Quillback

"I must be in the front row!" One of the best lines in a commercial.

Yes, it would be neat to see. Can you toss it on a spinning rig?

It was a funny trip, caught a few early, then not many at all for about 4 hours, then a few late. We did get a few decent fish, Dutch got a 3 lb. largemouth and a fat 17" spot, I got one of those fat spots too. I talked to Tom W today and he caught a 5.7 LM on a jerkbait. He's got a buddy that caught a 5.14 on a spoon. Both of these gentlemen are over 80, good day for the geezers! 😃 Durn wind supposed to blow tomorrow then back into the fridge we go, I'd like to get out again soon, but looks to be another week at least for tolerable weather for me. Thanks for the trip buddy!

Sounds like fun, and you're such a nice guy, why would anyone call you names? 😃

I emailed Dave a couple of years ago and he sounded like he wasn't going to manufacture the Ned heads anymore. They are my all time favorite and I have experimented with quite a few others. He used a #2 stout Mustad hook, no bait keeper, shroom head, and a weed guard. Easy to slide Elaztech baits on it, the shroom head provided a good surface to glue the head. Hands down the best Ned head for Elaztech baits, IMO. Theirs a bunch of Ned heads for sale on TW. Most of them don't have weed guards. Most of them have bigger hooks. Most of them have have some sort of bait keeper. The best heads that I use for Ned heads are the 6th Sense Devine Ned heads. They come 4 to a pack and are reasonably priced. A 1/0 sickle style hook. V-shaped wire weed guard. It's a football head and has a molded into the head bait keeper which means to get Elaztech glued to the head you'll have to push the plastic over the bait keeper which takes a few seconds, but it will work. Here's a pic from Jan 2 where you can see the 6th Sense head, they work:

My thing for carp is a Wheaties ball. Grap a handful out of the box, make a fist, dunk your fist quickly in and out of the water so the Wheaties are just wet enough to mold into a ball and you got a great carp bait.

I remember MoCarp arguing with me that when I'd say no one fishes for carp on Beaver, he'd tell me that was because they were camoed up and I would not see them. Hopefully all is well with him, he hasn't posted in a long time. @MoCarp

Yeah I guess if I become a carp fisher, I need to learn the lingo. 😃

That's what I'm thinking, if it starts on March 1, by March 2, those stinkers will be dead.

That's a good one. The serious carp guys are more sophisticated nowadays. They make up bait balls and shoot them out there with slingshots.

Didn't know grass carp were any good to eat. We have a lake in Bella Vista that was getting quite a bit of hydrilla growth. The bass fishing for a while was outstanding, and it was great during August and September when bass fishing is usually tough. I was getting 20-40 bass everytime out, and they were nice chunky fish, up to 4 lbs. that were chasing shad. It was a blast. So the lakes "manager" decided to stock some grass carp fingerlings several years ago. They completely wiped out the hydrilla and now the bass fishing stinks. There are now some monster grass carp in that lake. I hooked one this summer on a swimbait, don't know if I snagged it, but it appeared to have it in its mouth. I jacked around for close to an hour trying to boat that sucker, but it never even got close to getting tired. Finally the hook came out. I got a few glimpses of it, looked to be 4 feet long. It was massive. So just recently the lakes manager has proposed a $100 bounty on the grass carp. It might go into effect in March. If you want to come down here and pop them I'll be glad to shuttle you around. 😀

Hey Marty @BilletHead, What species of buffalo are those you're seeing up there? Seems like they are concerned about the bigmouth buffalo up north. down here maybe they are plentiful. Or maybe they are smallmouth buffalo, I think there are black buffalo also.

With warm days melting the snow, the cold nights refreezing everything, I trust nothing in the morning. And as you note, it's EVERYWHERE! 😃

There's some speculation on recruitment in this article. An interesting point they make is that one of the reasons that nature has made these fish long-lived is that they need certain conditions to spawn and have fry survival. Living a long time gives them a lot of chances to try. Bigmouth buffalo - Wikipedia

It is forbidden to fish on or near the commercial docks on Beaver. If I was serious about carp fishing, I'd bait an area near the bank over at Indian Creek. Plenty of nice bank to set up some carp rods and wait for a bite. I have never seen anyone fishing for carp on that end of the lake. I'm assuming there's bow fishing going on, but haven't seen those guys either, but they could be out there at night.

I'm bringing some lunchmeat just in case.

Usually there are quite a few carp on the dam end of the lake. I have not seen that many this year for some reason.

Welcome to the forum! Beaver lake on the dam end has a lot of wadeable/bank fishing for smallmouth. But only if the water level is down to where it is now at 1120. You could still get around pretty well if it is at a couple of feet above 1120. You can access the lake at Indian Creek COE park, and the both the Lost Bridge Parks. The banks can be a little steep in places with chunky rocks to walk on, but there are literally miles of bank to fish if you're willing to expend some shoe leather. If the water gets up to over 1125 the banks get tough to negotiate. I bank fish that area a few times a year, usually I'm in my boat, but every once in a while I like to keep it simple, one rod and a few lures and go fish the bank. I rarely get skunked from the bank, you work at it, you'll catch some fish. If you're really lucky in timing and get there when the shad are spawning, you might get some top water bites to include stripers. Most likely you're going to catch smallmouth. Table Rock has some bank fishing, around Big M COE park, Eagle Rock park. What limits it there are bluffs. There are a couple of neighborhood ramps at Viney cove that have some access. I've caught fish from the bank at all those places. The big gotcha there is there's just not a lot of bank you can get too. Send me a PM when it gets close to when you'll be here if you want to know what bank conditions are like at the spots I mentioned on Beaver. Just noticed you said you'll be there in March, too early for the shad spawn.

Last night I had a Taneyfest dream. This is what I remember of it: It's lunchtime and there are several of us sitting around a round table that is in this really tiny cabin. Just room enough for the table so you have to squeeze by people to move around. There's a guy at the table with a plate of 3-4 cooked burgers. There's also a line of guys, like 20 of them out the door waiting for lunch. When I sit down at the table, I sit next to a radio talk show host from Nebraska, he's a loudmouth and has been talking the whole time. When I take my seat he says (in a loud voice) "You look like you could fish all day!" All his buddies laugh at that. The guy with the burgers yells "lunchtime!" and people file in and take the burgers. I decided to get one and the guy with the burgers tells me they are all gone, I should've moved faster he tells me. Only thing left is one of those hamburger buns that have onion pieces in them. That's all I get for lunch. None of the people in the dream were anyone I know. It was weird. I hope we have enough food for lunch.

That would be mighty gracious of you. 👍

The dart point is very cool! Well they both are, but I like that dart point.

There are tons of shad up there, lots of food for those gar. A lot of spoonbill too. I asked Dutch if he has ever seen that many gar on the James and he says he never has.

If you have any bow fishing buddies, send them to the James River arm above Flat Creek. The gar are unbelievably thick up there. I don't know if a lot of gar have an effect on the bass, but the bass fishing hasn't been too good up there the last couple of years.

The major roads around here are all clear and dry. That being said, I am ready for the warm winds of spring. 😀

Anything below 32 is too cold for me. Lots of football and basketball to watch and the fishing shows are all first run. The Van Dam show is pretty good. Might get out later this week, looks to be a bit of warming Thursday and Friday.