Champ188

Most of you here know that I am a tournament fisherman myself, so this is not a prosecution of derbies in general or of my own kind. But I feel it's something worthy of mention with hot weather coming on. In the interest of not rambling, I'll just blurt it out — By gosh, if you kill it, keep it. Fish should never be tossed back in the lake in a dead or dying state — not during and not after the derby. This has been done time and again by tournament groups (one particularly bad incidence comes to mind last year at the Aunt's Creek ramp). Anyone with half a brain can tell if a fish is dead or dying and at that point should take responsibility to take it home and clean it. Furthermore, I can't find where it's explicitly stated in MDC regulations, but I know that Arkansas law prohibits throwing back a dead fish. If you are fishing a derby in Arkansas and you cull a dead fish, you have broken tournament rules and should be DQ'd because any derby worth its salt requires participants to follow all state and local laws. This extends to recreational fishermen, too. If you kill it, eat it or give it to someone who will.

Hey Techo, those are very kind words and are much appreciated. My comment above was intended as humor and not an after-the-fact punch at Arsenal. Yes, the catch-and-keep vs. catch-and-release thread had more than run its course and for revisiting it, I apologize. While I'm at it, I will extend an apology to Arsenal for getting a little personal and ugly in the aforementioned thread. I do not apologize for my views on keeping trophy fish. Those who want to keep their legal limit of fish to eat are certainly entitled to do so. Obviously, many of us here on OAF hope they won't choose to do so, but they shouldn't have to apologize for or defend their views. Again, apologies to Arsenal. The "long knife" is sheathed.

Spearfisher, less than two weeks ago they were thick and even chasing our topwaters just below Holiday Island. The flats between Holiday Island Marina and the old Devil's Dive Resort were loaded with them.

Kudos to Capt. D for pitching in like that and to you for standing your ground on not butchering the SM. Sounds like everyone got what they wanted.

I usually fillet any fish I catch from Aunt's Creek, but only if I have 10 or so that average 5 pounds each. Lot of trouble to dirty up the electric knife just to saw the sides off a couple of little fellows. And don't you holier-than-thou, hypocritical guide types and bass derby jockeys jump all over me either. By golly, it's legal to keep up to six bass a day. I read that somewhere. Now if I could just remember where.

Thanks, Brian. Headed over to Bull this morning for the day. Didn't go up the James arm at TR and the bite might well be on in the bushes up there. I was in the White.

Decent day in BFL on Saturday. Fishing only his second derby ever, my co-angler partner won with a fine five-bass limit totaling 13 pounds, 7 ounces. He fished an Eakins jig 4-10 feet deep all day, getting most of his bites along the original shoreline. Until very near the end of a short day (2 p.m. weigh-in), he had all 3 species (LM, SM and K) in his side of the livewell. He finally culled the K around 1:30, at which time I told him he was "spotless." He got a kick out of that, but not nearly the kick he got from the $1,600 check he won. As for yours truly, I finished a lackluster 11th with 11 pounds, 10 ounces. Topwater bite was really off in my areas, even early, and couldn't get much going on a jig. Ended up catching about a dozen keepers, nearly all by swimming Kinami natural shad grubs 6-20 feet deep in pockets. They seemed to want the grub pretty close to the bottom. Mix of LM, SM and K's. Never could get that one big bite that I needed. We fished from KC to Big Creek, keying mostly on steeper pockets with timber. Fish were schooled up pretty tight ... once you found them, you could catch 5-10 in pretty short order, with a few keepers amongst them. Saw a couple of post asking about fish in the bushes ... can't find them with any consistency. Seems the closest thing to that kind of bite is to work a jig just out from the bushes along the old shoreline.

Got in about 7 hours today ahead of the BFL derby Saturday. Fished between KC and Baxter in water 1-60 feet deep and caught fish in all of it. Numbers weren't great but ended the day with a dozen keepers including a 6-pounder, putting my best five at 18-19 pounds and would have included all three major species. So far, the monsoon of 2010 hasn't killed the bite. But the fish are really spread out. Some on topwater, some on jigs, some on grubs, some on C-rigs. We have a great fishery, folks — something to really be thankful for.

Admitting that this thread has pretty much run its useful life, I gotta say this: Arsenal, you say you "harvested" these lunkers in the name of Christianity, yet your last post is littered with cursing and you seem to have quite an affection for alcoholic beverages. And you call US hypocrites?

Glad you're feeding the disabled kids, arsenal. Seems to me you could've bought a lot of tilapia or catfish for what you spent in gas alone on that single trip down here, not to mention the cost of lodging, food, lures, etc. Slaying trophy bass "for the greater good" doesn't quite qualify you for sainthood. Just because it was legal doesn't make it sportsmanlike or responsible. As focused fishing brought up, bass of that size are of an elite gene pool and need to be preserved. It is a very small percentage that ever grow to more than 3 pounds, and again, those that do need the chance to reproduce.

This isn't "spot on" the original topic but close. First round of the Central Pro-Am championship last fall on Bull Shoals, I had located some quality SM's within sight of takeoff. Having a low boat number, I was able to get on them within 30 seconds of putting my boat on plane. Had two 3-pound-class SM before the 40-boat field had all departed. Coming in that afternoon, my partner and I had 7 minutes to spare. I stopped on the spot again, and on our last cast with 3 minutes left, partner caught a 4-pound brown fish. I netted it for him, pretty much pushed him down into the passenger seat and he arrived at the check-in boat with the big "jaw" in his lap.

