Quillback

If it's the marina ramp you are using, it's the one that is all concrete and on one side is the dock with the marina office and on the other side is a boat stall. There's also a sign beside the ramp reminding people to pay $3 at the office. You can't miss it. It is definitely not a corps ramp. I pretty sure the annual corps pass is not good there, but maybe I am wrong.

These reports make me hesitant too, not because of the slow fishing, but the hooks in fingers stuff. I have fished all my life, and I have done a lot of fishing and so far have not buried a hook in myself, it's just dumb luck, and when I see stories like this I keep thinking my time will come.

Happy Birthday Bill!

Didn't know there were 2 corps ramps at Hickory, to get to the one I am talking about, when you get past the guardhouse you can either go straight or take a right, if you go straight and follow the road it deadends at the ramp that is closed. Where is the 2nd ramp? I'd like to save $3 since I have a Corps season pass.

Well I did drive by the Hickory corps ramp a couple of days ago - it is CLOSED. Yellow tape across the ramp and a couple of barriers, dock is on it's side and out of the water. You could still launch there as the concrete ramp still extends into the water, but I guess with the dock on land they didn't want anyone to launch. However you can launch at the Hickory creek marina for $3.

No big ones for me, but they were all chunky 1 - 2 lb. fish. Fight a lot harder that the coldwater bass I have been catching lately.

I was there a couple of days ago, the fish are spawning. I caught 4 bass on plastics, pressure is heavy, if you go on the weekend it's a good idea to get there very early as the parking lot will probably fill up.

Yep it's just west of Gentry AR. SWEPCO is the utility entity that runs the power plant that uses the lake water. I think the official name for the lake is Flint Creek (or something similar), but folks around here call it Swepco.

25 pound chinook on your back works better than a pork chop. You jooged my memory with that pork chop remark, attack story from several years ago: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) enforcement officers this morning issued safety warnings to residents near a section of the Kalama River while a private hound hunter continued searching for a cougar that reportedly jumped a male angler yesterday, knocking him to the ground. The man, a Fort Lewis resident in his mid-30s, was not injured but his frame backpack showed claw marks. WDFW officers, assisted by a hound hunter, searched the area about 10 miles northeast of Kalama for several hours yesterday afternoon after interviewing the angler. The man told officers he was jumped from behind and knocked face-first to the ground as he was hiking out from the Kalama River shortly before 11 a.m. yesterday with a 25-pound chinook salmon wrapped in a plastic bag and tied to the outside of a frame backpack. When he rolled to his side to get up he saw a "huge" cougar disappearing into a brushy area about 12 to15 feet away. The man hiked out to a nearby mini-mart where he encountered a state hatchery worker who reported the incident to WDFW officers. http://www.biggamehunt.net/news/dfw-searching-kalama-river-cougar

I wouldn't back away, espcially if it looked like it was stalking me, but in the very unlikely possibility that is was a female with cubs I would back away. I lived in cougar country (Washington State) for 20 years, hiked, fished, and hunted quite a bit and never saw one. But I had a game plan on what to do if I ran into one. And if I was going to slowly back away, and I wouldn't unless cubs were present, I would not be quiet about it, the cougar knows you are there, let it know you know it's there. But that's me, you can decide on what you're going to do if you bump into one. And if you're backing away, be sure of your footage, it's not a good time to trip and fall when a predator is stalking you.

The experts say when confronted by a cougar, that you want to act agressive towards it, stand your ground, raise your arms above your head, throw rocks and sticks. You don't want to run away of back off. Since Missouri is apparently being swamped by a wave of invading cougars they may want to start a cougar awareness program so that people know how to react in the presence of one, instead of reaching for the firearm and shooting. Or just continue the shoot on site policy. I don't understand the phobia that well armed people have with cougars.

There are more eagles over at Swepco right now than I have ever seen there. Must be at least 50 if not more. If you're into eagle watching, now is the time to go. Bring your bass stuff too.

I just noticed these today from Bomber, they look good and they are cheap compared to some of the other stickbaits out there. Anyone tried them yet? http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Bomber_Suspending_Pro_Long_A_/descpage-BSPLA.html

I am tempted sometimes to do a little squirrel hunting, but I just hate cleaning those things. Sure aren't as many squirrel hunters as there used to be.

Yeah Champ, that Lake Ann has been frozen over since the freeze we had a couple of weeks ago, it froze over with really thick ice. I drove over to Avalon yesterday and it had quite a bit of ice on it also from this last freeze, but it's thin and should be gone soon. Brittany fished real well for me one day last week before this latest freeze, I didn't check it out yet but it may have iced over also. Come on springtime!

I like McSticks and if I want a bait that works a little deeper, I pull out an IMA Flit. The Flit in Chartreuse shad worked real well for me on one of the clear lakes here in Bella Vist last week. I would think it would work on TR.

I like 8# Seaguar Invisix for jerkbaits. Above water is is very visible which allows me to easily see line movement when a fish takes it on the pause. I like a line that sinks, has low stretch, low visiblity under water, but easy to see above water for jerkbait fishing.

The truth is emerging - It's the Feds! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41178569/ns/us_news-environment/

Here's a thread on Chubs from another board. I have heard (never tried it myself) that a can of dogfood with holes punched in it and placed inside the trap works well. Chubs are supposed to be a killer walleye bait. http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/showthread.php?t=89122

Wow, just shy of a 6 lb. average on a 5 fish limit.

That's some fine hunting you are getting into! Not a duck hunter myself, but there are plenty of them in and around Bella Vista right now, hundreds if not thousands of geese and I saw a couple of hundred mallards on one of the lakes a couple of days ago. Sadly they can't be hunted here, the geese need to be thinned out considerably.

I have read some newspaper accounts of people getting some serious jail time for collecting arrowheads on federal property. It's not worth it.

That's cool, as far as eating, in my opinion those blue are better that stripers.

Well kinda slow for me, I caught 3 LM's 12-14" fish on a McStick. Caught those fish on a couple of gradually sloping points with wind and sun. Caught them in a 45 minute span and the other 4 hours I fished was skunk city. Saw quite a bit of shad on the FF, but no predators around them. My FF doesn't have a temp probe and I did not drop the thermometer so no info on water temp. Only saw one dead shad, so I'm thinking it hasn't dropped enough for a shad kill. Saw a couple of guys beach their boat on a gravel bar that has emerged with the low water across from the bend at HS bend. They were searching the gravel for something, arrowheads maybe?

Checked out the Horseshoe Bend COE ramp this morning, no ice, ramp is dry. I may haul my boat over there today and see if there's any cooperative bass in the area.