Quillback

Devils Den State Park has caves, but several of them are closed because of some fungus that could get spread to the bats. I think they do tours, but you'd have to call to see. Definitely would not be as commercialized as some of the private caves. For further information, contact: Monte Fuller, park superintendent, Devil’s Den State Park, 11333 West Arkansas Highway 74, West Fork, AR 72774; phone: 479-761-3325; e-mail: monte.fuller@arkansas.gov; or Earl Minton, park superintendent, Withrow Springs State Park, 33424 Spur 23, Huntsville, AR 72740; phone: 479-559-2593; e-mail: earl.minton@arkansas.gov.

Still for sale.

I haven't been there in years, my grandpa died in 1970, when I was 13. Used to go up to the farm when I was a kid, he had an indian mound on the farm, I'd hunt arrowheads while he was working. After he died my grnadma rented out the farm, she passed on just a few years ago, and my uncle and mom sold the farm. Grandpa always complained about the soil at his farm, he always wanted a river bottom farm with black soil instead of that rocky red soil up in Campbell. But he made a good living off that farm, back in the 60's a farmer could do well on a 200 acre farm. I remember when the St Francis west of Kennett was full of trees, they've really cleaned it up.

Short video on fishing a Shakey Head, filmed on TR. Bit of a sales pitch, but some good info also. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/vlogpage.html?ccode=VLOG199

My guess is.... big baits! LOL

Looks like it's going to be a long hot summer. My grandfather used to farm in the Bootheel, had a farm in Campbell MO. He mainly grew cotton and soybeans.

I can imagine, with 4 novice fisherfolks using nightcrawlers, and the fish biting good, that you were one very busy guide.

Glad to hear you got into them Bill, and I'm sure you had some very happy clients.

Your links are somewhat contradictory and generalized, except for the first one. A quote from link one: For example: A system that costs $18,000 has a payback period of about 20 years. The cost of a solar panel today is around $3 per watt, and the extra cost of installation brings costs up to $5- $6 per watt. Note: Installation costs for PV systems include both labor and the electronics needed to tie the solar array into your existing electrical system. Link 3 seems to contradict that: The environmental impact of using solar energy is negative at the start with the cost of the materials and the cost of production of the equipment. It balances out after a few years and the impact is then positive. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_environmental_impact_of_using_solar_energy#ixzz1yYB8j08D 20 years to get to even on a typical residential solar panel installation. Tough sell in this economy for the average homeowner. I've looked into installing them on my house, but the savings aren't there. Solar technology is certainly capable of supplementing our electrical use, and I am hoping in a few years costs will come down enough for it to make sense for the average homeowner. And if we're talking electric cars in our future we're going to need to extra electricty to charge those cars. And I'm sure you noticed in the links you provided that to replace exisiting electrical production using wind as part of the solution, they're talking about intalling 120,000 wind turbines over forty years. 120,000 wind turbines? Have you driven through Wyoming lately and seen some of those wind farms? They're a blight on the landscape - is that really a good idea to add 120,000 more? And wind farms are not without their impacts - seems to be an issue with local climate warming. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/do-wind-farms-have-a-negative-effect-on-the-environment/26086

Picked up this 6.25 lb. fish this morning on a Zoom Ol' Monster. Only caught one other bass besides this one. My fishing buddy missed a couple and that was all the action we had. This bass must have been desperate, one of it's eyes was bad, you can see it in the pic.

Speaking of gas prices, gas just jumped about 20 cents/gallon in this area last weekend. DId a refinery blow up somewhere? What the heck is the reason? OIl and wholesale gas prices didn't move up, in fact they have dropped the last few days.

Yep oil is expensive and getting it out of the ground is causing environmental damage. But I still haven't seen any realistic plans to get us out of our carbon burning lifestyle. First off, government can't underwrite the expense, we're 15 trillion in debt and adding a trillion a year. You can say future economic growth based on alternative fuel will help our debt problem, but first that's a leap of faith to assume that growth will be there, and it will take too long to happen if in fact it does happen, we have to tackle our debt and spending problems NOW before we can even make any plans to spend who knows how much to convert us to a greener energy lifestyle. And you can't ignore the fact that any carbon based fuels that we save here will be used by the developing world instead of us. We're in a global economy, the Chinese are eating our lunch and will continue to do so, they're more than happy to burn oil and coal even at the higher prices we're now seeing. And don't forget oil is priced in dollars, part of the price increase in oil is due to a weaker dollar, weaker because of our debt and spending problems.

Speaking of subsidies, the Senate killed an amendment to end government buying of "excess" sugar produced by American farmers. This excess sugar is bought by the government and then sold at a loss to ethanol producers.

You always have to look out for unintended consequnces. We're shutting down coal fired electric plants as the EPA is tightening down on emissions regulations. What happens? We're now shipping coal to China where they're happy to burn it. And I doubt they are very concerned about emission levels. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/19/us-coal-idUSBRE83I0AK20120419

Jeb and I were out early yesterday around the Big M area, tough bite for us, we got 3 keeps and about a half dozen shorts. Came on a mixture of stuff, Ike DT 16, big shakey head, c-rigged craws and FB jigs. Thanks for the tip on the tube, may have to drag that around next week. Weather's gonna be hot, dunno if there will be much of a mid-day bite anymore.

Investing in our future is tough to do when we're 15 trillion in debt, and adding a trillion to that debt every year. I alos believe economics play a huge role in the energy debate, if you want people out of gasoline fueled cars then you have to present folks with clear cost saving reasons to do so.

I can't stay up all night and fish, the drive home is brutal trying to stay awake.

I know the details on 2 of those drowning deaths on Beaver, both cases it was teenagers who drowned while swimming. Neither was wearing a PFD.

Cool images, thanks for sharing.

Yep we're having some fun, we wouldn't win any tournaments, but we're getting some fish. We were off the water by 1100 yesterday, I think the worst part of a tourney right now is having to stay on the water when it's 90 degrees and having to work hard to grind out some fish.

The concern I have with a "keep bass" permit, is that once folks buy one, some of them will keep the fish to justify the expense. It could backfire, and end up with more dead bass than what we have now. Unintended consequences - it happens.

Sounds like a great time, glad to hear you all got into them. I can't catch a thing on those 6XD's, but I should keep trying them as it seems that they're working for other folks.

We were out at the crack of dawn in Jeb's Skeeter yesterday. We mainly fished up the White arm, with a stopover in a cove on the War Eagle arm. We ended up with 15-20 LM's and a few spots, Jeb caught most of the fish including big fish of the day, a 3.25 Lb. LM. Best bite was early, it got tough after 0900. Caught them on a variety of baits, c-rigged plastics, jigs, and flukes. First time I've been on Beaver on a Saturday in a while, lots of other fishermen out there. 3 times we had people jump in front of us as we were going down the bank. I guess that's the norm on the weekends.

No rain here and it is needed. Supposed to be a chance of T-storms today so maybe we'll get some.

Yessir that was us in the silver/gunmetal Phoenix. I remember seeing your boat several times, if we see you again, we'll stop by and say hello.