Quillback

Nice one Randy. I get Outdoor Oklahoma magazine and in the latest edition they mentioned that ODFW runs a nursery pond on Skaitook that lately has been raising threadfin that they have released into Skiatook. Speaking of finesse bait casting tackle, Shimano has just released the Curado BFS, BFS standing for Finesse Bait System. If anyone is interested you can search it to get a description. I'll probably get one someday when I can get one on sale.

Never have fished Elmdale. Here is the link to AGFC's management plan which has some info: Elmdale FMP 2019.pdf - Google Drive Kidd and Swepco are going to be busy on a weekend, been a while since I've been to Kidd, but I recall that there is plenty of parking. Swepco not so much. If I was going to Swepco I would get there before daylight to launch. Swepco sometimes isn't too bad this time of year as it is in the winter as the bass fishermen have other opportunities elsewhere.

National Lampoon's Vacation - YouTube

I remember when UMF started it was a good show. I believe when it started it was an hour long, now it's 30 minutes and maybe that boils down to about 10 minutes of fishing. I thought in the early shows the anglers really wanted to win, now I don't get that impression.

In other news of our local bass fishing: Angler Josh Rogers caught a cool looking Largemouth Bass on Beaver Lake over the weekend. The angler caught a gold colored Largemouth Bass that has a genetic anomaly. The unusual bass has what is known as Xanthochromism (loss of darker pigment and pigmentation is replaced with yellow). This is very rare and does occur naturally. Josh needs to buy a lottery ticket, because he caught a fish in a million!

Haven't been in that area in a while, but did talk to someone that was in the Emerald Beach area and there were bands of debris in the main channel and some of the coves had a lot of junk in them. My guess is that you'll encounter some junk, but you can find places to fish, you just have to take it easy around the junk when motoring.

Tough one overall from a fantasy perspective. The winner of the whole shebang won it with something like 1270.

My buddy was out again yesterday morning and said there was still very little top water activity.

This being a BPT event, as far as I know they aren't restricted to certain areas of the lake as they are in MLF. Something else about knowing the results and having to finish in the top 20 or 10, depending on the round, is that if you're way our in front and you're going to make the cut, you can stop fishing and go scout around for the next day. Heck, I suppose you could go hover around one of the other guys and get in their head. I like the different format, it brings into play some different strategy than what you see at the Big 5 type events.

That's pretty neat that there are those piers to fish from. Have you thought of going down to the Outer Banks in the fall to fish? Always hear that there can be some great surf fishing there in the fall.

A buddy of mine has been camping at Indian since Thursday. Friday they got 3 stripers and some smallmouth, lots of top water activity, and then the bottom fell out Saturday and Sunday, very little activity.

Unfortunately we aren't in the zone of this years big hatch. Sure would be fun to be out on a lake or river when it happens.

Fished Bella Vista lake Windsor with Richard Cross yesterday. He fished primarily crickets and I fished red worms. I think Richard got a few more than I did, but overall it was hard to say that one bait was superior to the other, except that crickets are a lot less messier. We did get a couple of good sized redear and they all came on worms. We complained that it seemed slow, and it was a bit slow, but by the end of the day we had 49 decent sized bream to fillet. We also caught a half dozen small catfish and several bass. Average size of the bream was good and we had several pounds of fillets when we were done cleaning them. They don't appear to be bedding yet, but I think the time is close.

Sorry to hear that Pete.

Saw a male summer tanager a couple of days ago by my house, they look so much like cardinals as far as coloration. According to the guides they are fairly common, but I only see maybe one or two a year.

JWM trailer in Reeds Spring might, give them a call to see if they will.

Saw this pic on another site. Seems like a good idea as a way to catch the elusive gizzard shad. Last couple of trips to Beaver I have had multiple big gizzards chasing in hooked smallmouth. Makes sense that tossing a big swim bait that the gizzards would chase it and take swipes at it, at least while they are spawning.

I love the top water action, so that's what I'll target as long as it is going on. Buddy of mine caught a 30 lber. fishing a Storm Wild Eye Shad through the top water fish.

I used 8 lb. leader quite a bit last year and for smaller fish, less than 10 lbs. it will work if you have room to play them (no trees). I have bumped it up a bit to 10 lb. this year. If a big striper breaks me off, it is no big deal to me, I just like to play with them.

I think they saw your post and shut them off. 😉 TR is down to 917.5 which is near the top of power pool for this time of year, so they've shutdown the gates.

Good crop of 3-5 lb. fish last year, looks like they are the 6-10 lb. fish showing up this year.

I'm pretty happy with maxing out with 8-10 lbers. using bass tackle. You get a 30 lb. goliath on and you end up wasting a half hour chasing it around. 😃

Way to go! I'm a little ticked I didn't get up and go myself now.

This end of Beaver has been fishing really well this year and there looks to be a lot of shad around so I'm hopeful the fishing will continue to hold up. Looks like we're going to get drenched with rain next week, hopefully the lake won't get trashed again.