Quillback

I bet they're spawning (the cats).

Maine has some excellent smallmouth fishing, are you going to be packing a rod?

Yep, I agree, keeping the lake high during the spawn is a good thing.

I never usually have to water my garden in May, but I'm out there every other day now, watering. They're "forecasting" a chance of rain next week, I hope we get some, well more than some, a lot would be nice.

Sounds like the Beav is getting to be a nice walleye lake. I wonder if AGFC still stocks fingerlings? I remember reading a while back that they wanted to stop stocking and see if the walleye could be self supporting.

Duck you're doing well, glad to get the reports.

I nominate Bluebasser's story as the #1 "people that got too close" story. Hard to beat that one. It sucks that they ruined the fishing for your wife.

This is a TRANSOM MOUNT trolling motor. 36" shaft, 55lbs. of thrust. Around 40 hours of use. Used to troll for crappie using it, but it's been sitting in the garage the last 2 years. Motor is 4 years old. Minor scratches present. Missing the bolt that allows you to adjust how much of the shaft is in the water, you can probably order one from Minnkota. Doing an online search I see these sell new for $389. I'm asking $175 (cash). Local pick up only, too big to ship. To compensate for the missing bolt, I'll throw in a used "Good Buddy" brand aluminum tiller extender.

Here's what the AGFC thinks as far as striper predation on black bass. If there are studies showing that stripers are impacting black bass populations, please post them. I'm open minded on this subject, but so far the biologic evidence indicates there is no impact on black bass populations when stipers are present. Striped Bass are a open water species preferring the deep portions of Arkansas Lakes. Ever since their introduction into inland lakes, striped bass have been suspected of preying directly on popular sportfish. In response to this concern, numerous food habit studies have been conducted in several Southeastern reservoirs. Repeatedly these studies indicate striped bass are extremely unlikely to eat black bass or other game fish. (Miranda, et al. 1998). A nine-year study (Nash, et al. 1987) dealt with the establishment of a striped bass population in Lake Wateree, South Carolina. Largemouth bass growth, abundance, and condition were not detrimentally affected by the striped bass. The largemouth bass length-weight relationship did not change after striped bass were introduced. During a Lake Texoma study (Harper & Namminga, 1986) it was determined after establishment of a striped bass population, changes in the abundance of several other species, including black bass and crappies, was the result of periodic strong year classes of those species. Striped bass predation did affect the size distribution of the gizzard shad population but had no apparent influence on native predator or prey species other than shad. Another Lake Texoma analysis of striped bass interaction with black bass (Matthews and Hill, 1986) included the analysis of 250 striped bass stomachs. The diet of these stripers was mostly shad. The second most abundant food item was found to be inland silversides. In parts of spring and early summer stripers also fed heavily on insect larvae as they were abundant at that time. Striped bass study on Lake Powell, Arizona: (Gustaveson, et al. 1985) indicated a virtual absence of a threadfin shad forage base. Under these adverse conditions striped bass in Powell were observed to barely feed (many documented with empty stomachs) and their condition withered to near starvation levels. The recorded condition for the striped bass collected was the lowest on record at that time. Only the youngest stripers foraged affectivity and utilized zooplankton for their diet. During 1982-1985 on Lake Powell a self-sustaining smallmouth bass population was established. There was no evidence of smallmouth fingerling predation by the starving striped bass. This could be attributed to the fact the smallmouth are a littoral (shallow water) species. Reservoirs capable of sustaining a healthy striped bass population must have sufficient thermal refuge areas for the striped bass to survive high summer water temperatures. The striped bass also must have access to a plentiful forage base of threadfin and gizzard shad or other closely related species (alewife or herring). Landlocked striped bass have been found to be very sensitive to temperature variations within stocked waters and will sacrifice food requirements to remain in areas with cool water during the summer months (Moss, 2001). In Arkansas, two striped bass studies have shown that predation on sportfish is insignificant. Beaver Lake: Fourt (1985) examined 104 striped bass stomachs and found approximately 95% of the content was shad. Most of these shad were 1-4 inches in size. Seventeen hybrid stripers were also examined for stomach content. These also contained about 93% shad. Lake Hamilton: Filipek (1984) found during a food habit study of Lake Hamilton, Arkansas, the striped bass diet consisted of 92.8 percent shad with the remainder of the diet consisting of rainbow trout, sunfish, minnows, and crayfish. During this period of study (2-years) Lake Hamilton was under a winter drawdown of 9-feet which further concentrated prey species with the stripers. Sample size consisted of 116 adult striped bass which were all examined for stomach contents. The same study documented the hybrid striped bass also prefers mainly shad with a slightly more diverse diet including crayfish and minnows. Shad accounted for nearly 82% of the hybrid diet. Norris Reservoir, Tennessee: A more recent study (Smollen, 1999) investigating striped bass food habits was conducted on Norris Reservoir, Tennessee. This study was also conducted during a winter drawdown period. In this study stomach contents of 85 striped bass were examined. Over 99% of the striped bass stomach content was alewives and threadfin/gizzard shad. A study by the Mississippi Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit (Miranda, et al. 1998) assessed if the predation of forage species by striped bass limited the native game fish population. Results of this study indicated striped bass in Norris Reservoir, Tennessee could potentially compete with coexisting game fishes for food if the prey-supply-to-predator-demand ratio is low. Miranda estimated by discontinuing stocking of striped bass, the remaining predator population biomass could increase by 5-10% total weight. Striped bass reproduction has only been documented in the Arkansas River as the striped bass eggs must stay suspended in flowing water until hatching. The AGFC must stock fingerlings at interval to keep year-classes present in our reservoirs. Viable striped bass fisheries exist in Arkansas in Lakes Hamilton, Lake Greeson, Catherine, Lake Ouachita, Beaver, and Lake Norfork. Important to note is these fisheries also have strong black bass populations. Smallmouth bass have been successfully re-introduced into Beaver Lake while sustaining the stocking of striped bass. As stated in the draft AG&FC Striped Bass Management Plan (Fourt, et al., 2000) of vital importance is the accurate evaluation of shad densities in our striped bass waters. The shad prey base should be regularly monitored for trends as there can be competition for the same prey species between striped bass and black basses . Bibliography: Filipek, S. & L. Claybrook, 1984. Stripers and Hybrids, What Do They Really Eat? Arkansas Game and Fish Magazine. Volume 15, Issue 4. September/October 1984. pp 8-9. Fourt, R., D. Brader, & S. Wooldridge, 2000. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Striped Bass Management Plan, November 20, 2000 (Draft). Fourt, R.A., 1985. Age, Growth, Food Habits, Angler Harvest, Tournament Catches, and Stocking of Striped Bass and Hybrid-Striped Bass in Beaver Reservoir, 1985. Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, In-House Report.

