rps

Went out at can't see but didn't come in until 1:00, well after skidoo usually begins. The reason was the very light boat traffic. I ran up to Eagle Rock in the dark, fished the long flat points between Owl and Panther Creeks then moved on to the Devils Backbone. Didn't see another boat until 8:00 AM! You would think between the quiet and the haze this morning, topwater baits would have worked for me. They did, but only in an odd way. I felt like the kid who when he was asked how the fishing was answered "fantastic." He had caught a whole mason jar full. Total of 5 bass that might have weighed 3 pounds total. Did catch a solid keeper on a shakey head after the top feeding ended. Went looking for walleye after the sun was on the water. I received a tip from Powerdive earlier this week and worked Cabelas Reef Runner knockoff in the 23 -25 foot range over 26 -28 foot water. Four hours and six stops later I had nothing. Then, after noon, at stop seven, upstream from Holiday Island Marina, I caught a 20 inch and 23 inch out of tree tops. The silver and black bait was at 25 feet and bouncing through limbs. The water was 32 feet deep. The boat speed was between 1.5 and 2 mph. Both fish were males. One will go into fishburgers tonight and the other is saved for company coming this weekend.

I remember a kinder and gentler time when baitcast spools were large, openings in the reel housing were large, and my eyes were better with tiny things. In those days I fished with 20# blue stren and poking the end of it in a hole was sure and easy. Let me tell you 8# fluorocarbon onto a Shimano Curado 100D with my more mature eyes isn't the same thing at all. I was about to give up when I thought of something. I took a small piece of tape and taped the line to the spool. I reeled the handle until the line came back around. Easypeasy. If you all already knew this trick, why hadn't you told me? If you didn't know this trick, now you do.

Come back from the darkside. Smaller boats, better hours, more fun. rps

The first two years I lived on TR, I fished out of a Supreme. For those that don't know, that's an excellent fiberglass version of the White River float boat. They do not have floatation. I sold it and bought an Xpress because twice in one summer I was swamped by large boat wakes. >:-( Now when I go to the Norfolk or below Bull Shoals, I am back to renting. But I don't have to bail as often on TR.

I know it is hard to believe, but some of the boats are made to make large wakes. They are displacement craft like the old wooden cruisers. The older style of hull was deemed superior for water sking tricks and competitions. Mastercraft is an example. Even at top speed, "on plane," the hull makes a large wake. They are popular with the with the wakeboard and skidoo crowd as well. The real giants out there are also primarily displacement hulls as they give a smoother ride in ocean chop. Cigarette boats are the exception for oceangoing craft, and, if you've seen film of their races, the passengers take a beating. As an aside, I question the sanity of those who put ocean craft on inland lakes. Until laws are made, they have the right. Doesn't mean I can't laugh at them. Your fish and ski and my aluminium center console are a more modern hull design. Memory seems to tell me the PT boat was the first large planing hull and was based on small fishing boat designs - plywood was used to make a V bow that flattened to a relatively flat stern hull line and then overpowered to push it fast enough to put it on plane. Can we say 1980's Ranger?

I assume you were fishing well down lake, but up at this end, Holiday Island, bows and browns are common, especially up river of Beaver. My good friend Larry once caught a 6 pound brown while jerk bait fishing. Having said that, a 26 inch rainbow is impressive anywhere! Congrats and please post a picture.

Fished Saturday morning. Five topwater bites on a Super Spook Jr. Four fish in the boat, two legal and the other two just missed. Ran upriver and found I could now go under the Beaver Bridge even in my center console, provided I took the rods out of the vertical holders and ducked down behind the console. Didn't catch a thing up there but enjoyed seeing the water. I tried some new areas and depths for walleye after the sun came up. No joy. Sooner or later I will find them this year. I am beginning to scope larger baitfish balls, a good sign for summer patterns.

