Quillback

Usually have two rigged up. Somedays 3.

Used to stay at them every once in a while when I traveled for work. Used to have a pretty good breakfast buffet, if so, don't eat too much!

Could've been - they did a close-up on the jig and it looked like marabou to me, but hard to tell for sure. For sure the Zig jigs are a bargain compared to others. Been trying to talk Richard into making some solid chartreuse jigs, smallies like chartreuse. I talk to a veteran Table Rock fisherman that fishes, and catches a lot of winter bass on a chartreuse 1/8 oz crappie jig.

I'll be interested in getting some, I was watching a fishing show the other day, one of the Lindner's fishing what they called a "Hair Jig" for smallies on one of the Great Lakes. Looked more like a marabou jig to me, anyway they were swimming it for pre-spawn smallies and doing really well. They were using brown jigs and it looks like they had a strand or two of mylar in them for a little flash.

Went to bed way too early last night, and now and I am up and drinking coffee. Looks to be a band of T-storms heading this way, should be here in a bit.

Launched at 0700, it was 37 degrees, misty with a bit of a breeze. Didn't warm up much, it was 43 at the ramp when I pulled out at 2 PM. Water temp varied between 42 and 43. Threw a jerk bait a bit to start the day, never got a bite on it. Threw it to one spot that has pretty consistently held a bass or two, no takers, threw a Ned in there and caught a keeper sized spot. After that, I just stuck to the Ned. Bite was slow, sometimes it was super light, I was throwing braid, with a fluoro leader, sensitive rod, and I could not believe, even with that set up, how light some of the bites were. Fish were scattered, some were inside a cove, some were main lake. Caught 14 total, 4 definite keeps and maybe had two others that would've made the mark. Fish are still deep, 10-20 FOW. Lots of boats out there today. This post has been promoted to an article

You guys have all the fun, I have pulled into dock stalls a couple of times and have yet have anyone yell at me or offer coffee. 😄

Well I might use brook trout for catfish bait - assuming it was legal, which it probably isn't even in places they are trying to get rid of them..

I'd rather eat catfish than brook trout. 😄

Must've been about 25 years ago, but I had some blackened sturgeon in a restaurant in Portland, it was excellent. Used to catch them in the Columbia river, kept a couple thinking that it would be great eating. Tried several ways to prepare it, including blackened and smoked, but it always was lousy. I am beginning to think they restaurant made a mistake and served me something other than sturgeon.

Put a fisherman in a time machine and he'd never come back to live in our current time, except maybe to pick up some tackle.

That's what I was thinking, that fish would have to weigh at least 60 lbs. we're talking musky size, and a huge musky at that. I want to believe, but I'm calling BS.

Too cold for me to even think about it. Friday may be a decent day to be out.

Well it's not so much pollution as it is population growth, as recently as 1950 there were 2 billion people on this planet, now there are 7.5 billion and growing. US population grows by 2 million per year. The base problem is population growth, people have to eat and use water. That many people on this planet, there will always be "pollution". We can certainly mitigate the effects to some degree, but if population growth is not addressed, then we're going to have to face the consequences.

Ham caught 3 or 4 LM's the day I fished with him.

I also want to thank those that brought their boats, I surely had an incredible day fishing out of Ham's boat, one of my best on that river, ever. The food really came together well, I missed the 3rd night, but the BBQ, sauce piquante, smoked salmon, stuffed mushrooms, and the fish fry was top of the line. Great desserts also, and let's not forget the special birthday cake that was made for Richard! That channel catfish Brett brought was the best catfish I think I have ever had - didn't get to eat any of Richard's bream as it was gone by the time I got there, must've been pretty good, LOL. I'm wondering how many browns over 17" were caught by the group? I think that the day I was in Ham's boat we caught 8 or maybe 9. I bet over the whole course of 3 days of fishing it had to be around 100 nice browns total.

I got you beat, it is 5 degrees here. Those 2 extra degrees really mean something.

I am thinking that next time we can do a draw names out of a hat to match boaters with non-boaters. Have a little fun with it.

Thanks for posting that, interesting read. I had always thought rainbows were late winter/early spring spawners.

I'm pretty sure the anglers hang around the ramp for a while when they are done, would be a good time to bring your boy. Maybe bring a couple of 6 XD's or something similar and a fine point sharpie, he could probably get a few autographs.

Didn't know that - I also wish him well for a good recovery!

Well my 2 cents is that it is a brown, based on no spots on tail. Tail is also squared off, and I believe I see a red spot or two on the head. Night pic, the flash went off which would emphasize the silvery look.

I thought browns spawned in the fall/early winter, and I believe most of them do. Seems late for one to still have eggs.

Well we could be conservative and say 21" and 5 lbs. That's as low as I'll go. Pictures never do fish justice as far as size, and short of it being on a certified scale (with pics thereof), there's always going to be disputes over the size. Ham's 6'2" and that fish is not long armed, and if you look closely you'll see there's a bend in the fish curving inwards towards the camera. That 2nd fish Ham is holding, I believe measured 18 or 19" and it is dwarfed by the bigger fish.

Fishing in Ham's boat, John's Folly, Ham and myself, boated in the neighborhood of 120 trout Friday. A few were on jerk baits, but most came on Zig jigs. Most were rainbows, and we did get maybe 10 or so quality browns, anywhere from 17 to 22" long. Ham (darn that guy) got the biggest brown, a 22" fish. The other guys were also catching some quality browns, I was really impressed with the number and size of the browns we caught. Something we noted is the smallmouth we caught didn't jump, but the browns were jumpers! Seems kind of backwards. Sure is fun watching those fish grab some air! You'll notice a pic of Ham's hand with some trout eggs in it - one of the brown he caught dropped some eggs, seems kind of late for one to be spawning, but it was.