Quillback

Not to mention they'll stick you and they'll bounce around in the boat waving those treble hooks. When they are on top, I 'll catch a few as it is fun, but after about 6 of them I'm ready to go back to trying to catch black bass.

I can eat them, but not my favorite. Great fish to catch on top, explosive strikes, hard fights.

A bishop advertises a job to ring the bell in his tower. The only job applicant is a hunchback with no arms. Bishop: "How can you do the job? You can't pull the rope!" Hunchback: "I have a plan - but we have to go to the top of the tower, where the bell is." .. So they climb all those stairs to the top of the tower. Bishop: "Ok, show me your plan." The hunchback runs and jumps at the bell, striking it with his head. Sure enough, he rings the bell. The bishop asks him, "How did you learn to ring the bell like this?" The hunchback replies, "Actually, I first learned on the guitar," and walks over to a guitar on the wall and starts banging his head on it, and Lo! Beautiful music comes out. So despite his misgivings, the bishop hired the hunchback to ring the bell. Every day the hunchback comes in and rings the bell. One day, the hunchback decides to try to ring the bell louder. He goes to the farthest corner of the tower, and runs as fast as he can toward the bell. When he jumps up and hits it with his head, the bell rings clear and loud. Unfortunately, the hunchback hit the bell so hard he's a little groggy. He staggers around a bit, and falls out a window to the street below. A crowd gathers around the hunchback's mangled body lying in the street; the bishop goes out to investigate the commotion. The policeman arrives and again asks: "Who is this guy?" The bishop replies: "I don't know his name, but his face rings a bell." The policeman then asks if the bishop can tell him anything about the hunchback. The bishop replies, "Not much, but he could play a guitar just like a ringing a bell." The next day, a man (who has arms) arrives, claiming to be the hunchbacks brother. "Hi, I've come to take over my brother's job." The bishop offers his condolences for the loss of his brother, and then escorts him to the tower. "Your brother used to ring the bell with his face," said the Bishop. "Will you do that, too, or will you use your arms?" The hunchback's brother replies "If my brother can ring it with his face, so can I!" So saying, he runs full bore at the bell, glances off it with his face, falls out the window and to his death in the street below. The bishop rushes down to see what he can do for the poor man. A crowd gathers. A policeman arrives and asks the bishop "Do you know who this man is?" The bishop replies, "No, but he's a dead ringer for his brother."

Well if this is going to turn into a bad jokes thread, I have a contribution. A man with a harelip walks into a bar. The bar tender has a wooden eye. Man walks up to the bar, bar tender asks him if he'd like a drink. The man says: "Would I, would I!" Bartender says: "Harelip, harelip!"

Well a person has to want to learn. You could drift through college back in my day too, lots of easy course schedules to take. I remember taking electives like 'Art History' and the 'History of Boston'. They were interesting courses, but piece of cake compared to Calculus or Physics. And in the end I never used any of that math or physics in my job in the telecom world, but that degree helped me get into a good career.

They sell rolls of nylon netting at Lowes, kind of a monofilament type stuff. I wrap it (loosely) around the tomato cages. It works fine for deterring critters like squirrels and deer.

Had a wood stove when I lived in Washington state, had gas heat so the wood stove was a supplement to the gas. I'd probably burn anywhere from 2-4 cords every year. Did that for close to 20 years. Cut, split, hauled, and stacked it all myself. I liked it, great exercise and love hearing that wood pop in the stove. I could just about blow myself out of my little house it would get so hot. I burned fir, hemlock, western cedar, and alder, not much hardwood out there. Nice thing about fir and hemlock is that it is very straight grained and splits pretty easily, didn't need a log splitter or a maul, split it all with an axe. Alder and western cedar when aged is almost as light as balsa, burns hot and fast, works real well for a fire starter. But I don't have a wood stove now, have one of those gas fireplaces. I am happy with that now.

No fishing for me today either, thought about hitting one of the local BV lakes, but it's May 10th and in the upper 40's with some precip. The heck with that!

Some from the stash:

10 feet according to TW. Bomber made a Fat Free Shad Deep Diving square bill that came in 2 models. I think one runs at 4-7 feet and the other 10-14. Don't believe they make them anymore. I have some and have caught fish on them.

Forgot to mention, the Big M marina is open.

Ouch, that would not be good.

Memorial Day weekend. Starts 5 PM on the Friday and runs until 8 AM Tuesday. Anytime during that time frame including nights.

Fished from 0600 until noon. There was a topwater bite early, caught a few on a 4" Yozuri pencil popper, scattered fish chasing shad, didn't see any schooling activity. Had a drought after the topwater bite tailed off, caught one here and there, but nothing consistent and had a stretch where I bet I had 10 bites and only boated 2 of them - this was on a 3.8 Keitech swimming it off the bank out into 20 FOW. Keitech bite picked up a bit later in the morning until I left at noon. They got active chasing shad, again they were scattered, but if you could get on them they would bite. Finished the day with a couple of smallmouth that were right up on a gravel bank with a stiff wind blowing in. Caught 20 bass, 9 or 10 keepers, but no large keepers, biggest was a 17" largemouth. Gizzard shad are spawning, had some chasing the Keitech, they'd tap it sometimes but just couldn't get it.

Yep, they will have to run water.

Submit all you want, let's see some Hawgs!

Nice, I need to get one myself.

Looks like 2-3" over a week? Shouldn't be too bad I hope. Newport gauge is all important to understanding how they manage water. Right now it is a little above 18' which is where they are trying to "regulate" to. On May 14 that regulation level drops to 12 feet or possibly 14 feet. I don't see how they are going to be releasing any significant water anytime soon with the forcasted rain unless they are forced to by flooding rains. From 1 December through 14 April - Regulate to 21 feet except, if a natural rise exceeding 21 feet occurs, regulate to the lesser of the observed crest or 24 feet. · From 15 April through 7 May - Regulate to 14 feet except, regulate to 21 feet, from 15 April through 30 April, and 18 feet, from 1 May through 14 May, if the four-lake system storage exceeds 50% full. · From 8 May through 30 November - Regulate to 12 feet except, regulate to 14 feet from 15 May through 30 November, if the 4-lake system storage exceeds 70% full. · Release a minimum of firm power and in extreme cases zero if a significant reduction in critical downstream flood conditions is possible. · Prorate the flood control releases between Bull Shoals and Norfork to maintain equal percentages of available flood control storage in NF and the BV-TR-BS. · Release a maximum of 32,500 cfs from BS and 10,500 cfs from NF subject to a 50,000 cfs flow limit at Batesville.

Nice fat fish. Yeah you can't let the knuckleheads ruin your day.

That is one goofy looking fish. I'm thinking 12 inches long but weighs 3 lbs.

Some frost on the roof tops, but none on the ground.

Made some rule changes, please review if you plan on participating.

Made some rule changes, please review if you plan on participating.

Made some rule changes, please review if you plan on participating.

Made some rule addition, please review if you plan on participating.