Quillback

Sounds like you went up Avoca.

Congrats on some great fishing!

Been thinking the same myself, this area is growing like crazy, all the water around here, including the Bella Vista lakes, gets pounded. Would probably end up doing a lot more trout fishing if I lived near Bull. I'd target browns.

Nice chunks!

Well I wondered when the bass were going to start bedding with water temps in the 60's. Going to be a lot of boats out there this weekend.

Does anyone in that line of waiting vehicles get out and talk to the yakkers? Or does everyone sit there and fume? If I've got someone blocking a ramp, and it does happen from time to time, I'll walk up and ask them what's going on. Usually that will work, sometimes not, but it at least makes them aware of what they are doing.

Man, life as a fisherman is sooooo tough. Kayaks on the ramp, Holy Toledo! 😀

I caught several small ones on a Surge Shad couple of days ago, plus another 4 or 5 swirls. They just did not seem overly interested in it, yet.

Good stuff! Yes there are smallmouth, and some good ones, but not bunches of them.

It is a long ride from Indian Creek, but I do it a few times a year. It has fish. If I was to go there tomorrow, I'd go the very back of North Clifty (Henry Hollow) and work my way out. Either on the way in or out, the bluff that goes south from point 5 is an excellent spot to fish. It is a good area to fish - I'd fish there a lot more if it wasn't such a hike.

Seems to be a good crappie bite this year, don't know if the numbers are up or what, but I've been catching a few lately every time out while bass fishing. Good average size too.

Flip side of all this is that there are plenty of people who enjoy these tourneys. All the comments I see from the people who fish the BBT is that they have a good time. Won't catch me near TR this weekend, but there are literally hundreds of people that are going to be out there fishing these tourneys. As long as that is the case, it will continue.

Sure had a fun time fishing with Dutch. He's been fishing this lake since the beginning and I enjoy asking him about the "good old days". What a great day as far as weather! It's hard to beat a day without a cloud in the sky and 70's temps. Love fishing on a day like this, even the drive home was good, redbuds and dogwoods are blooming, the Ozarks are beautiful this time of year.

Ya'll did a lot better than I did. I made the mistake of going early and going the wrong way out of Big M. I did catch a few crappie which was one of my objectives, one thing about catching crappie on the Keitech is that you don't need to worry about measuring them, they tend to be solid fish. Weighed a white that went 2.75. The bank across from Emerald Beach and upstream a bit has the biggest concentration of gar that I think I have ever seen. There's a bit of a mudline there, murky green water, then it clears up about 40 feet from the bank. Gar everywhere. Saw several that were at least 4 feet long. Had a couple whack the Keitech, but could not keep them pinned. Going up to Cape Fair today with Dutch, never fished up there before, looking forward to it!

I have not been over to Grand in a few years, but it has always been a good largemouth lake, but maybe not as good today as 10 years ago. Few if any smallmouth however. If you want to catch smallmouth, lower end of Beaver is a decent fishery for them, and there are some nice spotted bass and a few largemouth. Top water striper action should be starting soon. The one bad thing about Grand is in the summer it is crazy with recreational boats.

Heard 2nd hand that Viola and Sweetwater parking lots on the Kings were full up with people parking on the access roads. Crappie fishermen mainly. It is going to be a busy lake this weekend.

The only thing I know about fliers is I have not caught one. 😀

Those fat K's are fun on light tackle.

Similar but not the same. Fished those spots we had luck on early and they were slow.

A great Spring day today. Redbuds are peaking, if you want to see a bunch of redbuds, take a drive through Roaring River. Better do it soon as it will be over before you know it. Fishing was a little slow today. Cold morning seemed to have them in a funk, but later in the morning when it warmed up and the wind started blowing, the bite improved. Caught 15 bass and a couple of nice crappie, Ned rig and Keitechs. One keeper largemouth, the rest were not. Shallow fish, I can't get a bite out past about 10 feet. This 14" crappie ate a 2.8 Keitech.

I have one - somewhere - based on your recommendation. Now, if I could only find it, I could sell it to Champ for $100. He could probably weasel me down to $90, but that's as far as I'll go.

When I was a kid, me and my dad caught a bunch of those things. We took them back to the place we were staying and tried to clean them, when we cut into them, they stunk, I mean really stunk. We did not try and eat them. I'll be curious to hear what you think of them should you eat one.

I was an eyewitness to the catch. Should've gotten a picture, but Dutch tossed it back into the lake before I had time to get the camera out.

Those are some chunky crappie, congrats!

Watson is fishing on the last day, but I'm pulling for Andy Montgomery.