Quillback

That is pretty neat to get them out of a park lake.

Got my first and only fish so far in 2023 Tuesday on Table Rock. Frustrating day, missed the 1st 10 bites, finally scratched this one out right before I left.

Well it was a little closer than that. Arkansas, as usual, down in the 1st half, but came back in the 2nd. 2 weeks from now, Hogs travel north to Mizzou, ought to be a good one.

M&M is applying for the permits. I'll get the official announcement up sometime later this week. Who will win the plaque this year?

Tonight, 7:30 on FS1.

Wow, that is some fine eats!

January futures are down 8 cents today, so might see that in about a month at the pump. Or maybe not.

That's pretty neat that you can find those old skillets.

It was low hanging fruit, I had to take a shot.

Something that has worked for me on those dudes is a white tube on a 1/4 oz head. Tail spin like a Little George is worth a shot too. Those scattered top water stripers are tough to fool this time of year. As for those Keitechs, I'll put a 2.8 on a 3/16 oz head. I can cast it pretty well, but sometimes, just throw it out behind the boat, let out a lot of line and slow troll it, those Keitechs will kick pretty good on a slow troll. I like heads that have a 1/0 hook as it leaves plenty of free tail on the bait so that it kicks well.

That is one fat spot!

Some neat looking bream, glad you folks hit your numbers!

Hope to get out tomorrow. Congrats on the catches!

For sure, good to see you out!

Anybody know?

I have seen videos of guys fishing those MS lakes in the spring when they are flooded, they'll get back in that flooded stuff and wade fish for crappie. For sure a lot more pressure everywhere in the winter. A lot of guys on Table Rock the last couple of days.

A lot depends on how well the crappie do in a particular lake. Crappie factories like Sardis and Grenada get hammered, I have read what the harvest number is for Grenada, forget exactly what it is, but it is something like 200,000 to 300,000 per year. I have fished Sardis a couple of times with my uncle, we would troll Bandit 300's in the middle of July and in a morning's fishing catch 20-25 keepers, with a 12" minimum at the time. It's amazing how well crappie will do in the right conditions even when getting pounded like they do over there. Whether or not Stockton can handle it I don't know, but I guess we will find out.

He can catch fish with it, but he doesn't like it, and prefaces "Ned" with some colorful language. 😀

Some interesting stuff in this link: WFishStockingHistory.pdf (uidaho.edu)

He has retired from the business, he did some great work!

They don't appear to miss any meals.

I used to hike into the lakes in the mountains of Washington. Same deal there, those lakes did not have trout until they were stocked. They may have stocked some by plane at one time, but how they were stocking them by having people hike in with a pack with a stout plastic bag inside with fingerlings in it. I believe they also took some in on pack mules or horses. In some of the lakes the trout could reproduce if there were streams coming in. Usually it was bows or cutts, but there were a few that were infested with brookies, you could catch 10-12 inch brookies until you got tired of it. They have pretty much stopped stocking the alpine lakes in Washington to protect the native frogs and salamanders.

Fished today from daybreak until noon. Had a good bite early on the same point I had a good bite on yesterday. Caught 10 bass there, 4 were keepers, and a football sized rainbow trout. Once I got every bite off that point I could get, I fished a bunch of other places and caught just 2 more bass and a keeper walleye. Caught a couple on a jerkbait, the rest, including the bow and walleye came on the Ned rig. Talked to a wily old fisherman that had an outstanding day. He had a 5 bass limit that would go 18+. Couple of 5 lbers, couple of 3's and a 2+. I won't say where or what on, but he can type and reads these reports, so maybe he'll chime in. I saw the pics BTW, no doubt on the catching. Happy New Year, and may you all have some great fishing in 2023! Barely a keeper, but this is one fat spot: A jerkbait keeper! Been few and far between for me this year. And some diversity:

Congrats on the striper!

Yeah they were pretty much catch and release in WA too, back in the 90's you could keep them. Never were a bunch of them around even then. The ones I caught migrated from salt water into the local rivers, they were actually Dolly Vardens which I believe are considered a different species than Bull trout. I always thought they were the same.