Quillback

That's a good one!

They was ugly again last night. Offence is so predictable - 1st down, run the ball, 2nd and 3rd down pass.

Heck just bring the shootin' iron with you while you're fishing, I saw a nice 6 point buck hanging around his lady friend while fishing yesterday. Only problem was it was just about in someone's backyard. The fish are biting at Swepco, Jeb and I were over there today and did well, with a few 3-3.5 lb. fish, and a lot of 1-2 lb. fish. But it's crowded, parking lot was full, can't imagine what it is like on the weekend.

I launched from Big M about the same time you did Duck, must have been your outboard I heard over by Viney. I did OK today, could not get the dock jig bite going, nothing on topwater, but did get some on a t-rigged Senko, ended up with 9, 16" spot was the big fish, and a couple of 15" LM's. Very light biters, I missed more than I caught, they were biting like spawning fish moving a bait off their beds. But it was a heckuva nice day as far as weather.

It appears they are moving shallow, hopefully it's not a head fake.

The bite changed up a bit, did OK fishing jigs around docks and on topwaters. 17 total, a couple of keepers, mix of Spots, LM, a Meanmouth and a smallie. Could not get a jig bite on points or rocks, but they wanted it around docks, not all docks, but some. Most were on the shallow ends of the docks. Topwater fish were here and there, not a hot bite, but you can work the topwater and get fish. Saw some bass pinning bait against the banks, haven't seen that in while. Water went dead calm around 1 PM Got a double header on the topwater, 15" Meanie and a 13" Spot. Don't know if you guys know it, but you can enlarge photos by double clicking on them.

It was contemporary rock and roll type music so I wasn't worried, but if it had been organ music I might have been a little spooked.

The Lambs should not make any more trips to London. That was one ugly game for them.

LOL, don't give anyone ideas,,,

It appears they are now in the "Suck for Luck" mode. They need to get a QB, so maybe it's the best thing to do, stink the place up and get a high draft pick next spring. I can't believe they started Brady Quinn, but that didn't last long, Cassel stinks but he's head and shoulders above BQ. And to top it off, their best weapon, Jamaal Charles, barely touched the ball yesterday. The only explanation I can think for that is they deliberately want to lose.

We started off really well, got a couple of topwater fish in Prairie creek, and it looked like it was going to be good topwater day - but it wasn't. We fished from PC to not far from Rocky Branch, ended up with 18 or so blacks, small fish, 10-13". Paddle tail swimmer on a jig head was our best fish catcher, and I think we picked up one on a spoon, one on a jig, and had a couple of bites on the A-rig. Water temps were 60-62.

Yes indeed, you can really get some great deals on the Gen 2 Premiers.

I've got a Gen 3 STX, and it compares favorably to a Gen 2 Premier. I haven't fished it a lot, maybe 3 times, but it casts well and is very smooth. Only complaint is the tension control knob has to be tightened down hard to have any effect on spool turn. I tend to leave it loose myself so it's not a big deal to me, but may be to others, it's not just my reel either, others have noticed the same thing on their Gen 3 STX's. IMO it's great value for a $199 reel (you can get them for $179 on Ebay last I looked), or wait until the Black Friday sales and get a 15% discount.

Thanks for the report Bill, glad to hear they are biting.

Yep I have no doubt that they get out in that stubble, I saw some in private fields. I did walk some of the stubble, but the dog never got birdy and I didn't see any birds running or flushing. And I would love to hunt the cover near these WIHA fields, but it's all on private land. There's no cover on these WIHA harvested fields, zero, nada, zilch. And the birds will move into that stuff and feed early in the AM (you can't hunt until noon the first week of SD season, then 10 AM thereafter) or in the evening, but it's pretty iffy to get within shotgun range of those birds. Oh well, it is what it is, and I'm moving on.

