Quillback

Had one fly right by my front window this morning heading due south. Out fishing Table Rock a couple of days ago had several fly by, again heading south.

That is a good day!

The monarchs are migrating through the area.

Not a bad day at all, sometimes it takes a day or two to get them figured out.

Sorry - Just saw this - If it's not too late, my advice would be look for top water activity, or at least have one rod ready to go with a top water in case you see some fish pop within casting range. I would try shaky heads, jigs, and drop shot.

There is a pretty good thread on the chain thing somewhere on the forum. It might be in the tips and tricks section. I looked around a bit but could not find it. I believe OAF member 'Ham' was the author.

Sounds like your boat would work fine, as far as I know there aren't any HP restrictions. There's power at the lodge, might need a long extension cord. We'll get a food thread going in a bit, as far as who is bringing what for food items. Are you familiar with the chain dragging deal on the White to slow your boats drift down?

And they just dropped the Columbia river and CA Delta from next years schedule and replaced them with Guntersville and, I can't remember now, someplace in NY. Having lived in Washington state I was looking forward to the Columbia river event, so I am a bit disappointed. Long wat to travel so I understand the reason.

Well I was out there today with my buddy Mike and it was tough for us. Cold, a bit breezy, with some fog coming off the lake when we started and very little top water activity. Nothing like it was a couple of days ago. I caught one spot on a Plopper, and a couple of swings and misses and that was it for the top water. We then did a lot of bank beating with shaky heads and jigs, and put a handful of 13-14" fish in the boat - I probably had a half dozen shaky head bite fish that got off, just weren't eating it. About 12:30 we fished a stretch of bank where we had a pretty good bite, chunk rock bank with a bit of wind on it. We started picking up fish right on the bank on jigs. No size except for one smallie I caught that might have been close to 3 lbs. We ended the day with 15 bass, mostly 13-14" spots.

OK, looks like the weekend of December 8th is the one that works best. Will plan on renting a lodge or two starting Thursday night the 6th through Saturday night the 8th. So who is coming and who needs lodging? Need to get that figured out fairly quickly so we can make reservations at Riley's.

I could go for that. Big showdown, bring in the top 25 or so from each circuit.

it really does foul things up for BASS. I wonder if since they've qualified for the Classic that they let them fish it next year? I would think we'll see increased focus on the Opens, at least next year as people will want to get on the BASS tour and compete for the $1 million pots. Not as much of a gamble now to fish the Elites with the new payout structure.

I haven't been up there Bill, I'm a little afraid to try it.

Well, after reading Bill's report, I should've gone with the plopper instead of walking the dog. I got a few on the top water, 3 of them were nice keeper sized largemouth, but I bet I had at least 15 missed strikes. Fish would blow up pretty good, but not touch the lure. Sounds like they are grabbing the plopper, that's probably the way to go. There was top water action early and the fish seem to be scattered from mid channel to right on the bank, if you can get a lure on them when they come up, they'll probably hit it. Bite really slowed down once it got sunny and the wind picked up. Went to the shaky head which I had high hopes for, but only got a few on it, and they were 13-14" spots. Not a bad morning, but could've boated a bunch if they'd grab the lure. WT 78-79 Had a couple of goofy bites today: First one, I had just shut down the big motor after cruising up to a spot I wanted to fish, heard a fish pop on top and it was right behind the boat about 15 feet almost in the prop wash. Tossed the top water back at it, and it immediately hit the bait - turned out to be a 13 inch spot, a good candidate for dumbest fish of the day award. Second one was I as moving down a bank fairly fast on the TM tossing the top water, had several fish come right in to me right off the deep water side of the boat, chasing shad, I didn't want to move much and spook them so I just kind of flipped the topwater out there maybe 10 feet, thought it was futile as I was sure they'd see me and spook, but had about a 2 lb LM slam it One of his buddies was swimming with him trying to get the lure, so I let him swim around for a bit, but his buddy swam away. I did boat the 2 lber.

Expected to see KVD on the list.

I'm a sucker for craw colored cranks. 6th Sense Curve 55 has some really great craw colors, haven't tried the 55 yet, but will be soon.

Cool, cloudy day, been reading a lot of good reports - had to get out there today. It was a slightly tough day, put 7 in the boat. Started off walking the dog, got a couple of 14" bass on top, threw a buzz bait for a bit, had a swing and a miss. Tried the new Strike King deep square bill for a while, one spot on it, no other bites, but I think that lure will see better days. Rest of my fish came on the shaky head with a 6" Fat Roboworm. A couple of steep rocky banks had a few fish willing to eat the shaky head, I think if I had fished the shaky head all day I would have done better. Checked out a couple of deep spots in hopes of finding some jig fish, but could not locate any fish deep. Saw a couple of boats fishing deep, maybe they found them. Saw an eagle trying to catch an osprey, never have seen an eagle go after one, but that eagle either wanted to eat that osprey or it was pretty mad at it. He chased that osprey for several minutes, the osprey kept flying higher in a rising sort of circular pattern with that eagle right on its tail feathers. That eagle made several lunges at that osprey but just could not quite catch it. Finally the eagle gave up and cruised off. Surface temp 78-79.

Nice 'eye Dan!

I am also a big fan of Tim Hughes.

Looking forward to the cooler weather - spent a couple of hours working on my deck this morning, my clothes were soaking wet with sweat. I thought about going tomorrow AM and doing just what you did, top water early then a drop shot, but looks like storms may be moving in late morning.

To misquote WC Fields - I would not want to be in a circuit that has me as a member.

Sounds like Momo was out. What you thought were two rocks being clunked together was actually the heads of a couple of night fishermen being whacked against each other. Momo likes to soften them up before he dines on them. Good thing you got out of there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momo_the_Monster Of course none of the missing fishermen ever make the news as the local powers that be keep that kind of news suppressed as they don't want to scare the tourists away from the Branson area.

Frank the Tank is eating well, that's for sure.

It is funny how they came up with that money for payouts, they cut the Classic winning from $500K to $300K just a few years ago. It's all good news for the anglers that can make the 80 man field in either league. Wonder what FLW is going to do?

The Empire strikes back! Interesting their field is now 80 anglers, same as MLF. 3 tourneys with $1 million payouts each for the winner - that will be interesting.