Quillback

Sounds good - pulled pork is good for lunch too! I'll get a food thread going as we get closer.

OK, it appears the weekend of Dec. 14 will work for most. Once we get a count, I'll reserve the appropriate accommodations at Rileys. Starting December 12 (Thursday) up to and including Saturday night, December 14. We will take the total cost of the lodging, divide by the number of people staying, and that will be each person's responsibility. Seems like we usually end up around $100-120 each. You can stay all three nights, one night, or two nights but cost will be the same. So reply to this thread if you plan on coming, and if you require lodging. Also if you are bringing a boat and have open seats. If not enough seats, Miles rents boats, $100/day.

I talked to a guy once that did just that, he'd fish off the bank in the early spring during the spawning run and he'd fish at night. He'd fish a live creek chub on the bottom. Said he didn't get many, but he claimed to catch big ones when he got one.

Looking forward to seeing your new boat myself. Didn't know that they have stopped making 2 stroke jets (except the Tohatsu).

Congrats Bassmaster! AOY tourney killed me, picked a couple of guys from Michigan thinking the local guys would do well - NOT!

Well Cody got the ball rolling, the two choices for dates are 12/7 or 12/14. 12/14 looks to be in the lead, so now is your chance to state your preference.

First time out on the Rock since August 6. Launched the boat just as it was getting light and headed down the lake. Spent about the first hour tossing spoons, and top waters at scattered fish chasing shad on top. Could not get a bite. Switched up to jigs and shaky head off a steep bank and still nothing. I was starting to wonder if I was going to get skunked. In desperation, I motored over to a gravel runout where I had caught some last time I was out almost two months ago, threw a c-rigged worm on the point, boat was sitting in 30 FOW, and I noticed some fish showing up on the graph under the boat. I did not have a drop shot setup rigged as I was not planning on fishing the dang thing, but there were the fish and I had not boated one yet. Got set up, dropped it down, and had a spotted bass in about 10 seconds. Spend most of the rest of the morning drop shotting. Caught several off the first spot, then the fish moved out. Bounced around to a few other spots and would pick one up here and there, never was hot fishing, but I would get a bite or two at just about every spot I tried. Didn't see them schooled either except at the first spot I found them. Put a dozen 13-15 inch spots in the boat. There are a lot of shad scattered about and some bass are chasing them out in the channel. I caught my biggest fish, a 2.5 lb. spot on a Whopper Plopper at 9:30 AM out in the channel, a couple of casts later hooked the only smallmouth I saw today on the WP only to see it jump 3 feet out of the water and toss the Plopper. Might have been a 2 lb. fish. They were just too scattered to get a good top water bite going, but maybe the up coming weather change will get them going. A few swimming under the boat.

I'm sure we'll have one, I usually wait until 1st week of October to get things going. I'm thinking more like the weekend of Dec 7. But maybe that is too close to Thanksgiving?

Yeah I would say something MO based.

I'm not a Cards fan, but they are one of the few teams left standing that I can root for, sort of. As for the American League - anybody but the Yankees.

My uncle lives in Collierville TN which is about an hour away from Grenada and I have fished that lake a couple of times with him. We always pull Bandit 300's and always catch fish, and some good ones. It is amazing how those lakes produce crappie. Glad to hear you had a great trip DD. Haven't eaten at any of those places you did, but sure sounds tasty!

Couple of nice eyes!

Based on what they are saying, my 2 cents is that it is more about water usage and flow. Down stream farmers have been getting flooded out the last 2 years and I think they are trying to figure out how to manage water flow to avoid flooding.

Thought some ,may be interested or may want to attend the Branson meeting. https://www.arkansaswater.org/21-newsflashes/415-a-state-and-corps-of-engineers-white-river-basin-study

Saw this on another website, they are having a meeting in Branson, thought there might be some here that are interested. https://www.arkansaswater.org/21-newsflashes/415-a-state-and-corps-of-engineers-white-river-basin-study

A buddy of mine in Washington used to fish about 6 times a year, he was always buying tackle however. I used to kid him about buying stuff for his future "tackle museum" because he was never going to use it all. Another buddy of mine is always asking me about what I paid for anything I pull out of the tackle box. He'll ask me "What did that set you back?". I like to mess with him and tell him, "This is a special order color of Zoom Trick Worms, had to pay $49 for this pack."

Just saw that Daiwa now has come out with a Tatula "Elite" version, one is specifically made for skipping/pitching. A mere $250. Don't know what makes it any better than the SV version, unless this is a move to end the SV and come out with a reel that has the same features, but with a new name and a heftier price tag. Bastages! I remember when the first Tatulas came out they were on sale for around $90 and I think I remember seeing the SV's in the $130 range on sale. At those prices it was a good value, put it up there at $250 and there's a lot of competition.

Got an email from them a few days ago - they are going to be adding a bunch (50) tree based attractor sites on Swepco this winter. Much needed IMO, the trees in that lake are getting pretty degraded.

I'm a fair weather striper fisherman, I like May and November mainly because I like to go out and look for them on top. I am not looking for monsters, I'm not geared up to deal with them, perfectly happy to get fish in the 6 - 15 lb range on my bass tackle. My neighbor caught a 35 lber a couple of years ago around that May timeframe - out chasing blowups but I believe that he caught it on a Storm swimbait.

Fishing today on one of the Bella Vista lakes, there was a huge flock of teal hanging out, hundreds of them. Did not see the Billethead however.

It's on the page where you build your team, one of the columns for the anglers is "Own %".

Never have fished for redfish, have to do it one of these days. New Zealand would be neat, but I'll never do it. Striper fishing in the late fall off the east end of Long Island (from the surf) would be neat to do, but that's another trip I will never probably do. Surf fishing off the Carolina coast. Lake Michigan (Wisconsin) for smallmouth.

That's pretty neat, you'll have to keep us posted on how it goes. Now I'll be able to watch MLF and when I see you, I can jump out of my chair, point at the TV, and yell - I KNOW THAT GUY!

I think I've told this story on here several years ago, but here's a rerun. I was on a guided trip with a couple of guys from work off the west coast of Vancouver island. We were trolling for cohos, and it was one of those deals where the guide set up the baits on downriggers. What he'd do was take a preserved anchovy that he marinated in some kind of proprietary concoction, rig it on a treble hook, let out about 50 feet of line, attach the line to a downrigger ball, and then drop the ball down about 30 feet. Well when he let the line out there was a few seconds of time where that anchovy was sitting on top the water before he could get the line attached. One time when he was going through this process a sea gull swooped in, grabbed the anchovy and got hooked. So the guide, who apparently had this happen before, just dropped the ball down (the gull did not pull the line out of the release), taking the gull down under water. He left it there for a minute or so, brought up the ball, and handlined the gull in. The gull was about half dead and didn't resist at all when he de-hooked it. So we started to troll away, leaving the gull sitting on top the water where it was sort of feebly flapping it's wings trying to fly. About 10 other gulls showed up and started flying around the gull on the water swooping in on it from time to time and all of them were just screeching and making one heck of a racket. I'm watching this, and all of a sudden the other gulls scatter, and an eagle swoops down and grabbed that poor gull and flew off with it. Saw some whales on that trip also, I forget the type they were, but they were feeding on herring, they literally encircle a school of them, then they come up vertically from underneath the herring school until their heads would break out of the water, and they'd come up in unison in a circle. Now I didn't catch anything weird on that trip, saw some unusual stuff. Caught a few ratfish in Puget Sound, that is one weird and ugly fish.

Yeah I am still waiting on one of those sponsorship deals myself.