Quillback

The tourney folks did a good job of providing for fish care at the weigh in. When you came in they gave us a weigh in bag, that was a bag within a bag. An outer waterproof bag with a mesh bag inside that. When you got to the weigh in line, with that many anglers there was a line of 20-25 at all times weighing in, you took the liner bag out with your fish and put it in an aerated washtub, there was a line of these tubs and as you shuffled forward in the weigh-in line you moved your bag from tub to tub until they were ready to weigh you in. The fish were only out of water for the brief time it took to get weighed. Then, once weighed, you walked over to an AGFC hatchery truck, handed over your bag, and into the tank the fish went. I expect that there were be little, if any mortality.

Yep it was a fun day, got windy out there for a while, but fortunately Jeb's Skeeter can handle it. It does make for a long day, left the house at 0415, got home around 1630. Interesting mix of anglers, some big name pros like Clunn, McClelland, and Lane, some local guys who do well on the tourneys around here, and guys like me and Jeb who are out there for fun - not that we would've complained if we won the grand prize, which was for big bass. We stayed for most of the weigh in, big bass at the time was 4-12. Biggest bag was a little over 14. Most bags were in the 6 - 10 Lb. range. Most guys caught fish, many had limits, just very few big bass. Lots of boats, 100-150 at least. That giant parking lot at Praire Creek was full. For you hybrid/striper guys, I heard that there was a good topwater bite by the island north of the HWY 12 bridge.

Loooosieeee, you got some splainin to do! Apparently the chick was engaged.

WA has pretty much stopped stocking trout in the alpine lakes, as you mentioned most of them did not contain trout prior to them being stocked. They did however contain salamanders and the trout put a dent in the population. You wouldn't think a trout could eat a salamander, but I once cleaned a 14" rainbow that had an 8 inch salamander in it's stomach. But in many of the lakes the trout can reproduce and will overpopulate so they've taken the limits off on some of the lakes. You can catch 10-12" brookies and cutthroat until you get tired of catching them. Price for admission is an 8 mile uphill hike.

Yes please no Nutt!

Watched the Jeff Long press conference, Petrino is done. I don't want to make it sound like I'm happy he's gone, I was looking forward to a great year of Hog football, it's unfortunate this whole thing happened. Long was emotional about this, but he made it clear why he made his decision. Petrino lied about the accident, and maintained that lie for 4 days. Petrino hired Dorell for a position that had 150 applicants, and did not disclose he was having a relationship with her prior to hiring her. Somewhere along the way, Petrino made a $20,000 payment to Dorell. I have no sympathy for Petrino, he made some stupid, thoughtless, immoral decisions and now he's paying the price. I hope the door doesn't hit him in the butt on the way out.

ESPN is reporting that Petrino has been canned. U of A is having a press conference at 7:15 PM tonight. We'll find out for sure then.

Something to ponder: The U of A motto is "Veritate Duce Progredi", which translated to English is "To advance with truth as our leader". Is a lying football coach more important that the schools ideals? Or do you change the motto? "To advance with truth football as our leader."

Yep Wayne there are some browns in some of the lakes and rivers, but just a few of the rivers, there's also a lake or two with Atlantic salmon and some golden trout in some of the alpine lakes, and I'm sure there are some other introduced species I haven't mentioned. I don't know about kokanees, I know they are native to Lake Sammamish, but don't know any beyond that. Many of the lakes that have kokanee are impounded rivers so it is quite possible that they weren't native to many lakes in WA. Kokanee are basically landlocked sockeye. And Tim you're right that there a quite a few folks who see a salmon as a salmon whether it is wild or hatchery. However in the last 20 years folks in the PNW have become much more educated on salmon issues, wild vs hatchery being just one of the many issues that exist when it comes to salmon/steelhead runs.

WA state is over run with "exotics". LM and SM bass, channel, blue and bullhead catfish. Yellow perch, bluegill, crappie. Walleye, carp, lake trout, brook trout. None of these fish are native, but are now well established and can never be erradicated. They do provide a sports fishery in some places where none would exist, but they have also contributed to a decline in native trout, salmon, and steelhead populations.

