Quillback

Nice, that's some good fillet material.

Never seen those before, I'll have to keep an eye out for them.

Some beautiful scenery, thanks for sharing.

Very nice!

I did catch one on an Ol' Monster a couple of weeks ago. Stinky, slimy suckers, but F&F can turn them into something edible. We should have a "get together" gar feed. F&F can show us how to cook and clean them.

The finished product does look tasty, glad to see someone getting something good out of those gar. There certainly are a lot of them out there to catch and eat.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Foxes make good rodent controllers. I've had a squirrel picking a tomato or two every day, little bugger pulls one off the vine, takes a bite out of it and leaves it. Can't discharge a firearm within the city limits where I live unfortunately. But I did pop him with the pellet gun, he scampered off and hasn't come back.

I used to catch kings on spinning gear in Washington state. Spinners will work, Blue Fox spinners are good ones. Get out early in the AM, or evenings. You don't necessarily have to use a big spinner either, size 5 is as big as I would go, but 2's and 3's will work. When the sun is up and the water is clear, smaller, tarnished spinners can work, big flashy ones will spook them. I used to set some brass spinners in wet coffee grounds overnight, does a good job of tarnishing them. Cast across stream and slow roll the spinner, swinging it in the current, keeping it just off the bottom.

They grow up in a dangerous world for sure.

That's something you don't see very often, a tame Roadrunner.

Yep, I'm always checking for frayed line and retying when necessary.

The thing I don't like about breaking off is that I have to stop and retie. I hate taking time out to stop and do something besides working my bait. I fish "hard" up until the time I leave.

You might want to take a look at Bull Shoals also. They just started stocking stripers again so the striper fishing won't be as good as Beaver, but from what I'm told it's not nearly as busy a lake as far as pleasure boats like Beaver is. Norfork isn't too far away from Bull (Norfork has stripers) and there's the White river tailwater below Bull Shoals dam which has excellent trout fishing if you're in to that.

It seems that any discussion of changing anything the government does (Social Security, Medicare, the tax system) causes an uproar with voters, and we re-elect politicians that can't make changes or even talk about making changes because they'll get crucified at the polls. So we continue to muddle along with an incredibly messed up taxation system and dysfunctional government. Politicians get the blame, and they certainly deserve some of it, but voters are just as responsible for what we've got for a government.

I want some of those glowing rocks for my yard.

I like the dam end of the lake, very scenic IMO, and less developed overall. There's stripers year round somewhere in that area by the dam, white bass are better lower lake. But if you want to be closer to the stores, malls and urban stuff, Rogers is not a bad area, good fishing there also for whites and stripers. And it's centrally located, so if you don't mind a bit of a boat ride you can go up one of the river arms, or go up towards the dam.

Fished the steep chunk rock banks today, did a little drop shotting, but could not find fish in a couple of drop shot places I fish so I did not spend much time on the DS and did not catch any fish on it. The chunky stuff produced fish, never had a hot bite but I would pick up a fish every now and then, just enough to keep me going. Got a couple on the Ol' Monster, the rest on a watermelon Trick worm. Fishing the "green line" that area where the water drops off from the visible rocks into the green. Timber was good, caught several bass pulling the worm into a tree, then pulling it off and letting it drop, that's when they would hit it. Nice average size, mostly LM's around the keeper mark, big fish going 2.5 lbs. Around 15 fish total. I bet you jig meisters could do well, I did not fish a jig, but was tempted to do so. Bite kept going until I left at 1 PM. I'm beginning to think that the wakes are actually good for the fishing on the chunk rock banks, one of the best banks I fished was getting quite a bit of wake action. Lots, and I mean lots of fingerling bass around the banks. Bodes well for the future. Water temp 85.

We're not "cutting" federal spending, federal spending is projected to grow by $200 billion dollars from 2013 to 2014. Economic activity is not being slowed by "cutting" as it is not happening. Our debt is a big problem and is continuing to grow, continued overspending will only exacerbate this problem. Seeing government spending as a solution to our economic issues is what has landed us in the state we are currently in. This from the CBO: "Such high and rising debt later in the coming decade would have serious negative consequences: When interest rates return to higher (more typical) levels, federal spending on interest payments would increase substantially. Moreover, because federal borrowing reduces national saving, over time the capital stock would be smaller and total wages would be lower than they would be if the debt was reduced. In addition, lawmakers would have less flexibility than they would have if debt levels were lower to use tax and spending policy to respond to unexpected challenges. Finally, a large debt increases the risk of a fiscal crisis, during which investors would lose so much confidence in the government’s ability to manage its budget that the government would be unable to borrow at affordable rates." Continued over spending by the federal government is digging the hole deeper, it is not helping our economy in the short term or the long term. It's ironic that proponents of big government and continued spending (and borrowing) are creating the conditions that in the future will lead to reduced government and less spending on social programs.

Bill, you're right it was $300 for the additional 2 years.

This crank is an interesting concept, but $20 is a little high for a crank. http://www.wired2fish.com/icast-2013-koppers-livetarget-unveils-baitball-lures/

Bassmaster slide show of new products. Warning: lots of sunglasses. Also there's several lures that have been out for a while, for example the Rapala Scatter Rap. http://www.bassmaster.com/slideshow/icast-2013-sneak-peek

That's some great smallie fishing, congrats. I haven't caught one of those things in a while.

Could make it tougher for the smaller dealers, I don't like that new policy, I guess it will be buyer beware, if you want the 5 year you'll have to ask your dealer if they can offer it, if not you may have to go to another dealer if I understand this correctly. I got a 5 year from Merc when I bought my boat, they had a deal where if you bought your boat in the 1st quarter you got the extra 2 years at a reduced price (I forget what it was, but it was a no-brainer).