Quillback

Congrats!

I don't think those fish have spawned yet. I certainly did catch some that look like post spawners. My guesstimate is that about 50% of the fish in that area have spawned.

I have to leave the house by about 0415.

Just looked at the Accuweather forecast and it doesn't look too bad except for today and Wednesday. But you know how it goes with weather forecasts around here. We need some rain here in NWA as long as it is not accompanied by hail and twisters.

I think about once a year.

Good deal, I found a few Ned fish shallow yesterday, didn't fish the Ned much, but they were biting it when I did.

When I lived in WA State, I smoked some of the salmon I caught. Linguine with a smoked salmon Alfredo sauce is another good one.

Well if we are going to THINK about purchases, check out this new one from Megabass. MUST-RESIST-URGE-TO-PURCHASE.

No I haven't. Don't tempt me to purchase more tackle. But, I do like the idea of 3 trebles instead of two. Way too many fish miss the Havana or Spook. I think it is that left-right-left motion that confuses them.

Got out early, launched around 0530 and fished until noon. There was still a good early top water bite at the same cove mouth I have been fishing the last few times out. Caught them on the Rapala wake bait and the walk-the-dog. That bite died once the sun got up over the hill, so decided to fish a cove that had some bass in it last time I fished. Not so good today, got a couple of 13" largemouth on the speed craw on a wobblehead and that was it. Fished out to the point at the cove mouth, decided to walk the dog a bit as there were some shad on top, and as I rounded the point, a school of bass came out of nowhere and started busting shad on top. They were about 30 feet away, and there I was with a top water in hand and ready to go. First cast caught a largemouth in the 2.5 - 3 lb. range, released it, made another cast and caught one that could have been it's twin. Caught a 12" spot on the next cast and then it was over. They were out deep, running those shad in 50 FOW. Fished a few other locations, running the wobble head and Ned and picked up around 10 bass doing that. Ended up with 35 bass and one 20" (released) walleye. Had 6-8 keeper sized bass.

Those are some good representatives of those species. Really nice walleye!

I have a bird story. About 20 years ago myself and a couple of buddies were fishing for Chinook salmon on a guide trip out of Bamfield BC. We were trolling anchovies off downriggers. The guide re-baited one of the lines with an anchovy, dropped it behind the boat, let it go back about 50 feet before clipping the line to the downrigger ball. Well a seagull grabbed the anchovy before the guide got it clipped to the downrigger ball and the gull got hooked. The guide just went ahead and dropped the ball down, which hauled the gull underwater, he brought it back up after a minute and reeled in the half-dead and dazed gull. Made it a lot easier to unhook the gull, but the gull was pretty dazed and just sitting on the water sort of flapping it's wings weakly and we continued to move away from it trolling. Well a bunch of gulls flew in and started harassing the still dazed would be bait stealer, flying around it, squawking, and diving on it. All of a sudden an eagle comes swooping in, scattering all the other gulls, and grabs the dazed gull and flies off with it. Pretty neat to see, but I did feel sorry for that gull. His day did not end well.

Could it possibly be walleye? Very tasty looking!

Used to catch a ratfish every once in a while salmon fishing, very weird looking fish. Here's a pic I pulled off the web:

Sadly, I did not make it over to Swepco this year. My buddy Jeb's avatar picture is of him holding a 7.5 lb. Swepco bass (I took the picture). That day we caught several bass over 6 lbs., our best five would have gone at least 30 lbs. All came from one specific location, and it was an early morning bite. That location fished great for a couple of weeks that year, but never has been as good since then.

Sadly, I did not make it over to Swepco this year. My buddy Jeb's avatar picture is of him holding a 7.5 lb. Swepco bass (I took the picture). That day we caught several bass over 6 lbs., our best five would have gone at least 30 lbs. All came from one specific location, and it was an early morning bite. That location fished great for a couple of weeks that year, but never has been as good since then.

I have been dieting since January, down over 40 lbs. now. Sadly, I still need to lose about another 40, so probably have another 5 or 6 months to go. But no doubt about the benefits, BP is down and my body (except for my right knee) feels a lot better. Hang in there! As for gardening, the tomato plants are doing well, and I am starting to harvest some broccoli. Weatherman was reminding us the other night that 3 years ago in early May we got a dusting of snow.

Welcome! I never make it up to that end of the lake, but if I do, I'll try and stop by. It's always fun to check out a tackle shop.

That's a great day, thanks fro the report!

Launched early in the AM, got on the top water fish right away, caught about 15 on a Rapala Wake Minnow, mostly 10-15" spots, but did catch one largemouth that looked to be in the 4 lb. range. After the top water bite died down, I dragged a wobble head with a beaver bait around timber in a cove. Picked up another 7 or 8, several were solid large mouth keepers, and they were mostly deep, in the 10-20 foot range. About 1030 the bite just went flat out dead, fished until 1230, caught just one 14" small mouth in those 2 hours that spit up a white fluke just before I put him the boat, I guess he likes plastics. Water temps were 64 warming to 67 when I left.

That is one nice fish, hard to tell from that angle, but it looks like a mean mouth.

Thanks for the tips Dave. Mitch - Today I was using wobble heads made by 6th Sense, they come with a hitchhiker or spring type bait holder. Keeps the bait from being pulled down onto the hook bend on bites, and baits last longer. I also will make my own. I buy the cheap wobbleheads on Lure Parts Online, cut the lousy hook off that comes with them, put on a split ring, and attach a hitchhiker and put a 90 degree jig hook on. I don't see any difference in the number of bites, but I think I get better hookups (except today) than if I just rig a wobblehead Texas rigged.

Hola Amigos! Got an early start, found schooling fish chasing shad outside of a cove mouth over 30-50 FOW. Caught 10 of them on a Yellow Magic Havana, mostly 10-15" spots, with one 2 lb. Largemouth. Lots of action for about an hour. Once the sun popped over the hill the TW bite slowed considerably, even thought there were occasional bass chasing shad that would pop up every once in awhile, until the wind started howling. Went to the bottom dragging stuff, got a lot of bites on the wobblehead with a creature, but mostly those squirrely protect the nest type bites. I could not see any beds because of the murky water and the fish seem to be spawning deeper this year, but by the way they were biting - thunk it and drop it - I believe they were bedding fish. Had to swing on them as they would drop it if I tried to let them take it. Caught 8 or so on the wobbler, 3 keepers. Fished the Ned for a bit, I could not get anything going with it, had a decent Kentuck that got off halfway to the boat, and caught a couple of micro-dink smallies on the Ned, but that was about it. Water temps 63-66, water is stained green, 3-4 feet of visibility.

Thanks for the report!

Some great quality fish, thanks for the report!