Quillback

Are you coming down this spring?

On a part of the laek that I don't fish, but an FYI to those that do: A second habitat project took place on the Long Creek/Cricket Creek arm of Table Rock Lake in Arkansas. AGFC and Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) biologists began a project to replenish the existing fish attractors and create new brush piles. So far, nine of the existing eighteen piles have been refreshed, and another four new piles have been established. The project should be completed this month. This area of Table Rock Lake is known for great crappie and bass fishing. With the addition of new fish structure, fishing should be great for many years to come.

Well today was a complete letdown from yesterday. I caught 4 small bass and that was it. Where they were yesterday, they were not today. Had to go out deep, 30-40 feet to get a few bites on the Keitech. Had a couple of A-10's buzz me as I was taking out. Looked to be maybe 200 feet off the ground, they flew right over the Big M ramp, went down the lake, and then banked and flew up Viney. WT 44 when I left.

Yesterday I talked to a guy at the ramp that was going out for walleye, but it was at Big M. I know there are people fishing for them and catching them up the White river. If I was a walleye fisherman I'd go.

Fished with Dutch today, it was cold out there to start, but warmed up nicely, little to no wind for most of the morning, We caught 20 bass, all spots except for 2 largemouth. We had 5 or 6 keepers, with the biggest going 2.75. Ned rigs for the most part around rocky banks and trees with the fish being in 15-25 FOW. The fish are very sluggish, most bites are very hard to detect, usually the rod tip gets a little heavy and it's a fish. Caught a couple on the 2.8 Keitech and they were both a little deeper, maybe 30-35 feet down. Water temp was 40 at the start of the day and saw 46 right before we left. BFL is coming February 17th, but not much pressure at all today, saw three other boats.

I bet you make a mean gumbo. I might smoke some salmon, I've been kicking around getting a smoker.

I'm in for the food, whatever weekend it is.

I'm in, sent the moolah via Paypal.

The old record was half an inch shorter, but only .05 of a lb. less than the new not a record.

Here's their forecast for this year. Fishing for black bass should be excellent in 2024. Largemouth bass are plentiful throughout the lake as a result of the high lake levels over the past several years. An abundant year class of largemouth bass was produced in 2020 and these fish should reach the minimum length limit of 15” by spring 2024. Quality largemouth bass are present in the lake as well. The percentage of largemouth bass greater than or equal to 15” was 28% throughout the reservoir during the spring 2023 electrofishing surveys. These surveys also revealed an abundance of spotted/Kentucky bass in the 11”-14” range, with nine percent of the spotted bass captured in the spring surveys exceeding the minimum length limit of 15”. Smallmouth bass fishing should be good again in 2024 with good numbers of keeper size fish available. Largemouth and spotted bass comprise the majority of the black bass population in the river arms, while smallmouth bass comprise a substantial segment of the black bass population in the main lake from the Highway 86 bridge to Campbell Point. Anglers need to fish a variety of water depths and types to find bass. Outside of the spring spawning period and in the fall, bass are often found in deeper, offshore water. Extended main lake points, humps, and bluffs are productive areas. Jigs, spoons, and drop-shot rigs are effective during summer months in the 10-25 foot range or deeper, depending upon the depth of the thermocline. Largemouth and smallmouth bass can typically be caught fishing on the bottom while spotted bass are commonly found suspended over deep water following schools of baitfish. Good electronics can greatly increase your chances of finding suspended schools of spotted bass. Table Rock Lake | Missouri Department of Conservation (mo.gov)

Thanks - been looking for something to do with stripers, that might work.

If you catch a state record in Kansas, do not make a mistake on the application form. ‘I did everything I was supposed to do’: Kansas wildlife officials remove angler’s trophy catch from state record list (yahoo.com)

I'd be fine with it. Beaver went to no minimum and a 10 fish limit for spots, and as far as I can tell, it hasn't made a difference.

Fished from 0730 to 1230. The pickings were slim. Could not find any big groups of fish. Found a few around chunk rock, and cove mouths. Caught the few on Ned rigs and 2.8 Keitechs fished in 20-35 FOW, fishing very slow, water temp was 39. Air temp was 73 when I got home, it has to be some kind of record for this date.

Mark Zuckerberg made $28 billion today (on paper) with META stock surging in value. There's some crazy money out there.

That's a busy weekend!

I sent him a message, don't know if he'll see it or not, he hasn't been on OA since December 23.

Didn't you make the oatmeal cake? That was pretty durn good too. I do like banana pudding.

Got out early with Jeb today, cold early, warm later. We started out by hitting my smallmouth "hotspots" that weren't very hot. We had two thirteen inch smallies after 3 or 4 hours of fishing. Jeb made a suggestion that it might be worth a shot to go to the back of Indian Creek, so back there we went. There's a spot that is at the mouth of a small cove in front of some trees, flat featureless bottom that is down 30-35 feet. Last year the bass liked this particular spot and they were in there again today. We caught 25 or so, scrubbing 2.8 Keitechs on 3/16 oz heads, slowly on the bottom. Mostly 12-15 inch fish, but we did measure a 17" spot and Jeb caught our only Largemouth of the day that looked to be in the 2-2.5 lb. range. WT 41.

Very nice. JEB and I got into the spots on Beaver today, but the quality on TR was much better.

We estimated our best 5 were in the 13-14 lb. range, which is not bad for all spots.

PB&J is the 2nd color I'll go to. I do't know if there is much difference in Dirt and PB&J for getting bites. Dirt is my confidence color.

Yeah it was good! I thought I saw some pineapple in it too.

I was using "Dirt".

Wow, surprised to see that much of a rise. It's at 912. We certainly got some rain, but I didn't think it was very much, but, they have not been generating for a week until yesterday it looked like they did a little generating.