Quillback

Well If you have time or the inclination, I'd be curious to hear some details on that pork frog - I haven't fished them much at all, but I know it can be a great bait. I have heard that people take a knife and scrape the fat off of them before fishing them.

I fish once a year with my uncle over at Sardis lake in Mississippi, well except this year. We troll for crappie using Bandit 300's. We use his tackle and he has his reels spooled up with that yellow line. We always catch a good number of nice crappie.

Yep, that's my view on it. But, that being said, no way I'm fishing red line. Or that bight yellow stuff.

Yeah Neil, I think I know where you are talking about. I have caught bass there, just not any big ones. Doesn't mean they aren't there, I just can't catch any there.

Then I guess dyslexia should be a good thing to have if you are a fisherman. Maybe it's more of an ability to think outside the box, be unconventional, that works.

For sure. And of course we don't know what a fish "sees", but water does filter light colors. A red lure will not reflect red light if it running 20 feet down, it has become a gray lure. What do the fish think? Who the heck knows? I use green for mono, so I can tell it apart from floro when I look at what I have spooled on a reel. I don't think it makes any difference myself. I don't know that bass get spooked by line, heck, they'll hit stuff on an A-rig.

I have fished it, haven't got the bigguns out of it however. In the summer, before I launch the boat early in the morning, I'll throw a top water from the bank, I've picked up a few doing that. I'm sure there's a bunch that live under the commercial dock in the no fishing zone and some of them are going to wander out from time to time.

Here's a video that explains things. Short version is reds and oranges are filtered out by water at about 15 feet. That's for reasonably clear fresh water, dirtier water it could be less than 15.

Or maybe slow reaction time as part of the rod action. Not a good trait in a rod.

Something that might be worth a shot in those smallmouth rich waters you are fishing is a tube or Gitzit. Texas rig it, or fish it on a jig head and drag it on the bottom. I am going to try one myself next time out, spots and LM's will eat them too. They may not like them, but always worth a try in the fall.

That end of the lake is just too far for me to travel, even to pursue the mighty and elusive (for me) goggle eye. I know there are some on the upper end, and I agree, you'd think the Ned would've picked one up for me by now, heck I have caught several trout on the Ned.

The fish are being contrary, you'd think with that wind that you could slay them on the windy banks. Oh well, it is great to get out and fish even if the catching is tough.

OK, revised list: OK, here is what I have as far as who is staying what nights: Thursday - Me, SIO3, and N9BOW, Phil and friend Fri- Griz, Terrierman, Lane, Tyler, and maybe another. Me, SIO3, N9BOW, and Little Red, Phil and Friend Saturday - All of the above, except Phil and Friend.

I am the only person that fishes TR that has never caught a goggle eye, not one ever. But, that is certainly a biggun.

Nice day of fishing on the WP. I heard from someone else that the fishing was tough on Saturday.

OK, here is what I have as far as who is staying what nights: Thursday - Me, SIO3, and N9BOW Fri- Griz, Terrierman, Lane, Tyler, and maybe another. Me, SIO3, N9BOW, and Little Red Saturday - All of the above.

Hey Blue - Hope you and your dad get into them. I know from some of your past reports on other boards that you are a good fisherman, so I bet you figure them out.

I tried a Megabass Magdraft swim bait a bit, nice action, but you have to fish it slow or it will roll on it's side. Had a couple of nips on it. I need to throw a lipless more this time of year. I had a day about 6 years ago on beaver where I threw them back in Piney cove in one of the side pockets. Caught a half dozen keeper large mouth in about 30 minutes, but could not get another bite on it that day after that.

My big fish of the day - Thought I had a good bass there for a minute. Couldn't find any deep fish, they were gone from the spots they had been in. Couldn't find the shad or the bass out off the banks. Finally figured out there were some off the chunk rock either on the main channel or in some of the coves. Caught about 15, but only a couple of large mouth. Mostly 12-14" fish, had two keeps. Jig bite with the 1/2 oz jig was the best and got a couple of crank bait fish. Caught 4 mean mouth today, those boys just hammered the jig. Saw very little top water activity, thought there would be some with the cloudy day, but just didn't see much going on. Maybe it picked up in the evening. Looks like it is going to warm up, and get windy the next few days. WT - 71, 72.

Saw something similar on Table Rock yesterday, a couple of deep spots where I had found bass and shad were empty of fish. Found some on chunk rock on the main channel and back in coves. They were biting jigs and cranks. Couldn't get many largemouth and the quality was not good, mainly 12-14 inch fish, spots, mean mouth, and smallies. Saw very little top water activity, which was strange, it being a cloudy day.