I agree Beaver is the worst black bass lake compared to Bull or TR, but is it due to habitat or striper predation? Every fisheries bio I've heard talk about stripers and black bass will tell you that they have little or no effect on black bass populations. Has anyone cleaned a striper and found a black bass in it's stomach? Just curious. Ouchita has stripers but yet has a healthy black bass fishery. But I can see the other side of the argument, if Bull is fishing well for black bass why risk screwing it up with stripers.

Brauer found an offshore shelf in the river that held fish, as far as I could tell he stayed there all 4 days. I don't have a problem with that or what he did, but that's the first time I've seen an Elite event where one of the guys got upset with someone getting too close. I'm sure it happens quite a bit, but I don't know that there's any hard and fast rules about what is too close.

There's some US records that are questionable, both the LM and SM records are controversial.

Last year on the AR river Elite tourney, Denny Brauer got upset that J. Van Dam had moved close to his area, It looked to me VDam was at least 100yds. away, but Brauer was upset. They seem to have an unwritten rule in the Elite series about other anglers getting too close.

You folks might find this link interesting: http://bringbackbobwhites.org/

I'm happy to hear he is staying.

What was the biggest bass weighed in?

Yeah, don't be to specific, I can read maps.

Yep, if you pull up your marker buoy and move off, then to me it's an indication you're done with that spot, and it's possible other anglers may see that and move in. It's that time of year when it gets crowded out there, no use in getting upset with people that are "too close". If you're a good angler, not saying that you aren't, you'll still catch your fish even with others close by.

This initiative, sponsored by a group called Sportsmen2010 would lower the excise tax from 1/8 of a percent to 1/14 of a percent. BUT it will remove the AGFC from the agencies receiving a portion of the revenue from it. In other words AGFC funding will get slashed. Sneaky move to name themselves Sportsmen2010. I will not sign a petition for this, and if the initiative makes it to the ballot, I will vote "NO". You may feel differently about this, but don't let the name "Sportsmen2010" fool you into thinking this is a pro-sportsmen initiative - it is most definitely NOT.

Never heard of it, is it a brand of stinkbait?

I should add, that I was walking the dam on Loch Lomond yesterday, the spitoon (pontoon boat) hatch has begun. Must have been a 1/2 dozen spitoons towing inflatables, or aimlessly going around in large circles creating wakes. With all the wave action, you could take your dirty laundry down to the dam, put some detergent on the clothes, lay them on the rocks at the water line and the waves created by the wakes would clean your clothes for you.

It's not even Memorial weekend yet and it sounds like it is getting crazy out there. Temps are predicted to be in the 90's later this week, next weekend (Memorial Day) is probably going to be nuts! I'm thankful I can fish during the week when it's only about half crazy.

Thank you sir for the tip on he back of Big M cove.

68 Lbs., if it's confirmed, is massive! I remember when the old WORLD record was 71 lbs. and that stood for years, but was recently broken (can't remember what the new world record is). You'd have to think, if there are still fish swimming from that stocking that in a year or two it may be possible for Bull to produce a world record.

Jeb and I ventured out early and fished the runouts and flats in the Big M area. Topwater bite was good early and even later in the morning we'd pick up a stray fish or two on top. Picked up some on the Pig Sticker jig in the green/orange color that Bill recommends and got a few c-rigging small plastic craws. We finished at 1 PM and maybe had boated 35 fish, majority 12-14" spots. We got a few barely keeper sized spots, SM's and LM's, but nothing over 16". Can't find the big fish bite in that area, we know they are there as we got some nice fish on the A-rig this winter, but they're hiding from us now. Still had lots of fun with these fish on light tackle, especially the early topwater bite. Lots of shad over by the Viney launch.