Quillback

Way to go buddy, some tremendous fish!

It was warm enough for my delicate constitution to get out early for a dawn start. Very little wind, which at first I thought was good for my Ned fishing, but things were tough the first couple of hours on the glass like water. Poked around on some of my smallmouth spots and only picked up a couple of short fish. Went back in a cove that had held some spotted bass the day before and didn't get much action there either. Things were looking grim. I decided to try some main channel wooded banks that hadn't been producing much previously, also there was some wind starting to blow on the main channel and I thought that might help. Really wasn't expecting much, but I found some. More green fish than brown, but they were good fish on average. Caught 4 keeper sized largemouth, half a dozen tank spots that were in the 15-16" range, a couple of smallies, and one walleye. Had a pretty good window of biting fish for about 3 hours, then the wind really started blowing, it was 2 PM, so I packed it in. 17 total bass, 10 of them were at or bigger than 15". PB&J Ned again did the damage. I threw cranks for a while, but nothing touched them. WT 49-51. Turkeys were gobbling again, one of them was getting obnoxious, I mean non-stop gobbling from that bird all morning. Hopefully somebody nails that one this spring. This post has been promoted to an article

Great trip BH!

I'll start off with my big fish story. Threw the Ned up on a rocky bank, let it hit bottom in about 10 FOW. Lifted it and thought I was snagged, just dead stop and solid. Then a split second later I felt some movement, not a lot, but i was beginning to think I had a bass that had wrapped the line around something. Then the fish just started swimming, pulling drag and I was thinking, man I have a really big smallmouth, fish turned towards the boat, swam under the boat and kept on going, pulling drag - I then realized this wasn't any kind of black bass, but I was thinking possibly a striper. I've got this fish on 6 lb. line and a light spinning rod, and it has swam under the boat and out the other side, but it is staying deep. I had to get my rod on the other side of the boat, so I stuck the pole vertically into the water and got on the trolling motor and managed to flip the boat around and get on the deep side of the boat without getting tangled in anything like the trolling motor. Fish had stopped running at this point, but was staying deep and not letting me move it much. Now we went into a give and take thing, I'd gain some line, then the fish would get mad and swim back down. After about 5 minutes of this I get the fish close enough to see it's not a striper, but it's big and gold so I thought carp. Again the fish gets mad and swims back down, but it finally wore out and I slid it into the net. I believe it is a buffalo, somebody that knows please confirm. It bottomed out my 15 lb. Bogagrip scale, I am thinking about 17 lbs. or so. The bass fishing was pretty good today. I caught 30 bass, somewhere around 8-10 keepers. Most of the keepers were 15-16" smallies, with a couple of spots that were also in the 15-16" range. Smallies were on main lake/channel banks and points, spots were halfway back in one cove. Fished a couple of other coves that didn't have any, but the one cove was pretty good for them. PB&J Ned on the 1/8 oz head. WT 49-50. I caught a smalls on my first cast, then caught another one on my second cast. Just a good day to be out fishing. Heard some turkeys gobbling, it is starting to feel like spring out there. This post has been promoted to an article

Sabine river next, I don't have any clue who to pick for that one. Maybe that is a good thing.

How old are his boys? Reason I ask is if they are real young they probably won't have patience they'll need to spend the time they're going to have to put in to get a bass or two off the bank be sure and caution your friend to set low expectations. There is a ton of bank access at Indian creek, but it will be tough to catch many fish. Quite a bit of bank available at Horseshoe Bend COE park, not at the ramp, but near the camping areas. I would recommend a worm under a cork in the HS Bend area and settle for some perch action with a bass or two possible.

ne how long on one spot always is something I think about too. If I find multiple fish on a spot I'll fish it until I can't get anymore bites, then I'll leave. I might come back later and fish that spot again. But watching the pros, they'll stay on a spot all 4 days in a tournament. Tak Omori won that tourney this spring fishing the same spot. Seem some others do it also. And they have dry spells for hours where they don't catch anything, but they'll stay there. I can't so that myself, but I'm a fun fisherman with way different objectives than the big time tourney guys.

