Quillback

Great photo!

I was down at Houseman a couple of weeks ago looking around. I have never launched there - any tricky spots downstream of Houseman as far as navigaing with a prop?

Thanks Bill, that is some great advice, I plan on applying your strategy down here on Beaver this spring.

Lakrat, I believe you, and thanks for the info, I'll have give the dogs a shot one of these days.

Yep, great site, I have no complaints.

I've used shad for Blues in Grand, I guess catching a dozen hot dogs at the store will be easier than netting some shad, I just have a hard time accepting that hot dogs will work.

Sounds like a great day. What were they baiting their jugs with? Sounds like a great day. What were they baiting their jugs with?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZnsL7-UdGc

I have never eaten carp, but one of these days I'll have to give it a shot. I have also heard carp is good smoked. My carp bait of choice is Wheaties, grab a fistful, dip your fist in the water, pull it out immediately, knead it some, and you have a Wheaties ball that you can mold onto a treble hook, it's real durable and the carp seem to love it.

Just to clear up a couple of misconceptions about Lake Bella Vista: It is not part of the Bella Vista POA and is open to the public, it is owned by the city of Bentonville. They no longer drain the lake every year and as far as I know there are no future plans to drain it. I have never seen a carp over 10lbs. in the lake but the potential is there. There are other species of fish besides carp (wink, wink).

Outstanding! That would make my day for sure.

Glad to hear you got some birds, When I pheasant hunted in Washington I had a dog and they will help you find those birds, especially the ones that hit the ground running. Did you hunt public land? If so, it sounds like the area holds birds well even this late in the season.

That is a great report - thanks!

At first I thought that Rib Crib place sounded pretty good, until you mentioned they did not have any ribs - that's unbelievable. Kinda like KFC saying they are out of chicken.

What are the opening/closing times?

Speaking of Seagulls and Eagles.. About 10 years ago I was on a Salmon trip near Bamfield on Vancouver Island. We were fishing with a guide out in the bay. We were trolling anchovies behind a flasher using downriggers. The guide would bait up an anchovy and let line out until the anchovy/flasher was about 50 feet behind the boat, then he would attach it to the downrigger ball and send it down. The anchovy would be on the surface until he dropped the ball down. Anyway, one time a seagull swooped down and grabbed the anchovy and got hooked. The guide did not want to battle with an angry seagull to try and get the hook out, so he let the downrigger ball go down which took the seagull under. After the seagull was underwater for a couple of minutes he brought the downrigger ball up and reeled in a stunned but still alive saegull. He unhooked the seagull, put it in the water and we went back to trolling, as we slowly pulled away from the seagull, it came to life and started flapping it's wings, other seagulls started coming in from everywere, and for some reason were flying in circles around the stunned seagull that was sitting on the water. There were four of us in the boat and we were watching the gulls, when out of no where an Eagle swooped in and grabbed the gull that had made the mistake of trying to eat the anchovy. The other gulls scattered and the eagle flew off towards land with the gull. That was the first and last time I ever saw an eagle grab another bird, but I guess they will if the opportunity presents itself.

Where do you all meet at? I wold like to go just to meet folks, I'm not a fly fisherman, so I'll probably just show up to gab. Any KFC's nearby, or something similar? I can pick up a bucket of chicken.

Those reel are out of my price range, that's for sure. I'm sure they are sweet reels, but you can get some darn good baitcasters for under $200 - I don't know what the extra $300-400 gets you. Fancy crank baits and swim baits can set you back too.

Merry Christmas to all, and may the New Year bring all of us many hard fighting fish!

Darn you guys! Now I got to go buy some Wiggle Warts - and start using them. Any size recommendations?

I used to live in Washington state and did a lot of steelhead fishing. The Olympic Peninsula rivers are good right now for hatchery fish, but expect crowds at the popular spots. There are places to camp if you can deal with wet, cold weather. The rivers blow out easily so you should check weather before you go. In March and April are when the big native fish come in to the OP rivers. Also the Grand Ronde on the eastern side of the state is a good winter river with good access. All that being said, I think the midwest runs offer better fishing if you're looking at numbers of fish. But if you want to go west, Washington has some good water. Oregon also has some good fishing, but I've never tried it.

I appreciate the reports, I might head up there over the holidays myself and do a little walleyeing.

I do agree with the need for us to significantly reduce our dependence on oil. Overall people seem to have accepted $3/gallon gas. Just think of the billions of dollars going to good friends of ours like Hugo Chavez and the Iranians. Just imagine if Congress decided to tax us so that we could send $100 billion a year to Venzuela and Iran, people would flip out, but that's what's happening when you fill er up. BTW, none of us hillbillies should be hesitant about jumping into this debate, scientific polling indicates hillbillies outnumber college professors about 100-1.

Scary

He should team up with Dick Cheney.