Quillback

Well here's my 2 cents: I generally use a Dobyns 705 composite CB rod for WTD baits, it is rated for 1/4 to 1 oz baits, but I think it's best in the 1/2-1 oz range. It's light enough that a 2lb bass is fun on it, but I have also caught quite a few stripers with it. It's 7 foot, I am 6'4'' and standing on my boat deck I have no problems with hitting the water with the rod tip. It also a great rod for fishing cranks. I believe Dobyns has a Fury 7 ft CB rod (med hvy) that has the same specs. The model I have is no longer produced.

Yeah no way I'd go hand to hand with a heron.

Sounds like Wilt Chamberlain. Well at least the part with the hundreds of women, and come to think of it, no one could do the job like Wilt could, if you consider playing hoops to be a job.

That makes sense.

What? You know they are predicting strong storms this weekend, is it a coincidence? You're starting to scare me, I promise in the future to be nice to you and hopefully stay on your good side. I don't need any of those storms to be directed at me.

Aaron Martens can fish a drop shot pretty well.

It's far from being a secret.

They do seem to be around points, usually out deep off the bank a ways, when they are top you can see and hear them from quite a ways off.

I plan on watching some also, should be pretty neat. I just hope they stay out of my super-secret spot.

That makes sense to me.

That's an Ego slider net and the TW lure is an Evergreen Shower Blow 125. Also caught one on a IMA Skimmer. I think any walk the dog type lure will work as will poppers and pencil poppers. That Evergreen is a solid piece of hard plastic and really casts far. The hoop on that net is a little small for stripers.

Just looked at the schedule, didn't realize they start Friday and fish until Wednesday, always thought they wrapped it up on a Sunday.

I'm a regular Tackle Warehouse walking advertisement, just about always wear one of my "free" TW T-shirts when I am fishing. Nobody has conferred pro status on me yet however, which makes me wonder, how does someone know if they are a pro? Does somebody send you a certificate?

Going to take a break tomorrow, might go over to one of the community lakes and do a little bass fishing.

The stripers were at it again early this morning, got on the water at around 0545, first cast caught this dude. After that it got slow for a bit, but a few started coming up to eat and I caught a couple of bigger ones in the 10-15 lb. range, I'm estimating on the weights, couple pounds either way is possible, catch and release, I'm not going to hang them from a scale. And sometimes I just get lucky, after the initial bite died off, I think it was around 0730, I motored a few miles to a steep drop off that sometimes holds walleye and spotted bass. I figured the stripers were done on top, so time to try for some other species. Got to the spot, maybe made 3 casts with the Keitech and had a striper blow up on the deep side of the boat no more than about 30 feet away. Picked up the top water tossed it after him, had a blowup that missed, then a spotted bass that went about 2 lbs. grabbed the lure. Kind of surprised me to see that fish out there with the big boys. Had a few more blowups, got the top water on them again and a dang heron flew off the bank and went after my top water, just was able to get it away from the bird, reeled it back in and waved my arms and yelled at that worthless bird and was able to spook it away. In spite of all that I fortunately did not spook the stripers, a couple of them came up and I was able to stick one. That was the last one of the morning. I chalked that one up to pure luck, go to another spot where you don't expect to see a striper and they show up. Did a little bit of bass fishing, caught a few 12" smallies and a couple of spots on the c-rig.

I was stationed outside of Colorado Springs for a year, but that was 1976 and things have changed since then in that there's a heckuva lot more people out there and a lot more fishermen. If I recall correctly, the Arkansas river runs right by if not through Leadville, there should still be browns and rainbows in it. Access was a bit of a problem, I recall hiking down some steep stuff to get to the river. Colorado is one of those states where landowners can post the banks and access to any river or stream can be a problem. Wish I could give you better directions, but there is a hwythat runs along the Arkansas and you'll just have to look for pull outs and do some exploring. I think just about any stream, some really small, hold trout once you get into the mountains, some of them can get over looked and can provide some good fishing. Check the regs for sure - but I agree with SIO, jigs ought to work for sure and in a bigger river like the Arkansas so should jerks.

Vaping (whatever that is) wasn't around when I quit, if it was I probably would've tried it.

Got to the launch early, foggier than heck when I got there. Didn't have much choice but to idle over to a nearby point and start fishing, started out swimming a Keitech with the idea of catching smallmouth, but wasn't out to long before I started seeing a blow up to out in the deep water. There wasn't a lot of top water striper activity, but it got to be enough that I couldn't take it any longer and had to give them a shot. Had one blow up about 100 yards away, stood on the TM, got within casting distance, tossed the walking bait at the spot where the blow up occurred, gave it a twitch and man I tell you a stinking HUGE striper blew up on it, but missed, started walking the dog and it was like a pack of hungry piranhas were after that thing, had three quick explosions and misses and BOOM finally got one to grab it. Went through the usual tug of war and boated one that was in the 13-15. lb range. Wrecked the front treble on my lure, so tied on another one, and when I tied it on I noticed my hands were shaking. Many years of fishing but I guess I can still get excited at times. Anyway, caught another one that was in the low teen range and a couple of 3 pounders to boot, all on the top water. Also caught an 18" smallie that was near to the bank. That dude grabbed about 4 feet of air a couple of times which was pretty neat to see. For burned off, stripers went to parts unknown so I did some bass fishing, caught 10 bass, mostly smallies with a couple of spotted bass. 3 of the smallies were keeper sized. Had the best bite on the c-rig with a UV Speed craw as bait. Had quite a few bites, but they were just not eating it right - I think they have spawned, and are guarding nests or fry and are just messing with the baits. Surface WT 66, water has a bit of a stain to it. This post has been promoted to an article

Well you don't pay $5 a pack to sit behind a diesel waiting for a light. 😊 Cigarettes also control you, that's one of the main reasons I quit, being an addict is a drag (no pun intended), I ain't being a tool of the tobacco companies either and I ain't giving the tax man $4 for every pack of smokes. And if you don't think cigs control you, try and quit, you'll find that to be the hardest thing you'll ever do.

Don't have to be that close, quit someday and you'll understand.

Neat - when was in Germany I used to collect those cardboard coaster deals, I think every town over a population of a 100 has it's own brewery and they all have unique coasters.

Oh great, now the secret is out.... Just kidding - congrats!

Well I can take a shower after fishing and wash out the stink, won't stink again till the next time. You'll be stinking as soon as you fire up the next smoke. Deny it if you want, cigarette smokers stink. Quit smoking you'll see what I mean.

That is a really beautiful fish.