Bird Watcher

On the board this afternoon we now have an active Ned Thread, an argument about concealed weapons, and Rickf just posted a Kentucky bass report out of Aunt's creek (fingers crossed it leads to another C&R debate!) All is right in the world. Carry on fellas. Anyone been gigging?

bs

I've caught a lot of intentional walleye and incidental bass on the suspending jerkbaits...enough of them to convince myself those are the only jerkbaits i need to buy @ 2.99.

I'd like to think that someday I could go to Truman and have a realistic chance at a 50-70## fish without it being a fluke. Truman already gave me my personal best at 29#. the big ones are such awesome beasts- full of stamina. The big ones are gross to eat anyway to me personally. I'd rather take a picture with the big ones and watch them swim off. I live close enough to grand lake that I can get all the eater sized blues I want usually. When I was younger, we would run lines and jugs, we'd keep 30-40 on a good day with 3-4 guys in the boat. Nowadays, I'd rather catch them on rod and reel and keep 4 or 5 little ones. That's plenty for me to kill. I won't put them in the freezer anymore. I have no problem keeping and cleaning what I think we'll use within 5 or 6 days, but I don't stockpile freshwater fish these days. I only eat it fresh and I won't keep if it I already have some at home. I see a huge difference in the average quality of Blue Cats out of Truman compared to Grand Lake. I can only guess that the difference is the liberal regualtions and limits on Grand. The lake is full of trash from trotlines and jugs and the fish seem to run smaller on the average. Antecdotal, I know, but that's my observation. That's what makes me love Truman for what it is.

I personally like this time of year for numbers of "eaters". They usually spawn in June and by July they are ready to hang out on the flats and gorge on shad.

It's at 751 this morning. It jumped pretty high. They are pulling the lake hard. 70000 cfs out the dam and 50000 cfs inflow. It could be some really good catfishing if you can find a bank with the current coming past.

I see. Personally, I wouldn't dock anything overnight unless I was sleeping on it. NE OK is a pretty economically depressed area. There's a lot of people that would steal from you if they thought they could get 20$ for the item. I especially wouldn't leave it and drive back to Seneca, but that's up to you. There are a ton of resorts around Grove that have little fishing cabins and come with a boat slip if you change your mind on lodging locations. It looks like that tournament is in two weeks. You should be fine at about any ramp by then. They can drop Grand quickly as long as Hudson, Kerr and the Arkansas river have capacity which they do right now. I can't help you on the bass bite, I don't black bass fish anymore, but if they pull this lake hard for two weeks the fish will pull out the points.

What are you wanting to fish for? What part of the lake do you want to access? What type of boat and tow vehicle do you have?(fiberglass/metal bass boat, 4WD truck?)

What do you want to know? It looks to be going up a little. The thing about Grand is that there are so many ramps and accesses you will always be able to find a place to launch a boat if you know your way around. There are many, many more launches than Wolf Creek, Tierra Miranda and Honey Creek State Park. Dead end roads and such. There will be some logs and mud, but it's Grand Lake. That's kind of why you go there is for the logs and mud.(i.e. fertility) I went two days last weekend. The lake was 748 and some change. Caught fish hand over fist. I'd say load up and go fishing, but that's what I always say.

I haven't been, but I can usually find it around the face of the dam if they are running water. Please let us know how the bait searching goes for you. I'm getting ready to start making the run to Truman for the next couple of months.

I've never been to a bad fishing spot. Some have just been better than others.

Looks good Ness. A couple things I know, make sure the bottle you put the carbonated beverage in is strong enough to hold the pressure and you never really get the smell of blackberry wine out of a room. Learned both lessons at once when a 3 gallon gallo jug blew up in a fishing cabin many years ago. We accidentally made some carbonated blackberry wine one year. I think we hit it with too much sugar when it slowed down but we're still not really sure how we did it.

Sex, drugs, and rock'n roll man.

you had me at "crybabies"

It was a bit of a shameless #humblebrag. da coonasses made some kinda red gravy dish outta dat redfish. dey said it tasted horrible though and dat I should try da catch a lemonfish (cobia) instead. just remembered I have some triggers thawing for dinner tonight. Maybe I'll hit up the what's cooking page when I'm done. Tell JoeD to squirt a lemon on that!

Did any of you that get the Conservationist magazine from the Missouri Department of Conservation see this article?

I've never eaten a Freshwater drum, but the redfish are the worst tasting saltwater fish I've eaten. I don't understand the hype personally. I've heard little ones were good grilled. No thanks. I've got too much Red snapper, sheepshead and trigger fish.

This is strong as new rope.

Picked a bunch the last couple weekends. Seems like every time it rains the forest floor is covered with them. Yesterday I made some Chantrelle, onion and cheese drop biscuits to go with dinner. Very good. Last weekend I made a Chantrelle, ham, and cheese frittata ala RPS. It was good too. I appreciate the heads up on here. The last couple of years I've went to look for them when someone mentions Chantrelles on this website.

typically hybrids have more than one line that runs uninterrupted to the base of the tail.

Table Rock Bass Fishiing.......

100% Its a hybrid. Look at the difference in the lines between the picture f&F posted and yours, especially the alternating faint and distinct lines on your fish as opposed to the all solid lines on the fish below. Also in your third picture right beside your pinky finger. THere's the irregular scales. Nice fish.

I hate to read this. Never knew of him except from this forum, but he was a very helpful person who went out of his way to be kind to people.

Here you go. Not Holiday Island, Eagle Rock. Not exactly down lake. I think this is what J-Doc is talking about. See post #11 for another classy response.