Quillback

My favorite:

Got a kick out of that before and after pic of the fried fish.

Forgot to add - Couple of people bait fishing off the ramp when we launched, they were doing well, they certainly had enough for dinner. If a person wants to soak bait and catch fish, you can certainly do it in these low flows. Quite a few wade fishermen out there too. Speaking of ramp fish, Ham caught a nice rainbow, his biggest fish of the day, off the Cotter ramp while I was backing my truck down the ramp.

I am home now, came home last night, decided I wasn't going to fish today. Ran into those storms on HWY 412 east of Springdale, it really came down for a few minutes. Yakked a stretch of water with Ham yesterday, my first time in a yak and it took me some getting used to. Felt like an elephant on a skateboard for a while. Once I finally started feeling comfortable with the yak, the wind started blowing upriver, hard enough that it would blow you upstream if you let it. I spent most of the last two hours paddling back to the ramp into the wind and it wore me out. I caught 8 trout I think, nothing big, but they were all well colored, hard fighting fish. All rainbows except for one cutt. Took me a while to start catching fish, they would not eat a 1/16th oz jig, and Ham finally prodded me into fishing a 1/32 oz jig he had given me, and I finally started getting some. Once that wind started howling, fishing that 1/32 became a chore, but they just would not eat that 1/16. Caught a couple behind Riley's before meeting up with Ham, and some of the guys ferried over to the big island behind Riley's and they did well, but they can fill you in on that. Some big goldens in that stretch of water which caught their attention. 😄 Sorry, no pics from me, wasn't taking my camera on the yak.

I like those chunky spots, they get nice and fat in the winter. Wish they got to 10 lbs. like they do in some of the CA lakes.

That's some good catching. I wimp out too when it is below 32, I try and time my winter trips to get to the ramp when it has gotten at least above 32.

This is turning into a Foodfest! Which is great!

Yep, sounds right, except Thursday is deer burgers and dogs.

I have plates too, and plastic spoons/forks/knives. Also bringing some paper bowls.

I always start out slow, the Florida tourneys kill me.

What the heck, I'll donate another $10 to help fill someone else's tackle box.

I'll put you and Bill in the A-Frame, but if you want to stay somewhere else, let me know. I'm doing a $140 per person lodging fee, does that work for you and Bill only staying one night?

Are you set on burger buns? I have a frozen pack of something like 18 hot dogs, I'll bring them too.

I can bring the rice, but I know nothing about cooking rice or what type to get - I'm assuming the dry rice in a bag?

Personally, I think that would be great.

Sounds good, what are we going to do Saturday night?

With Brett not coming, we are at 16. So the cost for the 3 places is $2,130. Divided by 16, it comes to $133 and change. I propose we round it up to $140 for a tip. So bring $140 cash or check only, check made out to Riley's Station. I am going to stay downstairs in the A-frame, have the dog with me. A-Frame has 2 bedrooms up stairs each can sleep two. So we can put 5 in the A-Frame. Bunk Lodge is spilt into two halves, each halve can sleep two, so 4 in the Bunk Lodge. That leaves 7 for the River Villa and plenty of room to spread out. All these places look to be pretty nice. If you want to reserve a spot at any of the above, reply back. A-Frame Quillback Phil Babler Bunk Lodge River Villa

Sorry to hear you won't be able to come Brett. But can sure understand the reason. OK, guys looking for suggestions for Friday dinner. We could do a lunch meat spread, bring some sub type rolls, bunch of lunch meat and cheese. Build your own sub thing. Not as good as a fish fry, but easy.

Forecast calling for 60's Thursday, then 70's Friday, with cooler temps and some rain on Saturday.

Pretty neat. I have a whole new level of respect for your mental abilities if you were able to wade through reading Moby Dick in the 5th grade.

Thanks for the offer, I need to get some waders, been putting it off for a while. If this low water continues, I might make some day trips over to the White this winter. Are felt soles legal there?

Welp, guess I am going to Cabelas next week to get some waders. Wading is fun, if it is too low for boats, I am fine with wading.

My buddy Ken talked me into chasing the elusive striper this morning. We did the launch at dawn deal, and saw a few stripers coming up on top in the launch area, thinking that we'd find more somewhere else, we boogied on down the lake. We went all the way down to point 5, never saw any activity at all. Caught a few black bass on a bluff tossing a white tube on a jig head and hopping it back to the boat - had a really nice spot get off right at the boat. So we headed back to the area near the Indian creek launch, there were still a few stripers in the area, so we just went to work chasing them. I finally got one to hit the tube, boated it after a long tussle - didn't weigh it, but I'd guess around 8 lbs. Had another one hammer the tube about 20 feet from the boat as I was reeling it in to make another cast, but it got off, I saw it, might have gone 5 lbs. They just stopped coming up, so we motored over to the area between Dam Site park and the bank to the south, wasn't much activity there either, but we had a group of 2 or 3 come up chasing shad, Ken threw a fluke at them and he had one just hammer it, after the usual long drawn out striper fight, we netted it, and it was a decent fish, I'm estimating in the 15-20 lb. range. We hung around for a while longer, but the stripers were done, so we headed on home about 1030. These late fall stripers can be tough, I was happy we got a couple today.