Quillback

This could be a heckuva business opportunity for a solar business.

That's a reasonable point, if you're a working dude with family, and can only get out maybe 20 times a year, it would be cheaper to hire a guide. Not to mention you have to have insurance, pay for maintenance, fuel, and all the other boat expenses.

I would be surprised if this originated from the COE, I could be wrong about that, but I have to believe this came from "above".

Thanks for the link. I am hoping your division 1 buddies publish a newsletter also.

Amazing how much boat prices have jumped in the last few years. But they are selling them.

Going to make recharging trolling motor batteries interesting, especially at night.

First one I have seen, except for a glimpse or two of one off the side of the road.

I was thinking of the drop shot myself, didn't have any of that stuff with me. I saw a few on the graph out in 15-20 FOW underneath the boat and I bet they would've bit a drop shot, or a spoon. Had a couple spit out 3" spoon sized shad.

Launched early again today, 0530 or so. Went over to a nearby gravel point and caught a few early, got my biggest of the day, a 3 lb. LM. Fishing the c-rigged Trick worm again. Saw some bass busting top water, but couldn't get them to bite my top water offerings. Fished a couple of other gravel points, picked up a few here and there. Then I fished a brush pile that sits on a gravel point in about 15-20 FOW, off a cove mouth, it's a brush pile I have fished in the past and sometimes it is good for a bass or two, but today it was loaded, caught over 20 bass off that pile, mostly 12-14" spots, but also a few keepers, 2 of the keepers were LM's,the only 2 LM's I caught off that pile, but they were both keepers. Again on the c-rigged Trick worm. (Old Purple and Candy Bug). Caught a bunch of fish today, 35 or so, mostly 12-14" spots, only 5 keepers. Not one smallmouth, but did catch a meanmouth. Surface WT was 86. Saw a bobcat today, pulled into a little cut in a bluff wall, made a few casts on one side of the cut, moved the boat over to the other side, saw something moving on the bank, thought it was a fox, but once I got a good look at it I realized it was a bobcat. It just slowly walked away and disappeared into the brush. Didn't have time to get the camera and get a shot, I needed to change lenses to get a good photo and the cat just didn't give me the time I needed.

Appears they are looking for the top water bite.

This was on the AGFC website. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Trout Management Program worked with the Greers Ferry National Fish Hatchery in Heber Springs to clip off a fin on each of 14,300, 9-inch brook trout to be released into the Bull Shoals and Norfork tailwaters later this month. The loss of a fin may seem counterproductive to fish survival, but the fin-clipping effort is part of a larger project to determine the effectiveness of larger trout being stocked in the tailwater. Brook trout have been stocked in Arkansas since 1994 at a size of 6 inches. Recently, the AGFC Trout Management Program has worked with the hatchery to grow out the trout to 9 inches before release. According to Christy Graham, supervisor of the Trout Management Program, the tradeoff for fewer, but larger trout being stocked may increase the amount of trout that make it to catchable size. “Creel and electrofishing surveys conducted over the last 10 years indicate very few of the 6-inch brook trout stocked survive very long after stocking,” Graham said. “We hope increasing the size to 9 inches will give anglers a better opportunity to catch these trout.” Graham says the clipped fins pose little harm to the fish, and enable biologists to accurately determine when a fish was stocked. This information is vital to determine the success of stocking as well as the growth rates of the fish. “Typically some fish would have to be sacrificed to determine age through other means,” Graham said. “But this marking enables us to track the growth rates and survival of stocked fish and release it to be caught by anglers.” The current minimum length limit for brook trout is 14 inches and anglers may keep two per day. Arkansas is the only state in the Southeast to stock rainbow, brown, cutthroat and brook trout. Catching one of all four species in a single day is a feat known as the “Ozark Slam.” Graham says anglers who visit the Norfork and Bull Shoals tailwaters should also be on the lookout for public workshops in August to begin the review of the trout management plan for these tailwaters. “We will have announcements soon on where and what times these workshops will be held, but the dates will be August 3rd and 24th,” Graham said. “We want all anglers, from the casual bait-fisherman to the experienced fly-fishing guide, to be represented at these meetings to make these tailwaters the best they can be.”

Fish were in the 5-15 foot range, time of day may be a factor also, things may be different in the evening.

Dang. that bass could've grown up and been caught on a big swimbait.

Something I forgot to mention - the coves are filled with baby shad right now, should bode well for the future.

I fished a Tatula most of the day today Carolina rigging. Casting distance is pretty impressive, I believe they are right in saying that the T-wing system helps distance. Not one backlash all day. Couple things I don't like is that the spool tension control is very tight and just doesn't have a well machined feel to it. Drag is a little sketchy, not bad, certainly fishable, but not as smooth a drag as I would like. But for a reel that you can usually find for less than $100, it's a good value IMO. I have the first version of the Tatula, some guys didn't like them as they thought they are a little big. I am fine with the size, but the new version, the Tatula CT is a bit smaller, so I ma told. Never have fished a Lews, so I can't make a comparison between the two, but a lot of guys really like their Lews.

