Quillback

Nice looking healthy fish, congrats!

Area round Murfreesboro looks interesting - never have been there, but you've got DeGray, Blue Mountain, and Millwood relatively close. Winters are a bit warmer too than what you get up here near the MO border.

Yeah I tell ya, the Mountain Home area is looking better all the time. Plus you've got some great trout fishing on top of being close to Bull and Norfolk. For right now I have reasons for staying where I am, but a few years down the road I may move on.

I have gone to braid/leader on my spinning setups, except for tossing moving baits. I like Seaguar Smackdown. It's just right for tying braid to leader knots in that is not too stiff or too supple and works well for me - but that is a personal preference, may not work for you. I get the high viz version, it holds the color well, it will fade over time, but it hasn't gotten white after a day of use like some of the other brands I have tried. It's not cheap, $30 a spool, but it lasts forever. Bo could make straight braid work, I have tried it, I caught fish, but it would always get frayed, fairly quickly, and on about hookset 3 or 4, would just break, so I stick with a leader. I've tied so many braid to leader knots that it is not a big deal to tie one. I think the knot I use is the Alberto knot, 10 wraps one way, than back over the 10 wraps with 4 or 5 wraps. A lot of people like Suffix 832, certainly worth a shot. FWIW, I use 15 lb. braid and 10 lb. leader for finesse stuff. Distance is not an issue.

Got an early start to beat the wind. Had some really good fishing for a couple of hours off a couple of gravel points. The bass were shallow early, from 3 feet out to 10 feet. Neds and 2.8 Keitechs. Bites were about equal between the 2 baits, but I missed more bites on the Keitech for some reason. I should've stayed in the area of those points, but had to go try some other spots, and when I did that, things got tough. Then the wind started howling and things got even tougher. Could not get bit on the moving baits and the wind made it tough to fish the finesse stuff. Had enough of the wind and left at 1130. Caught 19 bass, three were keepers, 4 short walleye, a couple of whites and a chunky crappie. WT 59. Lots of boats and a couple of yaks.

Lot of boats, and it's Friday - just wait until tomorrow. FWIW, tomorrow I'll be doing some garden stuff. Big M lot - 18 rigs, which is a lot for a Friday.

Yeah those orange flags are hard to see and if the wind's blowing the right way, nearly invisible. Kayaks are just tough to see from a bass boat, there's no way around it.

Big kayak tourney this weekend, going to be some strong winds according to the forecast. Those yaks can be hard to see if they are out in the chop. Keep an eye out for them. Joplin kayaker reported missing by family drowns on Table Rock Lake (news-leader.com)

If they are looking for a stud for their dog, the one my BIL uses is supposed to have all the right stuff for a family type lab. I think, but not sure, the stud lives somewhere near the Cape so it would be a bit of a haul from Beverly.

That's interesting, my sister and BIL have had Labs for years and have litters of pups to sell almost every year. They have never mentioned having any pressure to get their dogs spayed, but I'll have to ask them. They live in Wrentham MA. As far as demand, they are all sold before they are weaned, I think the get around $1K per pup.

I will do a 2-3 AM start in the summer a couple of times on one of the BV lakes in the summer, so it's dark, but more of a pre-dawn thing. I've caught a few decent fish doing that, but not the last couple of years. I go for broke and throw big stuff, Ol' Monster, 3/4 oz jig, black spinner bait with a #5 willow blade, wobble head with a creature. I'd like to fish TR at night, but it's just too far to drive when I'm half asleep. And to your point there's the learning curve on top of that.

LOL, yeah do 70 (the speed limit) on I-49 here in NWA and you'll be left in the dust.

Hauled the boat over today thinking I was going to whack them. Got off to a slow start, cloudy, cold north wind blowing, the fish were pretty tight lipped and it took a while to start getting some bites. The ones that I could catch were really shallow, usually around buck brush or off gravel with wind. Caught fish on the 2.8 Keitech and 1/8 oz Ned. 22 bass (3 keepers) and one keeper wallie. Water going either way out of Big M is stained pea green or brown. Looks pretty good. WT 54. If I could do it over again, I would come armed with shallow cranks, #5 Shad Rap, DT6, something I could run shallow.

Are the runs in trouble in MD? Just curious why they don't allow any retention.

Night fishing is past my bedtime, but I get a kick out of seeing the fish that get caught at night.

Congrats, not a turkey hunter, but good to see you get one!

That's great, good pic of that eagle!

Nice one!

That's pretty neat!

Today I was casting it out, letting it fall to the bottom, then I'd slowly hop it back, not a lot of action, just hop it a bit, let it fall. Also would mix in some dragging and swimming. I like to maintain bottom contact and to do that with the 1/16 that will really slow you down. Had a couple pick it up on the fall too, another plus on the 1/16 is it will slow down the fall rate which can be good. Had a dead sticker too, threw it out there in about 15 FOW, was looking around on the bank at some rocks for a few seconds, when I got back to paying attention to my rod, had one on - that one got off.

Did some driving this afternoon to check a couple of ramps, Indian Creek on Beaver and Big M. Both docks are in the right place at both of those ramps. Threw a Keitech around the Indian Creek ramp, wind was really howling, could not get a bite. The wind was more tranquil around Big M so I was able to toss a 1/16 oz Ned around. Caught 9 bass and a walleye. Caught 4 of the bass literally on the concrete ramp at Big M. It was fun, I always enjoy catching them off the bank.

If it gets to the point that I have to stick my head in the water to catch fish, I am going to take up basket weaving.

Some good fish!

Yep, gotta give the guy credit for creating a following, he gets his sponsor plug in right away too.

2 big yak tourneys next weekend, plus quite a few bass boat tourneys. Going to be another interesting weekend on the Rock.