Quillback

Launched at 0600, sun was already just about over the hill by then, looks like I'll have to get there earlier in the future, love the early morning fishing. Had a really good top water bite early, it lasted until about 9 AM. Fish were in front of the buck brush. Walked the dog, Yellow Magic Havana. Put about 15 top water fish in the boat, had another 10 or so toss the bait, and probably had 50 blow ups total, maybe more. Lots of fish missing it. Not for lack of effort, they were really trying, some pretty neat blow ups, I enjoyed it, but there were a few good ones I would have liked to have boated. Caught several keepers, smallies and largemouth, saw one big largemouth that rolled on the bait a couple of times but never grabbed it. They just shut off at 9 AM, I mean it was like a switch was thrown or something. Fished Keitechs for a while, never got much going on the Keitech, caught 5 bass on it. Carp are spawning, bluegills are on the bank now, I saw surface WT of 71 when I left. Water is stained green around point 23, up by point 25 it is stained brown. This post has been promoted to an article

I have done the striper on Ned thing myself a couple of times this winter. Lots of fun if you like getting dragged around the lake. 😁 I launch at Indian Creek, it's a bit sheltered from a south wind and the road in isn't too bad. Lost Bridge North is a bit closer to BV, but the road in has some sharp curves and is steep. Not good for my trailer brakes. Lost Bridge South is good to launch from if you want to fish the Clifty area.

Dirty Jigs Guppy head. Has a 1/0 hook which is a good hook for smaller baits like 2.8 and 3.3 Keitechs. I can only find them at Tackle Warehouse.

Sounds like fun. I was thinking of throwing a square bill myself, next trip I will have one tied on.

I picked Christie this time fortunately. Also had Menendez, mainly as I have seen him do a couple of fishing shows on KY lake. My only bad pick was Erhler - I keep thinking he is going to win one of these things but so far it hasn't happened.

Very nice, some healthy brown fish!

Launched the boat at 0600, clear skies, just a little bit of a breeze in spots, water was greenish stained with 6 feet or so of viz, with scattered debris floating around. Mike M was in the boat with me. We went up Indian creek a ways intending to bass fish, but we started seeing stripers chasing shad on top, so needless to say, we started throwing top waters at them. Had some pretty spectacular blow ups on the walk the dog baits, but most were missing the bait, had a couple knock my spook three feet in the air, always fun just to see the blowups. We boated a couple of 5 pounders, and I lost a bigger fish in the trees. The stripers stopped once the sun hit the water, so back in the cove we went to bang the cover for bass. Couldn't find much of bite shallow, we caught a few spots on various baits, c-rig lizard, shaky head mainly but just weren't getting a whole lot of action. We decided to fish some bare, rocky smallmouth banks with Keitechs and we started to pick up a fair number of smallies, Mike caught one that was just short of 18" and had another to the net that got off that looked to be a bit bigger. For whatever reason the smallies were up shallow, 3-10 FOW for the most part. We ended up with about 25 bass, maybe 7 or 8 keeper sized smallies. Water temps got as high as 68, air temps hit 88 when we left. This post has been promoted to an article

That is a big ol' smallie!

That is a very fat brown, must be chowing down on shad.

You are doing well. Buddy of mine fished in a 12 boat club tourney out of Eagle Rock, winner was something like 3 for 6 lbs. Everyone was catching lots of fish, but mostly sub-legal spots. Keepers were hard to find. Lots of other fishermen out there and the wake boats were out.

Thanks for the update on the dock, wish the fish would've cooperated a little better for you. I bet there will be a few boats out there tomorrow.

2.8 is a great walleye bait also.

An areal flood advisory has been issued for NW Arkansas. * Urban and Small Stream Flood Advisory for...Benton County in northwestern Arkansas...Madison County in northwestern Arkansas...Northern Crawford County in northwestern Arkansas...Carroll County in northwestern Arkansas...Washington County in northwestern Arkansas...Southeastern Delaware County in northeastern Oklahoma...Northeastern Adair County in northeastern Oklahoma...* Until 145 PM CDT* At 1046 AM CDT, Doppler radar indicated heavy rain due tothunderstorms. This will cause urban and small stream flooding inthe advisory area. 2 to 3 inches of rainfall fell overnight and anadditional 1 to 2 inches will be possible.

Wouldn't hurt to talk to a physical therapist.

I'm going to one up you and give them my three cents.

KY lake tourney starts Friday (they are doing a Friday-Monday tournament), don't forget to get your lineups in!

Launched early, and headed down the lake to a cove that had held some fish last week. Started off throwing a Redfin, had one missed fish on it, no other takers. Decided to throw the c-rigged lizard, worked it for a while, picked up a couple of small bass and had one drag puller that was on for about 2 seconds before getting off. Noted the presence of many beds with bass around them, they weren't interested in the lizard, top water, or Keitechs. After a couple of hours of very few bites, I decided I was going to have to go full Ned on them - didn't want to do it, but they gave me no choice. I had read rps's report that he had gotten some on the Ned, fishing cuts and pockets. So I did exactly that, looked for small cuts and pockets in the bank, and usually could get a bass or two out of each one. Small fish, maybe had 2 or 3 keeper sized, but if they were keepers they would have been close to the mark. Still fun to catch on the spinning rod. Mix of species, spots, largemouth, smalls, and a mean mouth or two, caught 20 or so. Wind started howling, I was done about 1:30 PM. Saw WT's as high as 63. Big M courtesy dock was messed up when I got back, looks like the wind had pushed it off the bank and slewed it around a bit, had to wade through knee deep water to get to my truck. Fortunately air and water temps were warm. This post has been promoted to an article

Caught a couple of smallies on Table Rock yesterday that were around beds, I realize they aren't river fish, but they look to be spawning right now, at least some of them are. WT was 62-63, probably a bit warmer shallow in sheltered spots.

Back in my working days, part of my job was doing upgrades - I hated doing them and so did everybody else that did them.

Very nice, congrats!

Here's an interesting fish you don't hear much about, but lives in Alaskan rivers. http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=sheefish.main

I remember a bit of a Taimen craze when I lived in Washington State, some fishing tour group was putting together fishing trips to go to Mongolia to chase those things, I took one look at the $$$ and quickly realized it was not something I was going to do. I think we should petition AGFC to get some Taimen fry, start a hatchery program, and start stocking them in the White river below Bull Shoals.

This is true, having spent near 20 years of my life living in Washington State, the WDFW is not an organization that you feel is on the side of sportsmen.