Champ188

Enjoyed a great day with my best fishing buddy. Launched at Big M around 8:00 and fished until late afternoon. Our fish were much shallower than some might have expected. We did catch a couple of smaller ones deep, but all of our better fish were in less than 10 feet. Caught them on everything we threw ... Rock Crawler, Wart, jerk bait, swim bait and jig. Had a good sack around noon when we left the White and headed up the Kings, more to check things out than anything. Found the water stained but not muddy and ended up catching a couple of solid 3 pound-plus keepers up there. Ended up with 21 total with 8 keepers. Best 5 would go 16-17 lbs. Gotta say, if you guys haven't tried the Pigsticker jigs, you might want to consider it. Donna fished the 3/8-ounce Quick Five finesse football jig all day and at the end of the day, the paint on the head was hardly scratched. The jig comes thru just about anything without hanging and has a quality hook that proved it will hold 4-pound fish securely. Donna was also impressed with the trailer holder and only used two craws all day despite catching quite a few fish on the jig. It's shaping up to be a fun late winter/spring.

Congrats on quitting smoking. I quit 5 years ago when I went thru an ordeal with kidney cancer. Happier every day about it. I can breathe better, I hardly ever cough now, etc. However, these holier-than-thou reformed smokers who like to say "Ewwwww, those things stink" are full of crap. Only time I ever think about a smoke these days is when I get around someone who has one lit. Still smells very good to me but not to the point of calling it a craving.

Bill Dance doesn't exactly qualify as a subject matter expert on fish care. You want to catch more "green and brown critters" then it doesn't hurt to start by taking the best care possible of the ones we do catch. If promoting fish care qualifies as complaining, color me guilty from now on.

Flippin, on a 20-foot Ranger, the winch strap is only 15 feet long. In other words, it's not long enough for the boat to clear the trailer even if you let it all the way out.

At least it's not in the water anymore. We don't need anything keeping the water temp down.

I bought one of these recently. Works like a charm.

Article in the Shreveport paper said Dylan's younger brother chased the suspects until they crashed and flipped their vehicle, pinning them inside. Probably a good thing for them or there might've been two killings.

No jerk bait falls 3 feet per second even if you cover every inch of it with SuspenDots. I doubt there's a spoon in the world that falls that fast. A good copy editor would've caught that.

The stabbing appears to have nothing to do with the tournament, which was held on Toledo Bend. Sibley Lake is a 1,000-acre water supply for the city of Natchitoches. Given the time of night, it might be a teen hangout.

There's a comedian in every crowd.

Why would the ramp have been blocked? There is plenty of room there for a club tournament and small weigh-in.

I thought Louise was the brunette.

I always thought Louise was the hottest of the Mandrells.

Great work, Ben. Invaluable info.

Even hooks them precisely in the same spot every time ... top of the mouth, just left of center

Donna and I broke in the Z119 three years ago with a 5-mile ride through 6-7 footers on Eufala in Oklahoma. At least there was no timber in this area so you could quarter them one direction for awhile and then switch to the other direction rather than try to ride straight downwind with a following sea. We only speared one and that was the fault of the numbnuts behind the wheel and not the boat. Best ride you could ever ask for in a 19-8 boat.

The grass is coming back strong on Ouachita. Donna and I are going down there tomorrow and Saturday. Pretty pumped about being on the old home waters.

Actually, as taxpayers/license buyers, they belong to all of us. Therefore, we're all entitled to our opinions regarding what becomes of them. That's certainly not to say he can't do with it what he wants.

I don't get it at all given the lifelike replicas available today. But that's just me.

The only problem, Trophy, is that coontail doesn't generally do well in river arms. To thrive in highland reservoirs, it needs very clear water. I grew up around coontail, hydrilla and elodea in west-central Arkansas (lakes Ouachita and DeGray) and it is indeed a boon to bass fishing. Just seems our climate here isn't quite warm enough to support it. Biologists experimented with it on Bull Shoals. Others such as Fish24/7 surely know more about that endeavor than me.

If damage to the blanks occurred along the assembly line, sounds like training and quality control could be lacking.

Mixermarkb, just for reference, mjk86 once boasted that his family has killed every keeper bass they've caught out of Table Rock for all the years they've been visiting here on vacation. Then he goes on another current thread and makes a supposedly humorous comment about how far down a hill a 10-pound bass can flop. Nuff said.

Seems to be a long way from the water, too. Hope that's not an indication of where it ended up.

This is very likely true, plus it would be difficult to have their "quarters" with breaks in between if guys had full run of a lake the size of Dale Hollow (or Table Rock, Guntersville, etc.). They seem to want interaction on the water among the anglers, too. To the original point, I fished Central Pro-Am events against James for quite a few years and I can personally attest that he's a fine fellow. However, I can see how he could be misinterpreted. He's a former drill instructor, so he's inherently loud and in your face. After you've been around him a bit, you realize that it's just part of his charm, so to speak. As Archdale pointed out, he has a good heart.

I refrained from saying anything about them appearing dead but I think it's pretty evident that Sam is dead right, no pun intended. That's six that none of us will ever have a chance to catch, along with any they may have spawned. Legal or not, you can only eat them once.