Quillback

That's pretty neat. However, they need to stay away from my secret spots. 😀

My dad and his buddy Vince fished the streams around here. They would almost always used a black Zoom Trick Worm on a slider head. I fished with my dad once on Big Sugar when I was down here for Thanksgiving maybe close to 30 years ago. We fished Trick worms that day and did fairly well as I remember. We fished upstream, wet wading, to me, coming down from Washington, it was a little chilly, but I think my poor dad about froze to death. We'd throw that worm into likely cover, behind a stump, log or rock, and usually they'd hit it right away. If no bite, swim it back with the current and every once in a while, one would grab it when it was swimming. Another plastic the folks that fish the local streams use is a Zoom Tiny Brush Hog. The smaller Zoom Lizards are popular too. When I was stationed in Maryland, I fished the Potomac near Harpers Ferry. The river there is about a mile wide, but lots of rocky shallows with lots of place to wade. I always used Rooster Tails there. You could catch 30-50 smallies on a good day, but you'd be lucky to have one that went over 14 inches. I need to find some wading spots around here and do a little more stream fishing. It's fun catching those smallies in current.

It do get hot out there. I haven't camped in years, but I was always a cold weather camper, makes having a fire a lot more fun. I'll send you a PM as to where the top water striper bite was going on Monday. No guarantees they'll be there again, but it is a starting point.

A woman was seeking a large turkey for a family dinner. She looked up and down the aisle finding only smaller turkeys. She spotted a clerk putting out more turkeys. More 15 pound birds she noted. Disappointed, she asked the clerk, “Do they get any larger?” Clerk replied dryly…”No mam…they’re dead.”

Goggleye.

Fisheries biologists in north-central Arkansas recently evaluated Crooked Creek's sportfish populations from Pyatt to the Yellville access. Sampling revealed a healthy population of Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Ozark Bass, and Longear Sunfish, including numerous quality-sized Smallmouth Bass! The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission maintains six designated public access points along the river, with the sections between Pyatt and Yellville representing the most popular floating sections. For optimal floating conditions, we advise checking the United States Geological Survey (USGS) real-time gage data. For an enjoyable float, we recommend targeting river gage levels between 11 and 12.5 feet. Always wear a life jacket and check weather conditions and the USGS gage station before your trip. Fishing Crooked Creek provides an excellent opportunity to enjoy the Arkansas outdoors this summer. We encourage you to explore a river or stream near you soon! Smallmouth Bass sampled on Crooked Creek

Hit the water early with Mr. Dutch this morning, we hung in there until about 11 AM. A little cloudy with a little bit of a breeze made for decent fishing conditions for this time of year. Good bite early, we caught several, mostly smallmouth, on the c-rigged craw. Got a bit slow after an hour or so and we picked some up fishing the banks with jigs, most fish were not right on the bank but out in 10-20 FOW. We caught 14 bass total, Dutch had a couple of keeper sized smallies and I caught a 3.5 largemouth on a jig. That bass came right before we left, things had gotten really slow and I picked that one up, (surprise!). It had a similar sized buddy that followed it to the boat. We did see a good amount of striper topwater activity early in one location. WT 86

When I lived in Washington, my next door neighbors were professional garage sale goers. Every weekend they'd hit the sales. They'd buy stuff, then turn around and resell it at a profit at their own garage sale. They knew antique glass and table ware too. Some of that stuff can be resold for $$ but you have to know what to look for. If I drive by one and see some fishing stuff, I'll stop and check it out, but I never find anything I want to buy. Once a year Bella Vista has a garage sale weekend. Lots of garage sales, streets get clogged with parked cars, cars driving around all over the place. I hate it, I'm always glad when it is over.

I've got a bunch of marabou jigs, I need to start fishing them. What weight do you recommend? How about retrieval, like a slow swim right off the bottom?

Tackle Warehouse 4th July sale is still on. They have Rebel Craws at 20% discount off the $7 regular price. Bomber cranks at TW are $3.99 regular price, there is a whole bunch of Bomber models to choose from. I bet you could find some that will work for your stream fishing. $50 order gets you free shipping. Sadly, nowadays $7 for a crank is about as cheap as they get with the exception of Bombers.

That is interesting. Any idea of when they'll stop pulling water out of TR at the rate they are now? 917? It's coming down at about 2 feet per week.

Nice haul!

CWD is a bad one for sure. I could go on and on about salmon research and restoration in the PAC NW. $1 billion per year is spent on the Columbia River system per year and it's been going on for something like 30 years. Salmon numbers have bottomed out and are not rebounding. It can't be turned off as people think the answers are right around the corner. I'd like to see the fish come back, but I don't see it happening. That money does provide income for people and businesses, doesn't do much for the fish. You can't swing a dead cat up there without hitting a biologist/fisheries researcher. The feds have them, the states have them, the tribes have them, and you've got consultants that are bios. Lawyers get some employment too; there are always lawsuits going on concerning fish. It's crazy.

I have personally witnessed Dutch throwing a Ned rig on his BFS setup - the distance he was getting was impressive.

There have been fish kills before. It's going to happen when you have summer tourneys that go on all day, it's hard on fish to be in a live well all day in warm water. The BASS circuit typically fish in the spring, or they go up north in the summer, so you don't see big fish kills from one of their tourneys. MLF does a catch, measure and release deal so not a whole lot of mortality there either.

The reason that stuff doesn't make the "news" is most people don't care what those folks are doing. A good chunk of the fishermen out there don't know or care about a lot of that research.

Out at the crack of dawn, fished until 0930. I went up Indian Creek today, fished the timber. It was slow, caught 4 smallmouth, one was solid 18" fish. Had another good one that got off right at the boat. Jigs fished from the bank and worked out to 20 feet or so was what I caught my fish on, threw a crank for a bit, no bites on it. WT 84

Guy that lived across the street from me when I lived in Washington was killed by hornet stings. He was allergic to them. Out at hunting camp, he was cutting some firewood, disturbed a nest of them and they got him.

They tried to remove the smallies in a NY lake and they found that it resulted in even more smallmouth, albeit smaller in size and more skittish. Invasive Adirondack smallmouth bass evolve to counter control efforts

Thanks for the write-up. Would certainly like to visit Normandy someday, but don't know if I'll ever make it. I've read several books about D-Day and the campaign in NW France. A good one, if you are interested, is Six Armies in Normandy by John Keegan.

Lake is dropping, almost 2 feet in the last week.

I have one cherry tomato plant and it is starting to yield. Planted cukes a little late, but they are looking good, should get some cukes soon. Asparagus plants are now 1 year old, growing well, and I hope to start harvesting next year. Got a good rain yesterday afternoon, it's been hot and dry, so it was needed.

Happy to see them moving water out of the lakes, but not sure how they are getting around the Newport gauge limits.

Thanks for the write-up. I want to make a smallmouth trip on one of the great lakes one of these days.

Radar showing some red over TR, maybe more on the way.