bfishn

Whoa... groupthink.... I played that album yesterday... twice... ...where the air smelled like snakes, and we'd shoot off our pistols, but empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

Probably so. Will do. Thanks. My rig's an old gray over white center console Falcon, 130 Yamaha, but you'd likely only see that one at night (if at all). I also go with a buddy who isn't such a night owl in a little red Lund tin can w/a 25 Yam tiller. I'd be the ugly one in the front with a rod in each hand and glowing oculars... :-).

Piney Creek.

No problem man, it's all relevant. Buy the Law/Rape the Land/Line your Pockets. It's the American Way. I gotta ask... How big is that 'skie in your avatar?

Hmmmm... could this be the reason?; Why Do These Koch Industries Neighbors in Crossett Arkansas Have Cancer? http://www.truth-out.org/article/item/3929:why-do-these-koch-industries-neighbors-have-cancer Followed chronologically by; Charles and David Koch's money helps Arkansas Republicans gain legislative majority. http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/arkansans-of-the-year-koch-brothers/Content?oid=2624384 Followed chronologically by Arkansas House Bill 1929. Cork soakers.

That's pretty much my story too this year. On reflection of past pre-spawn 'eye adventures there though I don't think we missed much. Low/no flow and extended cold has happened before, each time directly reflected in my relative lack of success. On those years, I pretty much lost them for most of the month of March, only to "find" them again about this time of year from the line to the east end of the east-west "Fletcher" stretch (no point in being too specific here... :-) ). Most females still had their eggs in various stages of atrophy, having never gotten the properly-timed thermal/current trigger to spawn. Such are the woes of a tailwater fishery, a river ain't a river when the water doesn't flow, and spring ain't spring when it stays cold too long.

Hi Justin, In Arkansas, all things water and soil are governed by the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. The Commission establishes policy that makes funding and regulatory decisions relative to soil conservation, nutrient management, water rights, dam safety and water resources planning and development. Among their primary fiscal burdens are the state water and sewer infrastructure loan and grant programs. It's a big job with a correspondingly big budget, and everyone has their hands out. Monitoring the numerous non-drinking-water streams and lakes in the state is literally a drop in that budgetary bucket, as each is sampled and tested only once a year. I know this as I had the pleasure of visiting with the man who took our local samples and sent them for testing when he sampled my hatchery spring each year. It only took that one man a whopping 3 days to sample and ship all the qualified waters in the county... once a year. Sampling was a simple matter of submerging and capping the submerged test vial. Still, monitoring is a cost, one that gets put on the block with everything else when the budget axe falls. The unexplained element of the current legislation is why cut the regulations too? Regulations (especially existing ones) are mere words on paper that cost no one a dime when oversight is cut (like the one prohibiting the dragging of a dead horse thru town on parade day). At least if the regulations were left active an offending polluter could be held accountable if citizen sampling proved the offense. There has to be more to it than the purported "emergency" allocation adjustments.

ROFL, Lending credence to the phrase "there'll never be another ewe".

Thumbing its' collective nose at the EPA and Arkansas' longstanding tradition of protecting all waters of the state equally, our newly-elected body politic has proposed that it's OK to shxx and dump in Arkansas water as long as you don't drink it; http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2013/2013R/Bills/HB1929.pdf The bill only bows to currently practiced water quality standards; "for a stream segment, lake, or reservoir that: (1) Has an existing use as a domestic water supply; or (2) Is listed in the Arkansas Water Plan as a planned or potential domestic water supply." All other streams, rivers, lakes, and resevoirs will be exempt from monitoring and regulation of; "without limitation total dissolved solids, chlorides, and sulfates" This is not in response to any new federal regulations, nor does it address any new cost burden to anyone. WTF are they thinking????

Thank you! I planned to head that way today but life got in the way. Did you do any good on spring break, or has this year been a freak for you too?

Not to worry, some of us can't make it beyond Club West...

Only in my dreams. Prob'ly a couple weeks yet.

You got 'shrooms already?

Cocktails, followed by Watercress salad (picked fresh from the spring branch) with balsamic vinigrette, followed by Fresh morels, pan-fried in real butter and garlic, followed by Fresh, deep-fried walleye or crappie fillets, with shrimp-boiled new potatoes, followed by Key lime pie ala mode, followed by a nap...

Ha! Me too. That or he'd figured out how to make a kayak from an old refrigerator box... :-) Great sentiment, but a clearer title might be appropriate. I can almost hear someone mumbling; "I'm all for helping the homeless, but they can buy their own dxxx kayaks!"

It sure would if it were mine. I'd want all the airplay I could get before I took it to Bass Pro to negotiate a "rental" agreement to let it swim in their tank! :-)

"Those wishing to be placed on the agenda for a presentation or other business must send a written request to Tom A. Draper, Regulations Committee Chair, Missouri Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180, or Fax to 573-751-4467, at least ten (10) working days before the meeting date." from: http://mdc.mo.gov/about-us/about-regulations/process-adopting-regulations Getting heard appears to be fairly straightforward. Not getting shrugged off would depend on your presentation. I expect a lot of homework, documented references and statistics, and an impressive, fact-checked printed report would be a minimum to get consideration. Having an established reference program like Oklahoma's should be a big plus.

I'd call the Rock good for flatheads and fair for channels. I mostly target cats there June-Sept in the west end, but I hammered them the one time I fished the big end, in the timber toward the back of Jaques Creek on a tree-to-tree trotline in October. For early spring, find runoff ditches and creeks that carry in warm muddy spring dowpours, and fish the inflows while they're running hard.

