Quillback

Got out early AM walk in before the rain got here. Lots of lightning flashes out there. Now it is starting to rain. Grrrr....

That surprises me, usually they'll leave it open.

I have 2 guys that made the cut. I'm toast at this point. I'll keep activating a lineup in the one in a million chance that I might win a tourney a get a bag of TW swag. looking forward to next year! LOL!

Dunno if it will work in your case, but I used to get some serious lip chap from sunburns that led to bleeding. Applying a Styptic pencil to the spot would get it to stop bleeding and it would heal. The final solution was to go to a dermatologist and get a layer of skin burned off and that fixed it for good.

I was talking about the COE ramp parking lot. When you say the ramp was closed - did they have it barricaded off in some way? Just curious, I'm not going over there until there is a lot more water gone.

Not good.

I can speculate a bit... Water should be around 923 by Saturday which I think should have about the top third of the lot out of the water. You can probably get in, but the slope on the lot isn't real steep so you'll have to back in quite a ways. Something to consider is when you get to that T intersection where you go right about 50 feet to the lot, is to take a left instead and then back down to the lot and launch. You could pull straight out after launching and I think you could go up the road where you take a right and does that loop out by the lake. If that road is out of the water, and I don't know if it will be, you could bring the boat around to the back of that cove that the parking lot overlooks and beach it on the grass to load/unload.

That's a big smallie.

Lightning in the sky right now, radar showing another front coming through. I have a buddy that is camping at the Indian Creek COE campground now through the weekend to do some fishing. Looks like he is going to have to dodge wind and storms.

Go for the win, aren't you retiring soon?

Those are some great fish. OK now, you gotta give an estimate on the big one that got away. 😃

Do you know where that shallow water buoy is about 1/2 mile south of point 5 on the same bank as the point 5 bluff? If I wanted a shot at a walleye, there's a gravel bar/flat that runs out from the bank to that buoy and it has always looked like a place that would be good for Mr. Wallie. I think I remember catching one there several years ago. Good place for bass and stipers too.

Thunderstorms in the area early today so I did not launch the boat until 11 AM and fished until 4 PM. Smallmouth still bit pretty good, boated 17 with 5 keepers. They are getting feisty, lots of jumping and that jumping cost me a half dozen or so and a couple of them were good fish. Still doing the Keitech thing, most bites are still shallow, rocks and logs are good places to cast. With the sun up and the water being somewhat clear I could see the swimbait most of the time and see the bass roll on it. Sometimes I'd just see it disappear. Pretty neat. No stripers caught today, but did see one follow the swimmer in but it didn't take a swipe at it. The usual suspects:

A 19" Kentuck is a good one for this lake. Do you superglue the keitechs to the jighead? I do and usually I'll get several fish on one before they get torn up.

Caught this dude on Beaver yesterday. Transformed into fillets. I'm going to make some fish chowder and needed a fish with firm flesh, not flakey like walleye or crappie. Still need either another cat, striper or a white or two. Another excuse to go fishing. 😀

That would be one heck of a big keyboard to hide you, even your current weight reduced self. 😃

Tons of bluegills in the lake too. I'll take gill fillets over anything when it comes to fried fish.

Launched early, nice cool morning with a full moon. Caught this guy on top with the 2nd cast of the day. Camera made it look darker than it was. Caught a channel cat on a Keitech. Durn thing slammed it and fought pretty hard, thought it was a striper. There was a top water bite early, then after that was over, I was using 3.3 and 2.8 Keitechs. Lots of shad shallow. Lots of bites today and there are lots of sub 10" smallies out there. Should bode well for the future. Had 4 keepers, 2 smallies and 2 largemouth. Caught 5 stripers, all were 20" or less. Still not seeing any bigger ones. The usual suspects:

Thanks for the report Mark, you're making me want to get down and fish the mid-lake area.

Here's an email I received from District 1 supervisor John Stein (AGFC) last spring regarding walleye stocking in TR. And to what Bill says, I bet I have caught 15 or so short walleye on TR this spring, but only one keeper. It has been several years since we stocked Walleye in the Kings or White rivers and the few times that we have, it was surplus Walleye. These populations are doing very well naturally. The biologist from Missouri has sampled the James River arm of Table Rock and came up to help us on the Kings and White rivers. The numbers of Walleye that run into these rivers is incredible. We collected 251 Walleye per hour a couple of nights ago on the Upper White River out of the Highway 45 Bridge (Beaver Lake Twin Bridges Access). On the Kings River, we have collected over 350 per hour and see some trophy fish. Our sampling method (electrofishing) does not collect every fish. We only get a small sample of the Walleye that are there (if we collect 75 in 10 minutes, we are probably missing another 75). We cannot net fast enough to collect all the fish. We have seen similar numbers in the White below Beaver Lake. Also, we have observed fish that were 14 lbs. These high catch rates are corresponding with the increased popularity of the Walleye fishery in the spring. Stocking at this point is not needed in these river arms and Walleye are doing very well on their own. Thanks for the question and if you have any others, please let me know.

One for JF.

Thanks for the reminder, I had forgotten about this.

I have found lures hung up in trees, but never a jet ski.

Well today is the last of three straight days of getting up at 3 AM and going fishing. I'm ready for a break. 😀 My early top water spot was not as productive this morning, caught one fat 18" striper there and a couple of bass, but they just weren't there like the last 2 days. Jumped around after that from spot to spot, caught some smallies, mostly 10-13" fish but did get one 18" fish. Caught a keeper walleye too. Just about all the fish I caught were in 10 feet or less on a 3.3 Keitech on a 1/4 oz head. Lots of shad up shallow and the fish are a following them. Missed quite a few today including a couple of bigger stripers - saw one of the stripers, he looked to be in the 6-7 lb. range and had another one come off in the same spot that I never saw, but it was propably in that 6-7 lb. range. The one I saw, got it right to the boat before it got off, just could not keep them stuck. Lost several what were probably decent smallies too. No break-offs, they'd just come unpinned. But all in all, it was a good morning with lots of bites. Off the water at 1030, WT has risen to 72. The usual suspects:

Nothing like a good day at "work". I'm up early, going out to hook up the boat in a bit.