Quillback

So I'm rolling down AR HWY 94 doing around 55 when a skunk bolts out of the grass and runs right in front of the truck, no time to react, Pepe fortunately moved fast enough that he went under the truck at about the center line. Thought for sure either the trailer tires or the trailer cross bars would get him, but it was his (and my) lucky day as I felt no thumps from back there and no stink on the trailer when I got to the ramp. Fishing was great today if you like numbers, I caught 30 bass, exactly 30 as I quit when I caught the 30th. Only 5 keepers however. I think I got 6 on the 78 Pointer and the others came on the Ned rig. The bass look to be feeding on craws, had several with craw antennae sticking out of their throats. Fish were scattered, some spots better than others. Caught a few as deep as 20 feet, and the rest were in the 5 - 15 foot range. A couple on gravel, but rock runouts and ledge rock were the best. Only saw 2 other boats, and one of those came out the same time I did - he said he caught 10 bass, but one of them went 4 lbs. didn't ask what he was using. WT 44-46 This post has been promoted to an article

Ok, cool, jut got back from fishing so I'll take a better look at things to see what we're going to do for food in another day or two. I am thinking we may need an additional place as we're starting to get a bit crowded.

Very nice, love those big spots!

OK, well I am going to assume that between Brett and Zigjig man we'll have enough fish for a fry. I can get the oil, 7.5 gallons if I recall. We'll have to get organized as far as what nights to eat whatever.

Thanks for posting that. Some nice redears, I keep expecting Ham to get after those things. @Ham

Way to go! Nice warm day to boot.

Might be worth waiting until March or April, once the tourneys get started on the big lakes it helps ease the pressure on Swepco.

Couple of things that are noted wrongly in that thread, Swepco is around 700 acres, not 200, and the ramp has been rebuilt since 2006 and is a decent ramp with a courtesy dock off to the side. The ramp is exposed to the wind and it's not unusual to have whitecaps coming across it on a windy day. Swepco is not a big lake, but it is exposed to the wind so keep that in mind.

Some great looking fish!

Haven't fished it this year, but have quite a bit in the past. It's always been a plastics lake for me, c-rigs, T-rigs, wobble heads. The lake fishes better when the plant is running and when the discharge is hot, 90+ degrees. The bass love to get up in that discharge, but everybody that fishes that lake knows that so it's a busy spot, but if you go during the week, get to that discharge before the sun comes up you can catch numbers and size there. The bass have Florida strain genetics and spawn early, they should be spawning about now. It's a good lake for quality fish. I'd stay away on the weekends if you can, it can get really and I mean really crowded during the winter. I've been meaning to get over there myself.

Surprised to hear there were so many boats, I guess the warm weather got people out. Hope you and your daughter get into them!

Bill, those crappie were just out cruising around as far as I could tell, my guess is they are out eating those slow moving shad like the bass are. I think February and March bass are in the best shape as far as fatness and coloration. I love fishing this time of year when the weather cooperates.

Bringing the Germans with you?

Dang, they are proud of them! I wonder if they use a pre-Rapala wart?

Randy, they are still swimming, every once in a while I like to fry up some fillets, but not very often.

DJ, we may need all that stuff. I am starting to think maybe we should bring down brats and burgers and grill them one night.

Put the boat in the water about 7:15 AM and fished until 2:30. Is was a cloudy, misty morning with little wind. Started off on a long rocky ledge and stayed there for a good chunk of the morning, with the flat water there was a bit of top water activity, bass were coming up and swirling on shad. I caught several on a Pointer 78 and picked up a couple of good crappie also on the Pointer. Once the Pointer bite got slow, I switched out to the Ned and picked up some more bass, slow dragging on the bottom. Once the bite died down on the ledge I bounced around fishing some points and steep banks. The fish got squirrelly, I bet I had another 8 bites and every one of those fish got off. Only other boat I saw today was Tom from Eagle Rock, he was catching some too. I caught 13 bass, good keeper ratio today, 6 or 7 were keepers. WT 42-43 This post has been promoted to an article

Yep, looks like Mo Craw with a purple belly instead of orange.

Yep, I think FLW has done a good job. For me it's more about where they are fishing, if there's one live on TR or Beaver or Grand, I'll probably watch some of it. This Florida stuff, I watched a couple of hours yesterday, maybe 30 minutes today and probably won't watch anymore until Sunday and that probably won't be a whole lot. My 2 cents is the BPT needs to cut down on the length of their tourneys, 6 days is way too much in my opinion.

GoPros instead of a cameraman. All the big boat pro tours are about pushing product as much as competition. BASS live and FLW live have their commercials too.

Nope they don't fish out of kayaks or allow them in these tourneys. But there are kayak only tourneys where they don't allow bass boats. And those kayaks have all kinds of electronics also, depth finders, little power poles, electric motors, etc.,

Jut watched it. The guide sure seemed to be amped up, talking a mile a minute, he had good info but it came at you pretty fast. Surprised to see Cherry Creek is such a good walleye lake, it is right on the outskirts of Denver. Not much else close by, it has to get hammered.

Electronics not much of a factor in this tourney. Shallow Florida stuff.

Well good luck my friend and I agree, getting older catches up on us.