Quillback

Just saw that Wheeler won the FLW series (new name for that series) event on Pickwick last weekend. $38K in winnings - dunno if that is a boat, which is my guess rather than cash, but still a nice haul. Wheeler is #1 in my book.

Neat deal there Marty - I love peanut butter and honey sandwiches! Got my first brussels sprouts today. Snap peas are coming on strong, but the broccoli is fading. Got a mix to sauté in olive oil, butter and garlic.

I guess there was a protest in Bentonville last night, 1,500 people, police broke it up, fired some tear gas - at least that's what I read in the local news.

I was on a business trip to Syracuse NY several years ago and stayed in a hotel that was next to a park like area. Lots of squirrels and I think just about every one of them was black. I'm pretty sure it's a color variation of a gray squirrel, but even though there are tons of grays here in this part of Arkansas, I have never seen a black squirrel here.

Some really colorful fish, glad to see ya''ll getting into them!

Went back today, it was a little slower for the stripers. My buddy caught one about 6 lbs. and due to either knot or line failure I lost one - I could tell it was probably one of those 5 lbers, not some giant. A lot of it is a guessing game, you maybe have 2-3 hours of prime top water activity early in the AM and if you don't find them quickly it's tough. We just could not find them today in good numbers. The real kick in the pants was that when we got back to the Indian creek launch there was a guide boat and another boat that looked to be a guide pulling bait right out in front of the launch and we saw them boat one. Probably could've fished out in front of the launch and done better than making a five mile trek down the lake. Chasing these fish can be frustrating at times. Black bass bite was decent today, we caught 15 or so, mainly spotted bass on top water and Keitechs. They are schooled up in places and when you get on them you can get some fast action.

Nope, high water has chased me away and forced me to fish Beaver, aka, the 'Dead Sea'. 😀

It's an Evergreen SB 125. I believe the color is called American Shad. Solid piece of hard plastic, casts a mile but yet walks really well.

I've got a milk run set up, several locations that I've found stripers at fairly consistently this spring. I start out close to Indian creek and work my way up lake to point 5 if I can't find them at Indian. Made it to point 5 today as there weren't very many near Indian. There weren't a lot of blow ups today, but I was fortunate to catch them on the few bites I got, caught 2 on top and one on a Keitech. Still getting 5 lbers on average, but I think the Keitech fish may have been pushing 7. Caught a few black bass too on top and on the Keitech, didn't get any good ones to the boat but had a couple that were decent keeper sized that jumped and tossed the Keitech. Bite pretty much died about 8 AM. WT 71.

Launched at Indian a little after 5 AM in my buddy Ken's boat. We looked for striper topwater activity and found some, not any kind of crazy schooling activity but some scattered blow ups. We ended up boating 3 and losing 2 others. All on top except one on a swim bait. No big ones, 5 lbers once again. They pretty much stopped around 7:30 AM. Black bass were fairly active early too. We caught 3 smallies that were keeper sized and several spotted bass on top waters and Keitechs. We were off the water at 9 AM.

I'm sticking to the one bass format for now, we'll see how it goes. I am soliciting logos to attach to the jersey - if you're interested in one for your business to be put on the jersey, PM me the image, needs to be .png, .jpeg, or any of the other common formats. Could be just plain text too, but let me know what text you want.

Last poll.

I think an annual bream tourney would be pretty neat, but I'd like to get the bass thing rolling before considering bream. And if someone wants to do the legwork of getting one going the opportunity is there.

Which is something to consider. You can get racked up on some serious charges if you get caught dispatching somebodies cat or dog. Had a guy here in Bella Vista that was charged with felony animal abuse for shooting a neighbors dog with a pellet gun.

Something I want to throw out there, is I have done some research into getting custom made jerseys or hoodies made for the winners. Get one made with local sponsor's logos, assuming I can get them to OK the use of their logos. So once the winner was announced, I'd place an order after getting the winner's size and name, or OA moniker they want to put on the jersey. Runs about $90 per jersey or hoodie. So if this is an idea you folks like, it would have to be on a once a quarter basis, as once a month would be a lot of dough spent of jerseys. And though I'd be willing to chip in for the jersey cost, I don't want to foot the entire bill.

Please respond.

Something I have been meaning to bring up, is that Phil would like us to have an entry fee, the entry being directed to a charity. Christian Action Ministries (CAM) who provide food to the needy in the Springfield area would be the charity of choice. They have an easy to use website to donate, and you can donate as little as $7, which goes a long way. So I'm thinking we'd have a sign up for the tourney thread, participants can attest that they have donated money to a charity, and of course they would need to sign up prior to the tourney starting. Doesn't have to be CAM, any charity will do, and the amount is up to the participant. Here's the CAM webite: http://christianactionministries.org/main/

That's the most important question. We have a three way tie, I may have to refer this back to the judges.

Wow, that is surprising, heard that boat sales were still strong, but maybe I heard wrong.

I hope that doesn't happen.

Nice bow. Yeah, why not run the water through the generators and generate some green electricity? I'm sure there's a reason why they are doing it the way they are, but they do operate in mysterious ways at times.

I meant to say Endurance not Marathon, brain thinking different from finger typing. 😃

Newport gauge is at about 25 feet right now, based on their operation procedures it needs to be down to 14 (and that's if the reservoirs are 70% of capacity) before they can move water out. They can do some emergency stuff to some degree, but as far as I can tell they are held hostage by the Newport gauge.

If you go to the AGFC website there is a selection that allows you to comment and express your support/non-support of proposed rules changes. Might be worth your time to submit your feedback as there are quite a few proposals that affect AR cold water fisheries, and warm water fisheries also. One example is that AGFC will start stocking Tiger Trout hybrids below Bull Shoals starting this year and they are asking if anglers want catch and release implemented for those hybrids. I think it is certainly worth providing feedback to them on their proposed rule changes. You'll need to set aside at least 15 minutes to take it, and it could take longer if you add your comments.

How often should we hold one?