Champ188

Thanks to all of you. I'm keeping my chin up and hoping for a brief down time.

Hey SoreThumbs, yes that Kinami Natural Shad is a killer on pretty much any of these Ozarks lakes. I've even caught em on Beaver on it, which is always the acid test for any bait. LOL. Yes, look us up at Stockton. Would enjoy visiting. I found out a few weeks ago that, like Donna less than 2 years ago, I have kidney cancer. Good thing is it's Stage 1 and cure rate is above 95%. Originally looked like the surgery plan was gonna knock me out of the last CPA derby on Table Rock but I'm now scheduled for the knife on Aug. 25 so will get to fish all the qualifiers and should be back in some semblance of fighting form for the championship on Grand. Might even get to fish the team championship on Norfork in September but not sure about that. Again, look us up at Stockton. See you there.

Very interesting report, Sam. Thanks for that.

Good stuff, rps. When it comes to fishing and particularly things like color choices in lures, perception=reality.

Those Grand Lake whites are a blast this time of year.

Like others, this is just my opinion along with advice from a darn good fisherman who I'm lucky to call a buddy: Topwater color matters little as long as the belly is white. Might be oversimplifying a bit there, but I think the theory is solid.

Aunt's Creek is full of big gills. No bass, though.

I guess I should be immune to it by now but I'm still amazed by some of the things I see and hear on holiday weekends. Congrats on perservering long enough to capture two keeper Walters.

Put me down for another $10.

Sam, Not saying Greeson is a world-class bass fishery by any means. And like anywhere, the crappie tend to by cyclic ... good years and bad. Wish you'd had a better crappie trip. Growing up in Hot Springs and even into the late 1980s, I can remember a lot of great winter/early spring bass trips down there where we would be disappointed to catch less than 50 fish in a day. But I imagine the catch-and-keep mentality combined with the stripers keeping the shad gobbled up have taken their toll. If you decide to take another crappie down there in the future, PM me ahead of time and I'll check with some old contacts and try to find out some info for you.

Denny, in my opinion, pictures like the one that started this whole mess are the result of testosterone poisoning and the need for affirmation. "Me big bad man. Look what I done went and kilt."

Sounds like a hoot, Eric. I had a guy show me something similar using a 1/16th-ounce (hard to find but they exist) shaky head and a finesse worm on the bridge pilings at Greers Ferry a few years back. Was a good way to catch spots down there and I can see where your rig could work even better. Thanks for sharing.

Very good fish. Congrats on a fine evening.

May the wakes of a thousand jet skis, wake boats and Branson Battleships rock your Ranger this weekend.

Great report, Bill. Thanks for all the detail. Won't be bucking the waves myself this wkd but patterns like that should hold for a good while.

Sam, there was a Trader Bill's Team Tournament derby held just two weeks ago on Lake Greeson and the winning string was a five-bass limit totaling 15.74 pounds. Big bass of the derby was over 6 pounds. Of the 76 teams participating, only three failed to weigh in a keeper fish. That's some pretty darn good fishing for a "fished out" clear-water lake in the middle of June. Greeson also is full of stripers, which in the opinion of many don't do anything productive for the largemouth bass population of any fishery. Obviously, whoever told you that catching a single 13-inch bass over multiple days of fishing was some kind of feat didn't know what the heck they were talking about.

Fairly sure I see some spots in there. That would eliminate the possibility of them coming from a pond.

Troutgnat, Donna and I were over at Bull a few weeks ago for the Central Pro-Am derby and fished five days. I can't tell you how many walleye we caught but I'd say we averaged 10 a day and probably could have doubled that if we'd not been intent on finding a bass bite. Thing is, out of the "around 50" we caught in those five days, we had one keeper. Nearly all of the rest were between 17-18 inches but not quite 18. They either know when to quit growing or that lake is about to be slam-darn full of keeper "Walters." At the time we were there, we fished from the dam up the Theodosia arm to the bridge. Every flat gravel point with flooded green brush was loaded with walleye. Caught nearly all of them on a 4-inch Kinami grub in Natural Shad color rigged on a quarter-ounce leadhead.

Hey Denny, maybe my tree-sitting Beaver Lake roadrunner got smart and moved to Table Rock. I used to fish Beaver pretty often but finally moved my efforts north.

Would like to think that's an old pic from back in the days before C&R became the norm but I kinda doubt it.

To clarify, by "can't believe you posted this" I meant it's hard to believe someone else saw the same thing we did. Nothing wrong with the post, of course.

Denny, can't believe you posted this. Donna and I ran into the same thing up in the Hickory Creek arm of Beaver Lake a few years back. This one was sitting in the very top of an old dead tree about 40 feet tall and was hollering every breath. Its odd call is what attracted our attention. Didn't have a pic but described the thing to everyone I knew and no one knew what it was. Finally I e-mailed a professor at the University of Arkansas and he said without a doubt it was a Greater Roadrunner. While fishing a few weeks later in the same area, we saw the thing running along the ground on the bank. Cool birds for sure. Like you, never crossed my mind that a roadrunner would be sitting way up in a tree.

You can't fix stupid.

A good post indeed, gitnby. It's so easy to get consumed with fishing that folks often don't take time to grab a bottle of water from the ice chest and chug it down.

I've always said you can't get a free cup of coffee and hang out with your fishin' buds at Wal-Mart or even Academy or BPS for that matter. I'm with ya bluffboy on supporting the little guys. And don't let Techo get you down about the hair deal ... I don't have much left either.