Quillback

Thanks for the recomendation Ness, could not find it at the local library, but it's on my list.

One other, The journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Bernard Devoto.

I just reread Into Thin Air by John Krakauer, excellent first person account of climbing Mt. Everest. Blackhawk Down, Mark Bowden. If you're into military history, Fire in the Skyby Eric Bergurud, it's about the air war in the South Pacific in the early years of WWII.

I think what we are seeing is the beginning of a long term trend where companies will gradually pull out of providing health care insurance for employees. They have already, for the most part gotten out of providing pensions, and health care will be next. I know someone that owns a print shop, he's looking at the new health care bill that passes and he sees a choice between providing health care at $500/month per employee, or under the new bill he can drop the coverage and pay $2000/year per employee penalty. Just as most of us our on our own for funding our retirements, we're eventually going to be on our own for providing for our health care.

Seems to be a lot of bait in the lake, the fish ought to be feeding up for the winter. But they never act like I think they should act.

Yeah must have been a slow day, weather was weird, it was 42 here at the house and most of the way to Lost Bridge, but I noticed at Lost Bridge it was 57. Day before it was 42 at the house, but 37 and foggy at Lost Bridge. Seems the fish prefered cold and foggy. I saw in the paper that there is a "Spot only" bass tourney next weekend at Beaver out of Prairie Creek. I hope they post the results somewhere, I would like to see what the biggest spot is they catch. I have never seen one over 2.5 lbs. out of Beaver, but there has to be some 4-5 lb. spots out there.

SB, are you still seeing the whites in the Monte Ne area? I have a hankering for some fried fish.

I'll add this, $263 a month is still a good price, especially if it's a good plan with low deductibles, good medication coverage and free well visits and tests. I have looked as some high deductible plans (Blue Cross, Aetna) and prices are around $250/month, and with low deductible can go over $400, so if you've got good coverage at $263 you're probably better off sticking with it. Also check medication coverage, med prices can be outrageous.

Went back again today hoping for another good topwater bite. First thing I ran over to Honey Creek cove where I thought I might see some stripers, didn't see any on top even though there was lots of bait in the cove. Beat the banks in that area with topwaters, did not do well, caught 1/2 dozen total all spots except for one SM and one LM, nothing over 12 inches. Then I went back to one of the coves off Indian Creek that I did well on yesterday, but got zip there. Then headed back into the back end of Indian Creek and caught this nice 17" spot and another that went 14". But still slow, so by then it was 1030 and the sun was overhead and I decided to quit. There are quite a few shad and minnows in the back end of Indian. If I could do it over again, I would have gone to the back end of Indian first thing in the AM.

I haven't been there yet, but I haven't heard any reasons to make the trip, Hook, Line and Sinker is a lot closer. And I usually will buy stuff online. I do hear that Academy has a good selection of athletic shoes, so when it comes time to get a new pair I'll probably make the trip.

Good top water bite this morning in the coves off the main Indian Creek channel, caught close to 20 black bass, maybe 6 largemouth the rest spots except for one smallie. No big ones, biggest LM was 16", the rest were in the 10-14" range. They are on the banks, did not catch any around deep structure. Did catch some in front of docks, but most were on the banks near cover. Had lots of strikes, probably would have caught 40-50 fish this morning if I had hooked every one. The bite slowed down around 11 AM, so get there early. Did not see any striper activity or whites.

I think I get a bass pro catalog about every other week, funny they won't send you any. If you're online shopping, especially for bass stuff, check out tacklewarehouse.com. They don't have any house brand stuff like BP, but they have free shipping on orders over $50 including rods. They also have periodic 15% discount sales. It's hard to beat them when you get free shipping and a discount, no state sales tax either unless you live in CA. And they don't send out catalogs, but you can get email alerts from them when there are sales. My main gripe with BP and Cabelas is they charge you shipping based on the dollar amount of your order and it's expensive. So for example, you could buy a hundred dollars worth of feathers and they charge you $10 for shipping. And if you want a rod they charge extra for that on top of the already expensive shipping charge. Cablelas and BP do carry a lot of stuff that TW does not, such as clothes, hunting stuff etc. TW is good if you're just looking at bass gear.

You lucky dog, $160 is a steal!

I think they are sorta for real, they do have the benefit of playing in a weak division, they certainly have a shot at making the playoffs. SD lost to Seattle yesterday which is as surprising as when they were beat by the Chiefs.

Speaking of Roundup, they are now finding weeds that are Roundup resistant. It could be a huge problem. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html?_r=1

Thanks for the report Bill, good info as always. Same sort of thing is going on at Beaver that you're seeing on TR. Hey, your name is mentioned in In Fisherman magazine in the Adventures section this month. You're a celebrity!

