bfishn

Al, don't ever quit.

You're right. The fin is there to protect the prop in the normal (prop aft) position.

Way OT, but since many here come in contact with 'dillos, it's worth mentioning that a good percentage of 'dillos carry a strain of leprosy that can be be transmitted to humans. Not only direct contact with the critters, but contact with soils they recently rooted in (gardens?) can lead to infection. I thought it was more urban myth when I first heard it, but it turned out to be true. Lots of articles online, here's the scoop from the New England Journal of Medicine; http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1010536

True that. I like to start a day trolling the easy, clean stuff (probably while you're chasing bass explosions). As the sun rises higher, and 'eyes seek cover, I usually switch to drifting floater/walking sinker bait rigs in the junk (but that's a whole 'nother topic). :-)

175' is well beond my comfort range. I prefer to weight my rigs to fish about a 45 degree angle, and much closer to the boat (and me). I use pinch-on cone sinkers about 3' before the bait for less than 20', and 3-way rigs for deeper. The steeper line angle makes it easier to crank up or spool down a few feet to quickly adjust to anything you mark. When you're in the fish, halving the time to reel in and spool out makes a big difference, and I can't tell that the lead has any negative effect on the fish at all. It lets you make much tighter turns with multiple lines out too.

Interesting! Thanks! Wind power in a landscape formed by wind. Used to date a gal from that area in my younger days. The loess hills there are a product of soils deposited by the tailout/melt of ice age glaciers, the fine sediments of which ended up on the Mo River bottom. As the soils dried, wind from cold air masses falling from the great plains carried the finest particles into dunes bordering the river bottom, some nearing 200 feet deep. On the flip side (and relevant to the thread), the same falling air masses that created the hills are taken advantage of by thousands of eagles and hawks in their migration route. Winds hitting the dirt bluffs create major updrafts that the birds use to advantage on their journey. I've seen what appeared to be giant cones or funnels of eagles and hawks riding the updrafts, starting low in tight circles that widen as they rise for hundreds of feet. Birds peeled off the top of the funnel heading south again. One of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Arkansas won't stock stripers in TR because it would ruin the Beaver tailwater trout fishery. They even hunt them down and return them when a few go over the spillway. I expect Mo would never stock them there in deference. They may look at BS a bit differently, with that trout fishery being distributed instead of concentrated. Won't really matter much though, the stripers will find them eventually (see Quachita).

Trolling isn't the only way to target the deeper offshore fish. Study the maps and get really friendly with your sonar. It takes a lot of confidence to camp on a spot in the middle and throw a C rig or jig as far as you can in open water and take 4-5 minutes (or longer) to get it back to the boat, but it works. Just because your reel has a crank handle doesn't mean you should spend the day turning it.

Yep, right after the scolding for eating all the walleye & striper food. :-) (Caption) "Bad fish. Bad, Bad fish"

I agree. Back then the only way to prove your chops was in those pics on the baitshop walls. Now you just upload the video to YouTube live from the boat. Le's see some more!

Perhaps in the LS basin, but the poorly planned septic systems in ground that was perc tested by an employee of the developer in the cab of his pickup with only a pencil and a pad of test forms are the big problem on the main lakes, where E Coli counts are directly proportional to the lakeside home count. At least most of the original steel tanks have been replaced now, it used to be much worse.

Yep. You'd think Uncle Buck's 77 year reign LMB world record would have had more impact in that world, yet many are dedicated bank beaters that would be lost if they didn't have some kind of visible "structure" to throw at. He wrote books, gave seminars, and gave a lifetime E effort to teach bass anglers the art of structure fishing. Mr B gets it, and the ones that listen are beginning to get it. I really wish the bank beaters were right though. All those pesky bass really annoy me when I'm walleye fishing 100 yds from shore! Added Here's an example of one of those PITA critters that mistakenly tasted my walleye crawler on a 35ft channel break;

Look at the Arkansas River, where stripers reproduce at will, and have greater proportional populations than any of the stocked lakes. Plenty of big blacks there.

