Quillback

We did have one out, but it was yellow, so no hassles (so far) over it. Been using the marker quite a bit lately, and also the sonar.

Thanks for the heads up on the sale on Cabelas Real Image spoons, $1.99 is a good price. The hooks on them aren't that bad, not as good as Daichis, but not bad for a $1.99 spoon.

Jeb and I launched at 0545 and fished until noon. Pretty decent day numbers wise, 30 bass, with a handful of keepers, but nothing over 2 lbs. There was a fairly good bite on the FB jig early in the 15-25 FOW range, a few also c-rigging worms. Then later in the morning the drop-shot started working for us, with a few also coming on the c-rig. A couple on spoons. No walleyes - not that I'm complaining Saw the State Patrol boat out there today, center console Donzi with twin 225 Mercs. Would have loved to have that boat back when I fished saltwater.

It is sad indeed, I don't think I've seen this many drownings in a year on Beaver, but I've only been here 5 years.

Olive/Orange makes sense, that was a great jig color early this summer.

If it's top secret, I understand, but if not - what are your pet colors?

Yep, it's 10.

AR Gazette reported today that 7 adult and 3 calf elk in MO have died recently from the effects of heat and drought.

I just heard something interesting today, maybe you guys know this, but a gold medal winner gets $25,000, silver $10,000, and bronze $5,000. US swim team members get $75,000 for a gold in addition to the $25K. That guy Phelps made some pretty good money. Not that I have a problem with it, but it's kind of an eye opener.

Jeb and I were inspired by Bill's reports so we were pulling away from the dock at 0545 this morning. We picked a few up early in shallows off a point downlake a couple of miles from Big M, using 10" worm and a Gene Larew Salt flicker (I think that's the name). I had a couple of hard pullers come off the big worm, just could not keep them pinned. That bite shut off fast and we spent the rest of the day running to points and fishing off the ends in 20-25 FOW. Not a hot bite but we ended up with a dozen spots (a few right around keeper sized), a short walleye, (JEB got a keeper sized walleye right to the boat, but it came off before we could net it), and a nice 14" crappie. Got them on Drop shotting Zoom finesse worms and Cabelas and Hopkins spoons. Last fish came around 1030, and we were loading the boat at 1115.

When I lived in Washington state, the record "Rainbow" was caught. It was a triploid that had escaped from a fish farm net pen. Should not have qualified IMO, but it is what it is. http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/mar1998a/

Thanks for the great report, I haven't been up there for a few weeks, but this may motivate me to give it a shot.

Yeah it's tough in this darn hot weather, sorry to hear ou did not get anything.

That Italian made diesel they slapped into a Liberty was a disaster, they only did it for one year and pulled the plug on it as it was very unreliable. That aside, I have always been puzzled why American manufacturers haven't come out with a small diesel for autos similar to the VW TDI. I believe it's because it would jack the price up on a US small sedan if it were diesel powered.

Cool, good luck and hopefully you'll have some pics of some big fish.

My canteloupe are starting to get ripe, went out to the garden yesterday morning and noticed a couple of busted and hollowed out cantaloupe. I was pizzed. Don't mess with my lopes. Got out the trap, baited it with dry dogfood, set it out in the evening and this morning I had not one, but two of the little thieving buggers in the trap. They were relocated to a woods far away.

I've heard the same thing as Ness has, it's cheaper to toss someone in prison for life that execute them. Mainly because of the appeals process, the special care needed for someone of death row, etc., I'm not against the death sentence, especially for this specific case, but as a dollars and cents issue, it's a wash. I would however like to see swift justice in this case. Make his trial a priority, give the inevitable appeals priority and get it done with. Execute the perp, or life sentence, it doesn't matter to me. Life without parole is a death sentence, just takes longer to get there.

Yes there are smallies, best area for them is on the lower lake near the dam, but you can get some mid-lake also.

BTW, for the record, China is the #1 producer of carbon emissions, in fact their increased emission rate has outpaced the reductions made by western nations (US included). China's emission rate is increasing at a rate of 13% per year. At this rate, in another 5 or 6 years, the extra emissions created will have the effect of dropping another United States onto the globe. 6 years from now we could completely cut our carbon emissions to zero, but if China does not slow down it would have no effect on total global carbon emissions. Not that we should not do our part, but if China continues down the path they're on, we won't make much of a difference.

Walleye, schmalleye, who cares about them? How big were the spots? Just kidding of course, nice eyes! Good bag for this hot weather.

Paper had a little more info this morning, the victim, a 42 yo male had a history of seizures, so it's possible he had one while swimming. They're going to do an autopsy. Plenty of people in the area, but after he went under, no one could find him until the divers got there.

Yep that lake is a crappie factory, I'e heard something like 200,000 to 300,000 crappie are taken out of it every year. Seems to be quite few blue cats also, we picked up four blues while trolling for crappie. Not big ones, 1-2 lbs.

Fished Sardis the last 2 mornings in my uncle's boat. We trolled Bandit 300 cranks. The new minimum length for crappie is 12" at Sardis. We caught somewhere north of 100 crappie, but only 18 were keepers. It's unbelievable how many crappie there are in that lake that measure 11"-11 7/8". Maybe in a couple of months, but certainly by spring those fish will get above 12" and there's going to be a lot of limits filled. Chatreuse was the hot color, followed by anything with pink. Stay out in the deep water, 25 - 30 fow seemed to be best.

Good question, It seems it would be foolish to put 1800 lb.s of water in your boat and then tow it to another lake. Do they have inboard pumps that they can fill these tanks/bags? Pump out mechanisms? Just asking because to regulate this we'd need a law that prohibits arriving at the lake with full ballast. If they're going to fill these ballast tanks it should be done on the lake, and then there should be a requirement to empty them at the same lake when you leave. And a big freaking fine if you don't follow the rules. Or a better law would just be to outlaw taking on ballast to generate a wake - but that probably would be tough to pass.

You got young men + scantily clad young women + beer, good chance there will be some fights break out. Doesn't matter what generation, this stuff would have happened back in the late 70's when I was in my early 20's, except in those days there probably would have been a cloud of reefer smoke hanging over the whole thing. Not that I condone this of course.