chi0082

My best days of fishing as far as I can remember is right when the storm hits. It's like the fish just wanna commit suicide and will hit anything.

I was gonna say the same thing as Pigsooner said above. It's about light wavelength. Green penetrates deeper than white. Too much white light can spook bigger game fish as they like to hide in the "shadow" of the light. So if you go with green, you can shine deeper with less "brightness" (if that makes sense) and the bigger fish tend to come much closer. In theory anyways.

I also like Cabela's over BPS. And it's funny Stump how I find Cabela's pricing a bit better than BPS, in fishing and hunting gear, not so much apparel. And Cabela's branded stuff are higher quality than the Redhead stuff in BPS, but that's rather subjective depending on who you ask. Just my experience anyways.

Nice stripers. I'm hoping the rain today didn't cool off the lake too bad and ruin the bite and water color.

That's good to know. Didn't know trout were illegal in Arkie. I knew crappie were though. And yea I'm not out that much on beaver, but I'll definitely let you know where I can find some big shiners. Thanks for the pm. I'll keep your number handy.

Number 1 thing I got from this thread.........there's a Cabela's in Rogers, AR??? Did not know that!

For clousers, heard purple and some chartreuse seems to work good for walleyes and white bass for stained water. For clearer water, try white and silver. For smallmouth, use anything that imitates crawdads such as orange, red, brown, etc. and enough weight to stay near the bottom.

Has the water cleared up any in PC? It was muddy a few weeks ago but haven't been down there since early April so just checking to see if anyone has been out that way and seen the color and water temp lately?

I can get trout pretty easily, but they're hard to keep alive just like shad. They need cold clean water all the time. I'll see if I can get some big 5" shiners and 6 to 7 inch goldfish to try for the heck of it. If nothing, we'll catch some big catfish at the least right?!

All of those studies are saying that eventually everything comes out in the wash. So removing a bass from it's bed and relocating it (tournament fishing) won't be such a big impact because there's a ton of other bass spawning in the same area. And then they go on to say that maybe 5% of the fry that hatch make it to adult anyways. Well according to my math, if you remove that bass and relocate it, that bed is practically destroyed and has ZERO chance of producing any fry. I'll take the 5% over zero any day. No matter how many zero's I add up, they still equal zero. I can add fractions and eventually come up with a number larger than zero every single time. The math is simple folks. Fishing beds and relocating bass during the spawn does more harm than good, no matter how you slice it.

The couple times I was there (first week of April), they were everywhere but would not hit anything. Completely locked jaw. And I normally do very well down there too. Don't know what the deal is with them this year. But hey that's fishing for you.

Unsupported opinions? HAHA. Try google buddy, you'll find plenty of studies done on fish mortality rates from bass tournaments. You'll come to realize my numbers were very conservative. Some studies show upwards of 70% mortality rates. But bass fishing is a very big money making industry so everyone has been "hush, hush" about the facts so that people like you don't hear about it. Surprising how well that works.

Thanks for the link. Very informative.

You're making a pretty large assumption that the average tournament angler takes great care of their catch. As if nobody lands their catch on the carpet of their boat, grabs the fish with dry bare hands, throws it in the livewell and then turns on the livewell. Not to mention stabbing a cull ring inside the fish's sensitive gills and yanking it out when you cull. Yea none of that will kill a fish. Everyone is just really careful because they're not pressed for time, and has top notch well maintained equipment in their $55,000 boats. The best fisherman in the best boats with the best equipment in the elite leagues (FLW, B.A.S.S., etc) is where my numbers come from. Even with all the precautions and things they do to take great care of the fish, the mortality rates are still higher than you think. Who knows how bad it is at the lower levels of the sport. I've been to lakes after a major tournament was held the day before and have seen dead bass all over the shore. It's a sad deal and needs to be better regulated or stopped all together. My opinion anyways.

What else works for stripers besides shad? I'm having a hard time catching and keeping them alive. Do large shiners work? Small suckers or bluegills? Goldfish?

Excuse my ignorance (not a bass fisherman), but what is a meanmouth or meanie? I've heard this term tossed around and have not been able to find anything on it through google. Is it the same as a smallmouth? A hybrid of some sort? Again, excuse my ignorance for not knowing.

To add to what fishinwrench has said above......I just think tournament fishing should just outright be outlawed...period! It has gotten way out of control. Seems EVERY weekend there is a tournament going on in this lake whether it's local, club, charity, etc. Whether we hear about it or not, there's some type of small tournament going on during this time of year. Fisherman today have the technology and info readily available to make them much MUCH better fisherman then way back in the days. So that translates to more people fishing and more fish being caught and more participation in tournaments. A recent study (can't remember the source) by some biologists and universities that have tagged bass that have been caught in tournaments show that up to 30% of bass caught and released in these tournaments die from stress and injuries within the first few days. That's almost one out of every 3. The death rate is even higher with hot weather. And somewhere close to 70% of bass don't make it back to their original home once released. Just because a bass swims away doesn't mean it will survive til the next day. We're lucky the Rock is a wonderful lake with high quality habitat and forage base to support and sustain a healthy population of a variety of fish. We should not take that for granted and be careless with our fishing behavior. Ok my rants over. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

Parties over. That's the word on the street anyways.

I never understood why anyone did that. So they can show off to other boats at the ramp? Show off to their buddies in other boats? To people on shore? I mean what gives! Take a pic and release as quickly and carefully as possible. No need to stress out the fish anymore than you have to.

Very nice. This should help.

Thanks Mike, but I didn't find much on the spawning sequence other than the timing of the spawn between white bass and walleye. I know generally walleye are one of, if not, the first to spawn. But after that, I'm lost.

I've been looking for awhile now for the general progression of the spawn on most of the sought after fish species on the Rock. Maybe I'm not typing in the correct terms when searching, but I'm just looking for which species spawns first, second, third, etc. Can you help me order these species in order of the spawn.... White bass, white crappie, black crappie, walleye, smallmouth's, largemouth's, flathead catfish, channel catfish, and shad.

With more and more boats entering the lake more than any other time in the past and with all these derbies and pleasure boaters, it's not a matter of "if" an infestation will happen, it's now a matter of WHEN. That can be said with any lake. Too many irresponsible boaters out there and there's nothing we can do about it.

Heard the spawn is already over. That it happened last week or before that when we had those nice 80 degree days. The best fishing most years is the first week of April. For whatever it's worth.

This is probably one of the better things I've ever seen on any fishing forum. Thanks!