Quillback

My granddad and his brothers bought a used Model T back in the early 30's. Said they had to fix a flat every 10 miles, gravel roads and the tires back in those days still had inner tubes. For many reasons I wish he was still alive, one reason would be to talk to him about those days.

It's been 35 or so years ago since I've fished in Vermont, but I used to fish the White river and it's tribs. The lower reaches have smallies, you get up around Royalton and you get a mix of rainbows, browns, and smallies. There used to be a good population of wild browns in what are called the 1st and 2nd branches of the White. You had to cross farm fields or pastures to access the branches, back then the farmers didn't care, but they may have changed since then. But generally if you have to hike a ways back in, the fishing is better. The main White is a pretty good sized river, but it is wadeable up around Royalton. I'm sure things have changed since I was last there, but at the time it had pretty good fishing. Real pretty country too. Get some real maple syrup while you are there, it is good stuff.

Rumor has it that you'll see a lot less boats on BS than TR. Nice spot BTW!

I was doing decent until last week. I never can pick 'em for any tourneys in FL.

Good deal!

Beaver lake -spotted bass of any size are fair game. They are tasty. I'm not a big fish eater, but every once in a while I'll keep some.

Fished the morning from 0630 to 1230. Tried the spots Dutch and I had success on Monday, expecting some good fishing, but for the most part those fish had moved. I caught most of the fish I caught today in coves fishing the bank or close to it. On a 1/16 oz ned or Berkley wake bait. One of those deals with the wake bait, that if you saw them come up chasing something and put that bait on them, they'd usually take a swipe at it. One swipe, if you got them, great, if not, they would not come back for it. Caught one keeper largemouth on a 3.3 keitech over 40 feet of water. Saw some beds with males sitting on them, WT 64 when I left. Caught a couple dozen with 6 keeper largemouth in the 16-17.5 inch range. Caught a 14" smallie that had a shaky head with worm in the roof of its mouth. Was able to get it out with little damage to the fish. 11 rigs in the Big M lot which is quite a few for a weekday.

Were you across the lake from the ramp? Early last spring there was a massive school of gar over there.

That's really good for a short trip.

For the money they charge, they should have a free all you can eat buffet in the recovery room.

Next time I am around an anesthesiologist I need to remember to ask them if they get comedy training in med school. They are always joking around when they are getting ready to put you under.

I may be old, but not old enough to be at Woodstock.

I don't blame anyone for what they do or don't do health wise. I get checked out and if nothing is found, I'm out the door feeling good. If something pops up, I'll cross that bridge, but until then, I'll keep on keeping on. After a little more coffee, I'm going to hook the boat up and hit the road.

The first one I had, 10 years ago, I wasn't completely out. Didn't feel anything, but had the most vivid dream I have ever had. I was flying through outer space in a recliner, very colorful fireworks going off as I was flying, stars and planets whizzing by, it was literally a trip. Next time I had one, I mentioned to the anesthesiologist the dream I had and he told me, that won't happen this time. He's right, that's the last thing I remembered until I woke up.

Quick turn around, another one starts in 2 days.

Time to close this one. Best of Luck Mav!

Nice fish! For sure that wind was whipping this weekend.

Dutch and I got in the water at 0635, water temp was 61 near the launch. I got some intel about a top water bite down the lake a little, and to that area we went. We did get some on top on the Berkley wake bait, some fish were deep over 30 FOW of water chasing shad and some were near the bank, TW bite didn't last long, but it's been a while since we've caught any on top, so it was a nice change. After that it was pretty much a ned rig show. No wind to speak of so we were able to fish 1/16 oz neds and get some bites. Best bite was to find banks that had ledge rock in 2-3 FOW, water clarity is good enough that you can see the edge of that rock where it drops off into the green water. We'd either throw the ned right at the edge, or sometimes throw it up on the ledge and drag it off. A lot of out bites were right at the edge on that drop. We did get a few on the Ned off steep chunk rock banks and some of those fish were out to 20 feet deep or so. We caught 48 bass, with a dozen keepers. Biggest was an LM that Dutch caught that was just short of 3 lbs. We caught a good amount of chunky LM's today, a few smallmouth, and of course some spots. I'd go back tomorrow AM, but looks like it will be a bit sporty out there weather wise.

Great report, glad you got into them. It is a beautiful lake this time of year.

I use 1/8 and 3/16th oz heads with a 2.8. I like Dirty Jigs jigheads as they have a short shank hook which allows for more "wiggle" in the swimbait. I'd bring some 3.3's too. I fish the 3.3 on a 1/4 oz head. Some folks will swim the 2.8 on a 1/4 oz head and do well. There's some top water action going on now in parts of the lake

Some size there for sure, congrats!

Nice chunks!

Best wishes for getting rid of that stuff. I have not studied up on it myself.

Dutch put the whipping on me today, 21 of those bass were his. I started off throwing shakey head lizard and worm, and some swimbait, could not get bit on that stuff and spent most of my time netting Dutch's fish. He got one that looked to be 3.5 lbs., and a few in the 2-2.5 lb. range. Got a bit breezy out there later in the AM, but other than that, it was a good day to be out fishing! Here's Dutch's fish:

I have watched ,most of it, it's pretty good. At the start they were showing Rip Collin's 40 lb. brown, one of the shots was an overhead where he is holding it upright in some kind of tank while it was still alive. From the side it looks big, but when you see the overhead you realize how wide that fish was, just massive. I haven't looked but you might be able to catch it on the PBS Arkansas website. If you fish the Ozark trout tailwaters, you'll like it.