Quillback

Haven't seen you here in a while. Are you coming to the One Bass on March 19? Edit: Date change to the 19th.

I drove through RR on my way to Table Rock Monday and the campground was just about full. Some great weather the last few days for fishing.

Fished yesterday by myself and today with Tom from Eagle Rock. Fish were biting better yesterday, today was a bit slow. 40 bass in the boat over the 2 days, but only 5 keepers. Mostly 12-14 inch spots. A few sublegal walleye and one keeper walter. Ned rigs were working the best, a couple of 2.8 Keitech swim bait fish, and I caught a few 12" bank runners on a #5 Shad Rap. Most of the fish were in the 10-20 foot depth zone, mostly mid cove to just inside the coves. Lots of empty bank, but when you find them, there is usually more than one. Got checked by the game warden today, earlier Tom had caught a walleye that I netted for him and proclaimed that we didn't need to measure it as it was clearly a keeper and in my opinion was at least 20", if not 21. When the game warden pulled up on us and asked us if we had any fish, told him we had a walleye and a crappie in the well. He took a look at the walleye and said he had to measure it, and it was 18 and a quarter inches long! I blew the call on that one, fortunately it was a keeper. When we got back to the ramp I had to measure it again as I just could not believe it wasn't 20", but yep. it was 18.25. Warden says there are a lot of people fishing the tribs for walleye and are catching them. WT was 44.5 when I launched yesterday, but a little over 49 when I took out. This morning it was 46, and a little over 48 around 11 AM, Green slime is starting to show up in a few places.

That was a good 2 hours.

Thanks for the report, haven't been over to the Beav in a few weeks.

Buddy of mine was up the White somewhere today. He had a brief but productive burst of fishing. 3 casts, a 3+ on each cast. 4th cast - nothing, 5th cast a 5-15. All in the same spot. Jig fish. I believe he said he only caught one other bass and it was not a keeper. Might have been two more, but no more keepers.

He has found the fat ones for sure!

Did you hear about the new restaurant on the moon? Great food, but no atmosphere.

I remember watching one of those game warden shows a few years ago where they had an "opening day" for elk shed hunters on public land. Bunch of people in 4 wheelers waiting for the open, and once it opened it was a race to the spots.

It was a bit tough today, got a few on the 2.8 Keitech, and a couple of walleye, and one of the walters was a keeper. Picked up a few later in the day on a #5 Shad Rap and a Wiggle Wart working the banks. They seemed to have moved in later in the day into fairly shallow water. Had a pretty good largemouth slack line the Wart, grabbed it and headed right towards the boat, couldn't get a good hook set and about 10 feet from the boat that bass jumped right out of the water and tossed the Wart, 3-4 lb. fish I'm guessing. Would've been my biggest as out of the 10 bass I caught, only one was a keeper. Looking forward to getting out again later in the week, I believe these fish are about to cut loose. Half a dozen nice sized filleted out crappie were in the water by the ramp. WT 44 when I launched. Pic of a spoonie a buddies wife snagged today while bass fishing. It got off while they were trying to get it into the boat, I don't believe they had any plans of keeping it so no big deal. They thought it was in the 50-60 lb. range.

Duane Doty was training his dog to hunt sheds, dunno how that worked out, I have to remember to ask him next time I see him. I have a few mule deer sheds I picked up chukar hunting, never have found any around here, but never really go out and look for them. Elk shed hunting was getting to be a popular deal out west, probably still is.

Love those fat spots!

I'm thinking of bringing some kielbasa to grill.

It is getting closer, hopefully no more snow storms on the horizon.

Certainly some stuff I would like to do. Definitely want to fish for tarpon someday. Pyramid lake would be a neat trip, and I hear they bite Zig Jigs. Would love to catch an Atlantic salmon - I have caught one in Washington, it was a fish farm escapee that had worn all of its fins down to stubs. Also want to do a trip for great lakes steelhead, salmon, and brown trout.

I talked to a very good fisherman at Jigfest this year that is using Livescope for crappie. He told me how he pulled up on some cover, scoped it out, and spotted 6 crappie. He could also tell one of the crappie was bigger than the others. First cast he caught the big one, caught two more and then let his buddy catch the other three. No more there so on to the next spot. As far as bass fishing, I've been watching some of the live coverage of BASS and BPT. Some of those guys are fishing jerk baits. They make a cast at the bank, then start working the lure watching their screen the entire time. Patrick Walters wacked them in FL doing that, but he did not win, he did finish somewhere in the top 10. Lee Livesay won on Fork last year throwing a 110 and also walking the dog. He claims he could not only see the bass and how they reacted to his lures, but he could size them and knew which ones to target. A few days ago at the Big M ramp I talked to a fisherman that is now using Livescope. He is not a tourney fisherman, but is a regular on the lake. He says it has changed the way he fishes, easier to find them and you can see how they react to your lures. You find some trees that are out in 70 FOW that top out 30 feet below the surface and if there are bass in the tops, you can see your lure and keep it in their face. Last year on the Johnny Morris million dollar tourney, there were some guys from Kentucky fishing 50 yards away from me where there were deep fish schooling. They were using the scope to spot fish in 50 FOW that are roaming around in open water. They did OK, don't know exactly where they placed, but they fished the last day. Watching some of the live coverage, it was obvious that the guys at the top were using it to catch deep fish. I see it as another tool in the toolbox. A very useful tool, but like any tool, you have to know how to use it.

Considering the cost of that stuff, they certainly are milking it. I keep waiting for the dust to settle before I get FFS, but it may never settle. Guess I'll have to continue using my 10 year old Birds.

Yikes, I thought I paid, but checking PayPal, I did not. $10 should be there. Sorry.

It just keeps on getting better: Garmin unveils LiveScope Plus live-scanning sonar system

Always fun to spend a day on a charter boat. That is something I miss living in the midwest. In the 90's it was $80 to go out on a bottom fish charter out of Westport WA. Primarily you'd catch black sea bass and a ling cod or two. Limit was 10 sea bass and 3 lings. Pretty much a guarantee you'd get your limit of bass. Catch your fish, the crew would fillet them on the boat ride back, and you'd step off the boat at the end of the day with 20 lbs. of tasty fillets.

Happy birthday Duane!

Not much rain here either. I hope they miss on this ice/snow/sleet stuff coming through starting tomorrow.

Thanks for posting that, didn't know about it. What a monster!

Chunks!

According to the Wikpedia article, the central can be found in NE Arkansas.