abkeenan

Just a heads up that there is only 9 days before the start of the BASS season at Harris Chain. If you're wanting to participate better sign up soon.

Alright guys. The season has indeed concluded and congrats to our winners. Below is the list of members and who owes who. Send whatever you are comfortable sending and please try to do it in a reasonable amount of time. Please don't wait MONTHS to send them. Baits between $5-10 is the norm. Please PM the person that you are sending a bait to and get their address. Let me know if anyone has questions or problems and thanks again for participating in another fun year of fantasy fishing. 1 swelbo1 - S. Welborn 9 baits Senders to swelbo1: SplitG2 - D. Young Royal Blue - P. Baum Lvn2fish - C. Spinks goose919 - G. Anderson Cheesemaster - C. Hunt rogueagent - T. Enke Ketchup - J. Leads TRRanger - T. Reaka aarchdale - A. Archdale --------------------------------------------- 2 fozzype - B. Foster 6 baits + 3 AOY Close Guess Winner = 9 Baits Senders to Fozzype: swelbo1 abkeenan - B. Keenan Targa98 - N. Hass kansasskeeter - A. Roberts 176champion - B. Phillips crazy4fishin - B. Turner Nomolites - M. OToole wmander - W. Andersen riverfish86 --------------------------------------------- 3 dwiebenga - D. Wiebenga 5 baits Senders to dwiebenga: Fozzype Quillback - J. Rhodes supremeJCK - J. Keenan Bassmaster1 - J. johnson AaronPorter - A. Porter --------------------------------------------- 4 Falcon215 - C. Thomas 3 Baits Senders to Falcon215: dwiebenga basfis - D. Reader Slothman - R. Lewis --------------------------------------------- 5 Champ 188 - J. Gilzow 2 Baits Senders to Champ188: Falcon215 moguy1973 - J. Horrom --------------------------------------------- 6 SethOAF - S. Turner 2 Baits Senders to SethOAF: Champ188 likinmo - G. Littrell --------------------------------------------- 7 SoreThumbs - J. Mitchell 1 Bait Sender to SoreThumbs: SethOAF --------------------------------------------- 8 aarchdale - A. Archdale 1 Bait Sender to aarchdale: SoreThumbs

OA members, After some deliberation between the greatest minds on the OA boards (myself, Quillback, Homer, Plato and Socrates) we have decided to continue forth with the OA BASS Fantasy Fishing. As you are all aware, BASS had quite the shakeup at the end of last year with most of the field leaving for MLF's circuit. A few familiar faces but lots of new blood within the BASS Elites. For those that have already participated with us in years past, you know the drill. Entry to the league is one bait ($5-10 bait is the norm) to be sent to winners at years end. Everyone sends a bait, including winners. Only some RECEIVE baits who finish near the top of the standings (winners determined by amount of entrants). It has typically gone well with a few exception of slackers. If any winners from last year did not receive a bait from the member list that was posted at the end of the season please PM me. Those that did not send a bait will not be allowed to enter the league for the 2019 season until they have made good with whom they owe. For those who are new or interested in joining please click here: http://bassmasterfantasy.com and register a team. Please use the same user name there as you do here on Ozark Anglers as it's just easier for everyone involved. After registering or for those who have existing accounts, go to the "Join A Group" section along the headers of the page. Find the Ozark Anglers group which will be private. Join the group. Easy as that. You will need the password to join the group as we do not want a bunch of randoms entering the league. PM me and I will give you the password to the league. Any questions feel free to post here on this thread. Let's have a great year. -Brett

Alright, sounds like most guys are still interested in doing fantasy fishing again. I'll get it together and post the info under "2019 Official Ozark Anglers Fantasy Fishing League". Stay tuned.

I don't see Mr. Gibbon's listed on there. That's it, I'm not attending.

So dropping the trolling motor, I am at a 35% reduced chance to catch a fish, is what you're sayin'? Combine that with my fishing ability and I basically have about a 10% chance of catching anything. Not sure why I even bother launching. I'd have a better chance of cranking away on a slot machine at the casino and probably have a lot better return on my "investment" than what I dump into my fishing ventures. Next time I fish that will be my excuse for failure or limited success. "Yeah, I was fishing at a handicap today. 35% off the top to start so I was in big hole to dig out of."

Quill, Thought about FF the other day. Wasn't sure the interest level being that the ENTIRE FIELD left for MLF. I know very few guys still fishing the BASS (Not-So) Elite circuit now other than Feider, Cherry and maybe a couple of others. Not sure if MLF will have anything set up this year for Fantasy Fishing or not. Doubtful. Would like to hear from the peanut gallery on if they would still be interested in a league. It's just not the same now. To be honest I am not looking forward to the whole MLF format. Everyone is on board with the MLF catch, weigh and release system. That's all good and makes perfect sense in every way with the conservation of the fish. No question there. But I wasn't exactly sure how this new MLF format was going to work with a larger field than what MLF had previously been doing the past few years. I watched JT Kenney's video just yesterday and he kinda broke it down in easy to understand terms (good for people like me). So in the field of 80 anglers, 40 fish Group A and 40 fish Group B. Groups A fishes day 1 and 3 and Group B fishes day 2 and 4. Then the field is cut down to 20 per group and combined (40 total) who then fish day 5. Then the top 10 fish the final day (day 6). I don't really like the idea of guys not fishing 2 of the days. Conditions can change from day to day and I for one am just not in favor of that. Everyone should fish the same conditions in my eyes. The weight total also clears and resets to zero on the final day. Not so sure I am in favor of that either. Humans by nature fear change. So maybe I will like it but just assessing the changes initially, I am not in support of the MLF style of scoring as it stands. Would prefer the standard 5 fish limit but paired with the immediate C&R. Will see how it all shakes out soon.

