Quillback

Copied this from an email Bassmaster sent me. Sounds like the fish did well, I think some of us were concerned about how the fish would fare, but looks like theyt recieved good treatment. TULSA, Okla. — Every single bass weighed in at the Classic lived to be caught again by other anglers. One of B.A.S.S.’s most important principles is our commitment to fish care and the catch-and-release ethic. So when it came to the 2013 Bassmaster Classic presented by Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa — and the long 90-minute drive from the take-out to the weigh-in — B.A.S.S. officials and fans of the sport wondered how the fish would fare. With the extra precautions taken by the Classic contenders, B.A.S.S. officials, B.A.S.S. Nation conservation directors and biologists from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC), 100 percent of the fish were released back into Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees alive. “Bass are able to tolerate the stresses of being caught, confined in a livewell, then handled in a weigh-in, much better when the water temperature is low,” explained Gene Gilliland, assistant chief of fisheries for ODWC. “In the case of the 2013 Classic, water temperatures at Grand Lake ranged from 39 to 45 degrees.” The contenders did their part by pumping fresh water into their livewells during the day, and on the hour-and-a-half drive to Tulsa, they ran recirculating aerators continuously to keep the oxygen levels in their livewells high. “The Classic anglers always take every measure possible to ensure they care for their catch, from hook-up to livewell to the stage,” added Noreen Clough, conservation director for B.A.S.S. “And we at B.A.S.S. take every measure possible once those fish hit the scales to minimize their time from weigh-in to getting back into the water.” “As the boats came into the holding yard in Tulsa,” said Gilliland, “trained B.A.S.S. Nation conservation directors and ODWC biologists checked each angler’s catch and treated (fizzed) a handful of fish that showed signs of swim bladder over-inflation. Once inside the BOK Center, the fish were bagged quickly, weighed quickly and hustled backstage to a waiting 600-gallon ODWC fish hatchery truck filled with lake water. We bubbled in pure oxygen to maintain the best possible 'recovery-room' conditions. We kept the tank the same temperature as the anglers’ livewell to eliminate any temperature shock. “After being weighed and placed on the hauling truck, the fish were monitored continuously,” continued Gilliland. “At the end of the weigh-in, they were taken back to Grand Lake and released in several different locations. The following morning, each location was inspected to see if any fish had expired. None were found.” All 548 fish lived to be caught again by Oklahoma anglers, thanks to a continuing commitment to fish care and a willingness to make improvements in every facet of the process.

The ONLY way this changes is if somehow, there is something that energizes the middle class job market. The last time it happened in any sort of real way was in the 1990s with the tech/dot.com boom. It created a whole new class of industries, with a whole new job market. Can government stimulus do this? Not by just throwing money at existing industries. That's good enough to stave off further depression sometimes, but it would take far too much money to really get things booming again. But that doesn't mean the government can't encourage the creation of new industries. They tried with "green energy", but the problem was that they bet on individual companies at the same time that China was willing to steal the developing technology and outcompete (with massive Chinese government subsidies) those same companies. The key to stimulus money, in my opinion, is to spend it on basic research and development, and green energy is a perfect place to do so. It might take longer, and it might still fail, but there's still a chance that green energy could be the next big development that would result in a huge new economic boom, one that would sustain itself for many years. So you've basically said corporations are in it to make profits, not create jobs, not support infrastructure, etc., but if we would just fund your favored sector "green energy" then the folks who will profit from the government money tossed thier way won't act like the other greedy corporate barons in other industries because they are "green"? And I can't see it causing a huge economic boom, if anything the trend has been towards higher energy prices as we attempt to become more "green". I also find it ironic that as oil prices have jumped it's now become profitable to use very non-green sources of oil such as oil sands. And who gets hurt by high energy prices? The poor do, they still have to heat their homes, drive to work etc., it's also ironic that the green energy types who are likely to be the ones constantly advocating for the poor, are screwing those folks by supporting policies that are driving us away from producing cheap energy, high energy costs are extremely regressive. I guess we could spend more government money ahd heat the homes of the poor and fill their gas tanks (better yet buy them a Prius), course we don't have any money to do something like that, but that fact seems to escape everyone.

I don't think you'll find anyone here that isn't willing to see money spent on kids like Luke to give them a chance at living a good life. I'd argue that having that money coming from the federal govt. is the least efficient way to help kids like Luke, we've been doing this since LBJ started his war on poverty and we've still got kids like Luke and parents like he has. We need to fundamentally change the way we provide social services, unfortunately this type of change seems beyond our ability to make it happen, so what we do is spend more money, which I guess makes people feel good, but it just isn't getting the job done, and you provide a perfect example.

Wow, one of them is bid up to $46.99! One thing I've noticed about WW's and this includes the pre-Rapala originals, is the bills are somewhat fragile. If you grind them through the rocks you're risking breaking off the bill. Not a big deal on a $3.99 Wart, but I'd cry if I spent $47 bucks on one and the bill broke off.

