Quillback

Welcome! I can't help you much with flathead advice. They are certainly in the lake and people catch them on trot lines. I'm sure there are also some folks that fish for them with rod and reel, but you don't hear much about that. Good luck if you go.

Fished yesterday with OA member Little Jasper. We started at daylight, had some pretty thick fog to begin with, which eventually burned off after about an hour. We caught some fish, about 20 bass total, but only one definite keeper that went about 2 lbs. Early we threw square bills and top waters shallow, we'd pick one up every once in a while, and covered quite a bit of water. Ran into a big school of ten inch spots that were out in 40 FOW chasing shad, we fished that for a bit hoping to find a big largemouth cruising underneath them, but no dice on that. We did a little drop shotting at one location out deep, but we only got one doing that and didn't see many fish on the graph. Fished a long bluff later in the morning and got a few on jigs and shaky heads. Lots of little shad back in the coves and in places in the main channel. It gives me hope we could have some pretty good fishing this fall. Have to give a shout out to Nu-Tech jigs, broke off 4 conventional jigs in a pretty short time frame, went with a Nu-Tech and it stayed on for the rest of the day, and even caught a bass or two on it. Used green pumpkin/blue, there are bluegills up shallow and I was throwing jigs that imitated them in color. Water temps were 82 early, rising to 84 when we left.

The dog days of August, come on October!

I don't know him personally. but have always heard good things about him. Pretty amazing that these days you can get a quadruple bypass and be out of the hospital after a few days. I wish him well.

I did get out yesterday with my buddy Jeb. It was slow, we tried some different types of banks, chunk rock, bluffs, back in coves, and we didn't get much doing that. The fish we caught, we were able to get out on flats near the channel in 30 FOW on drop shots and c-rigs. We caught 15, all spots except for one 2 lb. LM. Of course it is always good to get out fishing, and the temps have cooled down a bit, not as many wake boats out there with school starting up, we just need to move the calendar forward a month or two and we'll get some good fishing going again.

I came into the ramp about 1230 yesterday, stepped off onto the dock, looked into the water on the ramp, and saw 4 bass sitting there. One of them might have been 2 lbs., the others looked to be 12 inches or so. They had a bunch of little bluegill corralled in the shallow water. I just looked at them and thought "whatever, dudes" and loaded up my boat and left.

Well 176, I ain't scaring them, I was out there yesterday, fished hard for 8 bass. 4 of them came early, it sure helps if you can get out at first light, or go in the evening.

Wow, good for him.

You are right for sure. I think every top water bait out there should have "Norman Flake" as one of their color options.

Nah, let them age in the livewell for a week. ..

Stifle yourself with the "There's a better color" talk. Last thing I need is another Plopper.

That's pretty good for this time of year. It gives me hope.

This morning I head over to Cabelas. Needed to get some quality lightweight raingear. I am tired of the cheap gear that I always get that falls apart after about 2 uses. They also are running a sale and I have a $20 discount coupon, and they have the rain gear in the size I wear in stock. I get there, try on the gear, it fits, I am ready to head to the cashier, then I think, since I am here I might as well check out the fishing gear department. I tell myself - "YOU ARE JUST GOING TO LOOK AND YOU WILL NOT PURCHASE ANY TACKLE!" I see DOUBLE WHOPPERS for sale on a row end. Not only do they have them, but they have the two colors I want, Loon and Powder. Resolution to not purchase any tackle goes pffffftttttt - and I grab a Loon and a Powder. I now have them, they will get used.

I did not make the annual crappie trip with my uncle to Sardis this year, but in the past we usually go in mid-July. It is always hotter than the dickens, but the crappie will bite those Bandits.

The worthless Wal-mart near me doesn't have those smoked sardines. Champ must have seen this thread and got over there before I did and cleaned them out.

Interesting read on pig traps. http://feralhogs.tamu.edu/files/2010/05/CorralTraps.pdf

Aren't very many in NW Arkansas, I have yet to see wild pig one. Seem to be more of a problem in central Arkansas around the agricultural areas. Watched an Outdoor Arkansas show about a year ago that featured the AGFC's efforts to control them. Those fence type traps they set out for them have to be circular, if not, those genius pigs will all crowd up into a corner and some of them will climb on the backs of the others and get over the fence and escape.

LOL!

Yep, still a brown. Can't see all of the tail, but from what I can see there are no spots on it.

I might be going over to Wally World later today. If they have them, I will buy them and try them.

Just looking at the pre-season rankings and Arkansas schedule. Going to be some fun games to watch, and I think the Hogs will play well enough this year to be competitive and maybe pull off an upset or two. They are going to TCU (#20) September 10, I like the fact that they are playing a good team early on the schedule this year. Should be a good game to see what they are made of this year. They have Bama (#1) and LSU (#5) coming to Fayetteville - I wouldn't be surprised to see them upset one of these teams. They are at Mizzou this year, could be a tough one. I'll be happy if the Hawgs finish in the top 25. Having lived for close to 20 years in Washington, I also follow UW and WA State from a distance. Both are ranked in the SI top 25 pre-season rankings. Those 2 teams haven't been in the top 25 together since about the early 90's, especially WA State.

Looks like a brown in the last 2 pics. A quick way to tell the difference between a brown and a rainbow, is that bows will almost always have spots on their tails, and browns do not.

Vienna sausage and Triscuits are a match made in heaven.

I don't know if Indian creek, which is sort of near the dam, has running water this time of year. That's about the only one I can think of in that area, but over on the east side of the lake there might be others.

I put the real worms and bobbers away (for the most part) and started bass fishing with lures when I was about 12, that would be about 1969. We were living in Massachusetts at the time. My dad had a 12" Appleby john boat that we paddled to get where we were going and sculled to move the boat around instead of using a trolling motor. There are lots of car topper type lakes and ponds in Mass, and back then there was very few bass fishermen out there. We primarily threw floating, jointed Rebel minnows to the bank or weed edges and twitched them on top. Sometimes we might fish a Jitterbug or Hula Popper. Every once in a while we'd drag Johnson Silver spoons with a pork frog trailer over lily pads. Threw worms a bit, but not much, I do remember the Crème worms. I also remember throwing Shyster and Mepps spinners early in the spring. I knew nothing about jigs, drop shots, Carolina rigs, Texas rigs, and all of the other techniques I fish for bass with now. I enjoyed bass fishing then and still enjoy it now, but things sure have changed.