait but set up a pattern that enables me to troll past the outside of the school. This is a guess as bait moves and where keeping an eye on the water will help as many times you can see the bait on the surface. When you see the bait try and miss the school by at least 30 feet to one side or the other of it so your bait is the one that got separated, this normally triggers a bite. Speaking of triggering a bite; early morning you want to troll fast ( again knowing your species ). Using walleye for an example, early in the morning they will be shallow typically but as the sun comes up they go deeper. I like to speed troll 2.5mp up to even 3.0 mph. I am looking for aggressive fish and speed trolling triggers some of the most aggressive bites and some of the biggest fish. As the day progresses on slow down till you find the speed they want or your target species wants to be specific. Mark on your GPS where you catch each fish, if you catch two from the same spot stop the boat and work the area over with a soft plastic or crank bait you may have found a holding point and multiple fish can be had here. I have caught many smallmouth and walleye by doing this, as trolling is not just a fishing technique but a fish finding technique. The last thing I want to talk about is extreme precision trolling. This requires two people to do it and is most effective on long points. You need one person on the big motor one on the bow mount trolling motor. As you troll out a point keeping a close watch on your depth finder if it moves more than a few inches of bottom depth have the guy on the front kick the bow so the boat maintains that depth the guy on the big motor does the same. This is also a very good way for sweeping points where you intentionally are making a tight turn across the tip of the point to run the baits in a sweeping motion to hit fish that might be in a pocket. In closing I know this is just simple basics to help people start trolling. If you get the old mentality of you have to be casting all the time to catch fish out of your mind and understand trolling is a very specific and precise control of the boat and baits you will have put a new trick in your fish catching arsenal. It takes time to learn just like any other type of fishing and it can be frustrating just like other types but it will cover more water than other types quickly and help locate aggressive feeding fish you may have otherwise missed. Good Luck

My Bradfords are over 50 years old and are starting to get near the breaking point almost touching the ground now. I have a Cardinal nest in a bush in the back yard and momma aint leaving it no matter what I already cleaned off some of the snow from it so its not dragging so bad and she just sat there watching me. This is the same family that lets me take up close pictures I hope the eggs make it.

Champ; it seems you have a grudge against Bass Pro Shops for whatever reason. I am curious is it because they (a) do not support tournaments the way you think they should or ( because their products are inferior? By "their" im referring to BPS name products. Or is it something else?

Wayne that is for NW Arkansas. I spit my Sweet tea on my laptop when they said it. And not it was a group not just one pintail maybe 20 to 25 birds. I wish I had time to stop for a picture the drakes were in full color.

Only thing im upset about is its going to mess up my fishing lol. Beaver has been smoken hot lately.

OK this should put a halt to the wake and ski hatch for a while But WTH its MAY! I also saw Pintail today heading home from Taney landing on the Kings poor duckies are mixed up as well.

My momma always said if you havent got something nice to say dont say anything..... But i never listened so... May your toilet explode lol

I watch the direction they are swiming and based off the pattern ( cruising between grass or over sand vs mud ) I will toss it out in that area and let the line settle. When they approach just twitch it one time so they see it. some look some ignore it but there is normaly the one who wants it. I firmly beleive they are biting because of the scent. You get maybe two to three hooks-ups before the school bails out. If you sit quietly for 10 to 15 minutes though they will return and you can repeat the process. If you want to really catch them scale down to 4lb test and use a doughball bait. They are powerful fighters but require a light drag or youu can pull the hook very easily.

This has been an interesting read for certain. People tend to bash products for no reason most times other than they prefer another one and probably have never even used the one they are actually bashing ( ford vs chevy ) old argument. When it comes to fishing I believe most start out the same way, fishing for whatever will bite their line from the bank or in a friend or families boat with a bobber. As people age and mature they seem to fall into a crowd just like in school that has a clique for certain music or dress style with fishermen its a certain brand of rod, reel or boat etc. Its silly to comment on products you do not use or have not used just because its not in your clique. Each product I comment on I have used and ones I like I am honest about as are the ones I DO NOT like. I have been hearing a lot of Lews recently and even had the chance to be in their office in Springfield awhile back and though I have not used the product yet I was impressed by the feel of the rods and smoothness of the reel and more so how neat and clean the facility was. I have been to other shops and one thing over the years I have discovered is that manufactures no matter the business that do not maintain a clean environment tend to have inferior products. It is no secret I am a Shimano reel and St Croix rod user, however I have been looking more and more and Lews products based off what I witnessed in the shop and the feel of the rods. The ones I handled were prototypes and if they become available to the public I will purchase them. As a consumer I am finicky about the products I use ( Brand) has nothing to do with my purchasing but ( usefulness )certainly does! The products I was able to feel / handle were comparable to St Croix and Cal Star rods and that is hard to do no matter who you are. just my 2 cents.

Marty I gotta make a run up to Clinton in a few weeks might have to swing by and shoot the breeze with you for a bit and graze on some freshies

• All Arkansas fishing regulations apply to Bella Vista Village’s lakes. • An Arkansas fishing license is required. • A current state and POA boat registration is required before using any boats on the POA’s lakes. • Property owners with a current POA-issued photo identification card do not pay a lake use fee. • Property owners without a POA-issued photo identification card pay a a lake use fee. • Guests must have a current guest card and pay a lake use fee unless accompanied by a member with a current POA-issued photo identification card. Not certain if you are a guest or poa member but thought you may want this info... If you are neither and wish to avoid paying the fee's and im assuming your a boater I would suggest Beaver Lake it is close by and much more friendly. In Bella Vista Area is Little Sugar and it is a very nice smallmouth fishery. A little North is the ELK river and about an hour east is the Upper White River. We are truly blessed around here to have great options and scenery.

D'oh