Thanks - I'll keep an eye out for them. They look like nice sturdy tubs.

CrappieMaster, that boat is in great shape for a 92.

There is that regional thing, in Washington state used to see a lot of Honda outboards on salt water boats. Hardly ever see one out here.

I set out a dozen broccoli plants and planted some snow peas a couple of days ago. I like stir frying broccoli and snow peas together.

Hey BH - where did you get those tubs?

Jordan Lee wins the Classic, back to back Classic wins for him. And those are the only 2 wins he has had on the Elite series I believe.

Nice ones!

I was doing a little reading about those rainbow darters and apparently they are a fairly easy fish to keep in an aquarium. I am tempted, just don't feel like investing the time right now.

Some interesting looking fish, kind of neat to see what swims around in our streams.

I am getting addicted to these dudes, lots of fun on light spinning tackle, they are really pulling hard. Not much in the way of aerial acrobatics yet, only had one jump yesterday, but it probably got three feet of air - then tossed the Ned. JF, you must be the only fisherman that wasn't out fishing yesterday, man there were boats everywhere.

Being St. Patrick's Day you would think I could catch a green fish, not one green one did I catch, but I did catch 15 smallmouth. As usual, all on the PB&J Ned, 1/8 oz head. Even though water temps were about the same as when I was out Tuesday (48-49), the fish were closer to the bank, I don't know if I caught more than one or two deeper than 10 feet. Fish are still grouped up, caught just about all of them in 3 locations. Caught 3 keepers, one was a solid 18" fish, weighed almost 3.5 lbs. Dawn from the launch: First bass in the early AM: My best of the day: A nice looking keeper: This post has been promoted to an article

Virginia loses to UMBC? (University of Maryland Baltimore County). I have followed college hoops since the 60's and I have never heard of UMBC until now. Arkansas out after a weak effort. Haven't watched the Mizzou game yet, but have it recorded.

Dang Champ, grrrrr.....

Didn't know they got this big. 11-year old angler catches state-record and possibly world-record river redhorse MDC congratulates Maverick Yoakum on breaking the state record by catching a 10-pound, 3-ounce river redhorse on Tavern Creek near St. Elizabeth. DIXON, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports that 11-year old Maverick Yoakum of Dixon became the most recent record-breaking angler in Missouri when he hooked a river redhorse on Tavern Creek using a rod and reel. The new “pole and line” record river redhorse caught by Yoakum on March 4 weighed 10-pounds, 3-ounces. The new record breaks the previous state-record and world record pole-and-line river redhorse of 9-pound, 13-ounces caught at Tavern Creek in 2016. Yoakum was using worms when he caught the fish. MDC staff verified the record-weight fish using a certified scale in Brinktown. “I fought the fish for about two to three minutes before I got it to the bank,” said Yoakum. “I thought I caught a pretty big fish, but I didn’t know it was a state record until my dad told me to look it up online. I’m super excited to hold a state record!” River redhorse fish are part of the sucker family. They are a moderately chubby, coarse-scaled fish with a dorsal fin containing 12 or 13 rays. These fish can be found mostly throughout the Ozarks. Yoakum’s fish also beats the current world record, pending verification by the International Game Fish Association (IFGA). While the river redhorse does get much larger, IFGA only recognizes fish taken by pole and line. “Larger river redhorses are usually taken by gigging and do not qualify for the IGFA world record,” MDC Fisheries Programs Specialist Andrew Branson said. “Conservation makes Missouri a great place to fish and this new unique record clearly shows why. This fish could possibly be the largest river redhorse ever taken with a pole and line.” Yoakum added it’s hard to believe he may be a world-record holder. “I just can’t believe it! I have never thought about holding a record, and now I may be a world-record holder. I can’t believe it!” he said. “I want to thank my dad for always taking me fishing, because if it wasn’t for him taking me fishing I wouldn’t have caught a fish like I did.” 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://bit.ly/2efq1vl.

Elam had 15 lbs. in the first hour. Of course I do not have him in my lineup. KVD is cranking and getting a few, I do have him in my lineup. If that crank bite continues he could be a contender.