There is something about spotted bass everyone has to love. How many fish are bigger around than they are long? They fight like they weigh three times what they actually do. They, evidently, don't give a fig for LMV and other problems. I remember a 4 pound plus spotted bass on Broken Bow in Oklahoma that had me convinced I had caught the new lake record. I think maybe your client will remember that fish a very long time. Well done! rps

Everything posted sounds good! I will try and expect to enjoy. I was born in El Paso and raised weird. From this I have a few recipes. This is one of the more traditional: Queso The first time I learned this recipe, I had to pull a stool to the stove to watch Great Aunt Eberle make it. My Mother, her sisters, and even my real Grandmother all made this dish as well. No two recipes were alike and the taste of one batch was never exactly the same as the next. None the less, it was always called just Queso. Over the years, I have experimented with the recipe. I flirted, briefly, with Rotel tomatoes and quickly decided they were too watery and too hot with cayenne. I made one batch with roasted Ancho peppers (too smoky). One time I even tried taco seasoning; I was in Rhode Island, and I was desperate. A side note will tell you how much this dish means in my family. We prepare Queso for Thanksgiving. This is better than real pan gravy for turkey and dressing. One year, Mother forgot to fix Queso. My Father, never gentle and always loud, declared we might as well “forget the blankblank bird if there’s no Queso.” The recipe below is as close as I can come to what I actually do now days when I fix the dish for my family. Feel free to adjust the proportions – I always do. CONTENTS: 1 Tbls. olive oil ½ yellow onion, diced medium fine 1 fresh Jalapeño pepper, pith and seeds removed and fine diced ½ fresh Anaheim pepper, pith and seeds removed and fine diced ½ teaspoon high quality chili powder ¼ teaspoon ground cumin 1 small pinch of cayenne (optional) 1 small can Old El Paso diced green chilies 1 pound Kraft Velveeta processed cheese food, cut in 1 inch chunks 1 can diced tomatoes, thoroughly drained METHOD: Heat the olive oil over medium to medium low heat. Add the onions and gently sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add the fresh peppers and sauté another 3-4 minutes. The onions should not brown and should turn translucent. Add the spices and sauté an additional minute. Add the canned chilies with their juices. Sauté another minute. Reduce the heat. Add the diced cheese one chunk at a time and slowly melt the mixture while stirring. When the cheese is melted, add the tomatoes and gently stir without destroying the tomatoes. This freezes well, lasts a long time in the refrigerator, and makes the perfect late night snack. If you make a dreadful mistake and let a batch get dry and old, fry some hamburger, add dry rice to the mix, add a jar of mild chunky salsa plus water, cook the mixture and top the skillet with the old Queso. Cover the skillet and let the mix melt together. The end product is called Mexican Surprise. rps October 6, 2005 Queso.doc

I am so glad you enjoyed yourself and caught some fish. Watching someone that knows the lake and fish show them to you is almost ...ALMOST ... as good as catching the big ones. Come back soon. Come back often. rps

Fished Keystone many times while I lived in Tulsa. More than one story to tell on Keystone - first time to have a gun pointed at me, first time to have a fish take all my line, first time to watch a varoom varoom boat bury itself in the waves - don't miss it a bit. Come over often then do as I did: move here. Welcome! rps

Bill: I will admit that all too often, when a fish attacks, my first impulse is to jerk. I know better, but impulse is impulse. Usually, after the first one or two, I do better. Today was tough for me because even after I lectured myself to do as you state, the problem continued. Realistically, I had a bunch of attention from the fish. Realistically, I didn't convert it to results right away. Arn't we glad that we can discuss fine points. I caught more than one fish today. Your clients caught many more than one fish today. How many millions wish they could say the same? rps

Fished 5:00 AM to noon Thursday. The first twelve, count them, twelve attacks on my spook I hooked nothing. Not one stinking fish. By then it was 6:00. I finally figured out that maybe I was missing the hookup because they really weren't that interested in the spook. I had noticed several followers as well as the misses and had been trying varying retrieves. I switched to a popper and finished the morning with six topwater LM between 12 and 16 inches. Only the largest would have been legal. Around 7:00 I began longlining for walleye. I tried various bait depths between 12 feet and 20 feet in water from 15 to 35 feet deep. I fished flats, points and timber. Caught one 14" walleye and another seven bass, one legal. The bass were all spotted bass and came off the flats and points. I did not scope any fish deeper than 26 or 27 feet down. Most I scoped were suspended over some minor break or brush pile between 14 and 20 feet. There was next to no boat traffic until after 10:30 and then it was relatively light.