Just talked to the DFG folks who work in the Mobridge office, and they confirmed that in a "normal" year the farmers will leave some cover, but because of the drought they harvested it all. Apparently under the WIHA rules they will pay $1 per acre for WIHA even if there is no habitat on the land. They'll pay $5/acre for land with habitat. So I guess a farmer with a 600 acre field can enroll it in the program, have his cattle graze it down to bare earth, and still get a check for $600. What a country! Talked to a SW NE regional DFG habitat manager, and he says that their is increased harvest of habitat on walk in areas, but they stipulate that the farmers leave 50% of the land unmowed, so there's not as much as last year, but still land available to hunt. He also claims bird numbers are good. (That may bode well for NW KS). So, I still plan to head up to SW NE next week.

Yep I can deal with WHIA that is hit or miss, and I expect some of it to be bad, but not ALL of it. And you would think that whatever state employee goes out in late summer or early fall and puts up the WIHA signs that if they were putting them up on a barren cow pasture that they would have a process to report it back to the powers that be that it is worthless for WIHA and have it removed from the program. But maybe it is too much to ask that SD DFG employees look after the interests of hunters, makes their job too hard I guess.

I can see that on the cattle grazing land, but the wheat fields and corn fields would have been planted in the spring before the drought took hold. Maybe in a normal year they leave strips unharvested, but I'm not blaming the farmers for harvesting, but the state should not enroll land that is barren and publish it in a map. Or they should at least put up an emergency notice on their website letting folks know that the WIHA land is basically worthless as because of the drought the farmers have cut it down to bare dirt. And yes I do my homework (Justin please don't assume that I don't do my homework ), but sometimes you have to find out things for yourself as it can be hard to get good info out of secretive bird hunters who aren't going to let you know where their good spots are.

I'm back from the Mobridge SD area, I'm back early because the Walk in areas, of which there are many within 50 miles or so of Mobridge are completely worthless. They come in one of three types, pastureland grazed down to bare dirt, corn stubble fields that have zero cover, or wheat stubble fields that have been harvested and have zero cover. I did kickup a rooster out of a ditch that bordered one of the corn stubble fields and missed him as he was a 40 yard crossing shot flying with a 20 knot tailwind. Maybe the public land on the eastern side of the state is better (not harvested or overgrazed pasture), but it's hard to trust the SD WIHA program after what I saw in north central SD. What sense does it make to enroll pasture land that is grazed down to dirt with zero wildlife cover in a walk in an access program? I think the state pays the landowner some small amount of money, but why pay, put up signs, and publish this crap on a map when it is completely worthless for hunting? I'm going to see if I can find out who runs this program for SD and give them a call and ask them about this. Going to SW Nebraska next week, not a lot of public land there, but what is public is usually good cover for pheasants. May look into NW Kansas this year also, if any of you guys go to that area, I'd be curious to hear if you see many birds on the WIHA areas, not looking for specific info on locations, just a general feel for numbers.

That's one nice smallie!

Good post Champ, and I agree, I've learned a lot on these forums and I'd also like to see more participation. And I also agree that folks don't need to divulge exact location info, but tips and tactics or what is working lately is greatly appreciated.

Jeb is back from his vacation so I fed him a line about all the 4-6Lb bass I've been catching on TR. He fell for it and I was able to get him out there on this chilly and windy day. We started out fishing some main lake pockets and windy banks, got a couple of fish but not much action. We then started fishing coves and picked up one here and there, mainly mid cove, Jeb was doing most of the catching on a paddletail soft bait and I picked up a couple on a t-rigged Senko. Jeb did get a couple of keepers on the paddletail. We got into the back of a farily deep and narrow cove and saw some topwater activity, Jeb picked up a couple on the paddletail, and got big fish of the day, about a 2.5 lb LM on the A-rig. Started seeing fish and shad on the depthfinder in about 20 FOW in that cove, so put the drop shot on them and did fairly well for a while, around 20 fish, all 12-14" drop shot spots. We ended up with a little over 30 fish, with 4 keepers. Mainly on the Drop shot, paddletail, senko, and two on the blade.

I can't catch them on DD22's so I can't see where the 10XD will help me, but I'll probably buy a couple and try them out.

I'm heading up to Mobridge SD next week, if all goes well I'll hunt Monday through Friday. I plan to hunt public land so we'll see how it goes. Never been to SD before, but it's always something I've wanted to do. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

They look like they ought to do good, you'll have to let us know.