Quillback

Made it over to Big M this morning, launched at dawn. Plan was to hit a few summertime largemouth spots and go from there. Plan didn't turn out well, could hardly get a bite early, the exception being a carp that probably went about 15 lbs. that decided to eat my c-rigged craw. First carp I can remember catching on a c-rig, and he had it in it's mouth so I can only assume he meant to eat it. I was hoping it would turn out to be the biggest bass swimming in Table Rock, but I could tell after about 10 seconds that it was no bass. Thought it might be a gar or drum, a little surprised to see old bugle come to the net. Later in the morning I headed out to a place I have named "Keitech Point" and swam the Keitech. Caught some there, made a location change to another rocky point with trees and caught some more there. All spots, except for one 12" largemouth. Caught a little over 20 and when I left about 1130 AM they were still biting. Had a wake boat towing an inflatable couch with 3 kids siting on it pass by about 50 feet away and that made me decide it was time to go. As I cam into the Big M launch there was a white garbage bag floating in the water in the middle of the cove, I decided to get it out of the lake and dump it in the trash can. Went to lift the bag and it fell apart spewing bottles, cups, and other trash all over the place. Had to drop the TM and net as much as I could. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished, LOL. This post has been promoted to an article

I was out there too today, and it was busy.

I always wonder about the pound test rating on line weights. No standards bureau to test it out, so we have to trust what it says on the spool, unless you do the weight test like you did. I like Maxima, it is what I used for salmon and steelhead fishing on my spinning outfits. Still use it for cranks and top water.

Maxima is at .229 mm, BP is .230, so BP is slightly larger in diameter, so small a difference that it shouldn't matter. We're talking .001 mm.

Must be an error on the Maxima site. BP gives the mm here. https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/bass-pro-shops-excel-monofilament-line-jumbo-spool

Maybe the .009 was in inches? That converts to .229 in MM. You can type into Google - "convert .009 inches to mm" and it will do the conversion for you.

I see .229 on the TW site for 6 lb. Maxima (Ultragreen).

I can't help, but you might want to post that question in the Bull Shoals forum. Welcome BTW.

Congrats also, picking up those suspended deep fish is not an easy thing to do.

English comp won' help someone that is mentally deranged.

Well Harvey finished 50th. Only needed 5 more pounds to get to 12th and fish today. He only got one bass on day one and that did him in as he had a decent day 2. Looks like tough fishing, leader has 21 lbs. after 2 days.

Sure does look like a Plopper doesn't it? Look like nice lures that will catch fish, but nothing stands out as being innovative.

Fished from first light until about 11 AM. Got a few early and after that it was tough, but I could get a bite every now and then. I got 3 small spots on top water, and another 8 bass on jigs. Fished 1/2 oz Nutech jigs around trees and the fish I caught were in 10-20 FOW. Mostly smallmouth on the jig, but got a keeper largemouth and a keeper meanmouth also. Found a stretch of bank near Lost Bridge marina that has what I believe is hydrilla growing in the water. Couldn't drag a bait on the bottom in that area without getting that stuff on my bait. I don't recall ever running across it in Beaver. Surface temp 85. This post has been promoted to an article

Some Arkansas bear history: http://arbear.org/education/the-greatest-restoration

Cool, looking forward to it. Harvey Horne, who lives here in Bella Vista, won the Central Open on the Arkansas river this spring, and I believe that qualifies him to fish in the championship. He's a good guy, hope he does well. Central Open #3 starts tomorrow on the Red river.

I need to do that soon. Love catching those nice sized gills.

Page 7 and 8. http://www.marinemastertrailers.com/pdfs/a-60_actuator_maintenance.pdf

That's the one, but you should be able to reset it so you don't have that backup issue anymore.

I have a Marine master myself. Hopefully you still have the trailer booklet, it should have instructions on how to reset the deal that causes the brakes to activate when you backup. If not, you can give Marine Master a call. If all else fails, JWM trailer in Reed Springs do great work, I have had my trailer in there a couple of times, always been satisfied and they are very reasonable. https://www.mapquest.com/us/missouri/jwm-trailer-sales-inc-357631164

I can probably count on two hands the number of gut or gill hooked fish I have had on a Ned rig, don't know how many Ned rig bass I have caught, but it's easily over a thousand. Plus the ones I've seen caught on it by people fishing with me. It just doesn't happen. I can't explain it, you'd think they would swallow that little bait down, but they don't. I use almost exclusively cut Zinkers and Dave's heads with a #2 hook. C-rigs, Texas rigs, jerk baits, crankbaits - now those are lures and methods where I have problems with them swallowing it. I don't fish the Ned rig because of the low hooking mortality, I fish it because it just flat out works sometimes better than anything else I could fish. We're all going to kill some fish just by catching them, we just should all try and minimize the mortality by doing the best we can to minimize hook damage and take care of them as best we can when we put them in a livewell.

Got up early, had plans to haul the boat either to Eagle Rock or Big M. Last night the weatherman thought the storms would likely dissipate before they worked there way this far south. Checked the radar, lots of angry red colors showing and it should hit here soon. Maybe tomorrow or later this week I'll get out.

I don't fish crankbaits enough, always fun to catch fish on them.

That guy should show up for the Jigfest food.