That is a huge warmouth.

I was out there also, but didn't get the quality bite. Caught 20 bass, mix of spots and LM's. Caught some deep on the drop shot off a gravel point, and found some around wood and part way back in a cove that I caught on medium diving cranks and jigs. I only had one keeper, bunch of 12-14" fish.

Saw this in the AGFC weekly newsletter: HOT SPRINGS – Fisheries biologists with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission are always interested in evaluating how stocking programs are working in the many waterways of The Natural State, all while working to get the agency, the resource, and the people of Arkansas a good return on its investment. One way AGFC hatcheries are improving both largemouth and Florida bass production is by rearing advanced fingerlings to stock in area lakes. In the past, hatchery staff have reared bass to fingerling size, about 1½ to 2 inches, and released them in lakes in AGFC’s stocking program. Hatchery staff have been researching and evaluating different techniques to rear bass to approximately 4 inches for a pilot study. When these advanced fingerlings reach about 4 inches, they are branded with liquid nitrogen to create an identifiable mark and then taken to study lakes as part of an ongoing research project with the AGFC Black Bass Program. Dennis Fendley, hatchery biologist at AGFC’s Andrew Hulsey Fish Hatchery, said “When a bass reaches approximately 2 inches in length, its diet shifts from eating insects to feeding on fish, and that often means dining on their smaller cohort. In a production setting this increased cannibalism leads to a reduction in numbers of fish available for stocking. This is the same trend seen with walleyes, stripers and other predatory fish.” A pilot study for rearing 4-inch advanced fingerlings is underway for largemouth and Florida bass at multiple AGFC fish culture facilities. At these culture facilities hatchery staff are evaluating how different feeding regimes and food sources affect the growth rate of bass fingerlings. With the assistance of the hatchery staff working to increase the size of stocked bass biologists hope to increase the survival rate of stocked fish against bigger bass and other predators within the system. A larger fish, in theory, has a better chance of survival. According to Colton Dennis, AGFC Black Bass Program coordinator, “When you stock bass fingerlings that are 1-2 inches long, a 15 percent survival rate is considered a success. One question we are trying to answer is, ‘can a better survival rate be obtained by stocking fewer but larger bass?’ The biologists also have to determine if the value of the stocking contribution outweighs the cost of rearing a larger fingerling.” Fendley says it’s not just a matter of food. “It costs more to feed advanced fingerlings, and it takes more pond space that could be used for more production of smaller fingerlings so there is a trade-off.” Fendley stated “The hatchery can rear larger fingerlings to meet the needs, but you can potentially only rear 80,000 to 100,000 advanced 4-inch fingerlings in the acres where a million 2-inch fingerlings were reared, increase quality but decrease quantity.” Jeff Buckingham, AGFC Black Bass Program biologist, has designed a pilot study for the program to evaluate the stocking contribution of the stocked branded fish in selected study lakes. “Biologists will start sampling the study lakes approximately one month after stocking,” Buckingham said. “Bass will be collected and examined for the identifying brand, add an additional identifying mark, and then release them back into the lake. The additional identification mark will serve to identify fish that have already been collected at least once during sampling to avoid those fish being counted more than once in the study. Sampling will continue until the spring approximately every 30 days to search for branded fish in the study lakes. “During sampling if we collect and release 100 bass from a study lake and 10 have a brand then that’s a 10 percent survival rate. If it’s 20 fish? That’s even better,” Buckingham said. “The overall goal is to provide a bigger bang for our buck for both the resource and the people of Arkansas. Sampling data of the study lakes stocked with the 4-inch advanced fingerlings will also be shared with AGFC fisheries pathologist. Ongoing genetic testing of bass fin clips will provide agency staff a better evaluation of the success rate of Florida bass stockings and how Florida bass coexist with native largemouth bass in Arkansas lakes such as Millwood, DeGray, Ouachita, Columbia, Chicot, Atkins and SWEPCO. Dennis says there are a lot of moving parts in the pilot study, and will take a combined effort of hatchery staff and field biologists to pull it off. “We are evaluating a lot of different strategies with our bass right now,” Dennis said. “Everything from how we rear bass on our hatcheries, to the effectiveness of our stocking programs, and evaluating a couple of different things on stocked fish once they get recruited into a lake.” The branded advanced fingerlings are being stocked in different study lakes around the state. Branded Largemouth Bass in the study are being stocked into Lake Frierson and Craighead Forest Lake, while branded Florida Bass are being stocked into Gurdon Lake and Dr. Lester Sitzes III Bois D’Arc Lake.

I could go warmouth, I was split between green sunfish or warmouth.

I'm thinking possibly a green sunfish?