I guess that's the price you pay for getting a great deal on the rods and/or blanks. Unlikely, but like perhaps they got funding upfront via a crowd sale on those rods as a way to kick start their venture into the new line while also getting a gauge on their market. Not ideal for the consumer to wait and somewhat shady if in fact that's how it went down. But I would doubt that's how it happened being that Gary should have no problem financing this NFC/Edge brand of rods. This is in no way related but I remember a year or two ago over on BBC with a bunch of PO'd guys at the 5x3 brand of fishing apparel. The guy running it did a scenario just like I suggested above. Was taking orders for all his gear and had zero inventory. He wasn't able to order all his hoodies, hats, shirts, etc. until he got a large amount of people to pay beforehand for the products. Guys were waiting months to get their stuff and I guess he had terrible communication. I'd give the likelihood of Gary Loomis doing something like that at almost zero.

I thought you were kidding about the call. 😂 How exactly did that call go? Did he answer by saying "This is Chris Gibbons" or did he have another alias.......maybe "Rickey Henderson". I know that Rickey used to like to speak in third person as well. Next time you call him maybe you'll get his voicemail and I'd imagine it would go something like this:

Hope you told him to hurry up and hire a PR firm before his guide business aspirations sink before they ever float.

That is correct that both Loomis and St. Croix roll their own blanks. Gary sold the Loomis brand years ago to Shimano. I believe Gary has since started making blanks again (non-compete clause expired I'm thinking?) under North Fork Composites and has a new line out called Edge. They had a deal over Thanksgiving or Xmas where it was around 50% off retail on a pre-order for the new line coming out. They looked awesome and had I needed another rod, like I do a hole in the head, I would have gotten one.

Anyone that says they've never had that happen where they thought they were snagged and it turned out to be a fish is lying. Not sure what is worse, not knowing what you had or getting to see it and then they pull off. Both suck, but hey, you're out there fishing which is better than anything I've been able to do the last few months.

I could be mistaken but I believe that Rock Springs Tackle in Harrison and their blank rolling facility produce all the rod blanks for Denali, Falcon and Hammer rod manufacturers. Maybe other's as well. All three rod companies aforementioned make a fine rod and I believe it's due to the quality blanks put out by the people there in Harrison, AR. Of course the rod builders still have to use quality components, spline and space the guides right, etc. but it all begins with a quality graphite blank. Someone correct me if I am wrong but I believe that to be the facts.

When I first starting fishing the Ned this is the head I used first. It works okay but due to the angle of the head to the hook shank the worm just never does sit perfectly flush when glued. For being anal retentive on things like that I just couldn't continue using that Arkie head in good conscious. Once I went and got some of Dave's heads I never have ventured from them.

Aside from head shape design, the weight of the head has more to do with snagging than the weed guard. I found this out years ago when tossing primarily 1/4oz, 5/16oz and 3/8oz Buckeye Spot Removers. Amazing how much less you catch rocks when bumping down to a 3/16th or 1/8th oz head. If I am fishing a Ned it's usually not out past 20-25 FOW so I don't need a heavy head. If it's windy (isn't TR always?) the Ned usually sucks in that condition anyhow and I'd switch to a different bait all together. So the lighter weights, say 1/8th and 3/16oz IMO are better all around for the lil' guy.

I'm a big McStick guy. I have just about every color SPRO's ever put out in that lineup. I know I might get lambasted here for this.......but I like the Strike King KVD Deep's where you would be throwing the 110 + MB. Especially for the price. Have a lot of great clear water colors and run right out of the pack. Just upgrade the hooks to your choice of KVD Elites short shank or Owner ST-36s. I like the size 4's in the KVD's and size 5 in the Stingers.

Everything is dependent on budget. You can go as cheap or as expensive as you'd like. The options listed by Bill and Ham, you can't go wrong. Not knowing your budget, another option would to be to look at the newly updated Lowrider series that Falcon just released. Have a lot of the same application specific rods/actions as the Cara's in that Lowrider lineup. Certainly worth a look. I, myself, am a Daiwa guy so I love anything in the Tatula series. Great reels. Especially the SV model for throwing lighter baits. Have heard really good things about the Shimano SLX for the $100 price point but don't have any first hand experience with them. The jump up to a Curado K is another proven winner from Shimano. Good luck in your search.

Happy B-Day Bo!

Stop sending in your request on a KU letterhead with the disgusting, embossed stamped Jayhawk emblem and maybe they would let "your kind" in.

Fishrman, Not sure if you are aware but just like any lure that's discontinued.....the prices have skyrocketed on these. The last couple of years old pork jars have gone for stupid $ relatively speaking. What I'm saying is don't just give those away. I saw a guy post a similar amount of Uncle Josh jars over on BBC and he wanted about $300 for them. Ebay can give a pretty good indication how much something will go for. Going by that metric each jar is $10-20 each it appears.

A world of pain.

If you're into knock off warts I'd give Skirmish Baits a look. Not sure if they use Predator blanks or not but the paint jobs by Dwain Batey are awesome and Ozark proven winning colors. They have a Facebook page too. http://www.skirmishbaits.com/

Pay your membership dues and things might change. Just sayin'.

Too late. I recognize that ripple on the water and know right where you are. Great day on the water. Congrats to you and your better half. Between you and Babs good to see the fishing finally picked up after about a month or two of pretty pitiful fishing.

It is indeed. But I've only managed to collect 3 farthings so far even in this economy. Buncha cheapskates. Kids are gonna have a rough Xmas this year. Probably going to start having to use Walmart package-less spinnerbaits and $1 Vicious crankbaits off the point of sale display at the end of the isles.