Bird Watcher

That's what I'm thinking too. It would be better than nothing for those times you are on the road working and all of the sudden you look over and see fish in the water.

This made me laugh.

Yes. Stockon has some hawgs. I've seen them with my own two eyes. Catching them? Well, that's a different story.

Wow, thanks for the explanation Hoglaw. I think I've about settled on doing something like the above. Actually, I guess my terminology was a little off. It's the foregrip that is about gone. I saw on mudhole.com some of the heat shrink tape and I think I will try to build up the voids and missing chunks and then apply some of that to round out and build up the foregrip. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

Will do Phil.

Hey Phil, I'm sure your buddy Paul is on them, but just thought I'd give you a heads up. We went down Yesterday and below the docks in Spring River about 200 yds, the big female Whites were stacked up. It was pretty much a fish on every cast. We were scrubbing the bottom in 18'. It didn't really seem to matter what you used as long as you had it in contact with the bottom.

you also might go to the marine electronics counter in Basspro and ask those guys for some pointers. Sometimes they seem to know what they are talking about. Sometimes not.

What is it that is frustrating you?

You are right. Private individuals can not sell them in OK. You can keep and use what you obtain from your own legally caught fish, but you can't sell them. Only the game and fish can sell them.

IMO, you are dead on Bill. OK makes millions off the eggs they collect, but it's still fine if someone wants to keep theirs and eat them. 99% of the people give them to the conservation dept in return for their fish being picked up on the water, cleaned and returned in a plastic bag at the end of the day, but the money made by the state off the eggs funds all kinds of fisheries programs in addition to the paddlefish. It seems like a no brainer to me.

Went crappie fishing Yesterday from 9:30-12:30. Surface temp fell 7 degrees from last weekend. I could see the fish on the graph in the same place they were last weekend, but could not get them to bite. I caught one real nice fish 5 minutes after arriving, no bites for the next 3 hours. Packed it in and went back home.

I love stuff like that. Keep the pictures updated here too so we can se it all put back together.

There's a little flock of Turkeys that live behind the house. Usually 4 or 5 Toms and 10-15 hens. The Toms were getting with it this morning. I was outside drinking my cup of coffee and all the sudden I was ready to run down the hill and sit against a tree. Calm warm morning and turkeys gobbling sure feels like spring.

I received the reel. First impression is that it seems like a really solid reel. I bought the 5000. The reel is completely sealed and has a lube port on the side of it. It came with a bag of replacement drag discs and parts. I would guess that would come in handy if a guy was using it on salt water fish a lot. It is a large reel, but it's not the largest spinning reel I have. I have a surf fishing reel that I use for paddlefish snagging that is probably a 1/3 again larger. I think I'm going to put it on a 8' parabolic action spinning rod and use it for pitching big live shad to blues, hybrids and hopefully stripers. I read that they were coming out with new models for those two reels this year and were getting rid of their old stock.

It's a shame. It was so neat when I was a kid to go pond fishing with my Dad and the Chickens would be booming in the prairie next to the lakes we were fishing. On private land no less. Now, the only place I know of to even glimpse one is on the prairie preserves. Then again, about the only place I know of to see prairie is on the prairie preserves. I'm sure there's a direct correlation. Even 20 years ago you could still see a good amount of prairie on private land but I was just talking to Dad the other day about how it's all plowed crop land now. It's sad that I'll probably never be able to show that to my daughter unless we go to a state park area or refuge.

I haven't received it yet. i think shipping was 9$. A little steep, but still a heck of a deal. 38$ for a 92$ reel.

I know there are some rod experts on here. I have a spinning rod that I just love the action of, but the rod has been discontinued. It's getting a little beat up on the grip (it rode down the highway for about 10 miles hanging by tangled line to the boat-don't ask). The blank itself is still in good shape, but I'm thinking about trying to replace the grip and maybe the guides. Is this feasible? or should I just keep looking for another rod with similar action. I just don't know if for the cost of material and time to replace if I should just look for a different rod with comparable action.

Hog, take Bill up on this. You'll learn a ton about temperate bass and he knows places down there to catch them too.

Anyone heard anything? I just heard a tease about a new lake record, but what doesn't make sense is that I heard 20.5#. I know the old lake record was 22# and some change, so obviously it doesn't all add up but a 20.5# fish is still a giant. From the little bit I've heard I'm going to guess below Pensacola dam since they've been dumping all the snow melt and rain we've had over the last 3 weeks but that is purely speculative.

She's going ballistic right now. Kind of hard to say, but I'd guess when it gets back down around 7.5' or so it should start to clear up. That's just a guess though.

Hey Bill, No problem. To tell the truth, I didn't realize that it was a destination for some people to travel to and fish for white bass. I've come to understand that it is, so I'm glad to help out if there's someone who is trying to make the decision on when to make a drive and fish it. The water temp was bouncing between 50 at dawn and on some days it's getting up to 52-53 in the afternoon. I went back down last night to see if I could find just a few more crappie, but the river was rising and getting muddy quickly from the rain. I don't know if that will cool the water down for a few days, but I'm sure it will be back up by this weekend. I only fished for about two hours and came back home.(too wet, too cold) Didn't catch any crappie, but was catching quite a few whites tucked up in the brushpiles. Maybe the increase in current had them seeking a current break. I also saw two other boats catch white bass while I was running to ramp after I froze out.

For those of you that are interested in the White bass run, they are being caught really well right now. They have been all winter, so it's nothing new, but they are moving up the river. All typical white bass baits and presentations are producing. People are catching them many different ways. ie. trolling, casting hardbaits, slow rolling plastics, etc. Craippie are being caught decent, but they are scattered. You probably won't pick up more than 3 fish on any location and although laydowns are a good start, they aren't necessarily on wood. If you move around you'll pick up some fish. Concentrate on depths of 5-10' and don't be suprised if the fish are suspended up around 3-4' deep. We fished Yesterday from dark 30 til noon and had 23 with some really nice Black crappie. Yesterday they wanted a really slow presentation, basically motionless. Just hold the jig in front of their nose until they bite. My friends went Thursday and were catching them well swimming jigs past laydowns and on bare pea gravel banks so everyday is different I guess.

They might be a little big for some, but if you are in the market for a larger spinning reel this is a great price. Scroll down to the DH4000 and DH5000. regularly 70-80$ on sale for 29.99 on closeout. I've always wanted to try one and I needed a heavy reel with a good drag to pair with one of the 7'6" TFO rods I just picked up so I'm going to try it. https://www.wavespinreel.com/products.php

yeah, that big spring Super 8 on 60 in Neosho would only be about 20-25 minutes from Twin Bridges and probably be cheaper than the Indigo Sky rate.

Back before OK game and fish was keeping the "official" lake records, I believe the record was 11 pounds 12 ounces caught by Hank Souders. Then, the game and fish decided they were going to keep the records and some guy set the lake record last year with a 10 pound something (maybe 9?) ounce fish. This fish is definitely the lake record though no matter which one you are going by. That's awesome!