Quillback

When I was in high school I worked at a place called the Sorrento Room in Milford Mass. It is still in business, different ownership, and I haven't been back there in close to 45 years, but at the time we made the best pizza I've ever had. We made our own dough, sauce from a tomato sauce base, and grated our own cheese from blocks of cheddar and mozzarella. Friday nights were crazy, we had three ovens going, three guys working like madmen, one guy rolling out the dough, placing on the pan, another guy saucing and cheesing and a third guy working the ovens, if you got caught up on the dough, you'd help out with the ovens and so on. It would be crazy from about 5 PM on a Friday until 9 PM, then we'd have another rush around 11 PM. My favorite was Italian sausage with fresh green peppers. We'd use sausage out of the skin, put chunks on the pizza. You have to Sautee fresh peppers before putting them on a pizza as they won't full cook in the time they are in the oven, but it is so much better than canned peppers. I spent years traveling the country for work, I've had NY pizza, Chicago pizza, trendy LA pizza, and every chain pizza out there. Hard to find one that measures up to the Sorrento Room back in the day. There's a place here in Bella Vista, Gusanos, that does an excellent pizza that has a few other locations in AR too. However it is pricey, $25 for a 16" pizza with a couple of toppings. I don't like their deep dish however - they put the sauce on top the cheese on their deep dish and I don't like it. One other thing the Sorrento Room was really good at was Veal Parmigiana.

Heavy rain incoming, at least in my neck of the woods. Have to take advantage of the nice weather when we get a couple of days of it.

Gates Foundation is kicking in $250 million. https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2020/04/Gates-Foundation-Expands-Commitment-to-COVID-19-Response-Calls-for-International-Collaboration

But for me the fishing has been tough. Caught just a handful Monday, caught some today, but almost all were sub-legal bank running males, mostly spots. Today's sun moved them (again) up onto the banks, Ned rig off the buck brush would get bites. Once it came off the bank and got into water over 5 feet deep, then they would not touch it. Keitech has gotten a few but it isn't working like it did last week. There have been some early morning shad chasers in a pocket and some are even out into the main channel, but it's a brief bite. Weather couldn't have been much better than it was today, no wind, bright blue sky, air temp 74 degrees when I left. Lots of fishermen, I counted 19 rigs in the Big M lot and 2 more came in when I left at noon. In ordinary times you might see 6-8 rigs in the lot on a nice weekday in April. Did catch a keeper walleye on the Keitech. I have a couple of bags of walleye fillets in the freezer so this one got to live to fight another day.

Well with Social Distancing rules you shouldn't be sharing a boat with anyone, so just go back and tell her you need $50K (you'll need another $5K for electronics).

Could you please give me the exact dates you will be here? Looking to get some short term flood insurance.

If I ever make it out that way, I'll give you a shout. Hopefully you can make Jigfest this year, assuming COVID doesn't screw it up for us.

Good show Phil, thanks!

Yeah man, gotta have coffee!

If you're in the area, we'll have to go catch a few.

LandBigFish.com is once again selling Keitech Fats at a 25% discount. Lots of Zoom baits on sale too. Other plastics and hard baits on sale. 20% off all Seaguar line.

You'll have to drive to Bella Vista to pick it up. And because of social distancing, I'll leave it under the front door mat - I'll wave to you from behind the door. A note to all - I'm tired of typing 'social distancing', from now on I'll abbreviate it as SD.

They are on it! Caution - Article is riddled with embedded ads. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/u-s-intel-community-examining-whether-coronavirus-emerged-accidentally-chinese-n1185371

This is interesting, but it's been a problem for years, harvesting south bound chinook of SE Alaska. https://wildfishconservancy.org/20200318NOAAPIPR.pdf

Dirty Water Dogs! No problem getting a hot dog in that city.

Congrats, some great fish! I like that pea-green stained water too.

I don't have any future plans to visit that city again myself.

Not working makes it a lot easier for me to go back to life the way it was. To me it is more about what will be the new normal as far as the rest of the world? Not so bad for us semi-rural or rural types to adjust to. I spent 6 years of my life working and going to school in downtown Boston. If you've ever been to Boston or NYC then you'll understand how crowded it is. During rush hour the subway cars are packed so full that sometimes the doors won't close until people push themselves in a little more. Sidewalks are jammed with pedestrians, restaurants and bars are packed, elevators jammed full, it's just a lot of people in a small area. It's going to be interesting to see how those big metropolitan areas deal with a return to 'normal'.

Went back again today, shad chasers were out again early in the back of the same two coves as they were in yesterday. Still eating the 3.3 Keitech on a 1/4 oz head. Later on found some Ned eaters that were almost all spots on the bank usually on the drop off on the rock ledges you could see close to the bank, maybe 5 -10 FOW. Caught 40+ bass, but mostly sub-legals, maybe 7 or 8 keepers in the bunch.

$1.29 today in Seligman, MO. Didn't get any, but will stop there tomorrow on my way home from the lake. Seems almost free at that price.

My first day on Table Rock since March 11, high water and the Big M dock being sideways kept me on Beaver and the Bella Vista lakes. Launched at Big M and coming out of the cove saw some scattered top water activity in the deep water so made a few casts with a 3.3 Keitech, caught a 13" spot and missed one. Didn't tear them up in the location, but was good to see a few chasing shad. Motored a few miles down the lake, started fishing a rocky point, saw some activity back in the cove, a smaller cove, one where you could reach both banks if you were in the middle. Bass were off the deep end of a dock and along a steep bank that led back into the cove, feeding on 3" shad. Stayed back there for maybe a couple of hours and caught 20 or so there on the 3.3 Keitech, they were all over the water column, some on top, some near the bottom in 35 FOW and some in between. If I could get a cast to one that was on top, they'd hit it almost every time. The others were caught slow rolling the Keitech with periodic drops, lots of bites on the drop. Mix of largemouth and spots, some of them being keepers up to 17". Once that bite died down the wind really started blasting, fished a few locations with just one here and there on the Keitech. Caught one fish on the Ned rig, but it was too windy for me to fish it, I just hate fishing it in a strong wind. Found another group of fish in the very back of a small cove chasing shad over shallow water, had the boat in 10 FOW casting to the bank. Caught 8 or 9 in the back of that cove, again a mix of LM's and spots, but did catch my first smallie of the day that went 15". All on the Keitech. My last location to fish was a gravel point that had the wind blowing from the shallow part of the point straight out, so I put my boat up close to the point and threw that Keitech out and let it ride the wind. Then I'd let it sink and roll it back with some drops. That gave me my big fish of the day, an 18" smallie. Had one more bite there and it was time to head for the barn. 34 bass total for the day, didn't keep track of the keepers, I know I had a half dozen keeper LM's, a couple of keeper smalls, and a bunch of spots that were in that 14-15" range. I only saw three other boats today. WT 56 Little bass, big shad: My 2 best:

Great day Bill! I had a good day myself, but they were all shad chasers.

We are fortunate to be living where we are and in this time. Covid is serious for sure, but throughout human history people have been dealing with infectious, deadly diseases. Smallpox, cholera, malaria, bubonic plague, typhus, tuberculosis, polio, to name a few. Childbirth for women was always a roll of the dice. Any infection was a serious matter. Always going to be a war between us and the microbes.