Champ188

Bill, the Good Lord gives you guides days like today to offset those when you have to put up with knotheads like me. Glad you got some great folks and the fish cooperated so well.

I work for the statewide daily newspaper ... as special sections manager for advertising these days .... but was a sports writer for 15 years. Still in close contact with our guys who cover the Hogs daily. The consensus is that we hired the right man in Bielema, but for him to convert Petrino's "smoke and mirrors" offense to a power game won't happen overnight. It will take an entirely different type of player at a lot of positions to fit into this new scheme. Arkansas has struggled in the past to recruit the type of top-shelf talent ... beginning with the "big uglies" on the offensive and defensive lines ... necessary to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Alabama and LSU. Supposedly Bielema and the new staff are recruiting masterminds. We shall see. The next couple of years for sure, a softer nonconference schedule could be just what is needed ... a chance to build some confidence before taking on the Bamas and Floridas of the world. SEC teams beat on each other enough during conference play. I don't begrudge any of them a cupcake or two early in the season. Babler is right about Rutgers ... they will likely be more than the Hogs can handle. On the other hand, there's a lot of talent in Fayetteville. And after last year's debacle, they are hungry for leadership and reportedly have bought into Bielema's program bigtime. Losing Petrino hurt and letting that clown John L. Smith take the reins multiplied it times 10. There was even dissension in the locker room, which will sink a team faster than anything. Those days are behind us, thank goodness. Now to rebuild. I can see five wins but probably no more. Nevertheless, Woo Pig Sooey! Oh yeah, there's a heckuva shaky head bite going on. Go get bit.

I like it.

Enjoy the visit, Dave. Glad they are biting for you guys.

Hard to tell between the dumb sh**s and the don't-give-a-sh**s. One thing's for sure ... there are plenty of both of them out there.

Quill, three strikes and you're out. We're gonna have to impose a penalty if you live-release another keeper Walter.

In re-reading my post, I noticed that I failed to mention numbers or size. We fished about 8-9 hours each day and caught a daily total of about 40 fish Friday and 60 Saturday. We had fewer than 10 keepers both days, and both days our best five would have weighed no more than 12 pounds. But I see the Central Pro-Am boys didn't catch em any better than that Saturday, so big sacks are just not easy right now. We didn't commit to the shaky head/jig bite until about 1 p.m. Saturday and from then until 5:30 p.m. we caught 40. Again, not a lot of keepers but a whole lot of fun.

Good news from the finance department ... I've tried a lot of lines for spinning rods and the best combination of tough and limp that I can find is the BPS brand Excel ... 6 pound test in the green tint. It's also cheap ... around $10 for a 1,500-yard spool and at that rate, you can afford to change it often. I don't chince on line ... my fluorocarbon of choice is Trilene 100 Percent, which is one of the most expensive. My mono is P-Line, also not cheap. I use this Excel because it does the best job of what I want from 6-pound line on a spinning rod. Some folks like fluorocarbon in 6 or 8 pound test. I don't care for it myself. Too many breakage problems for me when you go that light with carbon.

Postspawn is the time for the fish to be scattered, and boy is that ever true right now. Donna and I spent Friday and Saturday fishing mostly are beloved White River arm, although we did venture as far downlake as The Cows late Friday. We caught fish as shallow as 1 foot and as deep as 32 feet, and we caught them at practically every increment in between. We even caught them busting shad on top over 70 feet. Probably the most consistent bite is fishing docks with a shaky head or finesse jig, although the shaky head will get you a lot more bites. The bottom dwellers are in 24 feet or less, but you can get bit by suspended fish in the deeper slips. Watermelon-red worm on a 3/16 head will have you in business. I was targeting docks leading out of spawning pockets. We caught a fair number Friday on a blade, tossing it along flatter main-lake banks with bushes and wind. War Eagle in mouse or lavender shad will do the trick. You can go into the spawning pockets and throw a Fin and will have a ton of fish follow you back to the boat. A few will bite. Reel it slow as you can while still keeping the wobble right. What you cannot do yet, or at least I couldn't, is catch them on the Fin out of the cedars. I'm sure that bite is just a few days away but it wasn't here for me yet this weekend. There also doesn't seem to be much of a fb jig bite yet, but I'm sure it is near, too. Get out there and catch some fish. That shaky head will get you bit in a lot of places.

Firefox.

Sounds like it's about time to take up arms, set up in the woods near your trailer and see if you can catch the scoundrels.

A very good post for sure and welcome to the forum and the lake area. Very good suggestion on the goggle-eyes for table fare, although I'm of the opinion that a judicious amount of legal harvest won't negatively impact the bass fishery. A couple of very good ground rules are to keep no bass during the spawn (nearly done now) and keep only spotted (Kentucky) bass. NO SMALLMOUTH.

Yup, and Donna and I count ourselves blessed to call you and Becky friends.

Ah, the fickle nature of the chasers. That's usually my luck, too, Phil. Or if you do find them, they come up 100 yards from you, so you turn the TM on high and fast-troll toward them only to have that bunch go down and an even bigger school come up directly behind you ... exactly on the spot you were sitting 2 minutes ago.

Hey Bill, those Falcons are a bit dull for Denny and I ... we only use bright white or yellow rods. But we will probably stop by and pilfer thru your stuff anyway. Probably raid the fridge while we're at it. We are usually hungry.

Sorry about your stuff. Hope it shows up and they catch the ^&(%(&( who took it.

It's always great to get someone involved who hasn't seen the phenomenon of schooling fish, especially big whites. Congrats on a fine morning.

I use the Duckett Micro Magic 7-3 medium heavy and love it for half and 5/8 football jig. Very light and super sensitive, plus handles a good fish very well.

Would be interested to know where MDC got the 16,000 fingerlings. Anyone want to bet they came from Arkansas?

Got to say that's the funniest thing I've read here in a very long time.

Apparently, the fact that I capitalized PRACTICALLY for emphasis somehow got lost in transmission. Again, I said PRACTICALLY all Missouri lakes. At least for now, this is a free country and Fins, Wayne and anyone else has every right in the world to love their stripers. Likewise, it's my right to loathe them. You aren't changing your opinion on them and neither am I. Onward.

Silent? I have never been silent about stripers on this forum or in any other venue. My personal opinion is and shall remain that they overstrain the forage population, therefore reducing the number of black bass per acre that a fishery can support. Here's a fact. Beaver Lake cannot compare with Table Rock in terms of black bass production, and no one needs science to prove that. There is proof everywhere you look, particularly in tournament statistics. I'm sure there are electrofishing survey results that would further prove it. For that matter, look at the forums here on OA for Beaver and Table Rock and tell us which lake is a better black bass fishery. Finally, ask MDC why there are no stripers in Table Rock or PRACTICALLY any other lake in Missouri.

LOL at Fins. Got that right.

No wonder Denny is driving a new chariot with air-conditioned seats that blow cool air up his skirt — a designer skirt of French origin, no doubt. And wearing cool new yellow-framed Ray-Bans.

Bill, let's remind each other never to buy furniture from this guy. He's way too slick for us.