Quillback

The lakes biologist here in Bella Vista insists that you can't hurt the bass populations in the community lakes by keeping the ones under 12". Every once in a blue moon I'll keep some and as you guys have noted they are excellent eating. Same thing on Beaver with the spotted bass, the bios want you to keep them, and they are tasty too. I just don't eat that much fish, it's good about once every two months or so for me.

Not a whole lot going on, I had exactly 2 bites, one was a keeper sized LM, and the other was a 14" spot. That's in about 5 hours of fishing. LM came on a Z-Man craw and the spot on a Ned rig. Wind was hooting which made the finesse fishing challenging. Threw some cranks for a while, but no luck on them. Water color looks good, nice green stain. WT 46. Did not see a single fishing boat today. Don't know if I have ever fished a day on the Rock and not seen at least a boat or two. That tells me that it is tough on this end of the lake. I might have to buy some of those ice jigs. Or wait for spring.

Sorry to hear that, but hope you have a good time at Monster Jam!

Man is it a bad show.

That's a beautiful fish!

Just watched it, well about 15 minutes is all I could take.

Only one time did I get paddled in school - I think it was 5th grade, which would be about 1967. Bunch of us boys had a rock fight one day at recess, one of the kids got hit in the head, got a cut on his forehead, pretty bloody. About 20 of us had to report to the principals office to receive our well deserved punishment. Had to bend over and receive one light tap with a wooden paddle (we didn't have to pull our pants down). Public school.

Looking at doing the One Bass on March 23 out of Eagle Rock. Usually would do it a week or two earlier, but Mike M did some checking and there looks to be some fairly big tourneys going on earlier. So who thinks they will attend?

A very nice brown indeed!

Warm enough this evening that the bats are out flying around.

A while back there was a thread where a couple of the guys were recommending Soft Science shoes. Based on those recommendations, I picked up a pair of the Fins, they really are a great, comfortable shoe, I haven't worn them fishing yet, but probably will have them on this summer when I go fishing. Certainly a much better shoe for standing around in than my usual fishing footwear which is an old pair of sneakers. So, was just flipping through the upcoming fishing shows on the Outdoor channel and I see tomorrow morning, that the Fishing University show will feature Soft Science shoes, how the heck they make a fishing show around shoes remains to be seen, but I felt I had to record it for later viewing. I'm not a big fan of the Fishing U shows and usually wouldn't watch one of their episodes, but this one sounds so bad that it could be good.

They've got different models, you can get a lighter Ugly if that's what you want.

Ugly Sticks aren't bad for trolling. Cheap and durable.

Well, here is my first and only fish so far for 2019. 12" largemouth from Beaver lake. Fished hard for 5 hours and that guy was it, maybe had 3 other bites that ticked the bait then dropped it right away. Beautiful day, water looked good, but it had come up about a foot and a half in the last couple of days and maybe that put the fish off.

I spent part of my life living and working in the Boston area. Saw one game at the old Garden, that was back in the day when people were allowed to smoke inside. Had a seat up in the nose bleed section, where all the smoke was hanging, can't say it was a good experience. That place was a dump. Probably have seen 15 Red Sox games at Fenway, if I ever go back. I'd like to sit somewhere in those new seats they put on top the wall. Never been to the Masters, I was stationed at Fort Gordon for a year, never have had a desire to go back to Disgusta GA. The course itself is beautiful, but that town was a dump. Maybe it has changed since then for the better. Back then, this was 1979, the entrance to the course was right off a 4 lane road that was nothing but strip malls and urban sprawl, you'd never know looking at the entrance that the course was back there.

But would she buy you a boat?

I like watching golf, well usually the last round or two in any of the majors. No way I miss the Masters.

They need to slow down with this electronic arms race stuff, poor bass aren't going to stand a chance.

Let's see the pics! I am planning on going tomorrow, I'll take a pic of the first one I catch, whatever the size or species.

Has to be the Russians...

Speaking of MLF, Select Series airs Saturday - new season.

I don't know about that 2-net system you got there - I can imagine a future Taney report: "I had been fishing jerk baits for 27 straight hours without a bite. But finally, at 2 AM I hooked a MONSTER brown. After a 45 minute fight, I finally got the beast close enough to net, I needed to hurry as I could see that the line above the lure was frayed and could break at any moment and I could not afford to let the giant brown (I estimate it weighed at least 25 lbs.), make another lunge, it was now or never. I held the rod in my left hand as I reached around to unhook the net from my back. After 30 seconds of fumbling around, I pulled the net free, only to realize I had grabbed my butterfly net! I yelled @#*&^ as I tossed the BF net far out into the river and started the process of trying to free my handcrafted big boy net. I again reached around to my back and started trying to free the big net, fortunately the HUGE brown seemed to be pretty tired from the lengthy fight and didn't make any moves. I succeeded in unclipping the net after a few minutes of fumbling around (my fingers were frozen, it was 14 degrees out there at 2 AM), and as I reached for the net handle, it dropped into the swift flowing current and started to float away! I had to make a split second decision, let my net drift away to vanish in the night, or break off the fish of a lifetime in order to save my net." I decided to....

New season of The Bass Pros started on the Outdoor channel, first episode features KVD fishing a jerkbait last April. I believe it reruns tomorrow AM. Being KVD, he is pushing some products, but even so, it's interesting to see how he catches some.

Do you see the line jump or move off, or is it you don't know they are there until you move the bait? It sounds like they are grabbing it right when you start to move it, maybe give it a longer pause. Could be just a weird bite that day too, next time you go, they might be inhaling it.

So are you getting bit on the pause, or when you are working the bait?