Quillback

A beautiful early fall morning. I began my day by fishing the edge of the buck brush with a tail spinner type top water. Caught 2 bass total working the brush, one was a keeper large mouth. Did that for an hour and moved out into the channel to try again for the bass that are living out there. They were scattered, no schools, and every once in a while one or two would come up within casting range. Caught another 4 bass, all spots, fishing main channel. If you can get on them, they will jump on that top water, but if you're late, they'll ignore your bait. I can't make fan casting around the boat work, they've got to be up feeding. Only thing I haven't tried is to try finesse type top waters, may try that next time. Might even try a float and fly. Seems every time out lately I have a Big One that Got Away story. I tied up to the dock at Big M, backed the trailer in, as I got in the boat I saw a bass pin some shad against the bank right at the edge of the blacktop in the parking lot. Close enough to the boat that I stepped in the boat and picked up my top water rod and threw a pencil popper right at the spot where that fish came up. Made two casts there, no sniffs. Made another cast about 10 feet further down the bank, walked the bait about 10 feet of the bank, and pow, got a blow up - just felt a little tick, didn't hook up, but I got a look at the fish as it rolled on the bait and it was a good one. Made a few more casts but that bass wasn't coming back. View full article

Ear ache my eye!

Yeah Mike, should've left the stock hooks on, then I could have blamed it on the manufacturer.

Went back to the scene of the crime this morning, cold front and wind shut them down, very little top water activity, compared to Tuesday, shad just weren't on top. I tried a 1/4 oz Kastmaster today, on about my fifth cast (sitting over 50 FOW), I let it fall for a 10 count, then started lifting it and letting it fall, line goes slack, so I set the hook, bring the fish toward the boat, it's not fighting very hard so I figure it's probably a 12" spotted bass, get it to about 15 feet from the boat, and a good sized 3-4 lb. largemouth jumps 2 feet out of the water and tosses the Kastmaster. I worked that thing for another hour and never got another bite on it, except when I was ready to move, made one of those "last cast" casts, worked the Kastmaster to about 10 feet from the boat, and a nice spotted bass slams it - same thing, fish jumps, Kastmaster goes flying. And just for the record, I had changed out the hook and split rings because the ones that come with it are lousy. Hooked another one on a Keitech, it also got off. Put two keeper largemouth in the boat that ate the c-rigged Speed Craw. And that was it for the morning. 2 keepers in the boat, 2 keepers that got off, and one bite on the Keitech.

I lean more towards bucket list locations rather than species. I would like to fish Lake Fork, Toledo Bend, Door county Wisconsin, upstate New York, New Zealand would be cool to visit, but I doubt I'll ever put that one together, too far and too expensive.

Got back on the Rock Tuesday morning, went looking for top water fish. Water was flat calm for most of the morning, made it easy to spot where they were chasing shad on top. Unfortunately they weren't schooled up but were scattered over a broad area. Little shad are everywhere and the bass seem to want to chase them out in the channel, the fish I caught were out in 40-60 FOW. I would move around on the trolling motor waiting for one to pop within casting distance and then try and get that top water on them as quickly as possible as they will usually hit it if you get it on them before they move. Blind fan casting around the boat isn't as productive as targeting active fish. Didn't catch any big fish (only 2 keepers) and only caught a dozen. There's some good fish out there, just wasn't my day to get any in the boat. It was fun, but I had one of those days where if a few things had gone my way, I could've had several more fish caught. Took me a little while to find the right areas also, and the bite pretty much shut down around 10 AM. Best fish came on a c-rigged UV Speed Craw, caught a couple on the c-rig after the top bite died off. Picked up a couple of Kastmasters after reading Mr. Bablers report. May try them next time out. Surface temp had warmed up a bit to 80. View full article

Got back on the Rock Tuesday morning, went looking for top water fish. Water was flat calm for most of the morning, made it easy to spot where they were chasing shad on top. Unfortunately they weren't schooled up but were scattered over a broad area. Little shad are everywhere and the bass seem to want to chase them out in the channel, the fish I caught were out in 40-60 FOW. I would move around on the trolling motor waiting for one to pop within casting distance and then try and get that top water on them as quickly as possible as they will usually hit it if you get it on them before they move. Blind fan casting around the boat isn't as productive as targeting active fish. Didn't catch any big fish (only 2 keepers) and only caught a dozen. There's some good fish out there, just wasn't my day to get any in the boat. It was fun, but I had one of those days where if a few things had gone my way, I could've had several more fish caught. Took me a little while to find the right areas also, and the bite pretty much shut down around 10 AM. Best fish came on a c-rigged UV Speed Craw, caught a couple on the c-rig after the top bite died off. Picked up a couple of Kastmasters after reading Mr. Bablers report. May try them next time out. Surface temp had warmed up a bit to 80.

Well if the NCAA isn't going to police itself, who is? I don't have a problem with paying college players, might as well do it and end this under the table stuff.

I heard they are now getting them from the Arkansas river. Can't (legally) take them from Grand lake anymore, OK passed a law that prohibits taking live shad out of Grand lake.

Striper guides are unhappy with the new regulation, they've gone to the legislature to see if they can get the leg to overturn AGFC's decision. I'm with AGFC on this one, we don't want to have those Asian carp get established in Beaver.

I remember reading a couple of years ago that AGFC stocked a bunch of redear fingerlings into BS. Don't know if it made a difference in overall population, haven't heard anything since then. AGFC revamped their website recently and it just doesn't have the info that the old site had.

We must have seen you Bill, we were fishing near the buoys (our secret spot), I was in Jeb's boat. We got a few on top water, then three guys in a 12 foot canoe paddled up and tied up onto the buoy, so we left. We picked up some spotted bass later in the morning drop shotting brush piles.

As mentioned above, Viney campground has quite a bit of bank access, Big M has quite a bit of accessible bank, and there is a bit at Eagle Rock. Gets better when (if) the water goes down a few feet from where it is now, more bank is exposed. There are some neighborhood type boat launches on Viney cove across from the park, and there's another one at Emerald Beach. that provide more access. All in all, a lot of bank to fish in that area, you can stay busy fishing for a good chunk of the day if you want.

I like it!

Waiting for Wrench....

Well I don't think that MLB or NFL tickets are a bargain either. But, I remember when you could get a bleacher seat in Fenway park for $3. I'm not knocking JM either, good for him building this attraction and it's creating a few jobs I imagine. I'll probably spring for the $40 one of these days because it does sound like a really cool thing to see.

My neighbor used to hunt for antlers, but now he goes for a young doe or two for the good eats. He smoked some last year and gave me some of it, good stuff for sure.

That is a nice one for sure!

At that rate of growth there will be a world record swimming around Taney in a few years. I would think once they get in that 20 lb. range they start eating stocker rainbows.

One of these days I will go up there and check it out. Unfortunately ticket prices are pretty steep, $20-$30 a pop. Just looked at the price - $40 for an adult combo ticket.

Do a search on Elwha river dam removal if you want to look at sediment accumulation and removal. They recently took down 2 dams on that river.

Very nice! I keep wanting to go after some gills myself.

Phil must have reduced mailbox size, mine was a 166% full. Should be able to PM me now. Congrats Champ on the win!

Thanks for the report! I need to give that lake a try again.