I know of at least one salmon run in Washington where wild returning kings that still have the adipose fin are intentionally being culled at the hatchery. The biologist at that facility specifically stated they were being removed to keep them from going upstream and establishing a run. That's great for job security at the hatchery and it probably pleases a lot of polluters who would otherwise need to clean up their act, but that shows a complete disregard for sustainability. Waht hatchery is that? I'm fairly familiar with the salmon issues in WA State. There's probably another reason for removing those fish, they're unclipped but it doesn't mean they are native to that river system. Quite a few of the WA chinook runs are now composed of hatchery stock that became "wild" and displaced a river system's native run of Chinook, that could be one reason they are removing them. The Cedar river system, which flows out of Seattle's water reservoir does not pass Chinook up stream to the reservoir as they will die after spawning and contaminate the water supply. You can bet there's a more valid reason they are removing those fish than just not wanting them upstream on a whim or for someone's "job security". Lake Chelan, in central WA is stuffed with introduced Lake Trout, no limits (they're trying to get rid of them), and on a good day you can catch 10-20, 5-20 lb. fish. Also an outstanding smallmouth lake (also introduced). The lake is 80 miles long, 20 feet of visibility and very scenic. Upper 2/3 of the lake is wilderness. Great place for a family vacation if any of you midwesterners want to take a vacation in WA. Nice kokanee and rainbows also.

Nice Blue, Bass Ivy. IMO blues are the best eatin' cat but some will argue for flathead.

Good one Ness. The backseat gal worked for the Razorback foundation (fat cat boosters club) before Petrino hired her. That, coupled with the "inappropriate relationship", may being the NCAA sniffing around, if they aren't already sniffing. That may also be a factor in Petrino's fate, is the U of A program clean enough to pass the sniff test? You can bet that Jeff Long is factoring that in as part of his decision process.

We've had rainbows stocked in lake Brittany here in Bella Vista for the last 4 years. First 2 years some of the bows did survive the summer as the summers were relatively mild, but the last 2 years they have not survived the summer. Brittany is 65 feet deep in places and the water below the thermocline stays cold enough to support trout through the summer, but the DO level is not high enough for them so they die out in a hot summer. I think you'd see the same in Beaver with trout. A few might survive the summer by congregating near springs or other cool oxygenated spots, but the survival rate would be so low as to not make stocking them worth the effort.

Wow has this thing exploded. Reading today that he hired the gal that was on the bike on March 28. I wonder if there's any state HR rules (they're both state employees) about hiring someone to work for you that you're having a relationship with. Even if there aren't it's not a smart thing to do. Obvioulsy one of them will have to go. Or maybe both. Comments I've seen from U of A fans seem to be that as long as he's a winner they can overlook his character flaws. He could be the Devil Himself and I think he'd still find a lot of support as long as he's winning. But if he stays, how long before the next Petrino misstep?

I don't know if gator gar existed this far north on the White river before the dams were built, but if they did, I'd like to see them re-introduced into Beaver.

Peacocks would be interesting in Swepco, but it's a good bass lake and I would not want to take a chance and have the Peacocks ruin it. And that lake is heavily pressured as it is, no need to bring in even more pressure. I can't think of any other species I would want to see introduced around here, maybe muskies in Beaver, but I would want them to stock the sterile hybrid Tiger muskies so if things go wrong they can't reproduce. But would Beaver be good musky habitat?

Had no idea asparagus grew wild around here, do you find it in fencerows around pasture land?

Sorry, my mistake, actually they are Hobo spiders they have in WA state, very similar bite characteristices. http://hobospider.com/info/index.html

I have lived in Washington state, they have the recluse up there also. Lots of them ...

I'm beginning to think you guys are in favor of the one and done college ahtlete.. To me, the NCAA tourney is starting to resemble Olympic basketball, in the Olympics the USA is always favored, but as we have seen can be beat if the players are lackadaisical. Coaching as far as X's and O's isn't that important, what is important is being able to motivate the players. In the NCAA, Calipari can bring in the one and done, almost NBA ready players, as long as he can do that, Kentucky is going to be favored in the tourney, Caliparis X and O skills aren't important when you've got a roster of ahtletes like he put together this year. Heck if I want to watch the NBA, I'lll watch the NBA. I expect something different from the NCAA's premier tournament. This year's final was a yawner, yeah Kansas made a valiant effort, but I never felt they had a realistic chance of winning.

Great maps F&F, I 'll have to bookmark this in case I ever make it down there to fish. Is there a best time of year for the trout?

Saw these same discussions when I lived in the Pacific Northwest, jet boats vs. bank fishermen vs. drift boats. At first the jet boats were disturbing but I learned to live with them. Change happens in the fishing world, you have to learn to adapt to it. If you don't you end up complaining about it on message boards and develop an ulcer

Sounds like a great place to fish, I had no idea those giant grouper would come in so close to shore, or up an inlet, I always thought they were a deep water off shore fish. Wade fishing with the sharks around would be a little spooky. When I was a kid we stayed with some friends near Tampa, we fished an outlet to a power plant near there and caught seatrout. Hard fighters on light tackle and great eating!

So F&F are those giant Grouper any good to eat? Not that I would advocate killing one, but that is one big fish Wade caught.