I cook without a measuring device most of the time. People ask me to write down some of the recipes. This is a written version of something I made up lately. Feel free to adjust from my measurements. If you try these, give me some feedback. Fish Burgers Source: When we used to live in Tulsa, we shopped at Bodine’s fish market fairly often. They made a fish burger from scrap that was delicious. This is a recipe I created to emulate those burgers. Ingredients: 1 pound salmon or trout fillets diced in ¼ inch cubes 1 pound white fish fillets diced in ¼ inch cubes (white bass, crappie, walleye, cod, halibut, sea bass) 1 large shallot minced very fine 1 to 2 teaspoons Old Bay ½ teaspoon garlic powder 3 splashes of Franks Hot Sauce 1 egg 1 heaping tablespoon minced parsley 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs Salt and white pepper to taste Method: Beat the egg and combine well with all other ingredients. Form the mixture in patties and chill well to firm up the burgers, at least an hour. To cook, mix a little water with another beaten egg and dip both sides of each burger in the egg to coat. Then put the burger in more seasoned panko to make a coating. Chill until ready to cook. Heat ¼ inch of vegetable oil over medium high heat until it shimmers. Cook the burgers with minimum movement and only one turn until golden brown on each side. Fish_Burgers.doc

Roaring River?

Chili, the Way It Should Taste Serves 6 – 12 Ingredients 1 pound sirloin steak 1 pound extra lean ground chuck ¼ pound ground pork sausage 2 soup cans of no/low sodium beef stock 2 large tomatoes, skinned, seeded, and diced 1 large yellow onion, diced 1 tablespoon tomato paste 8 ounces beer 2 cans pinto beans 2 fresh jalapeño peppers, seeded and diced fine 2 tablespoon olive oil 2.5 tablespoons ground cumin 1 tablespoon oregano 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 large pinch of thyme 2 cloves garlic, diced fine Method Remove all fat and bone from sirloin and cut in .25 inch strips Heat the 1 tablespoon of olive oil in large skillet over high heat, then brown pork sausage. Break the sausage into pieces and drain well on paper. Allow skillet to reheat and brown the steak strips in two batches. Drain well on paper towels. Allow the skillet to reheat and brown the lean ground chuck in two batches. Drain well on paper towels. Drain all fat from the skillet and pat (not wipe) the skillet dry of fat. Reheat the skillet and add the tomato paste, stirring continuously to prevent sticking. Add the beer and use the liquid to deglaze the bottom of the skillet. Add the stock and tomatoes and reduce the heat to a low simmer. In a separate pan over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When heated, add the onion and sauté to translucent. Add the jalapeño and garlic and slowly sauté another 3 minutes. Add the dry spices and mix in well, allowing another 1 minute of cooking. Dice the browned sirloin steak strips finely. Add all meat to the simmering stock. Add onion mixture to the stock. Simmer one hour, skimming all fat from the surface. Add the pinto beans, including the liquid. Simmer slowly for one to two hours, until liquid begins to thicken. Taste and adjust spices, but not salt. Skim any fat from surface. Simmer an additional 30 minutes to serving consistency. Taste and add salt to taste