Based on the popular concensus that TR kicks both Beaver & BS' butts in the black bass department, the biggest common denominator I see is water levels. TR seldom varies by more than 5 feet, while B & BS are wild in comparison. Also, while I wouldn't knock the increasing efforts by many to improve Beaver's water quality, reduction of nutrient inflows will affect the fishery. All lakes have a limit of total biomass they'll support, but few ever even get near that limit, and then only for short durations. To have an excellent forage base, you have to have excellent plankton populations, and they require some of the nutrients that are to be controlled/reduced for water quality. All in all, it's a huge balancing act to satisfy the boaters, swimmers, flood-prone, fishermen, and everyone that drinks the water. Keeping most of the people happy most of the time is a success IMO. I'll be content with whatever the lakes provide, for the rest of my days.

To say that all the science agrees that stripers aren't detrimentally competitive with other predators for prey is stretching it a bit (but not by much). Several studies indicate a small, but measureable, decline in predator (including but not limited to black bass) growth in the presence of stripers, but only when an optimal predator/prey ratio was surpassed. Not surprisingly, in these cases it was not just the black bass that suffered, but all predators that relied on the same prey, including the stripers. Also not surprising is the fact that the same thing occurs when prey are in short supply in fisheries that have no stripers. An objective consideration (OK, most single-species fisherman aren't known for their objectivity) would be the status of white bass in a given fishery. Where whites and stripers coexist, they share nearly identical habits and habitats (until the stripers outgrow them). If the stripers ate too many shad, decline in white bass growth would be the first telltale clue. Last time I checked, and by all the current reports, there are still plenty of big whites in Beaver. Perhaps Beaver's black bass fishery could be improved, but blaming the current status on stripers is a waste of time better spent on finding real answers to the problem. It's an old argument though, going back to when they first stocked stripers in Norris, and won't likely go away overnight.

Indeed. There's 143,000 cubic yards (roughly 14,000 dump truck loads) stored at the West Lake Missouri site* alone, which is merely one of dozens of similar sites in the US. You can calculate the payload and cost of the number of Saturn IVs it would take just to haul that one site if your calculator doesn't run out of digits. * The West Lake site is an unlined burial site that accepted by-product of uranium production from the '40s thru the '60s. The only "protection" is a clay cap on top and a chain link fence. It lies in the flood plain of the Missouri River, less than a dozen miles upstream of a St Louis municipal water intake. It sits directly adjacent to a filled, capped landfill, that also happens to be burning (underground) at the moment.

Green sunfish are my preferred flattie bait by a big margin. You don't need a bio degree to identify them, they're the ones that are soft to the touch and don't poke you when you palm them. If I had to swallow a bream whole, that would sure be my choice, Seems the flatties agree.

Anywhere in Arkansas except; <100 yards below a dam Not at night Seine maximum dimensions - 50' long, 4 feet high, 1/4" mesh Anything not deemed legal bait must be released immediately.

Thanks. Being a fool is not as embarrassing when you have company.

Several sources report redear in historic sampling, one in '68 below Beaver by AGFC. Fishes of Arkansas confirms. Well within their native range too; http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=390

More positive reinforcement for me to avoid shopping... as if I needed a reminder. So were you expecting $300 Mr. B?

$300?

I hook all live baits just behind the dorsal fin and above the spine. You want them to swim, but if they're twisting up the drops you can slow 'em down a bit by trimming just a little off the tail fin with scissors. Don't trim too much, or they'll bleed out pretty quickly.

I use the green sinking flourescant for the big decrease in battery drain, and more compact storage. You can tie it at any depth so it can serve as a "floater" too. When the ones I have die, I'll probably go LED for even more efficiency and longevity.

The last time I was looking for new digs, the rental agent gave me several addresses to visit, but none were acceptable. I returned and tried to clarify my requirements so she'd understand; "Thanks Cathy, but those places just won't do. The place for me will have to pass the Peoff Test". "Ooooh kaaay... what's the Peoff Test?" "I have to be able to take a pee off the front porch or the back deck (preferrably both) without needing to look around to see if I'm being watched. Not that I would do that of course, but it needs to pass that test." "I see. Let me think about that." Next day she called with the perfect address. At least it was for the first 3 years, till 3 new houses popped up in the 'hood. Me thinks it's time to move on... :-)