Quillback

Pulled this from the AGFC weekly newsletter. HOT SPRINGS – Biologists at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Andrew Hulsey Fish Hatchery in Hot Springs hatched more than half a million walleye for area lakes last week. Even more are in the nursery pond on the west end of Lake Ouachita, thanks to the AGFC’s annual walleye spawning project. Each year, walleye swim as far upstream as possible to lay and fertilize their eggs. Unlike bass and other sunfish, walleye do not build and defend nests or fan the silt away from their eggs. Instead, they let free-flowing water keep them clean and out of the silt. Water levels, current and the timing of spring rains play a huge role in the success and failure of each year’s spawn. A small percentage of eggs hatch during the best conditions. Hatcheries can increase that hatch rate and the survival of fry by collecting eggs and artificially spawning them in a controlled environment. “At best, we can hatch as many as 60 percent of the eggs we collect,” said Dennis Fendley, hatchery biologist at Hulsey Hatchery. “When fry are ready to hatch, we move them to tanks, then to ponds on the hatchery or designated nursery ponds.” The fish stay in the ponds and grow until they reach the target size for stocking. “We see some loss in numbers as the fish age, but the larger the fish stocked, the better their chance of survival,” said Fendley. “This year we’ll stock the fingerlings in lakes Catherine, DeGray, Greeson, Hamilton, Ouachita and in the Ouachita River.” This year’s collection effort managed right at 2.9 million eggs. The percentage of eggs hatched, however, was a bit lower than usual. “We collected below Carpenter Dam and Blakely Dam,” Fendley said. “Entergy and the Corps of Engineers worked with us to give a little time to collect between flood conditions this year, but the warm weather did impact our hatch rate.” Fendley said this year’s spawn seemed to be a bit earlier than previous years, and the best-producing female and male fish likely had spawned before the hatchery crews could collect them. Walleye in north Arkansas lakes also received a boost from AGFC efforts. The C.B “Charlie” Craig State Hatchery in Centerton also gathered spawning walleye the last few weeks to collect more than 1.4 million walleye fry. Once the walleye have grown large enough to stock, the hatchery will bring them to Bull Shoals, Beaver and Table Rock lakes. A nursery pond on Norfork Lake also has received 386,000 walleye fry to grow out before being released. Joe Adams, hatchery manager at the AGFC’s Centerton facility, said collecting female walleye that were ready to spawn took a bit longer than normal in his area as well. “We were mostly collecting smaller females that were ready to spawn,” Adams said. “A lot of the larger females we saw were still not ready. It could have been due to the up and down temperatures or the rain events we’ve had, but we didn’t see a big spawning run at the usual time we collect the eggs.”

Thanks for a great report! Ned rides again..

Nebraska's downfall started when they began converting corn to ethanol instead of feeding it to farm boys to turn them into "Big Uglies". Never been much of a Husker watcher, but back in their days of domination, they always seemed to have a powerful O-line. Another reason to hate ethanol.

That's been my experience, probably average at least 5 non-keepers for every keeper. But, I'm not fishing for 5 big bites.

Did not hear a singe gobble.

Never heard of it - but I like the name.

We threw one for a bit, no fish. Did not really commit to it, probably should have.

Sounds like a great time, Ab, and that is what it is all about. I'm with you on enough wind already, been blowing since last week. It blew again today, but not as bad.

Yep, caught one really nice one, it's so hard for me to put down the bass stuff, but the gills are biting now.

I never have caught a bass over about 15" in that lake. Nice lake to fish, just not many big fish. They stocked some redears in there a few years ago, they ought to be decent sized by now.

30 lb. flattie - fish fry time!

Muddy Water and I hit it again this morning, fishing was a bit slower than last Friday. We caught about 25 black bass, only 3 of them being keepers, the 3 keepers were all 2.5 lb. LM's. Non-keepers were a mix of spots, smallies and a couple of means. Got most of our fish on the Ned, a couple on the wobble head and drop shot. Just could not find them in a bunch, kind of a one here and there day. Most fish were a bit deep, 10 FOW or so. Mainly inside coves with a few main lake fish. Caught several nice bluegill on the Ned. I'm going to break out the red worms one of these days. Water temp - 53-55, dingy green.

Nice looking fish!

Just hooked up the boat, I'll be heading that way in about 15 minutes...

Way to go Darren! Weights are higher this year than last.

I had on long underwear, and two hoodies, never took anything off all day until we got the boat on the trailer. That dang north wind never quit.

Good stuff Hammer, I have about 10 bags of Zoom Lizards, I need to start throwing them on that c-rig. Next week I'll have one rigged.

Kind of a tradition with Jerry. I didn't want to call him out.

Dang Jerry, you guys put a whoopin' on them!

Seen it plenty of times on cold water largemouth, but I don't think I've ever seen it on a smallie. The bios say that it is some kind of pigment thing. Harmless to the fish.

Met Muddy Water (Robert) at the launch at 7 AM. A bit cold with a brisk north wind blowing. Things started off slowly, fished a gravel point for one short fish and moved up lake to a smaller cove. Abut halfway back into the cove some schooling fish started to bust on the surface, sure looked like whites, but we moved within range and made some casts. We could not get them to hit the Plopper or a Yellow Magic, but did get a couple on a grub and a couple on the Ned - turned out they were black bass. They were up for about 5 minutes and stopped. Fished that cove and several other spots, not much going on, we managed a few shorts, picking up one here and there. Made a move down lake, picked up a few on a rocky bank, couple in the back of a cove - then on a windy bank about a third of the way into a cove started getting bites on the wobble head with a Strike King Structure Bug in green pumpkin. Getting bites, but I could not keep one on to save my life. Missed 1/2 dozen bites on that bank, and a couple that I had on for a second or two were solid fish. Just could not stick them. We moved again to another rocky bank, right off the bat I missed another 3 or 4 bites, I was getting a tad frustrated - then all of a sudden I was sticking them, caught about 10 or so on that one bank, no bigguns, but several keepers and a mix of smallies, spots, LM's and one keeper sized mean. Robert meanwhile was throwing several baits at them but hardly getting a bite - they wanted that Structure Bug and nothing else. We pounded that stretch until we could get no more bites, then moved again. We were back to just a few fish here and there for the rest of the day. Got to the last bank we were going to fish, and I got a nice smallie on a Ned, she was right on the bank, and gave me all I could handle on the light rod. She was just shy of 4 lbs. Best fish of the day. We caught about 40 total, maybe a half dozen keepers. Mainly wobble head and Ned fish, with a couple on the grub. Water temp was 53-54 no matter where we went and stained green.

If I'm out on the lake and a storm is rolling in, I'll be checking out the docks for an empty stall. Most normal human beings that are slip owners aren't going to have a problem with people taking shelter during a storm. I do avoid the ones that have signs that read something like this:

Did you weigh that spot in the 2nd pic? It looks to be a TANK! Congrats on some great fish!

There's a couple of different approaches you can take now, go for numbers, or go for size. If you want numbers of 12-16" fish, it is hard to beat the Ned rig right now, little finesse jigs are also working well, match your tackle to the fish and you can have a lot of fun. You'll still have a shot at a couple of bigger fish even with the Ned. If you want to go for size, well that's always a bit more of a challenge, if you saw Bill Babler's latest report, he has been throwing big jigs, cranks, wobble head, and maybe a paddle tail bait here and there. There also appears to be a bit of a top water bite developing. Good luck, and I look forward to hearing how you do.

I'll send you a PM thumbs. My neighbor got into some this weekend, but I can't post his spot in public.