Quillback

Drove over to Ann this afternoon, it has come up about a foot or so, with some brown water coming in from the feeder stream, but the rest of the lake looks good. Windsor and Avalon have come up a bit, but water is still the same color it was before the rain and the streams feeding the lakes are high but running clear.

They used to stock rainbows in Bull Shoals lake, lots of folks used to fish for them at night during the summer and there were guides with pontoon boats that took people out to fish for them, don't know if they still have that fishery, but it was fairly popular in it's day.

The heck with seeing a school of hundreds of 6 inch bass, I want to hear of someone seeing hundreds of 6 POUND bass in a school.

I might get out today if the rain holds off and I'll let you know what I see, but we only got a little over 2 inches here so I don't expect any problems. Windsor and Avalon are a little murky because of algae bloom, but definitely fishable. Jerkbaits worked for me on Windsor last Friday, but it seems it's a different bait every day this time of year. They were also chasing bait on top Friday. Lake Ann is still drawn down for repairs, they are supposed to start filling it starting 3/31. But if you have a kayak and don't mind carrying it across the mud flats by the launch, or I guess you could drop it in by the dam, you might have the lake to yourself and some fine fishing. Might be worth bringing the crappie stuff if you like crappie, I doubt they've seen much pressure in Ann this spring. Bluegills and Redears are biting also, saw some guys catch a bucketfull fishing in about 20 ft of water on Windsor.

There's some monster browns in the White below Beaver dam. The AR bios do an electroshock survey every year and they shocked up a brown weighing 25 lbs. last year. They say they see that fish every year in the same hole.

Stopped raining here in Bella Vista, the weather guessers are saying it's supposed to start up again with more wind, but if not I might sneak down to the lake.

Yeah the rain seems stuck over in eastern OK, every once in a while some of it moves over here, but not to the extent the weather guessers keep saying we're going to get. Not that we need any more.

Maybe it takes a bit before the rise appears on that gauge. White river and War Eagle are definitely rising with increased flow. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ar/nwis/uv/?site_no=07048600&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060

What really annoys me is the guy killed the fish for nothing.

Watching the weather report this AM, they are now predicting 5-10" locally the next couple of days. A couple of days ago the corps said they weren't going to release any water ahead of the storm as they thought it would not rain enough to flood the lake. Seems we've seen this scenario before and saw the outcome. Of course the forecast could be wrong, let's hope so.

OTF, that is funny, the Duke fan obviously brought some bad karma onto his team. I admire your ability to maintain perspective, if I was an ardent Mizzou fan I probably would have thrown a brick at my TV at the end of that game. My team (Gonzaga) was bounced yesterday, they could've won, they had the looks in the last couple of minutes but could not convert. I have nobody to root for now, maybe I'll pull for Wisconsin.

Sounds like a great day to be on the water! Wow, water temps in the 60's already. Was that back in the shallow water? How about main lake water temps?

I've been fishing Senkos a lot the last year or so, wacky rigged. I like the Yamamotos, in GP, smoke, and black, with any variation of flake. If you're going to wacky rig, get some 3/8" heat shrink tubing, cut it into 1/4" sections, thread a Senko into each section, shrink the tubing to a tight fit, and run your hook through the tubing and Senko when ready to fish. This works much better than using the rubber O-rings as far as increasing the durability of a GYCB Senko.

I didn't watch the game, who wants to watch a 2 seed beat up a 15 seed?

You've got some good points Spahog. I'm not a tourney fisherman myself, and I'm not anti-tourney, but I would expect a relativeliy large tourney like Castmasters place more emphasis on fish survival. Weigh them quickly and get them back in the lake with a minumum of handling.

I'll have to stop by there myself, WC,do you do General Tso's chicken?

