Quillback

The other day I roll into Walmart, go in through the liquor store entrance. The liquor store is packed with people, most of them standing around. I asked the checker when I left what was going on, and she told me they had a shipment of some kind of rare bourbon coming in and those people were waiting around for it to show up. They get notified by email when a shipment is coming in. They get assigned numbers as to who gets priority. Fine bourbon is good stuff, but I don't know one from the other. Rick is the man if you need recommendations.

Nice!

This line from the article makes me laugh: "restaurant-quality food and beverages" I'm glad the food will meet the standard of "restaurant-quality". I really don't care if it goes in except that it will probably add even more boat traffic on Grand Lake.

From what I know about the gators, the Trinity river in TX is the place to go.

Just yesterday I was on I-49 southbound, one of those enclosed trailers was just off the left land and the pickup hauling it was parked in the break down lane. Some tire rubber in the road, so I am thinking it was maybe a blow-out. Trailer had disconnected itself somehow, couldn't get a good look as traffic was moving through and had to keep my eyes on the road. The trailer did not take out any other vehicles, but I am sure it was a scary moment. When I started reading your story, I was thinking was that Ketechup?

On 6 lb. test. The guy who caught it has a bunch of line class records and he set one for 6 lb. test for this species for sure. Nearly 300-Pound Alligator Gar Should Break World Record | Outdoor Life

Found that link on this site, lots and lots of material here: Missouri Digital Heritage (mo.gov)

Found this browsing around, have not had time to look it over fully. Where the Wilson Meets the James - Missouri State University

Thanks for the link, I will check it out.

I can see how lizardfish got their name.

Hit the lake with Dutch today, we were expecting some wind and were well armed with moving baits, but the lake was like glass for most of the morning with just a slight breeze kicking up now and then. So we fished jigs. We caught some fish, 20 bass with 6 keepers. Couple of fat spots that my have gone 2.25 or so were our biggest fish. A couple of our keepers were smallmouth and we had one keeper mean. No hot banks, fish here and there deal, anywhere from close to the bank to out to 30 feet. Rocky banks with trees, on the main lake and back in one of the coves. Sycamores at the launch still hanging onto their leaves.

If I recall, you had a time when you were into naked frolicking in your yard. Looks like you have expanded your boundaries.

I guess it is a possibility the state could take it over somehow, but I would be surprised if it happens. It would be an issue on a national level, a bunch of NGO's would jump in and fight it.

It would be neat to put together a book with pre-dam pictures of the White river from Arkansas and MO. Maybe one exists, if anyone knows of one, let me know. Tom W. lent me a book that is more about the fishing in TR back in the day, had a couple of pictures, one pretty neat one of the Shell Knob bridge under construction before the lake was created.

Here's a link to an article about the designation change. I don't see where the state would manage it as it would be designated a National Park. Rebranding the Buffalo National River | Arkansas Outside

I know someone that fishes for them a bit, and he says they are around brush piles.

Yes, you are correct, pikeminnows are predators of salmon and steelhead smolts and benefited from the impoundment system on the Columbia. I used to follow salmon issues pretty closely when I lived out there, but not anymore. My 2 cents is that salmon don't do well in a landscape with dams, cities, farms (irrigation), dikes and levies, container ports and everything that comes with a large human population. Then you throw in fishing pressure for fish that can bring over $20 lb. for fillets. I've watched salmon recovery efforts in the Pacific NW for 35 years and it has been mostly a story of failure. About a billion $ per year is spent on Columbia system salmon recovery, it has become something of an industry and if it isn't working too well, it does provide some make work jobs. I'd like to believe the fish can come back, but I doubt they will. The pikeminnow deal has been going on for something like 25 years at least. It doesn't look to be making a difference. But once programs like this get started, you can't kill them off. Pikeminnow aren't that easy to catch, anyone making $100K is doing well.

Never have fished Norfork, but Beaver does have a fall top water bite for stripers. It is usually an early morning and evening deal and the fish are, for some reason, tougher to fool in the fall then they are in the spring. Something that worked for me is putting a tube style bait on a 3/8 oz jig head and casting it at the boils rather than using a top water. Tail spinners will work too at times. A buddy of mine uses flukes and catches stripers on them in the fall. I have not been over to Beaver in a couple of weeks, so I don't know if they have started on top or not. But it should be starting soon with the cooler weather.

Beaver lake stripers eat dads. Buddy of mine cleaned a couple last spring that were full of them. It was news to me, always thought they stuck to shad.

Thanks for the trip Dutch. I tell you, it was a COLD fog this morning, turned out to be a beautiful day once the fog left us. The jig bite was goofy today, real light biters, I bet I had at least 10 instances where I wasn't sure if it was a bite or not. Every once in a while one would thump it and those thumpers never stayed on it, they'd thump it and drop it before you could set the hook. Talked to Tom W. and he said he and his wife had the same kind of real light bites, but they caught close to 30 with 8 or so keepers. Secret location that I cannot divulge. Hooked a big something briefly, though I was hung but the hang started moving. Had a bad spot in the line and the line popped after about 2 seconds. my money is on a big flathead, but I'll never know. 😡

Maybe once or twice, I try and forget about stuff like that. 😀

HAHA! I believe that is a green perch. It's too bad those greenies don't grow out to 10 lbs. Mean fish they are.

21# is impressive.

The Homer Sloan was last Saturday. I heard that it took 20 lbs. to win. I did some searching to see if I could find the results, but could not find them.

Looks really nice!