Got to the launch at 0530 today. Noticed some activity not far off the shore, so took a rod off the deck and made a cast with a wobblehead/Megabug combination. Drug it on the submerged blacktop, felt a fish pick it up, swung and missed, let it drop, started dragging some more and had a 14" spot grab it and hang on. Uh-oh, first cast fish. Made another few casts, had another one on, it came out of the water about 4 feet and tossed the bait. I think it was a smallie. Decided I better get the boat in the water before I wandered down the bank fishing and end up launching after fishing the bank for an hour. Put the boat in the water, parked the truck, walked down to the boat, got in and decided to make a cast or two before leaving the dock. Caught another bass, this one a meanie that went about 14", and had another one spit the hook. Finally untied the boat and got out of there. Motored down to a cove that has a dock near the entrance of the cove, one of my favorite early morning spots in the summer. Dragged the wobbler around the rocks lining one side of the cove, caught a keeper LM, and a very nice 18" meanmouth (2nd of the day). That was it for the cove. Spent most of the morning fishing gravel points with the c-rig, dragging Zoom Finesse and Trick worms, caught a 3.5 LM on a Finesse worm which was my big fish of the day. Bite never was "hot" but it was steady with a bite every 5 or 6 casts. Ended the morning with 19 bass, 4 of them keepers. About 10 AM the recreational traffic started getting bad, I hung in there until 1130, then split. Surface temps were 84-85.

This is what provided the structure for the Tacoma Narrows bottom fish.

Used to catch the saltwater quillback around the Tacoma narrows bridge 25 years ago. Ugly but tasty. Also used to go out of Westport WA on bottom fish charters and catch black rockfish that Kjackson is talking about. They are very similar in appearance to largemouth bass. They'd typically run 3-5 lbs and were great eating. Limit was a dozen back in the day, and you'd usually get a lingcod or two. $80 to go on the charter boat and you'd get your moneys worth in fillets. Deckhands would fillet them for about $5 for your limit. It would take 1-2 hours to get back to the harbor and the deckhands would fillet all the fish by the time we got back.

Nice couple of smallies.

More wildlife vs human news. AUBURN, Maine (AP) — A professional runner from Kenya who was out training on a nature trail in the woods near his home in Maine says he encountered two charging black bears but was able to outrun them during a frantic sprint to a nearby vacant house for cover. Moninda Marube said when he saw the bears early Wednesday his instincts kicked in and he did what he does best: run. He told the (Lewiston, Maine) Sun Journal that the bears were 20 yards (18 meters) away from him and a vacant house was 20 yards away in the opposite direction. So he made a run for the house, with the bears closing to within 10 yards (9 meters) by the time he found safety on the house’s screened porch. The bears stopped, not realizing they could’ve easily crashed through the flimsy porch screens, Marube said. They sniffed around for a while before wandering away. Wardens advise people who encounter black bears to make themselves appear big, make noise and back away slowly. But they recommend people stand their ground if a black bear charges and say if the bear attacks, then fight back. But Marube said that’s easier said than done. He said he knew that black bears can climb trees, so he couldn’t climb to safety. He said he considered jumping in a nearby lake, but he can’t swim. He said he initially engaged in a stare-down with the bears but the bears charged the moment he turned his back on them. Marube, a student at the University of Maine at Farmington who finished third in the 2012 Maine Marathon and won the 2013 half-marathon, said he’d once encountered a leopard perched in a tree while alone in Africa — but the bears were scarier. He said he learned an important lesson from his close encounter with Maine’s wildlife: “Just make peace with people. You never know when your day comes.”

Just seemed appropriate for me to post this: Ozark angler hooks state-record quillback MDC congratulates Timothy Keene on breaking the pole-and-line state record by catching a 5-pound, 13-ounce quillback on Bull Shoals Lake. OZARK, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports that Timothy Keene of Ozark became the most recent record-breaking angler in Missouri when he hooked a quillback on Bull Shoals Lake in Taney County using a rod and reel. The new “pole and line” record quillback caught by Keene on June 26 weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces. It broke the previous state-record of 2 pounds, 12 ounces. Keene and a fishing buddy were using red and purple-colored spoons trying to catch walleye when he hooked the state-record quillback. “The quillback put up a pretty good fight. I fought it for at least four minutes until I got it in the boat,” Keene said. Keene said once he got it in the boat he didn’t really know what type of fish it was, but his fishing buddy did. “I’m pretty new at fishing so I don’t know all the fish species, but my fishing buddy knew we had a really nice size quillback,” he said. “After some quick research, we were confident we had a new state-record fish.” Keene says he still can’t believe he has a Missouri state record, which was confirmed by MDC staff using a certified scale at Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery. “I can’t believe it! This is an event I would have never dreamed of,” he said. The quillback fish is a part of the sucker family. It is deeper-bodied than most suckers, leading to a carp-like appearance. It can be distinguished from carp by the lack of barbels around the mouth. Keene is unsure if he is going to mount the fish or not. Missouri state-record fish are recognized in two categories: pole-and-line and alternative methods. Alternative methods include: throwlines, trotlines, limb lines, bank lines, jug lines, spearfishing, snagging, snaring, gigging, grabbing, archery, and atlatl. For more information on state-record fish, visit the MDC website at http://on.mo.gov/2efq1vl. Congratulations to Timothy Keene on breaking the pole-and-line state record by catching a 5-pound, 13-ounce quillback on Bull Shoals Lake.

There's some reviews out there. I haven't used one, so no comment from me. http://www.scout.com/outdoors/wired2fish/story/1738126-first-look-abu-garcia-vendetta-casting-rod

I see in Dave's future a bunch of orders coming in from the Great White North.

Yep. And that people of all ages can get in trouble out there.

81 year old driving the boat, and here we are blaming the young'uns for all the trouble on the lakes.