I quit watching when the score was 45-22. Arkansas offensive strategy (if you want to call it that) was to spread 4 around the 3 point arc, pass the ball around until someone finally decided to launch a shot from beyond the arc. Even though this approach was an obvious failure, it seems that making an in game adjustment is beyond their capability. Maybe they did something different in the 2nd half, but I wasn't going to waste any time watching.

As several previous posts have pointed out, the big money is spent on SS, Medicare and defence. That's where the money is. It could be that this sequester will force Congress and President to look for budget cuts in these programs, my guess is we'll see a trade off, budget cuts in the big programs and some kind of redo of the sequestration.

Very nice!

I do agree with you on this, we need better government, without a doubt. But that also leads to another point, if our government is so inefficent, why would we want to throw more money at it?

Thanks Bill, love those reports!

We're closing in on $17 trillion in debt, to hope that the economy will boom if we just spend more govt. money is nuts, look what we got from the last stimulus package. If govt spending was the key to economic growth, Greece would have the strongest economy on the planet. We're very lucky right now that we're only paying a percent or two interest on govt. bonds, that won't last forever, when rates jump the money we'll spend on servicing the debt will eat up any tax increases or spending cuts we make now. I guess people can't grasp the magnitude of this debt we have, to hope and pray that an economic boom will magically solve this issue ain't going to do it. We have to get a handle on this debt now, we can't wait for miracles, and we can't make it worse by spending more. The cutbacks we're seeing now are nothing compared to what could happen if people lose faith in the ability of the US governement to pay back it's debt.

Looking at those pics, I'm visualizing fried crappie fillets - very tasty!

As far as Arkansas is concerned this is a must win game. From a physical standpoint, MO holds the edge, but will they play physical ball? Arkansas will be motivated, but I can't see them pulling this one off. I'm just hoping AR doesn't get blown out, a close, physical game in a packed, noisy fieldhouse, and non-biased refs - this is my wish.

Thanks for the report Bill, glad to hear you got into them!

Yeah the media has completely lost it over the sequester impacts. No questioning whatsover about the bogus info they are being fed by government officials. LOcal TV station ran a story about nationwide impacts that could result in teacher layoffs, they had a national map that was color coded by state showing which states could be most impacted. The TV anchor then said (with a straight face) that the map was provided by the White House. Gee it must be true, it came from the White House. Hard to know if the TV anchor is that naive or if she had a polictical agenda.

You guys done good, thanks for the report.

What you're seeing is the administration officials punish us for this sequestration. Instead of running their departments on a leaner budget, they choose to layoff teachers and release illegals, these folks don't serve us, they serve themselves.

Oh yeah? I've got a Super Secret Triple Deep Wee-Wee double RR in Orange/Green/Brown craw that the big hog smallies just crush. LOL, just kidding...

Gotta cut spending, we can't continue to rack up an additional 1 trillion in debt every year. Sequester ain't the smart way to do it, but since we can't get agreement in DC, then this is the way it will have to be done. Any budget cuts are going to cause pain somewhere, but we will suffer much more pain if we don't rein in the spending. And there's no way federal money should be spent on local celebrations.

Thanks, I'd be interested to hear what you think. Also would like to know if they allow dogs.

Bill, you're a smart man, it was the coldest day I've fished this winter, and after today, I'll be really happy when it warms up around here. We weren't the only ones out there either, probably saw 1/2 dozen or so bass boats.

Yep I agree with you guys, if the Chiefs want to "win now" then Smith is probably the best option out there.

Got to fish out of Jeb's boat today, it was a cold, windy, and cloudy day, but surprising to me, the bass were somewhat cooperative. We fished about 6 hours and boated around 15 bass, a mix of spots and LM's. Jeb seriously outfished me today, he got a dozen or so and I got 3. He also had big fish honors with a 3.5 lb. LM. Best bite was on a 5/16 oz finesse jig, Wiggle Wart boated a couple, tubes a couple, one on a jerkbait and one on the A-rig. Most of our fish came from 2 locations, a chunk rock bank with a moderate drop to 13' and a point/cove mouth near a channel swing. Saw a shad die off going on in a cove off the main channel, we fished that area hard but only one fish came from there. Lots of happy terns scooping up an easy meal. Water temps were just shy of 41 degrees.

I'm hoping Smith turns out well, but I have my doubts. I see him as a fill in until they get into a position to pick up a franchise QB (if they ever get that chance, it's so ironic that they finally have a #1 pick and there isn't a QB out there worth the pick.) They did give up their 2nd round pick for Smith and I wonder if they could have picked up one of this years class of QB's with that pick. Would've been a huge gamble, so I can understand them playing it safe by picking up Smith.

Nope, no bass stocking.

They stocked 187,000 Walleye fingerling last year in Beaver. Here's an earlier thread with that info and some more comments by folks on this board.