Quillback

Yeah it's a haul, about 70 miles from the house. So, based on your past experience, any recommendations for what to use in the fall?

Wave one of those metal detecting wands over the fish that the airport security screeners use. Fast and easy.

The Outdoor section in today's Benton County Record has a short piece about a 25 lb Brown the AGFC survey folks shocked up the night of July 19. They've shocked it up several times before in past years they think, as they always find it in the same area. Not much else to the story besides that.

Yep, I'll be back, but I'll probably start fishing for catfish and whites on Grand until we get into some cool fall weather. It would be good to get some reports here on bass at Grand, but I guess we'll have to make our own.

Those are some big fish!

Made the treck over to Grand, should have stayed home. I caught 2 bass total, 1 and 2 pounds. One on a jig near a dock and one on a c-rigged Zoom Ol Monster. forecast was for a cloudy day, but it was sunny, hot and humid. I knew the black bass would be tough, but the whites were also absent. I overheard a guide talking to another boat and the guide wasn't able to find the whites either, but they had been killing them prior to yesterday.

Here in Bella Vista, the POA started stocking trout in Lake Brittany 3 winters ago, all rainbows, 5,000 annually, 1,000 per month for 5 months starting in November, initially it was thought it would be a winter only fishery with the surviving trout expected to die off in the summer. Brittany is a small lake, 100 acres maybe, but near the dam it get's about 60 feet deep. The first two summers, ,the trout did survive until the next year, but our last 2 summers have been relativeliy mild. A couple of days ago I was fishing Brittany for bass and noticed a trout struggling on top and after a few minutes it turned belly up, so I went over a netted it, a nice 14 " fish. About an hour later I saw another one do the same thing. I took a couple of pictures and emailed our lakes biologist, he was disappointed to hear this, but there's not much to be done about it. It is cool enough below the thermocline for trout, but just not enough oxygen. It could be that the fish that died had wandered out of the cool zone and could not get back to it before croaking, but with the forecast for the hot weather to continue the future looks grim for these trout. Which is a shame as the ones that made it through the summer were nice colorful fish that could reach the 16-18 inch range.

Thinking of Neil, I remembered one of my old favorite albums, whoops, CD's. Zuma, actually it's Neil Young and Crazy Horse. "Cortez the killer" is a great song on that CD. Some may not agree with the message in the lyrics, but it's still a good one.

Spam, spam, spam, spam....

Looks like the pumpkin polished off the beer and is now taking a nap.

Nice! Congrats!

ZZ Top would be good, if they stuck to their early stuff. Towards the end they went kind of quasi-disco. But their early stuff was good. Greg Allman is still stmping aroud I believe also. I wonder if Neil Young is still playing, that guy has done so much stuff he could play for hours. The Outlaws did some good stuff, I wonder if they are still around?

I just got one the other day, if you're looking for a rod that can launch, yeah launch, not cast, crankbaits, this is a good rod for that. I can launch deep diving cranks with this rod much further than I can with any of my other rods. If you're looking for a rod that you cast two handed and really get your shoulder into it (kinda like pitching a baseball in some ways) this rod can take it. Only drawback is that it doesn't work too well for short casts. Works well for the heavier topwaters also. Enough backbone to handle retrieving deep cranks, but yet surprsingly sensative. Specs - 7'11", 3/8-1 OZ, Medium, fast action. Disclaimer: I do not work for Shimano or any tackle retailer.

Nice fish, nice pics.

Hit the water at daylight, one of the smaller lakes here in Bella Vista. Caught maybe 8 bass, no biguns but a couple of 2 lbers in the mix. My best morning in a while, I have been telling myself that lately I have a 2 fish limit because that's about what I have been catching most mornings. Fished from 0530 till 0900, but the bass stopped about 0800. 7/16 black/blue Eakins jigs with a black blue fleck Zoom super chunk trailer. Pitching it not right on the bank, but in about 6-12 feet deep water, hopefully with cover nearby. They hit it on the drop or first twitch. Gotta watch that line like a hawk!

Cool, thanks for the I.D. First one I have ever caught (I think).

I'm old enough to remember watching the Beatles when they appeared on Ed Sullivan, I think I was about 6 or 7 at the time. I was at my grandparents house and I remember them commenting on how long they thought their (the Beatles) hair was.

Bandit 300's work really well for trolling for summer time crappie. This link below goes to a chart that shows, using 10 lb mono, how deep a Bandit will run at a certain line lengths. If you go to Google and do a search for "crankbait trolling for crappie" you'll get lots of info. http://www.crappie.com/crappie/main-crappie-fishing-forum/40532-bandit-300-200-100-depth-chart.html Walleye and bass will also hit Bandits.

Caught this guy on Lake Windsor here in Bella Vista today, it inhaled a 7/16 ounce jig. I think it's just a dark colored green sunfish, or maybe a goggle eye? Pictures didn't come out as clear as I wanted.

Nice fish! I see what appears to be a bass boat in the foregound, is the bay suitable for smaller craft like that? Just curious, it's something I have always wanted to do, and it would be great to bring my own boat. Are redfish good eating?

Fished it early AM today, lots of newly hatched shad roaming the lake, bass are feeding on them early, the shad are small and the bass are wary as there are always several boats out there flinging topwaters at them. I did manage to get 3 on a LC Gunfish, nothing huge, all around a pound, pound and a half.

The Colbert vid was funny! I would definitely give the Asian carp a try if offered at a restaurant. As far as I know they have not yet invaded NW Arkansas, and hopefully won't make it here, but if they do, I would go out and snag one and see if it's any good. Sounds as if they have a lot of bones, if they're those little feathery Y ones that would make them tough to eat.

I would think they are good to eat if they can sell them in Asia, but I would like to hear from someone locally that filleted one and fried it up southern style whether or not they are good eating. The fastest way to eradicate any fish species is for that fish to be worth enough money to be fished for profitably, then turn the commercial fishermen loose on them. If these fish do taste good to your average American, then they should be renamed, anything called "carp" is not going to sell in the US. Rename them to something like "Silver Bass" or "Silver Roughy" or "Great Lakes Tuna".

Sort of ironic. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38227768/ns/business-consumer_news/

I agree with Stump Bumper, I have found them in the spring around the coves by the dam, you can get them on topwaters at that time. In the early fall I have seen the striper guides working the points around Honey Cove (near the dam) trolling shad underneath balloons, last year there were 3-4 guide boats in that area every day I was fishing there. That's another tip I would add, look for the striper guides. I'm also one of those guys that mostly bass fishes, but every once in a while I find some stripers. They are definitley down around the dam (Indian creek, Lost Bridge, Honey cove) right now. There's also a Beaver lake striper club that has meetings every month in Rodgers somewhere. If I see a notice in the paper I'll post the info here.