Amen to that, Bro. Bill. If the caveman isn't lying, and I suspect he is, maybe Phil will give him a nice discount on a set of those bright orange Ozark Anglers decals. What kind of boat are you running there arsenal1477?

That's a fine fish Bill, several fine fish in fact. Gotta make the ol' guide feel good when a plan comes together like that.

Hey bluffboy, if this was your first CPA tourney, I sure hope it won't be your last. As you probably know, there's always a chance of drawing out with a sight fisherman this time of year and I hate that happened to you. One reason I don't sight fish in derbies is just that ... I can't hardly concentrate on working a bedding fish for feeling bad about what I'm doing to my co-angler. Also, sight fishing is too big a gamble for me. And sounds like your guy was looking for fish rather than working beds he'd already located. That's REALLY drawing to an inside straight. As for what you could do, Techo actually had the best suggestion I could think of ... dragging a C-rig Fish Doctor or lizard behind the boat or out into open water when the boat was sitting still. Otherwise, you were pretty much hamstrung. Again, sorry you got shut down like that but I hope you'll come back and fish with us some more. There are some top-notch pro division anglers out there from whom you can learn a lot. Shoot me a PM and maybe we can hook up and visit a while at the Bull Shoals derby in June.

You guys are too nice and we so much appreciate your kind words, but not nearly as much as your friendship. Before we ever left Ahoy's on Sunday afternoon, Donna and I were talking that any day you finish second to Tim Sainato anywhere, much less on his home lake, you've had yourself a heckuva day. Bill is dead-on right about him — no one works harder or fishes smarter than him. And besides, he's a nice guy. Actually, we were glad to see him score the Nitro bonus money Sunday after he missed out on it by 4/10ths of a pound on Saturday in the pro-am. OK, gotta brag just a tiny bit here and more on my life partner than myself — Since CPAA started team circuits in 2009, we have fished 10 events together including a couple of the CPAA Skeeter derbies last year. Out of those 10, we've had five top 10 finishes. Guys, don't be afraid to let your wife be your tournament partner. One of the reasons I tend to fish well on Sundays is that I'm NEVER more at ease and able to let my feeble mind work as best it can than when Donna is in the boat with me. And she holds up her end of the deal on catching fish, too. I'm sure that Techo and Snakem will agree that there's something special about sharing time on the water with your best friend. Again, thanks for all of your kind thoughts and words. We appreciate all of you.

Love those old "5-gallon" Ranger caps with the mesh backs. Owned a many of them myself. They were custom made for "bighead boys" like myself.

Denny and kbillb, so very nice of both of you to offer use of those units. Can't say how much I appreciate it. I believe I'm going to go ahead and buy a new Lowrance HDS-5 unit. With my boat going up for sale soon, I hesitated to spend the money but I think it will just add value to the boat. Again, thanks so much guys.

Methinks EP was confused as to his general location. He couldn't have caught any fish in the White River arm. To quote our guy Techo, "Nothing to see here. Move along please."

Looking to buy a Lowrance 520c unit fast ... by Thursday. My 5-year-old Garmin bit the dust this past weekend, leaving me without GPS and Central Pro-Am coming up this weekend. The reason I'd like to have the 520c or something very similar is that I have a 510c (non-GPS model) on the bow and am very fond of it. If anyone has a 520c or 522c they want to sell reasonable, please let me know. No transducer needed but will take one. Just unit and power cord will do. Thanks in advance for any help.

Techo is right on all counts. Great day Saturday, one of the primary reasons being some quality time spent picnicking with some darn fine folks. Usually not much myself on stopping to eat but truly enjoyed some "dry time" under the dock with Techo and Shell. Hope we get to do so again soon. As for the fishing, can't "give away the store" with Central Pro-Am coming up this weekend but suffice to say we had an incredible day. Started in Fisher Creek at KC and ranged as far as Campbell Point by day's end. Best five would've topped 21 pounds and included two LM on the high side of 5 pounds each. Caught em on shaky head worm in watermelon candy, C-rig lizard in same color, grub, floating worm in bubble gum pink, topwater and spinnerbait. Fish are literally in all stages of the spawn, thus the wide variety of ways to catch 'em. I will say that I'm not sure there's a flat gravel point in the entire White River arm, at least up to Shell Knob, that isn't loaded with fish.

Got mine in the mail yesterday. I'll have them on my motor this weekend.

Hey Capt. Don, you might check into things a bit deeper. Snagging spooners may not count as guiding.

Jim Thompson, owner of Central Pro-Am, is now a local dealer for Megabass. Go to www.centralpro-am.com and look under news articles for an article about him carrying Megabass and info on how to contact him. He will probably have what you want in stock, saving you having to order one.

After 30 years of just silently abiding the rudeness, I'm with Capt. Joe on this. If we don't say something, it just continues. And we can do so politely. The ones who don't know better at least will understand what they are doing is intruding on others. Possibly they'll use that knowledge to avoid doing so in the future. The ones who don't care just might pick up and go bother someone else. Folks like that tend to be cowards anyway. They'll walk all over you if you let them but they'll turn tail and run when challenged. If not, like Capt. Joe, I'm a big boy and we can go to the bank if they like.

I'll leave the rental info to someone else but I'd strongly suggest Aunt's Creek as a place to swim, cook out and of course to fish. You knew it was coming, Tim. :lol: