Quillback

Going to take a break tomorrow, might go over to one of the community lakes and do a little bass fishing.

The stripers were at it again early this morning, got on the water at around 0545, first cast caught this dude. After that it got slow for a bit, but a few started coming up to eat and I caught a couple of bigger ones in the 10-15 lb. range, I'm estimating on the weights, couple pounds either way is possible, catch and release, I'm not going to hang them from a scale. And sometimes I just get lucky, after the initial bite died off, I think it was around 0730, I motored a few miles to a steep drop off that sometimes holds walleye and spotted bass. I figured the stripers were done on top, so time to try for some other species. Got to the spot, maybe made 3 casts with the Keitech and had a striper blow up on the deep side of the boat no more than about 30 feet away. Picked up the top water tossed it after him, had a blowup that missed, then a spotted bass that went about 2 lbs. grabbed the lure. Kind of surprised me to see that fish out there with the big boys. Had a few more blowups, got the top water on them again and a dang heron flew off the bank and went after my top water, just was able to get it away from the bird, reeled it back in and waved my arms and yelled at that worthless bird and was able to spook it away. In spite of all that I fortunately did not spook the stripers, a couple of them came up and I was able to stick one. That was the last one of the morning. I chalked that one up to pure luck, go to another spot where you don't expect to see a striper and they show up. Did a little bit of bass fishing, caught a few 12" smallies and a couple of spots on the c-rig.

I was stationed outside of Colorado Springs for a year, but that was 1976 and things have changed since then in that there's a heckuva lot more people out there and a lot more fishermen. If I recall correctly, the Arkansas river runs right by if not through Leadville, there should still be browns and rainbows in it. Access was a bit of a problem, I recall hiking down some steep stuff to get to the river. Colorado is one of those states where landowners can post the banks and access to any river or stream can be a problem. Wish I could give you better directions, but there is a hwythat runs along the Arkansas and you'll just have to look for pull outs and do some exploring. I think just about any stream, some really small, hold trout once you get into the mountains, some of them can get over looked and can provide some good fishing. Check the regs for sure - but I agree with SIO, jigs ought to work for sure and in a bigger river like the Arkansas so should jerks.

Vaping (whatever that is) wasn't around when I quit, if it was I probably would've tried it.

Got to the launch early, foggier than heck when I got there. Didn't have much choice but to idle over to a nearby point and start fishing, started out swimming a Keitech with the idea of catching smallmouth, but wasn't out to long before I started seeing a blow up to out in the deep water. There wasn't a lot of top water striper activity, but it got to be enough that I couldn't take it any longer and had to give them a shot. Had one blow up about 100 yards away, stood on the TM, got within casting distance, tossed the walking bait at the spot where the blow up occurred, gave it a twitch and man I tell you a stinking HUGE striper blew up on it, but missed, started walking the dog and it was like a pack of hungry piranhas were after that thing, had three quick explosions and misses and BOOM finally got one to grab it. Went through the usual tug of war and boated one that was in the 13-15. lb range. Wrecked the front treble on my lure, so tied on another one, and when I tied it on I noticed my hands were shaking. Many years of fishing but I guess I can still get excited at times. Anyway, caught another one that was in the low teen range and a couple of 3 pounders to boot, all on the top water. Also caught an 18" smallie that was near to the bank. That dude grabbed about 4 feet of air a couple of times which was pretty neat to see. For burned off, stripers went to parts unknown so I did some bass fishing, caught 10 bass, mostly smallies with a couple of spotted bass. 3 of the smallies were keeper sized. Had the best bite on the c-rig with a UV Speed craw as bait. Had quite a few bites, but they were just not eating it right - I think they have spawned, and are guarding nests or fry and are just messing with the baits. Surface WT 66, water has a bit of a stain to it. This post has been promoted to an article

Well you don't pay $5 a pack to sit behind a diesel waiting for a light. 😊 Cigarettes also control you, that's one of the main reasons I quit, being an addict is a drag (no pun intended), I ain't being a tool of the tobacco companies either and I ain't giving the tax man $4 for every pack of smokes. And if you don't think cigs control you, try and quit, you'll find that to be the hardest thing you'll ever do.

