Quillback

Discovery channel.

I don't remember it getting that cold all of last winter. Anyone plan of going fishing Tuesday AM? 😀

I wish I had gone today, weather forecast scared me away, but it didn't really rain much today. Might be out there this weekend myself.

So when you guys say the parks were better back in the day - was it because they stocked more fish and they were bigger overall than now? Never have fished the parks myself, always thought about giving Roaring river a shot during catch and release, maybe someday.

Weatherman was predicting that we could get 2 inches of rain, possibly more, over the next day and a half. Seems that lately when they predict 2 we get 6. Beaver setting at 1129, one foot below flood pool.

Birds were moving yesterday, heard some high flying geese in the pre-dawn darkness as I was out walking my dog. Fished over on Beaver for a few hours, saw several high flying flocks of geese, some teal, what I believe were buffleheads, but too far away to get a good ID, and several flocks of larger ducks, couldn't tell exactly what they were. Anyway it was an unusually high number of water fowl compared to what I usually see on that lake. Monarchs were flying by too, everything was on the move, guess they are clearing out ahead of the front coming in.

Washington state had a pretty extensive trout stocking program, one big difference is there the water stays cool enough during the summer that the trout don't die off. They would always stock some oversized trout in some of the lakes, I caught a few over the years and always caught them on my usual lures which were small spoons. I'd say just go out and throw the stuff you'd throw for the 11 inchers and if there are any big stockers around you'll get a shot at them.

They sent some of the party back when they spent the winter in North Dakota, no doubt they carried some messages. Other than that I don't know how they could've sent anything else back unless they ran into trappers that were willing to bring stuff back. It's been years since I read the DeVoto edited Journals, time for another read.

No letters going back and forth, once they got up the river they were out of touch.

Must be a really special hat if you still have it. 🙂

Launched at 1030, fished until 5 PM. It was tough, fished a spinnerbait and cranks in the coves off Indian Creek, all I had to show for it was one scrawny keeper largemouth that hit the spinner bait. Tons of shad back in the coves and in the main channel too. Seemed like about every cast there would be shad skittering around that were spooked by the spinnerbait. Water back in Indian is a nice stained green and with the high water, lots of brush and trees to fish around. The bass didn't seem to be active however, maybe the bluebird sky had them sulking. Later in the afternoon I fished the rocky banks and points out in the main basin by the dam with a Ned rig. Caught a half dozen smallmouth in the 12-15" range. Fish were out in about 10 FOW. Quite a few shad around there too. Water is a bit stained, maybe 5 feet of visibility. Saw what looked to be a few stripers briefly come up after shad, but other than that didn't see any striper activity. Saw only one boat fishing for them. Lots of shad, good water color, WT was around 61. Things should bust loose soon. This post has been promoted to an article

You picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel..

Lot cheaper to seine them out of your neighbors backyard goldfish pond.

I remember during the Iran hostage crises there was a song that was a take on the Beach Boys Barbara Ann that was remade into "Bomb Iran".

That is a good one for any body of water, congrats!

I was out yesterday too and found it to be extremely tough. Caught an 18" smallie right off the bat on a swim jig and that was pretty much it.

Saw a flock of about 20 teal on Table Rock yesterday. Didn't hear any high altitude cackling however.

Dang Thumbs, should've saved that look for Halloween! Glad you made it out with a relatively minor injury.

Speaking of cold, they are saying we might get a little snow Thursday. I like fishing cold water, but things sure have changed from where they were a few weeks ago.

Nice fish, water has really cooled down.

Glad you can make it.

Well as of right now I have 15 staying (that is assuming you bring 4 people with you) with one more possible. River Villa can comfortably hold 7, with one person sleeping on the futon in the living room - I have stayed on that futon before and it is nice and comfy. So with 7 in the Villa, that leaves 8, possibly 9 in the Cedar Gables which will work. So Rick if you put your crew in the Villa, assuming there are 5 of you, then we need to add 2 volunteers to have it done.

I liken it to borrowing money to play high stakes poker. You might be an excellent poker player, but you're going to be playing against guys who are all excellent players themselves. And if you win, you've got to use some of your winnings to pay your backers. Of course there is the sponsor thing, but the big sponsor money isn't going to show up unless you are successful.

A pro who was a rookie on the Elite series lives near me. I spoke to him a couple of years ago about going pro, he qualified two years ago, but wasn't financially set to join the tour then. He thought he had someone lined up to help out with the finances but that fell through. But he did fish the tour this year, so he must have gotten things worked out. He didn't do too well unfortunately, don't know if he will be back next year or not, haven't talked to him. This summer I was waiting at one of the Bella Vista lakes for my fishing partner to arrive, couple of young guys pull up in a new pickup and launch a full sized bass boat. I was talking to the kid in the boat while his buddy was parking the truck - couple of high school kids, the guy parking the truck was the high school bass fishing champ. I'm assuming it was the old man's truck and boat, but times sure have changed since I was in high school. Not saying it's a bad change, but it is a change.