Quillback

Fished Swepco yesterday with JEB, fishing was slow, but we saw LOTS of eagles. Eagles in trees, eagles flying high, eagles flying low, young eagles and old eagles. If you're an eagle watcher this is the place to go, it has to be one of the highest concentrations of eagles in this part of the country. You really need a boat or some kind of watercraft, it's not a big lake so a canoe will work. They were definitley most active early in the morning.

Fished Swepco with Jeb yesterday. Fishing was slow for us, JEB caught one at about a pound and that was it. First time I have fished Swepco since last year and it was slow last year and seems to be slow now. Seems like since they have put that 10 bass limit on that the fishing has gotten much worse, but maybe it's me. If anyone reading this has had good luck on Swepco lately, I would be interested to hear what you used.

Well the skunk found me today, threw the jerkbaits around, hooked one fish long enough to feel a head shake and that was it. Lots of boats out on the lake today.

Oops. I meant this topic to go under the Bella Vista forum, maybe one of the mods will see it and move it under Bella Vista.

Fished Lake Avalon today, caught 2 fish on a Megabass stickbait. The one pictured below taped out at 22 inches, but I bet he weighed maybe 3 lbs., if he had the body mass you would expect for his length he would be probably be about 5 lbs. He's so skinny I named him Starvin Marvin. He's still swimming, so let's hope he puts on some weight once the water gets warm. In the first pic you can see the tail end of the Megabass 110 sticking out of his mouth, he did inhale it. Big mouth, skinny body.

Thanks Bill for the tip on the suspend dots. I like the action the Flit has, different than the other baits, and it works pretty well on a slow pull.

Also, Tacklewarehouse has them for 17.99 and free shipping over $50 which is pretty easy to reach as expensive as these things are.

The bait I was using gets down to the 6-8 foot range. The fish were off the bank usually in 10-15 ft. Mostly in coves or cove entrances, never got a bite on the main lake.

I got it at Cabelas, that pattern is "Matte Bluegill". BTW, I only had one of these and I accidently bounced it off a dock and the bill broke! Very annoying that an $18 bait is so fragile. I'm going to see if IMA has an address I can send it to, maybe they will replace it. What I like about it is that it suspends 6-8 ft without any weighting, unlike the other stickbaits that run shallower when unweighted.

Exactly!

Very nice!

Picked up 4 fish on a stick bait, nothing special, all aroud a pound. Fished 6 hours to get these fish. I think it's still a little too cold, making for a tough bite.

I don't know what to tell you, it may be that it's still a little too cold. I did fish Loch Lomond here in BV yesterday, I caught 4 bass, nothing special, all around a pound. I could only get bit using an IMA Flit (Perch) no fish on any of the other sticks. 3 of the fish came out of the same little cove, suspended off the banks in 10 feet of water. The fish were really sluggish, two of them I didn't even see the bite after a pause I went to jerk it and they were on. I missed a couple of others also that I never knew were there. I put in 6 hours to catch these fish. Darn things did not even fight, I think it's still just a little too cold.

What I want to know is what this sex addiction clinic Tiger is checked into does when they have a guy for what now, 6 weeks? Make you take long, cold showers? Show him a bunch of pictures of women with pictures of his wife in the mix, when his wifes picture pops up he gets a treat, when one of the other women's pictures pop up he gets a painful zapping of some kind? Or maybe it's some kind of brainwashing, if you watched that speech he did seem robotic and wooden, maybe his mind is now in the control of others. A few more weeks and they will be able to program him to carry out their bidding.

Great meeting you also John, and I was happy to drive. Once the weather gets halfway decent we'll have to get out and pester some bass. Also, I sent you an eamil yesterday afternoon that was rejected due to some kind of technical issue, I'll fire off another test today to see if things are OK, but it seems that our email services don't want to talk to each other for some reason, I don't have any filters but I never got the one you sent me yesterday.

Glad to hear you guys are staying on the wagon. You'll eventually notice a big improvement in lung capacity, so it if you're a jogger or play any sports, you'll notice a big difference. Another small thing I remember is that the skin surface between my two fingers where I held my cigarettes was yellow and stunk like cigs no matter how much I scrubbed my hands, but after quitting, back to normal, no more yellow stinking skin. No more getting up in the morning, hacking, to "clear my lungs".

Yes thanks Bill & Phil for the seminar!

Jeb - Did not get your email, I'll shoot you one.

I have had good luck with the BassPro XPS lipless crankbaits (similar to a rattle trap) for LM and white bass. I haven't tried any of their other baits so that's about all I can comment on.

OK, well hopefully the MIL will give you a pass.

Schedule is clear, I am going, anyone interested in riding along, let me know, we can meet at the Walmart parking lot in Jane MO (just across the line on US 71) and go from there. I estimate it's about 1 HR 45 mintes from there.

I agree that the right thing to do is to close the access from the canal to the lake. Of course the barge owners would squeal and holler, but the answer to them should be, we have a problem, help us solve it and when it's solved we can reopen the access to the lake. If the energy and time spent squealing to the politicians was spent on solving this issue, we'd already have it fixed by now. We need an invasive species czar that can act to solve the problem and have the full powers to implement the solution. Otherwise we're always going to be held hostage by special interests who could care less about what swims in the water as long as they can make money.

I understand how you feel, Bill. I was happy that they took Beaver out of the FLW tour. I don't have anything against big time tourneys, I just don't like them on the lake I fish The weekend that it is on, I just stay away. But they do have a positive economic effect on the local retaurants and hotels, and I like to watch them on TV, and it's interesting to see what they use. I guess it's a love/hate relationship as far as I'm concerned.

Nice fish Jessary! What did you get it on?

Back in the day the Who were great. But I hope they retire after this. I can't figure out why they keep bringing in geriatric bands, is the majority of the audience 50+? I guess they figure the last thing the old guys will do is take their clothes off.