chi0082

You gotta get there at dark 30 and fish til daybreak. On most days, by the time I'm leaving the lake in the morning, anglers are just getting in the water at the ramp. If you want good top water action, the best times for me (weekend before last) was right as the sky was starting to glow. Had whites, largemouth, stripers, hybrids, walleye, all chasing shad and I think I caught every species of fish on that one morning...even catfish on topwater. Just one of those mornings.

^^This. On a camping trip we had a trap stolen. It was a public camping spot so I knew it had to be someone camping in the area. I happened to have one of my trail cams in my truck and set it up with a brand new trap in the exact same spot. The next day it was gone. And we caught the guys on camera. It was 3 guys, and we found out they were camped further down the river. When we drove by they were having a crawfish boil with my crawfish caught with MY traps. I absolutely HATE thieves. So instead of doing the right thing and turn them in to the authorities, me and my buddies waited until they left on their boat to go fishing for the day and nobody else was around then we trashed their entire campsite, poured out all their beer from 3 coolers and 2 kegs onto the ground, got our traps back, then we left!

There's no walleye in table rock. Move along, nothing to see here.

Yea what they said ^^. By the way he goes by Dave.

Any color will work as long as it's black or blue.

A bulb can blow for a number of reasons, but my theory is that water is a natural conductor of electricity, and so any connection or wire that is not completely sealed/wrapped/protected will create a short between it and the chassis of the trailer, hence blowing the bulb. And as fishinwrench already mentioned, the sudden temperature changes going from hot to cold creates condensation and pressure differentials that can also kill a bulb. LED's do not heat up anywhere near a normal bulb, and they are in a lot smaller "capsule" (for a lack of a better term) and therefore does not suffer the same stresses that would kill a normal bulb. LED's also require much less current which also translates to less heat. They can still suffer from a short or bad ground or poor connections, but aren't as likely to fail otherwise.

We'll definitely keep an eye out. Try contacting local pawn shops for any fishing gear brought in recently and also search craigslist. Hope you get something back.

Where do you go to see who's online?

I guess this is really a question for Dave or any other ned enthusiast. But how do you fish a ned rig in current (stream, river, creek, etc)?

Wow. Where was this at? Did you report it? Get a license plate or anything?

I hate biting down worms like Powerbait or Big Bites or anything impregnated with garlic, fish oil, or some other nasty flavor. I almost always have to chase it with a beer or two to get that nasty taste out of my mouth. Good idea to shorten up the worm, but I'd use a knife/scissors instead. Cheers!

I asked almost the same question about a month ago. Here were the results.... Long story short, I bought the Daiwa Revros. It's been an awesome reel so far and has handled everything from crappie to striper hybrids. Drag is seamless and buttery smooth. Line recovery is excellent. It lays line beautifully with no twist and casts line a country mile and a half. I didn't see a need to pay more for anything else. Daiwa has excellent reels in every price point so it's just a matter of personal preference.

Love me some 4 lb whites. Wish I knew a way to consistently catch them. I'm thinking white lights and minnows sitting off a dock? Does location matter? I don't want to bring a boat if I don't have to.

Vinsott, I appreciate your reports and your determination on "stalking" this asian couple. I've been following this thread closely to see how it pans out and it has been very entertaining. lol. Great to see you catching fish and figuring things out on the lake. Wish I lived closer so I could enjoy it as much as you do. And about the limit on white bass, I would say 15 like we have here in Missouri is a generous limit in my opinion. Some may beg to differ, but I have a hard time keeping that many as we eat mostly crappie and walleye. I'm gonna give the asian couple the benefit of the doubt that maybe they are catching fish to feed their family and all their relatives. Many of the asian community have very, very large families and extended families and it is part of their culture to share their catch with everyone. I know many asians and this is a very common thing. Again, just giving them the benefit of the doubt. Either way, they got it down to an art it seems from what you're telling us. They must know some secret we don't.

