Quillback

Beautiful country, I miss it. They had a squawfish bounty on the Columbia while I lived there, they were trying to get rid of them as they are a predator of salmon smolts - that was the thinking at the time. $3 each. Supposedly there were people making $50-60K per year fishing for them. I've always heard that if you want to do a smallmouth float, do one on the John Day in Oregon. Remote country and many smallmouth. There are guides will take you on a multi-day float on the John Day and target smallmouth.

Ahhh, that makes sense.

St Lawrence is a week away. I was looking at Group E, guy by the name of Rick Morris has a selection rate of 22%, far and away more than anyone else. Never heard of him myself, and he's not my selection, but thought that was interesting. Maybe he did well in a past tourney on the St. Lawrence?

Those flatheads are ugly sons of guns, but they do pull. I usually will get one or two a year accidentally while bass fishing and it's usually around September. Don't know if it is coincidence or if they get more active this time of year during the day.

Yeah, I'd say that first one is a hybrid.

I know what you're looking for, had a few instances of that earlier this summer. Wish I had taken some screen shots. Might run across some this fall.

Wrench I've never said that stuff about LOZ. I wish it was closer so I could fish it, it's a great LM lake. If crap builds up inside of LOZ folks , well this is not the thread to foul with that crap.

HAHA, I was thinking that if there was a contest to catch the smallest fish, things could get pretty interesting.

Ugh, just the thought of a freezer full of stocker trout makes me want to hurl. I can eat trout maybe 3-4 times a year at the most. Having to eat my way through a freezer full, no thanks. The sad thing is how many of those folks with freezers full end up tossing them after they get freezer burn?

Guy should get 6 months just for being stupid. Sounds like he's been warned but is still selling.

It is a gift for sure. Come fish it some time, you might have fun, and you need to have some fun, being a sour old man is not the way you want to spend your remaining years.

I'll take a picture to record my trophy.

I can call a fish a "trophy" and not feel obligated to get it stuffed. 😄

Wow, hate to hear that. I am wondering what could've caused it?

Based on my local lake fishing experience, a smallmouth over 19" is a quality fish, and I'd put a trophy at any over 5lbs. Over 6 lbs. would be an exceptional fish.

Wow!

Very interested to hear about your trip.

I have a buddy that has a Shimano DC, one of the earlier models, can't remember which one it is, but not a Curado. We were out fishing one day, and he had it set to "Long Cast" or whatever that setting was. He was throwing a 3/4 oz jigging spoon with that thing, and it was way further than I could throw anything with my stuff.

Get out between the storms. Be nice to see some water running into the backs of the coves, but yet not enough to flood. That's probably asking for too much, LOL.

Looking at the extended forecast (subject to change of course), it's going to reach 90 today, but after today, it's 80's for the foreseeable future with morning lows in the 60's. I don't know if it will improve the catching, but if the forecast holds true at least the fishing conditions will be good.

I've been using Rage Tail Craws as a trailer myself. I like PB&J for the smalls. Thinking about getting some 1 oz Grass jigs from Bo and using a Rage Lobster as a trailer.

Congrats! I bet I have caught a couple of hundred smalls on Beaver since December but not one over 19". That is a hawg for these lakes. I saw your comments on swimming a jig, that has been working for me on Beaver lately, not that I am catching many in the last few weeks, but I' say half my bites are now coming as I am swimming that jig.

Nice! Always fun when you can see them on the finder and they bite.

The little varmints start back to school next Monday in Arkansas. Is it the same start date in MO? looking forward to fewer boats on the water during the week.

Took a stroll over to the garden this morning, I'm standing there checking things out, when I hear a loud buzz near my feet, look down and there is a cicada wasp carrying a cicada (I call them locusts). Well I went back into the house to get my camera to take a pic, but darn thing was gone by the time I got back out. There was a small hole in the dirt near where I saw the wasp, so I bet it is where it went to bury the cicada and inject an egg into it. Sure was a coincidence seeing it, just read an article in the paper this weekend about them, I had never seen one of those wasps before, and a couple of days later, there it was. http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/10-facts-about-cicada-killer-wasps/