Don't have to be that close, quit someday and you'll understand.

Neat - when was in Germany I used to collect those cardboard coaster deals, I think every town over a population of a 100 has it's own brewery and they all have unique coasters.

Oh great, now the secret is out.... Just kidding - congrats!

Well I can take a shower after fishing and wash out the stink, won't stink again till the next time. You'll be stinking as soon as you fire up the next smoke. Deny it if you want, cigarette smokers stink. Quit smoking you'll see what I mean.

That is a really beautiful fish.

Fort Gibson, which would've been next week, has been postponed until September. Next up is Guntersville, June 21.

Yeah I quit years ago myself, but I did enjoy smoking. I have no desire to smoke now, except for an occasional urge to fire up a cigar when out fishing. And no way I'm spending $5 for a pack of cigarettes, that alone is a reason to quit. Smokers stink too, you don't notice it when you smoke, but when you quit, ugh.

I positively hate the phrase "grow the sport".

Wasn't too bad here in Bella Vista and it looks to be gone - probably going to park itself over your lodge and pour on you. (You have my sympathy).

Glad to hear you had a good trip with the boys. Just think, some day you'll be a cranky old man and the boys will have to put up with taking you in their boat. 😜

Yeah cheaters are going to cheat no matter what the format. But in this case they caught the guy. It might be easier to catch cheaters in a catch/photo/release than in a bring 5 back tourney. Big events like this Costa tourney, it's hard to think anyone would cheat - most of the participants are well known locally and some nationally and to get caught cheating would just ruin a persons reputation.

Well if it's thousands of dollars, isn't that the big leagues? Is the Costa tourney a big league event? And is tourney fishing saturated by cheaters to the point that a weigh, catch and release format can't work? Kayak fishermen seem to be able to pull it off, and there's some big money in some of those kayak tourneys.

Indeed, braid is bad stuff to toss in the lake, I've pulled out more than a few balls of it out of lakes while fishing. We all should take responsibility to do all we can to not leave any in the lake. As far as sensitivity, it's something you have to experience for yourself I guess - fish a shaky head with mono on a reel, then switch out that reel to one with braid and fish it (using the same rod), you will then understand. And I believe most people do not fill their spools with braid, put some cheap mono on as backing, then top it off with 50-75 yards of braid.

Yep, if I could make the rules I would put in place a weigh and release format during the spawn. Some of those spawned out LM's that are being hoisted on the stage don't look too healthy, they are skinny and beat up. Spawning puts a lot of stress on fish, then carting them around in a livewell all day and then waiting while 250 guys go through the weigh in process is not going to help those fish.

Just did some reading of what they were saying and I get the impression that a lot of them are sight fishing, or at least fishing in water where they see fish and beds. Could be if the James is colored up no one wants to go up there and fish "blind" so to speak. Looks like they are experiencing what a lot of the folks reporting here are experiencing, you can catch a lot of fish, a lot of keepers, but it's hard to catch a lot of big keepers. Also looks to be a lot of spawned out largemouth being weighed in.

This area has gone all in on the mountain bike stuff, we've got 40 miles of trails here in Bella Vista and they just added another 40 or so that isn't officially opened, but it's open. Bentonville has quite a few miles, and there's several obstacle course deals also. And there's the concrete trail that runs from Bella Vista to Fayetteville, I think it's about 50 miles. I won't be doing any mountain biking, but I hike the trails. Not much usage during the week, but get some traffic on the weekends.

Panfish are biting, catching one or two everyday while bass fishing.

Braid handles much better on a spinning reel than mono, no twist or snarls. Casts further, especially with light lures. Sensitivity (if you're looking for that) is much, much better than mono. The newer braids are good stuff, and this is from a guy that used to hate braid.