Man it's so easy to get you worked up. You just can't handle the fact that someone doesn't like your dumb summer tournaments that you keep asking everyone to join. I don't care at all about anyone keeping bass on a stringer to take home. But seeing a bunch of "Kevin VanDam wannabe's" throwing out half dead bass is just plain stupid!

Here we go again....."Everyone's killing bass so what's the big deal with summer tournaments". Dear God help us all.

If only you weren't lying. Would love to have them around here. There's nothing quite like one of those toothy beasts slamming your topwater lure at the boat right by your feet. I'd gladly trade all the bass in the lake for a bunch of those big puppies roaming around. Others may beg to differ though.

I agree with Champ. An 18" walleye isn't a very big target and plus with goggles on and the way water making things look bigger, I wonder how many sublegal walleyes are kept by spear fishermen. It's not like they can release a fish after a bolt/arrow/spear has been shot through it. Heck if a bolt/spear hits an 18" walleye wouldn't it split in half upon impact? Walleye don't have much girth to them unlike stripers and hybrids.

You forgot the part about what the high level of stress from being captured, handled, sitting in a cramped livewell, etc will do to a fish in those conditions. All very good info nonetheless. The whole point some are missing is that summer is the least forgiving time to these fish because of the conditions mojorig listed above, and when you add the high stress level of tournament fishing into the mix, it multiplies the effect significantly. As sportsmen it is our responsibility to discourage those from doing something that isn't really right. For instance, if you see that quite a few bass are not surviving upon release in a summer tournament, wouldn't it light a bulb in your head that maybe it's not a good idea to run a tournament during this time of year? Especially if you wake up the next morning and see a bunch of dead bass around the area the tournament was held. Wouldn't it make sense to maybe do something about it? You just can't tell everyone "Hey take better care of your fish" and expect it to happen. So wouldn't the next best thing to do is wait until a better time of year to do it? Nobody is gonna like you for doing that though, because most guys are naturally competitive and wanna have fun especially if they can win some money doing it. As with most things in life, the right thing to do isn't always the popular choice.

Didn't really disrespect you. And I can tell you these same things in person just as well as on this forum. I'm just stating some cold hard facts. It's not an opinion that a LOT more bass die in summer tournaments than at any other time of the year. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Sorry if I offend or upset you with my bitter truths. Grow some thicker skin.

A guy keeps some small bass to eat and everyone screams "foul". But 100 tournament boats kill a bunch of big bass and nobody bats an eye. This is what's wrong with america.

Now why would I take it up with AGFC? Why would they ever wanna ban summer tournaments? Do you not think at all? How do you think they make their money? They need more people fishing, not less. They don't care about ethics or common sense or dead bass. Again, we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this topic.

I was never a fan of tournament fishing, but if I had to choose one of the lesser evils, I'd prefer MLF's way of doing it over the traditional way. I'm not concerned about the pro's in their top of the line rigs. I'm more concerned about the weekend tournament angler in his cheap tracker boat with a half arse working livewell trying to keep fish alive for several hours. So you're looking at very poor survival rates upon release. Again, not all bass that swim away survive til the following morning. It's amazing how you notice you don't get 100% survival rate on bass released in the best of conditions, but yet you go out in the worst of conditions and do it anyways. I don't know what fun you see in that, but you have problems if you think it's fun to see dead bass floating around. I don't know what kind of money you make off the tournaments you fish or host, or what kind of stuff you're smoking from Colorado, but it sure must be some goooood stuff to enjoy killing bass and leaving them. But wait, we have a great bass population at Beaver, nobody will notice anyways, so what am I yapping about. lol. This is too much fun. Carry on man, we're gonna have to agree to disagree on summer tournament fishing.

Agreed. Or provide judges/officials on every boat to do the measuring and picture taking or something along those lines. Anything is better than a cramped livewell of 80-90 degree water.

Beaver is an excellent fishery to support an amazing number of quality fish of numerous species. So it's ok to continue to run these summer tournaments and keep killing the bass because there is very little impact on the population. Basically, right? Just listen to yourself. Not trying to start a fight here, just trying to wake you up with some ice water and a baseball bat of sorts. haha.