Champ188

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.

MDC has been on the cutting edge of black bass management since the 1980s, when it was among the first such agencies in the country to introduce length limits. Unlike their neighbors to the south, the Missouri boys have far more sense than to wreck a world-class fishery by introducing a non-native, forage-depleting creature that God intended to be in the ocean.

Danger, there was plenty of slime is some areas but it was of the floating variety. Pretty much seems to have broken loose from the bottom as Donna didn't have much problem at all with it getting on her jig.

Donna and I fished noon-7 p.m. Sunday, launching at the SK bridge. Fished down to Big Creek then back up to mouth of the KIngs. Bucks were literally thick on the banks out to 10 feet. Caught 60 or better, although nothing over 4 pounds, on a War Eagle blade in green shad, trick worms in bubblegum and watermelon-red/chartreuse tail and a Bass-X finesse jig in Beaver Craw/Purple with a green pumpkin Lil Critter Craw trailer. Shaky head in watermelon-red also produced a few fish. We fished mostly off the main lake because of 30 mph winds. Fish were primarily on large rocks and big wood. Get out there and getcha some. It's a blast right now.

Thanks indeed. Very good report.

Hope you guys are giving polygraphs. One of your hourly winners yesterday is embroiled in an ongoing controversy down at Beaver Lake, which escalated a week ago when he and his partner won the annual Buddy Bass for the umpteenth time. See related post on the Beaver Lake forum here on Ozark Anglers. It will be interesting to see if either of them show up in your weigh-in line again today.

Very cool. Thanks for the heads-up, Phillip.

I'm 105% with ya on that one, T. I'd like to see both April and May made that way. It would be a completely cost-free management tool other than what little they might spend on education and enforcement.

Bunch of those bed fish gonna get yanked off this weekend with that Oakley Big Bass derby.

Gotta love spring. Thanks for the nice report.

Nice info. Thanks.

Bundy is from Harrison, AR. A few years ago after he and Hagood won the Buddy Bass for one of their multiple times, I asked a very respected tournament fisherman from Harrison if he knew anything about him. His answer was that Bundy has pretty much been blackballed from fishing any tournaments on Bull Shoals.

lol - Champ has been using my laptop because his is in the shop. Didn't realize he was logged in to OA. Donna G

Well, Beaver kicked our butts again. We were in the first flight with a 6:00 a.m. start time (2:00 p.m. check-in). Had four in the box by 6:45 a.m.on a topwater and swimbait and only one K, which was a nice one. Never caught another keeper until an hour before weigh-in, then couldn't seal the deal with a limit (6). Put the five back in the lake and headed for home. Champ188's snoozing in the recliner and I'm ready for a nap, too. Hard work not catching fish.

From what I know of other states' theories, spots are pretty much unwanted. Oklahoma has removed all creel and size limits on them except for a few rare exceptions with individual lakes. The thinking is that spots are aggressive and will out-compete LM and even SM for forage. I enjoy catching spots and I enjoy eating them because I'm personally convinced that I'm doing no harm to the fishery from whence they came. In fact, I'm likely helping it. I'm with F&F on the subject of catch-and-release. In some cases, we are loving our bass to death. Game and Fish can pass all the regulations and work their tails off to stock our lakes, but if we don't harvest some of the legal fish then it all goes for naught. Harvest is a critical part of any management plan because every body of water has a per-acre capacity of how many bass it can support based on forage. Again, I think Stein and his colleagues are looking in the right direction in order to boost LM and SM populations on Beaver. F&F this is where you quit reading .... Now if they'd just cease and desist with the striper stockings!

LOL Quillback, yes of course I was joshing about the jointed Fin. Love that thing to death. It's put a lot of fish in the boat and a pretty fair amount of $$$ in me and Donna's checking account over the years. Appreciate you guys putting up with my sense of humor.