"Anyone know of a good source of hickory wood in the area?" In the early fall I go around the neighborhood here (Holiday Island is heavily forested) and pick up hickory nuts. The skins and nuts are full of oils and other hickory chemicals. I pickup enough to last a year and store them outside in squirrel proof cans. To get the smoke without the expense of the wood, I wrap a double handful in foil, ice pick holes into the foil, and throw the wrapped bundle of nuts in the fire. The restricted oxygen causes the nuts to smoke instead of burn. When the smoke is no longer visible, fish the bundle out and dump the nut charcoal on the fire for another kick of flavor. Two or three bundles in the 12 hour cooking period (180 t0 190 degrees) will amply smoke a full pork butt or two racks of ribs. As for sauce, I make my own: North Carolina Yellow BBQ Sauce Source: Believe it or not, I got this off the internet and then adjusted it. INGREDIENTS: 1.5 cups prepared yellow mustard ½ cup packed brown sugar ¾ cup cider vinegar ¾ cup beer 1 tablespoon chili powder 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 1.5 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature 1.5 teaspoons liquid smoke flavoring ½ teaspoon Louisiana-style hot sauce, or to taste METHOD: 1. In a heavy non-reactive saucepan, stir together the mustard, brown sugar, vinegar, and beer. Season with chili powder and black, white, and cayenne peppers. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, and cook for about 20 minutes. DO NOT BOIL, or you will scorch the sugar and peppers. 2. Mix in the Worcestershire sauce, butter, and liquid smoke. Simmer for another 15 to 20 minutes. Taste, and season with hot sauce to your liking. Pour into an airtight jar, and refrigerate for overnight to allow flavors to blend. The vinegar taste may be a little strong until the sauce completely cools.

Incredible! Your client must think you walk water. Well done and I am green with envy.

Excellent report and thankyou. I did not respond to your original post as I am at the complete opposite end of the lake and know nothing about that area. I'm glad you figured some things out. You are right, btw; it is wonderful to live on this lake.

I put in at Holiday Island and you described my morning, although you had more shorts than I. I took two legal, one barely and one 18" but thin. The largest fish came on a spook just before I left the water at 8:30 because of the front. Of course, it came off the submerged road bed there at the Holiday Island marina. So much for thinking the morning was ripe for a good topwater bite.

In the words of Indiana Jones, "I hate snakes." I had nightmares at the time, but wish I had film of it now. Some years ago - 1974 - I was belly boat fishing a stock pond near Norman, OK. A snake invited himself into the tube by falling out of the willows above me. I can't describe all the action of the next two or three seconds, but I wound up out of the tube and ten feet away. Then I had to convince the snake to let me have my tube back. I hate snakes.

Nice fish! Rim Shoals is a terrific area.

Even though the front ran me off the lake early this morning, this afternoon I drove down to the ramp to see what was happening. Allan, the concessionaire (he has had a miserable year so far) has the marina open, accessible, stocked and is even renting boats. To avoid the mess I wrote of in my first post, he has hired three locals with golf carts to act as ramp and parking marshals. They have set up a boat prep area out of the line of the ramp. They use the carts to transport people and goods from the distant parking lot to the ramp. Where the boat owner is less than skilled at backing, they make him or her get out and do the backing for them. Very smart, but they have taken all the fun out of the show.

Good fish! Don't you love it when you see something, try to use it, and it works?

Fished the Holiday Island marina parking lot Saturday morning with a modified spook from first light until the lightning and wind came through at 7:30. Caught 6 LM with 3 keepers. Missed maybe that many more strikes. Largest fish was 19 inches. The fish were holding in 6 feet of water. The problem is repeating the pattern. I guess I could go up to Beaver and down to Eagle Rock. Fished Sunday from first light until traffic. Much debris in the water, some of it quite large. It created a mat of mulch where I fished Saturday. I tried a number of spots with the spook with no success. The only fish I caught was small and hit the bait before I moved it. I had three or four miss the bait and all of them came after a pause. I switched to a Heddon Knucklehead Jr. (a jointed popper - a very good bait but it comes with second rate hooks so I change them) Caught 6 between 6:30 and 8:30 with two keepers. About then the sun burned through the fog and clouds. I switched to a shakey head worm and fished the edge of the flooded trees on a flat point. Two fish, one a keeper spotted bass. By then the Holiday Island rental 'toons came charging by - everyone knows that is the international signal that it's time to get off the lake.