KIMBERLING CITY, Mo. – Michael Stetich of Omaha, Neb., weighed a five-bass limit totaling 25 pounds, 6 ounces Saturday to win the Bass Fishing League Ozark Division bass fishing tournament on Table Rock Lake. For his victory, Stetich earned $6,472. “I fished from Kimberling City to the lower end of the lake,” said Stetich. “I had 18 keepers, 14 of which came shallow off of transition banks in the morning. I was mostly throwing the Alabama rig and had a 17 to 18 pound limit. “Then I made an adjustment,” Stetich continued. “About 1 p.m. I started fishing deep, about 35-40 feet. I was able to get three bass over 6 pounds each using Dirty Jigs Tackle Football jig in peanut butter and jelly color. The difference for me was my Hummingbird imaging device. To win any tournament you still have to locate and pattern the fish and my Hummingbird was a major factor in my victory on Saturday. Stetich believed that Saturday’s bright bluebird skies and light wind prevented the big bass from going shallow. He indicated that the bigger bass seemed to have pulled out and suspended themselves later in the day. Rounding out the top 10 pros were: 2nd: Josh Busby, Rogersville, Mo., five bass, 24-13, $2,236 3rd: Marcus Sykora, Osage Beach, Mo., five bass, 22-14, $1,492 4th: Tim Taylor, Nixa, Mo., five bass, 22-3, $968 Mike Webb, Ozark, Mo., five bass, 22-3, $968 6th: Ed Young, Harrison, Ark., five bass, 22-2, $820 7th: Mark Dunbar, Jefferson City, Mo., five bass, 21-8, $745 8th: Dennis Berhorst, Holts Summit, Mo., five bass, 21-5, $671 9th: Billy Doak, Centerview, Mo., five bass, 20-10, $596 10th: Mike Eutsler, Springfield, Mo., five bass, 20-2, $522 Aaron Tripp of Russellville, Ark., weighed in a five bass limit totaling 20 pounds, 11 ounces Saturday to win $2,236 in the co-angler division. Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers were: 2nd: Jeff Davis, Rolla, Mo., five bass, 20-1, $1,118 3rd: Brian Jones, Villa Ridge, Mo., five bass, 16-14, $745 4th: Mark Anderson, Nixa, Mo., five bass, 16-13, $484 Dennis Spell, Desloge, Mo., five bass, 16-13, $484 6th: Kenneth Sorensen, Fremont, Neb., four bass, 15-9, $410 7th: Pete Mathews, Shawnee, Kan., five bass, 15-5, $373 8th: Josh Falke, Kansas City, Mo., four bass, 14-9, $335 9th: Shannon Garrett, Burt, Iowa, three bass, 14-7, $298 10th: Derek Felton, Republic, Mo., three bass, 14-2, $248 Warren Lichius, Eureka, Mo., four bass, 14-2, $248 The next BFL Ozark Division tournament is scheduled for March 24 on Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Mo. After the fifth Ozark Division tournament is complete, the top 40 boaters and 40 co-anglers based on point standings will qualify for the Oct. 11 - 13 Regional Championship on Lake Barkley in Kuttawa, Ky. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518 with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and a Chevy Silverado, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518 with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard. The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 120 tournaments throughout the season, five in each division. The top 40 boaters and co-anglers from each division qualify for a regional tournament and compete to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the BFL All-American. The 2012 BFL All-American is being held May 17 – 19 on the Potomac River in National Harbor, Md. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the EverStart Series or even the FLW Tour.

Yes I am special, at least that's what my mom told me.

I don't know if I agree with you guys, a couple of weeks ago I could not get bit on the A-rig over at Windsor, switched to jerkbaits and caught 8 or 9 bass. Jerkbaits don't look like craws to me But Beaver is a different situation of course. But I've seen spots spit up craws in January when the A-rig was working real well.

Stumper, AGFC must not like you, they send me a reminder every year, maybe because I renew mine by mail?

He is guilty of killing a big ol' full of eggs female spawner for naught. He should get 5 years hard labor for that.

Very nice, thanks for the report!

I was out walking the dam on Lake Windsor here in Bella Vista yesterday, there was a guy fishing the dam throwing the rig. I asked him how he was doing and he replied that he had only caught a couple of small ones earlier in the day. I've talked to several people fishing the rig at Windsor in the last couple of weeks and none of them have done very well, Windsor is about 400 acres, has a good bass population but gets heavy pressure. One guy throwing the rig all day can pretty much cover the entire lake. I'm thinking that the rig has become over exposed to the bass and now they have become "conditioned" to it. It worked well earlier this winter but not so well now, next time I fish there I probably won't fish it. I think in certain situations the rig will still produce, but it's days of glory are over. As far as tourneys, I don't care if they use it or not.

Not the right rod for me, but that's a heckuva deal on a GLX.

I fished that lake 15 years ago with my dad, we caught a few bass that day. It was in May as I recall and the crappie fishermen were out in force, you could have almost walked across that lake jumping from boat to boat there were so many out there that day. Nice looking lake, lots of timber.