Quillback

Internet has been down since this morning, connected through the phone hotspot. It's slow. Glad to see your mom didn't get hit by that tornado Marty.

Rain coming down here.

That was a wise decision IMO.

Welcome!

Good luck! Be careful out there in what could be a nasty day Friday weather wise.

Snakes and gators I can deal with, but if there are any ticks, I am out.

Looks like a great place to catch some bream! 😀

Looks like it is on, have not seen anything about a cancellation. Bring that rain gear.

Flood watch issued: Multiple rounds of heavy rainfall will result in storm total accumulation of 4-6" with locally up to 8".

We might even get a little snow Saturday night/Sunday AM.

"On largemouth and smallmouth, a 14-20 inch slot, with 3 fish under 14 and 1 fish over. But the tournament crowd would scream bloody murder over that idea, and don't kid yourself...these days the tournament crowd has all the power." That's what happened on the Coosa river lakes proposed changes, the Alabama DCNR proposed a 14-20" slot limit for bass, the tourney crowd and local chambers of commerce freaked out and got the proposal killed off. So in that case, the tournament crowd exercised their power. In spite of a study showing a 30% mortality rate to bass that are kept in a livewell, which was the reason for the proposal. Economics won out over fish management. The thing is, Lake Fork has had a slot limit for years and that lake is pounded by tourney and recreational bass fishermen. If the fishing is good, people will come and fish. Killing off a slot limit proposal designed to improve the quality of the bass population was short sighted. I highlighted a statement below that shows you how hard is to bring about change that could be beneficial to the fishery. People complain about the fishing being poor, but fight back against any changes designed to improve the quality of the fishery. "Slot limits have been a hot topic in Alabama in recent months. In November 2024, the Alabama Wildlife & Freshwater Fisheries Division proposed a plan to institute a 14- to 20-inch tournament-only slot limit for all six lakes on the Coosa River in response to research conducted by Auburn University that tracked bass mortality rates on the Neely Henry Reservoir over the past three years. The DCNR paid for that research project to the tune of $843,000 “in response to persistent complaints from anglers about the declining quality of the black bass fisheries on Coosa River reservoirs.” “After taking into consideration all of the fisheries data collected by our staff, various scientific studies and feedback from tournament and local fishermen as well as many city and county government entities, I have determined that the short-term economic impacts of a 14-20 inch slot limit outweigh the long-term benefits of a larger size structure of the bass population on the Coosa River reservoirs. At this time, no changes for the Coosa River fishery will be presented to the Conservation Advisory Board for consideration."

Swordtails are great aquarium fish.

First round has moved through here, a lot of wind but not much rain.

Excellent - I have not been over there for a while, hopefully the lake doesn't get blown out and if so I might get over there next week.

I'm neutral on this one. Several years ago they changed the limit on spots on Beaver Lake. No minimum size and you can keep up to 10. I don't know if it has had any impact. I'd like to see a slot limit on spots, 12-15". If so few make it over 15", then those fish should be released.

60 degrees they said, sunny they said. HA! We saw a huge flock of cormorants several miles below the Cape. Hundreds of them, if not more. All those things do is eat fish.

I think top of flood pool is 931. I hope we don't see that.

I heard, third hand, that it was lower lake over deep water, but the fish were shallow.

Very nice! One of these days I would like to fish that lake.

This could be you Marty:

Based on my observation, people have wised up to those trees around here. I don't see any being planted. New trees planted around the trails and roadways tend to be redbuds, willow oaks and maples.

Way to go buddy!

I've heard, 3rd hand, that the whites are not running in numbers on the James or the Kings.

Last night I was pretty beat after getting up early and fishing all day, so I was sound asleep at 7 PM. Woke up wide awake at 3 AM and decided, what the heck, might as well go fishing. Today was tough, there was an early bite, then it was just dead out there. Wind really whipped up around 11 AM, so I stopped throwing the finesse stuff and broke out the cranks. Caught a half dozen on cranks, but I covered a lot of water to catch them. 11 total bass, 2 were keepers, and both of the keepers were largemouth. Caught 5 on a little 2.5" tube and the half dozen on cranks. The fish I caught were all shallow in less than 10 FOW. WT was 57 when I left.

Nice ones! Send some of that rain this way please, it is needed.