I gotta laugh when they say they don't want to label this fish if it ever shows up in stores for what it is. I'm with you guys on this, there is too much risk involved here. And if this stuff starts appearing at Walmart, then it should be clearly labeled for what it is. On a side note, I lived on the Pacific Northwest for 20 years, there are many Atlantic salmon farming operations going on there, I can remember one mass escape in Puget Sound where 60,000 3-5 lb Atlantics made a breakout (I think they tunneled under the fence). I caught one in the Skykomish river while steelhead fishing and they were caught all over in area rivers and in the Sound. Then they disappeared, there never were any proven reports of Atlantics successfully spawning in the wild from that escape or any escapes in the PNW. Not that it couldn't happen, but it's very unlikely. On an even further side note, I also used to live in New England, used to travel up to the White river in Vermont (It's a beautiful river to fish if you're ever up that way, rainbows and browns and it also has a population of under fished and under appreciated smallies). But there's an Atlantic salmon hatchery on the upper White that has been in existence since 1970, they are trying to reestablish Atlantics in the White and other rivers in New England, I think there best return was a couple of hundered fish and that was 20 years back, Atlantics are a very difficult fish to reestablish even in their (altered) native habitat. Personally I think they should shut down the effort, but it's not a total loss, there has been and are continuing habitat projects and passage work done in the name of Atlantics that have benefited other fish species.

JEB was kind enough to take me in his boat (thanks dude!) this morning, we fished mid lake areas, caught maybe a dozen fish total, mostly spots. Topwaters, C-rigs, and swim jigs did the damage. Here's me with a topwater smallie. I was walking a pencil popper, it was fairly close to the boat, got a hit, missed it, but yanked the popper which went flying out of the water about a foot, and then this guy jumped into the air and grabbed the plug in mid air, it was very cool! Not only that but when I got him to the boat there were another 5 smallies that followed it in, I've seen spots do that but never smallies. JEB caught this dude, we think it's a Meanmouth, it's colored like a smallie but has markings like it's got some spot genes in it. Had a water spot on the lens which blurs a little bit of the pic.

More info: WHAT : Boater Chris Torkleson of Sand Springs, Okla., caught a 10-bass limit weighing 34 pounds, 11 ounces Sept. 18-19 to win $5,137 in the BFL Okie Division tournament on Grand Lake. Torkleson was throwing a jig mid lake in 10 to 12 feet of water near deep points with brush. WHO: The remaining top10 anglers: 2nd: Brad Hallman, Norman, Okla., 10 bass, 29-4, $2,569 3rd: Bob Harter, Tulsa, Okla., 10 bass, 27-10, $1,712 4th: Travis McKelvey, Jenks, Okla., nine bass, 27-3, $1,199 5th: Wayne Diffee, Oakhurst, Okla., 10 bass, 27-1, $1,027 6th: Thomas Canady, Skiatook, Okla., 10 bass, 25-10, $942 7th: Jason Wedel, Lowell, Ark., 10 bass, 23-6, $856 8th: Clayton Coppin, Muskogee, Okla., 10 bass, 23-6, $771 9th: Derek Fulps, Broken Arrow, Okla., 10 bass, 23-1, $685 10th: Jason Gilstrap, Owasso, Okla., 10 bass, 22-10, $599 WHAT : Justin Phillips of Checotah, Okla., caught a 10-bass limit weighing 26 pounds, 6 ounces Sept. 18-19 to win $2,563 in the Co-angler Division. He was using buzzbait and Pop-Rs in shallow water near Wolf Creek and Horse Creek to bag his limits. WHO: The remaining top10 co-anglers: 2nd: Patrick Weir, Broken Arrow, Okla., nine bass, 21-11, $1,281 3rd: Scott Parsons, Bentonville, Ark., 10 bass, 19-14, $853 4th: Don Benson, Eufaula, Okla., seven bass, 18-9, $598 5th: Richard Vallis, Fort Smith, Ark., nine bass, 18-8, $513 6th: Brad Reynolds, Lowell, Ark., nine bass, 18, $470 7th: Kenny Blackwood, Rogers, Ark., nine bass, 18, $427 8th: Jeffrey Bullinger, Sapulpa, Okla., eight bass, 17-9, $384 9th: Parks Pendergraft, Claremore, Okla., eight bass, 17-2, $342 10th: Dylan Duncan, Kansas, Okla., seven bass, 16-5, $299 NOTES: The top 40 boaters and 40 co-anglers based on point standings from the Okie Division have now qualified for the Oct. 14-16 Regional Championship on Lake Texoma in Denison, Texas. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger 198VX with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and a Chevy pick-up, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger 198VX.

Here's the link to the results, 34 lbs. to win (10 fish). http://www.flwoutdoors.com/bassfishing/bfl/tournament/2010/6434/grand-lake-boater-results/

Nice pics! Glad to see they are after the fin.

I did a search on BFL, it's Bass Fishing League, part of the FLW. $300 entry fee, winning angler gets $9000. Winning co-angler $4500. Big bass $1500.

JB. that's one heck of a spot for Beaver! Nice photo also, really good pic of a healthy fish.

Excellent report, I appreciate the fishing tips, even though they are for Lake Fork, they give me some ideas for things to use up here.

Well I pulled up to the launch at Monkey Island at 0615 and found several wrapped boats in the process of launching. I did not know it, but there is a big tourney this weekend, BFL. BTW I don't know what the BFL tourney is. Anyway lots of boats out there, several times when I was fishing a point as soon as I left a guy would pull in and fish the same point, had I known there would be so many guys out there I think I would have gone somewhere else. Fishing was slow for me, I caught 1/2 dozen or so bass, but none over 13". Mainly caught them pitching jigs to docks and a couple on c-rigged plastics. Just could not figure out where they were or what they wanted. Lots of shad in the lake, but the fish weren't bothering them much. Sunny, warm, calm day. I did talk to some of the other fishermen, no one I talked to was doing any good, or if they were they weren't talking about it. Those tourney guys can be pretty secretive, not that I blame them.