Quillback

Nice, especially for a 25 year old boat.

Thanks for the info, I'm going out tomorrow AM and was concerned the latest rain might have murked up the water, but looks like that did not happen.

The Bella Vista POA and US Coast Guard Auxiliary is offering a free, and open to the public (you do not have to be a Bella Vista resident to attend) boat safety class, Saturday, May 4th at Riordan Hall, 3 Riordan Drive in Bella Vista. Class runs from 9 AM to 5 PM. BV boaters can receive a 10% discount on boat registration fees, and you may be eligible for a boat insurance discount upon completion of this class. To register (you must pre-register) send an email to safeboating4all@yahoo.com. I'm told there are about 25 seats left, so register soon.

Caught a couple of nice browns years ago on the White below Bull on Little Cleo spoons, can't remember the exact size, but shad sized ones, 2-3". Spray painted one side white, cast them up stream and try and imitate a shad that's been through the turbines and is dead or dying and rolling down the river in the current. Those browns also feed on sculpins heavily, might be worth trying the soft plastic Goby imitators (looks like a sculpin) that have hit the market in the last few years.

Ya'll are welcome, I plan to record it as I think I'll be out fishing tomorrow AM.

ESPN2 will show the Elite tourney on Bull tomorrow (Sunday) at 7 AM Central.

A couple of other local lakes, Grand Lake is #15 and Bull is #18. Beaver did not make the list.

Here's what the article says they used to rank the lakes: "Asking every states DNR to give us catch rates, population studies and stocking schedules for all the fisheries they managed. From there, we sent the list to B.A.S.S. Nation presidents and conservation directors to rank each of these bodies of water based on the tournaments they held. And then we had a panel of Elite Series pros, outdoor writers and industry professionals finalize the lakes list and rankings."

Yeah just get the renter-guest ID and you can fish the lakes. There haven't been any LMB stockings in years, in spite of the heavy pressure the bass do a good job of reproducing. There have been crappie, catfish and redear stocked from surplus produced by AGFC hatcheries. But if you have a problem with that you should take it up with the AGFC, you'll get nowhere complaining about it in this forum. Trout stocking has been paid for out of POA funds, so has threadfin shad stocked a couple of years ago. I shouldn't waste any more time on this, but the "elites" and "non-natives" that live here are folks who worked hard and long to earn their retirement, teachers, police, firefighters, nurses, doctors, lawyers, farmers, factory workers, military who served their country for 20-30 years and small business owners. I'm sure it's possible to run into a rude Bella Vista retiree, it's happened to me, but I find that if I'm courteous and respectful to folks they'll usually treat me in the same manner. I was always taught to have respect for my elders, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

Funny stuff!

Bassmaster magazine has come out with their 2013 100 best bass lakes. LOZ is ranked 31, Table Rock ranked 39. Is LOZ a better bass lake than TR? If so, I must be pretty darned good. I've never fished LOZ myself, but might be worth a trip someday if it's that good.

Yep, give it about 6 weeks and I'll start complaining about hot weather.

True - But if we excluded all of the above topics, we wouldn't have much left.

Last week I watched "Bass - The movie", part 1, they did feature some guys fly casting for largemouth, which is one thing you never see on the conventional bass fishing shows. It looked like fun, one guy was using a surface frog type fly and fishing it over surface weeds, and another guy was shown fishing a shad pattern. I liked the looks of that shad fly and it got me to thinking that one of these days I might get a fly rod and do some bass fishing with it. I think that, at least in the bass fishing world, fly fishing is not viewed as a technique that will load the boat or win tourneys.

I did see a cruiser, he went up the White, chugging along at about 20 MPH with the bow up in the air about 30 degrees thereby pushing out a maximum wake, then 2 minutes later the wakes crashed into the shore producing rollers that were big enough to surf on, then 10 minutes later the cruiser rolls by doing the same thing but going in the opposite direction. Thankfully they disappeared up lake and I never saw them or any other cruisers for the rest of the day.

Nice one, pound for pound, I don't know many freshwater fish that fight harder than those hybrids.

Rolled into the water around 10 AM and fished until 4:30 PM. Started out with the tube, picked up 4 keeper sized LM on it fairly quickly, then they just seemed to not like it anymore. Switched to c-rigging a craw and started picking up fish here and there, ended up with 20 or so total, mostly LM's, for some reason the spots were slow for me today. Nothing big, biggest about 2 lbs, with around 8 keeps. A lot of bassers out there today, and I mean a lot. A dozen rigs in the Big M lot and there seemed to be a boat on every point. Must be the nice weather today. Sadly, I saw my first water louse, buzzed by me about 50 yards away as I was working a flat. Things will only get worse as the weather warms.

That's pretty darn good for 3 hours on the Beav, thanks for the report!

Thanks guys, hopefully it will stay fishable.

I hope they're a better option than using a finger!

I saw some top water activity on Table Rock yesterday morning before the wind kicked up, they were off the bank out in the middle, I did not go after them - guess I should have tied on a spook.

Is the water in good shape around Horseshoe Bend? Looks good from the picture, but sometimes it's hard to tell.

Nice shots on the structure scan, nice boat also - looks like you're at Lost Bridge North?

There was a debris line just upriver from Big M, but other than that there wasn't much out there as far as big logs or limbs. But a person should definitely exercise caution and keep an eye out.

Wow, the guy is on fire! Came from 11th to take the win with an 18 lb. bag today. http://www.bassmaster.com/tournaments/2013-elite-series-bull-shoals-quest/leaderboard