Quillback

Yep, thanks a bunch Bill for posting that info.

Here's a link to the Bass Boats Central Board, lots of used (and new) boats in the for sale section. http://www.bbcboards.net/ I picked up a Phoenix 619 this spring, been a great boat so far, a few minor teething issues, but nothing major. I plan on having this boat for a long time.

Watched the 2nd half of the SEC championship game last night, good game, I was pulling for GA, they had a chance, but with 15 seconds to go and the ball on the AL 15, they threw a pass to a well covered receiver on the 5 yd line who was tackled immediately and time expired. Why they didn't line up and spike the ball is beyond me, they might have had 2 shots at the end zone had they done that. Don't know what the coaching staff was thinking. Now we have ND vs The Tide. Tide has looked vulnerable against LSU and now GA and lost to A&M, maybe ND has a chance?

Yeah Les Miles getting an offer from U of A for $27 million for 5 years was a little over the top. The bidding war for coaches at the top schools is getting out of hand. Yesterday's paper was going on about possible candidates for the UA coaching job, Gus Malzahn's name is being mentioned. The reason I being that up is they had a little of Malzahn's salary history, as the Offence Coordinator at Auburn (I think it was AUburn), he was getting $1.1 million/year. For crying out loud, now coordinators are getting over a $million per year!!??

The Ethanol Mandate requires refineries to add a number of gallons of ethanol to gasoline, according to the article in the link, 13 billions of ethanol last year. So, as I unserstand it, if the refineries use the mandated amount during the year, they are free to produce non-ethanol blends, in other words it's not illegal to produce non-ethanol gasoline as long as they use the mandated amount to make ethanol blends. What I found interesting, in my trip to South Dakota this year, is that every gas station I visited in SD sold 87 octane non-ethanol gas and 89 octane with 10% ethanol. So here you have a state that lobbies hard to keep the ethanol mandate (to benefit local farmers in SD), but yet sells non-ethanol gas at every pump in the state. That just ain't right.. http://blog.heritage.org/2012/11/19/congress-should-permanently-waive-the-ethanol-mandate/

Launched at 0630 with my buddy Jeb in the boat. We groped our way through the cold fog to a nearby steep chunk rock bank that held fish a couple of weeks ago and found they were still there. They were biting real well at first light and continued up until about 0900 and then it started to get tough. No wind early and cold - 27 degrees, water temp was 54-55. We ended up with 23 bass, 12 for Jeb and 11 for me, I stuck with a T-rigged tube most of the day and Jeb threw a jig, numbers on both techniques were pretty equal. We did notice that most of the fish were off the bank a bit, in the deeper water off the steep banks. I caught my personal best spot today, 3.5 lbs. Jeb got a 3 lb. spot also. Weighed on a Boga grip. We were on the trailer at 1230, looked like the wind was starting to pick up, maybe there was a good blade bite this afternoon.

Daiichi Death Traps #6, they are scary sharp.

Thanks for the heads up!

Got a reply today, as far as sampling more LM than Spots, the bio attirbuted it to high water the last couple of years providing better conditions for LM survival, but typically they get more spots than LM's. Northwest Arkansas Bassmasters is the club they contact for input. They are going to have meetings to discuss potential changes to Spotted bass retention rules. He offered to send an invite to me if I represented a club or group. If any of you guys are interested in going, reply here and I'll say we're from the Ozark Anglers "club", and get us invited to a meeting. Could be interesting to hear what they have to say.

Sounds like a great day to be out, thanks for the report!

Well I stayed home today, decided to watch football instead. I'll probably get out there later this week.

Thanks for the report, I may head out there tomorrow, supposed to be breezy but a bit warmer than the conditions you and Champ faced. Looks like I may have to toss the blade around a bit .

A couple of weeks ago I was fishing a dock, looked up and there were two dried flathead heads hanging off the roof of the dock, they were big heads, 12" long maybe. They're in there, but I have no idea on where or how to catch them.

Arkansas pols (Democrats and Republicans) asked the EPA to temporarily roll back the ethanol mandate, mainly because of the impact it has on poultry and animal feed. EPA refused to do it. So we'll get to pay more at the grocery store, folks in the 3rd world can starve, and the EPA will continue it's assinine policies.

You could send an email to Lilley, it's his site, and ask him to create a Swepco forum. I don't know if you'll see much feedback on it, that lake is no secret and with all the pressure it gets I don't think people will reveal much as to what they are using and where.

I emailed the Bios last week that are listed in the top of the report, asked them a few questions, one being why the saw more LM than spots, and who were these "bass clubs" they were seeking input from. Haven't heard back from them, but maybe they took this week off.

I launched out of Big M in the fog around 0800, fished a jig for an hour and only had one bite. Tried some other stuff to no avail, put on a t-rigged tube, caught 5 bass fairly quickly, thought I had the secret, then I fished the next 3 hours with just a couple of weak bites. Pulled out about 1430 and headed home. Beautiful day, but the fish did not think so.

You guys are killin' me.. If only we get some good recruits, if only we get some good play calling, if only we could play well for all 4 quarters, if only the teams we play stink... If only all the stuff comes together next year, we MIGHT get into a mid-level bowl. But I like your prospects for next year better than the Hawgs.

AMEN!

The web site (you can Google "2013 Bassmaster Classic") says that it is open to the public, so you don't need advance registration or tickets. Don't know if there's a door charge, but it doesn't mention it on the website. I'll probably head over there for one day myself.

Donna you and Champ did good, glad to hear you got into them!

Maybe they test different types of habitat based on species? I wonder who the "local bass clubs" are that they are seeking input from on as far as the proposal to allow people to keep spots less than 12"? I think I'll send an email to the contacts listed on the report and ask them these questions.

Those are some nice spots you're catching. Maybe AGFC sees smaller fish because they're netting in the wrong part of the lake, or maybe you're fishing where the big ones are?

Here's the link: http://www.agfc.com/resources/Publications/FishQtrly/D1.pdf

Some interesting reading here (link below). One thing that I found interesting is that it takes 7 years for a spotted bass in Beaver to reach 15". Once again AGFC is going to propose increased catch limits for spots. There's too many of them and they are growing to slow. 83% of the spots sampled were less than 12" in Beaver.