Quillback

Fished with Dutch today, we mainly threw the Ned and a full Zinker on some Shroom heads with EWG hooks that Dutch makes, and which he generously gave me a good supply of them. We had to hunt for fish, couldn't find any loaded banks, a one here and two there kind of day. We had somewhere around 25 bass and a couple of short wallies. Most of our bass were spots, and three of them were keepers. The spots are getting that winter time fat look to them and are pulling pretty good, lots of fun on light tackle. Fish were in the 10-25 foot range, cove mouths with trees and steep chunk rock banks. WT 53.

We've got UA athletes doing some TV commercials here locally. I'm sure that the first thing top level recruits ask these days is how much NIL money will I get if I come to your school. There's just too much money to be made in college sports, can't blame the players for wanting a piece of the pie. Scray thing is there's no salary cap like you have in the pros, no limits on what a school can throw at a kid. And now that the genie is out of the bottle, there's no putting it back.

Coach Muss can recruit, he also snagged ex-Mizzou player Trevon Brazile - talk about long and athletic! I'll be happy to see a good Mizzou hoops team too, lot more fun to watch the games when the competition is tough. Speaking of tough, SEC hoops this year has some good teams, good to see it as I was tried of the scene a few years ago when Kentucky was head and shoulders above the rest of the conference.

There's no cheating in cooking.

All things considered, AR playing KU in Memphis is a good bowl for them. MI beating OSU, LSU loses, I wonder if they'll move USC into the top 4? Time to move on to Hawgs hoops. They have a great team, inexperienced, but super athletic with some real talent. They can be a Final Four team.

It is hard to believe the Hawgs were at one time ranked #10. Defense was absent yesterday.

Nice variety of fish!

That mound right across the driveway to the right - looks like a perfect place to put in a putting green.

Going to start getting bird ready for the oven shortly. Happy Thanksgiving!

Great view!

Hang in there buddy!

Traditional Shroom head.

When I got to the ramp this morning at 7 AM, there was quite a bit of striper activity. Should've got there earlier as it didn't last long. Caught a couple of 19 inch stripers tossing a fluke type deal with a tail spinner. It got windy quickly and with the sun popping over the hills it put them down. Word is out they are in the area, several boats fishing for them. After the striper fishing slowed, I went to the bank and fished a Rock Crawler, paralleling the bank and banging the Crawler off rocks. Caught 4 smallmouth, 3 being decent keepers. Not a hot bite, but there were a few fish to be had. Tossed the Ned rig around for about an hour, caught a couple of 13-14" smallies on it and had one good one pull off. Seemed the Ned bite was a little slow too. Packed it in at noon. WT 55 (warmer than I thought it would be).

Congrats to both of you!

These things have a tendency to backfire.

Spro has come out with a Rock Crawler 50 DD, don't see it for sale at LBF. TW will probably have it on sale once they start, but their sale is only 15%.

Talked to someone that was on Table Rock yesterday and he saw 53 there, probably about the same on Beaver.

Yeah, you are just feeding the local wildlife if you turn loose farm raised birds. Best thing to do with those planted birds is get your dog and go shoot them all, because if you don't the local critters will get them. You've gotta have good habitat, lots of info out there on what makes for good quail habitat. My grandpas farm in SE MO had quail on it back in the day. Back then they had brushy fence rows bordering their fields. No tall trees for hawks and such to hang out in. If you haven't been out to central KS where the bobwhite populations are still strong, might be worth a trip out there to see what the habitat that they live in looks like. Locally, the Pea Ridge battlefield is being managed to a certain degree for quail, another spot worth taking a look at.

Well the latest round of snow has about all melted off.

That would be nice. It is a good time of the year to fish.

Got out this afternoon and fished one of the local mudholes for a couple of hours. Brisk wind kept me from feeling too comfortable, but it wasn't too bad. Looks like we're back in the freezer for a couple of days again.

Daryk has been known to jump in the water too, so he'll need those legs to help him tread water. So as John says, keep up on the work and you'll be back out there fishing before you know it.

8 lbs. 9 oz, that is insane.

Nice find!

Brutal business, that trout farming is.