Quillback

Hate to see bass being kept, especially egg laden females. Wow, amazing how much water temps have jumped.

I haven't been over there yet, but probably will get over there this week sometime. Sorry to hear you had a biggun break off. I bet there's a ton of pressure right now, that lake gets pounded, but in spite of it seems to hold a good bass population. I bet they'll be on the beds next week with the warm weather coming in, I'll have to figure out something to use that's a little different than what everyone else is throwing at them.

Thanks for the report Bill, and thanks for that advice on fish that have swallowed the tube.

A few years ago I went on a guided striper trip on May 1. Water was up like it is now, but maybe not quite as muddy, the guide took up way up the White river, past the 412 bridge several miles, the water was definitley muddy up there and in the trees, but the fish were up there and biting, 5 guys in the boat and we all limited out with 5-8 lb stripers using live shad. Don't know if they are there now, but the muddy water did not bother them that day.

They did pretty good, considering what the weather has been like lately. Thanks for posting that!

Hey kayser, it depends on the run size but it's probably less than 5% of returning salmon that get eaten by sealions (not seals). If they are hatchery origin fish it's not a huge deal, but when they get wild fish it can be a problem, as some tributaries get relatively few wild fish returns. Sealions also have begun recently to target mature sturgeon below the dams, they seem to have learned that they are easy pickings. Here's a link to a WDFW fact sheet in case you are interested. http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/sealions/questions.html

Yep you're right, lots of new predators in the Columbia system. The whole thing is a complex mess, there's no way to explore everything in an hour. I'm on an internet forum that is made up of Northwesterners (steelheader.net), one person is complaining that human harvest issues were barely touched on at all.

I have a pair of pileateds that hang around the woods by the house, they've been pretty active lately.

They did make some other points. The dams have completely altered the river ecosystem, to compensate we flood the river with hatchery smolts, these smolts require human intervention to reach the sea. Predators such as Caspian terns, cormorants, and pikeminnows are thriving in this new environment, the smolts are easy pickings for them. Basically we're spending hunreds of million dollars each and every year on salmon restoration efforts, but as long as the dams are in place we'll never be successful. Mention was made of the definition of insanity. Some great photography BTW.

It's great news, congrats to the team that snuffed the scumbag!

Tonight at 7 PM CT on PBS, Nature will profile salmon issues in the Columbia and Snake river basins.

Benton Co. Daily record had a little blurb about a couple of tourneys that happend on Friday. The Childrens Miracle Network tourney had 93 boats, winners had 4 fish for 14.1 lbs (praire creek weigh in). Walmart/Sam's club in house tourney was won with a 5 weighing 8.12 lbs. So bass are being caught, but not surprisingly appears to be tough fishing.

Curious after this storm if Grand held up OK. Anyone have any info?

Drove over to the Lost Bridge North COE park today, ramp is still usable, however courtesy dock is 50 yards from shore now. Water is still clear with a greenish tint, water temp is 56. View from the ramp Prime "on the water" camping spot by the ramp. Lake is dropping, you can see the high water mark on the pavement.

Wow, I wonder if the bridge can withstand this, unbelievable!

Stopped by Windsor, a guy fishing by the dock told me one of the POA folks told him the ramps would probably open tomorrow. Down by the spillway a couple of guys were throwing cranks and had 5 nice bass (2-4 lbs.) on a stringer, hated to see nice bass like that kept, but that's the way it is sometimes. Saw several bass chasing shad by the dam, they are definitly biting. Water had really drained off the golf courses, Sugar Creek is still high and muddy but has dropped considerably since yesterday, hopefully we won't get a lot of rain tonight and tomorrow.

I was over there this morning, water is so high that the new dock at the dam ramp is a couple of inches under water. Ramp is still closed. Water is slightly stained, but not too bad. I did a circuit around the road that goes across the dam, everybody else in BV had the same idea, 3 trucks parked there and I saw about 8 others do the loop in the 5 minutes I was there, once the ramps open it's going to look like the Normandy invasion there will be so many boats out there. Water is high at all the other lakes, Avalon ramp is close to being unusable, and the water is stained brown. The back launch at Lomond is usable if a person can drive the boat off their trailer. The road into Lake Ann is closed. Little Sugar creek is the highest I have ever seen it, golf courses are getting flooded, there's going to be a lot of expensive damage to the courses. Where 71 crosses into MO right before you get to MacAdoodles there is a lake now on both sides of the road. The little brooks that meander through the golf courses are now raging brown torrents, pretty amazing stuff.

Drove over there this afternoon, ramp still closed but the water's high enough now for it to be opened, looks like about another foot and water will be going over the top of the spillway, and seeing how much more rain is on the way that should be a sure thing. Maybe they will open it Monday when the POA people are back at work.

Trophy, I hope you come out of this OK, it's unbelievable how much rain has fallen with more in the forecast..I hope the forecast is wrong.

Yeah the rain can stop, I may take a drive over there this AM to see if they have opened the ramp.

Yesterday evening when I checked the Beaver gauge it was at 1118, this AM it's at 1120 and rising, that's an impressive amount of water in a short time.

Man has it rained today in Bella Vista, it stopped for a while late this morning into the afternoon, but it's coming down again. Had hail last might and again this monrning, but fortunately no damage except for a couple of broccoli plants that got beat up. If there's a bright side to this, it's that fish populations are up in Beaver because of the high water the last couple of years, looks like it will be another hight water spring, the graph for the water level is shooting straight up, water should be in the buck brush soon.

Yep, I did not mean to imply it was something you could use to get an exact weight, I have found it to be close however, but that's only using largemouth. And it can get you in the ballpark if you ain't got nothing to weight your fish . State of OK wildlife department keeps lake records for largest fish, just saw where a fellow caught an 11.4 lb. bass out of Lake Holdenville. Length 23.5, girth 20.5, ran it through the calculator and the calc said 11.09, so it was in the ball park.

Yeah it's a political furball, people that live on the lakes but don't fish want clear water, if there wasn't a fish in any of the lakes they would be happy. I'm hoping that they allow the fisheries biologist to manage the lakes, and just stay out of trying to give their "advice". Drove by Windsor today, ramps still closed, the water has reached the bottom of the ramp so I'm thinking by next weekend,or maybe the middle of the week, assuming it rains as predicted, the ramps will be open.

I caught a bass this winter with almost the same dimensions, it weighed 9.2 according to my scale. Here's an online fish calculator, that gives an estimate of 9.8 for a fish that's 25 long and 16 girth. I think you may have underestimated. Heck of a fish by any measure! http://www.bassresource.com/bassfishing/fishcalculator.html