Quillback

Lets see. I can load them into the gallery and then insert, so that part is working.

Refs were friendly.

I have talked to this guide at the Indian Creek dock a couple of times, he catches stripers. I have not fished with him, but he was personable and friendly. My guess is that if he is guiding on Beaver in March, you'll probably be fishing the upper end of the lake. Joe Farkas 479 640 2386

Might pickup the 8" knife. I need something stouter for bigger fish like stripers. Slice through the rib bones, turn the fillet over and then trim out the ribs. When I did a Sitka salmon trip, back at the dock there were people that would fillet the salmon being brought in by the charters and guides. I watched them for a few minutes, they used big, stout knives, I'm guessing at least 12 inch blades. They'd fillet and trim out the bones/fins on a 10 lb. coho in well under a minute.

Tom knows a lot of fishermen. He'll probably read this, but if not, I'll tell him you said hi.

It was windy from the get-go here in Bella Vista. I talked to Tom, he went fishing today on TR and said it was calm for 3 hours then the wind came on strong out of nowhere. They had a good morning of catching before the wind came up.

I have a Rapala also. Fillet a few fish, stop and sharpen, repeat. I'd like to have one that keeps its edge.

"I must be in the front row!" One of the best lines in a commercial.

Yes, it would be neat to see. Can you toss it on a spinning rig?

It was a funny trip, caught a few early, then not many at all for about 4 hours, then a few late. We did get a few decent fish, Dutch got a 3 lb. largemouth and a fat 17" spot, I got one of those fat spots too. I talked to Tom W today and he caught a 5.7 LM on a jerkbait. He's got a buddy that caught a 5.14 on a spoon. Both of these gentlemen are over 80, good day for the geezers! 😃 Durn wind supposed to blow tomorrow then back into the fridge we go, I'd like to get out again soon, but looks to be another week at least for tolerable weather for me. Thanks for the trip buddy!

Sounds like fun, and you're such a nice guy, why would anyone call you names? 😃

I emailed Dave a couple of years ago and he sounded like he wasn't going to manufacture the Ned heads anymore. They are my all time favorite and I have experimented with quite a few others. He used a #2 stout Mustad hook, no bait keeper, shroom head, and a weed guard. Easy to slide Elaztech baits on it, the shroom head provided a good surface to glue the head. Hands down the best Ned head for Elaztech baits, IMO. Theirs a bunch of Ned heads for sale on TW. Most of them don't have weed guards. Most of them have bigger hooks. Most of them have have some sort of bait keeper. The best heads that I use for Ned heads are the 6th Sense Devine Ned heads. They come 4 to a pack and are reasonably priced. A 1/0 sickle style hook. V-shaped wire weed guard. It's a football head and has a molded into the head bait keeper which means to get Elaztech glued to the head you'll have to push the plastic over the bait keeper which takes a few seconds, but it will work. Here's a pic from Jan 2 where you can see the 6th Sense head, they work:

My thing for carp is a Wheaties ball. Grap a handful out of the box, make a fist, dunk your fist quickly in and out of the water so the Wheaties are just wet enough to mold into a ball and you got a great carp bait.

I remember MoCarp arguing with me that when I'd say no one fishes for carp on Beaver, he'd tell me that was because they were camoed up and I would not see them. Hopefully all is well with him, he hasn't posted in a long time. @MoCarp

Yeah I guess if I become a carp fisher, I need to learn the lingo. 😃

That's what I'm thinking, if it starts on March 1, by March 2, those stinkers will be dead.

That's a good one. The serious carp guys are more sophisticated nowadays. They make up bait balls and shoot them out there with slingshots.

Didn't know grass carp were any good to eat. We have a lake in Bella Vista that was getting quite a bit of hydrilla growth. The bass fishing for a while was outstanding, and it was great during August and September when bass fishing is usually tough. I was getting 20-40 bass everytime out, and they were nice chunky fish, up to 4 lbs. that were chasing shad. It was a blast. So the lakes "manager" decided to stock some grass carp fingerlings several years ago. They completely wiped out the hydrilla and now the bass fishing stinks. There are now some monster grass carp in that lake. I hooked one this summer on a swimbait, don't know if I snagged it, but it appeared to have it in its mouth. I jacked around for close to an hour trying to boat that sucker, but it never even got close to getting tired. Finally the hook came out. I got a few glimpses of it, looked to be 4 feet long. It was massive. So just recently the lakes manager has proposed a $100 bounty on the grass carp. It might go into effect in March. If you want to come down here and pop them I'll be glad to shuttle you around. 😀

Hey Marty @BilletHead, What species of buffalo are those you're seeing up there? Seems like they are concerned about the bigmouth buffalo up north. down here maybe they are plentiful. Or maybe they are smallmouth buffalo, I think there are black buffalo also.

With warm days melting the snow, the cold nights refreezing everything, I trust nothing in the morning. And as you note, it's EVERYWHERE! 😃

There's some speculation on recruitment in this article. An interesting point they make is that one of the reasons that nature has made these fish long-lived is that they need certain conditions to spawn and have fry survival. Living a long time gives them a lot of chances to try. Bigmouth buffalo - Wikipedia

It is forbidden to fish on or near the commercial docks on Beaver. If I was serious about carp fishing, I'd bait an area near the bank over at Indian Creek. Plenty of nice bank to set up some carp rods and wait for a bite. I have never seen anyone fishing for carp on that end of the lake. I'm assuming there's bow fishing going on, but haven't seen those guys either, but they could be out there at night.

I'm bringing some lunchmeat just in case.

Usually there are quite a few carp on the dam end of the lake. I have not seen that many this year for some reason.