The only related item on a Google News search this morning; "Chippewa tribes in northern Wisconsin intend to spear a near-record number of walleyes during the annual spring harvest."

For panfish, Elmdale, Bob Kidd, and Crystal are top rate, and comparable to any, especially for big redear. Get a cage of bugs (crickets) and have a blast.

Not priceless really, I paid for it thru determination and curiousity, but was refunded many times over. I haven't done it for several years, but I still get excited when I hear a can clink on the gravel. :-) But I'd never turn down a free beer! :-) Added Don't try this if you have a heart condition. Seriously. Seriously.

There's the key. If you can thrownet big gizzard shad from the bank, there's a good chance you can catch stripers there too, assuming it's the time of year they go there. I'll share some things I learned doing it on Beaver Lake in the fall for 10 years in a row. Oddly enough, I 'discovered' the trick from a boat. While sneaking back into the shallows at the very back of a long cove to catch some shad one evening, I saw several dozen large dark tordepos streaking out below me in the ~5ft clear water (it was barely light enough to see). Had to be stripers says me, carp aren't that numerous or spooky, and too big and fast to be anything else. The shad were there, and instead of going back out the half mile or so as I planned, I fished the area till midnight instead. NADA. Came back the next evening. Same thing. My boat spooked them out and they didn't return. It so happened that the spot was one you could access from shore, so I left the boat home the next evening and returned in my pickup. To skip over hours and hours (and hours) of subsequent trial and error, here's what I learned to have the best results (at that time and place); The big gizzards were doing their annual fall routine to the backs of long coves. This began at surface temps of 52 and lasted till it cooled to 48. If you could catch (or at least see) shad from the bank, the stripers would be there. While the shad were there day and night, the stripers only moved into the shallows under the cover of darkness. Specifically, they came in at dusk, fed for an hour or two, then left. Happened again right before dawn. Every freakin' day while the shad were there, you could set your watch by it. Using live shad or throwing cranks or jigs was only marginally successful. Believe it or not, the best bait (by far) was fresh cut shad fished on the bottom! I can't stress the word fresh enough though, a shad caught yesterday and kept on ice wouldn't get hit. At all. Don't even think about that frozen storebought stuff here. The method and rigging was critical too. A slip rig (ala catfish) with an ounce or more of lead above a swivel and a 2ft leader to a 5/0 hook, using 1/4 to 1/3 of a big gizzard shad. The head third's as good as the mid third, with the tail third saved for last. Stab it a few times to let the magic ooze out Use too light a sinker, and it will lift on the take, tick on the bottom, and cause a spit bait. The line has to flow freely on the take, the slightest resistance makes them spit it. I preferred heavy spinning or spincast reels that the line will just fall from. Use a baitcaster set light enough for them to take, and the initial 5ft burst can backlash it, but that would be preferred to a small-capacity spinning rig. When you do hookup, a big one can easily take 40-50 yards of 20lb line before you can turn them and get some of it back. My best sets were with 3 8-11ft rods.. Make the cast, take out the slack, and set it on a forked stick catfish style. Throw the bail, push the button, whatever it takes to let the line spill. Pull the line out sideways to the rod a couple feet, and set an empty can in the loop of the line for an audible strike indicator (it's dark afterall). Keep lights and noise to a minimum, especially light on the water. When you hear a can fall, grab the rod as quickly as possible, but don't grab the line. If the line is still going out, engage the reel with the tip down and set the hook when it tightens. Hard. Even with practice, you'll only hookup about 1 in three times. If they feel any resistance they'll spit it out. Give too much line before the set and you'll have to take out the slack from the angle of the bottom-hugging sinker. Another lost fish. If you take a partner, keep an extra empty can handy to toss at their feet when things heat up. It's a real hoot! Keep in mind this was a specific situation, and might require adaptation to another place or season. But yes, you can catch 'em from the bank. Sometimes it's even the best way. As mentioned, I did it 10 years in a row, so it's not a fluke.

There are two completely different and often confused algae types. "Algae bloom" typically refers to suspended microscopic plant life (phytoplankton) that occurs in any water with the requisite nutrient chemistry (nitrogen, phosphorus, etc) and sunlight. It's the foundation of the aquatic food chain and provides the bulk mass of food for filter feeders (many of which become food for carnivores). It only gets out of control when the nutrients overload, often a result of runoff from fertilized fields, septic discharge, etc. Filimentous algae on the other hand attaches to rocks and objects, and is largely a nuisance. It contributes little or nothing to the food chain, and contributes to lowered dissolved oxygen levels as it decays. Unlike non-native plant species, neither are a result of, or affected by, boat trailers, livewell discharge, etc. Added: An interesting and easy experiment (once the weather warms) you can do in your backyard is to create your own algae bloom. Just set a bucket of water out in the sun for a few days... not much happens. Then mix in a few spoonfuls of lawn or garden fertilizer and watch it turn green in the next few days.

Since they've only been widely available in Bull for the last decade or so, records have fallen repeatedly. The last I knew of was 1lb 11oz in both states. Neither state stocked them, but obviously someone did. They're every bit as good eating as walleye (just ask any walleye). :-) My Yankee fishing buddy says catching them intentionally ("perch jerkin' ") means fishing in the weeds. That technique obviously won't do you much good on Bull...

Au Contraire. Look up "peer review". When you publish your conclusions you have to; 1. Document your use of proven methods to gather data so the data is acceptably relevant. 2. Document your methods of statistical analysis to everyone's satisfaction. 3. Clearly define which of your conclusions are fact, based on the above, and hypothesis, based on the possibilities allowed in the above. Get any of that wrong and they hand your butt back to you on a platter (there's plenty of that going on). The final result is a consensus.