Quillback

Haven't had any problems with mine.

There is a big run of what I believe are American shad in the Columbia river, story is they planed some in one of the SF Bay tributaries and they made their way north and I believe the Columbia is as far north as they get on the Pacific coast. Never fished for them as I was always chasing salmon and steelhead. But when they were running, people would catch them in bunches and they could be kept. Anyway, people were after them for the roe in addition to the hard fighting fish that they are. Always heard that if you want to eat the fish it is best to pressure cook them as the bones are so bad, but the pressure cooking softens them, like canned salmon.

Motored over to Clifty with my buddy Mike today. Wish I had some great fishing to report, but it was not. We boated around 15 bass, all 12-14" spots for the most part, couple of dink smallies and largies. Mike caught a spotted bass that might have gone 2 lbs. and that was our big bass of the day. Seems like everything we tried worked for a few, Keitechs, c-rigged lizard, creature on a wobble head, jig, and one on a Redfin. We hit a couple of locations back in Indian creek that had been producing for us, but not today. Had a brief walleye bite off a steep bank just inside a point, caught 3 solid keepers in about 15 minutes on a Keitech. Mike took them home. Water is stained green in Clifty area, can see bottom in 4 FOW. Saw some beds but no fish on them, but with the warm afternoon, they might start hanging around. WT 56-58.

You can buy trailer hooks with the shrink tube on them, here's an example: http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Gamakatsu_SP_Trailer_Hooks_4pk/descpage-GTHSP.html

Have to come up with a name for them. Billet-ba-donker Billegator Billenator Billesponker Your turn

I think it is Al Lindner on his show that calls them smallmouths. Crappie is the same, no one says I caught a mess of crappies.

For sure, at least a free T-shirt.

Thanks for the report, there's been many a day on Beaver where I would've been happy catching 6 bass. Probably going out tomorrow, thinking about trying the Clifty arms for a change of scenery.

If you say you caught a hybrid down here, people assume it's a white/striper hybrid. So I will stick to calling them means. I hate the term smallie spot hybrid.

I think that is the reason.

Here's some smallies:

Sometimes it's hard to tell from a photo, but when you get one, they do look different than a smallmouth. But, Seth's fish could be a smallmouth, just hard to tell, but I am leaning mean. here's some pic of fish I am pretty sure are means. This one to me looks very similar to Seth's. Some others:

That sort of diamond pattern on the lateral line.

From the AR Guidebook: The permit is valid for impounded waters (the waters between Beaver Lake Dam and Houseman Access in Arkansas are excluded).

I'm going to lean towards a mean, but that's a tough one to call.

I would also recommend a wipe down of the waterline every time you pull your boat out. A little time consuming, but you won't get any of that build up.

I was stationed at Fort Gordon for a year, right outside of Augusta. Fished Clark Hill and the river below the dam a few times from the bank, caught some hybrids below the dam, and that was it for fish caught. Red clay country around there and I remember that lake having a reddish stain color. I have pondered the economics of hiring guides vs boat ownership myself, mainly back when I was working and didn't have a lot of time to fish. It made sense when i lived in Washington state for fishing the rivers from a jet boat, when you only get a few chances a year to get out it was real easy to justify hiring a guide rather than tie money up in a jet boat to fish a few times a year. Plus the guides supplied tackle, bait, were knowledgeable about what was going on and would do the boat handling which was a big part of fishing those big, hard flowing rivers, not to mention dealing with the crowds at the launch and on the river. Kind of nice to step on the boat and just fish and not have to deal with all that other stuff that is a part of boat ownership. Don't know any guides in that area. And, I think it's about 2 hours from Augusta to Savannah. And Clarks Hill is a little bit to the northwest of Augusta, you might want to double check your distances from where you are looking at to both places.

Good to see some are biting. Catching them on jigs is fun.

I just can't get into them, if I was going to fish one, I'd probably do more of a lift and let fall retrieve than swimming it.

You can launch anywhere you want, just a question of where you can fish. The permit covers Table Rock (except the White river from the dam to Houseman), Norfolk, and Bull Shoals, you can launch and fish in the Arkansas portions of those lakes. The White River Border Lakes Permit is valid from date of purchase through the last day of February. Allows Missouri and Arkansas residents to pursue, take, possess (except trout) and transport fish, frogs, mussels, clams, turtles, crayfish, and live bait from the other state’s portion of the impounded waters of Bull Shoals, Norfork and Table Rock lakes without purchasing a Nonresident Fishing Permit. You must possess a fishing permit, or qualify for an exemption, issued by your state of residence. This permits is only for Missouri and Arkansas residents.

Talked to Harvey about 2 weeks ago, he mans the counter sometimes at Hook, Line, and Sinker in Bella Vista. He's a good guy and a good fisherman. He fishes Table Rock quite a bit. Congrats! https://www.bassmaster.com/news/open-horne-goes-wire-to-wire

Tough day 3. Guy from Tennessee won, funny how that happens, there were some good, experienced local anglers in this tourney.

I was on Beaver Thursday and I did see one, and only one, bed. Didn't see a fish on it. I didn't go around looking for beds so there may have been a few more.

Maybe some giant flatheads learn there's some tasty 2 lb bass that get periodically dumped in certain locations. Dazed and confused, they'd be easy money. Kind of like those California bass that chomp down hatchery trout when the hatchery trucks dump them in the lake.

Well they are using the ponds to raise fish to stock in the lakes. They drained them first to remove any fish that may have been in them before putting in the walleye or crappie. Sure is possible back in the day that after a flood there could be fish from Little Sugar that end up in the course ponds. I believe last year when the water was up the fry that were in those ponds got washed out into the creek.