Quillback

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.

They stunk last night, but sometimes teams need to get a bad game out of their system. Good news is they got a split on the road, and now they come home for three.

Launched a little later today, did not start fishing until 1100. Started off working spinner bait and square bill on a few windy banks, fish weren't liking that stuff, had one hookup and that was it. Motored over to one of my drop shot spots, graphed around for a bit and finally came over a school of fish in 30 FOW, caught 15 on the DS worm, no bigguns, typical 12-14 inch spots. Funny thing about these fish was I didn't see any bait around them. The fish then just disappeared and that was that for that spot. Tried a couple of my other DS spots and only found one other fish. To finish up the day I started working timber in shallow main lake pockets with a paddletail swimmer, found some fish, not a lot but caught 3 LM's, one keeper. I think if I had spent the day working that pattern I could have put a few LM's in the boat. Lots of minnows in those pockets, and in a couple of them I spooked out some schools of what looked like 6" gizzard shad. Water temp was 67-69.

Sorry to hear it's been slow, I might give them a shot tomorrow, but seems like it's been tough the last week from the reports I've seen. I keep thinking they'll turn on any day now.

Wow, what a comeback! Down 6 -0 and with the way Gonzalez was pitching I thought the Cards were done. But they hung in there and kept chipping away, great game and I'm looking forward to seeing them sending the S.F. Midgets packing!

Sounds like a drum.

Raining like a son of a gun here in Bella Vista, hard rain for the last half hour, I think this will get the creeks flowing and maybe get the bass biting. If it clears up, I might go over to Windsor this afternoon.

Well Donna, I hope you and Champ get it figured out by tourney time. I'm thinkig if you folks get a limit of those 2.5-3 lb. fish you have a chance at winning.

Yep you did predict this, I haven't fished TR in the fall so I've got to feel my way around, it was so easy this summer and it's, as you say, brutal now. I had to work hard for the fish I got, threw that SB for about 5 hours, it is tough on my old shoulder, I'd rather drag plastics and jigs..

Thought it would be a good morning for the topwater, tossed it around first thing in the morning, but no takers, not even one bite, never saw much in the way of topwater activity all day either, which has me scratching my head as I thought a cloudy day like today would be good for the TW. Best bite was working breezy chunk rock banks with the spinner bait, nothing sizable however, 10 bass, biggest 2 lbs., a mix of spots, LM and a couple of SM. Caught one spot on the Drop shot, my usual drop shot spots just weren't holding any fish. Got another spot and a short walleye on the FB jig, threw a crank for a bit and got nothing on it. Water temp was 67.

It's a bit out of your price range, but I like my Dobyns Champion 704 CB, does a real nice job of walking a Gunfish and it's versatile, you can use it for cranks (not deep divers) and spinnerbaits also.

Obamacare has not yet gone into effect, give it until 2015 then look at your bills. Latest fuel increase have more to do with refinery outages and lack of pipeline capacity, oil is down to around $90/barrel.

Al, you're so gloomy... But I share your fears, I think this nation is on a long downwards slide, I used to be an optimist, but no more. I always harp on this, but we've got a debt time bomb ticking away, and the last few days the pols have been arguing whether or not we should fund Big Bird. And should this latest anemic recovery falter, there's nothing the government can do (because it doesn't have any money) to "stimulate" another recovery. Social Security is now seriously underfunded as the SS payroll tax has been cut by 50% and there's no talk from either pol about how we're going to save SS. Healthcare costs are still going up (Obamacare does nothing to reduce costs), median income is going down, fuel costs remain high, the list goes on..

Thanks for the report, good to hear the TW bite is going. Good luck in the derby!

Thanks for the update, sorry to hear the fishing stunk. At 3 PM yesterday it was 43 degrees here with sleet bouncing off the roof, what a change, it was 84 Thursday.

Haven't been up the Kings, but did fish where it meets the White. There were shad and spotted bass along the edges of the flats and points at the mouth last Thursday. My guess is there might be some wallies around there too as long as the shad stay in the area.

Healthy looking cat, thanks for the report!