Quillback

Opening day in Mass, was a zoo too.

Once things warm up, I like to do some bream fishing here in BV, a 1.5 lb. redear is possible, 1 lb. bluegill is tough but there might be a few. I'd be happy to take you on one of the BV lakes to do some bream fishing. AGFC had been stocking redears in Swepco for years, mainly for bass forage, but I got an email from them and they are saying their net surveys have shown quite a few redear in Swepco in the 9-12 inch range, but I doubt a 12" redear would make that 1.5 mark. Might be some bigger ones in there of course. Bob Kidd lake is reputed to have a good population of redear, I'm sure there are gills in there too, but again the big question is whether there are any big enough to meet those Master Angler marks.

That's a good day. I remember my east coast trout fishing, they didn't stock a lot of trout compared to what we see back here and the pressure was intense.

Ahhh, gotcha.

Thanks for the tips. Not sure what you mean by guide arm material?

Talked to somebody that was out on the lake yesterday and he said the same thing that there were boats everywhere. I can understand why, first Saturday in a while that anyone could get out and fish in and throw in a few tourneys.

Thanks, cleared out some room. @Devan S.

That's pretty neat, thanks for telling the story and congrats on some great fish! Did you see or catch any walleye?

HA! I like early mornings, like you say, nothing is happening which is the way I like the world, nice and quiet.

Tube on a Grass Jig head, I like that idea, ought to make fishing one pretty snag free. Do you just thread them on?

Well I am at the age where beer or no beer, I have to get up in the middle of the night and hit the can. I don't fight it anymore either, get up, get it done and get back to sleep.

Launched at 10 AM today, there was some light rain in Bella Vista early so I decided to wait it out, but it didn't make much difference as it was drizzly and cold at the lake when I got there. Air temp 39, water temp 40 but not much wind. Fishing was kind of funny today, lots of blank time with short bursts of some fish on every cast. When I found them, they were schooled up. Put 20 in the boat with 9 being keepers, couple of 17" spots were the biggest. Best spots were near the mouth of a couple of coves around sparse timber, fish were in that 15-25 foot range. Even split on fish caught on 1/8 oz ned rigs and 2.8 Keitechs on 3/16 oz heads. Slow drag on the bottom. I'm not seeing any shad kill on the upper end and not seeing many live ones either. Not seeing any suspended bass either, the few I see on sonar are on the bottom. Didn't see any ice anywhere. Quite a few boats out, buddy of mine said he heard there are some tourneys this weekend.

I almost picked Zaldain myself, yesterday he had an issue with his Ultrex and lost some time. He was fishing within talking distance of Gustaffson but did not catch them like Gussie did.

I was out today, WT 40.

Cool, I'm still on the fence on whether I will go to Big M or the dam end of Beaver, but if I go to Big M, I'll keep an eye out for you. I have a silver/black Phoenix towed by a Silver F-150.

Yep, assuming I can find a ramp to launch from, I'll be going Saturday which looks to be a fairly nice day.

I'd say custom, but maybe like Ham said a limited run.

A few days ago they recorded -20 degrees at Drake field in Fayetteville which is the coldest it has ever been at that weather station since it began operating in 1949. Glad to see it gone.

Tuesday they are predicting temps in the 60's with a stiff wind. What a change!

So just a T-shirt on your dog - do you put pants on him if it is really cold? 😃

Shoot, I could shovel the snow off that mile and a half road in 30 minutes give or take a minute or two.