spahog

Thanks John. Wish I had been around to meet you, but gald we got it all worked out.

Stump, I've been on some large schools on three different points near the mouth of Rambo, but havent seen many stripers eating them. Mostly swimmer spots. Thats all I've got. PM sent.

We fished it. We didnt catch a lot of fish, but we had a 4.35 that was good enough for 2nd big bass and $114. Big bass was 5.33. Third big bass was 3.86, so your 4 lber would have been right there. Big bag was 11.97, second was 7.92, and third was 7.44. You can only weigh three fish on the big bag side. Your wife's 3 pound spot would have been good enough for big spot though. I think 2.52 won.

Stump - You need to make it out to fish the Wednesday nighter tonight.

G Loomis Spinning Rod - GL2 SJR 781 6'6" Light Fast Action $110 Condition - Excellent G Loomis Spinning Rod - IMX SJR 783 6'6" Medium Heavy Fast Action $140 Condition - Good Shimano Cumara Casting Rod - CUC-68M 6'8" Medium Fast Action $165 (I have 2 of these) Condition - Excellent Iwata lure painting kit (airbrush, compressor, several bottles of paint) $175 ($340 retail) (Figured out I'm not an artist) quantum energy pti 20 spinning reel (used but mechanically sound) $55

Nice fish Quill. bferg - I am by no means a smallmouth expert, but I have still been catching a bunch of them on pea gravel points swimming a grub. More shorts than keepers but still a lot of fun. It seems like all the areas that are producing smallmouth right now are also holding walleye. I've hooked several "monster smallmouth" that ended up being walleye by the time they got to the boat.

FYI It doesnt look like humor to outsiders. It looks like an obsession by a group of guys that just won't let it go. I dont agree with arsenal's decision to keep the bass either, but I'm not going to publicly beat him down beacuse I disagree with his decision. That's the way we all acted when we were 12. I live in Rogers, so most of my fishing gets done on Beaver, but I make it up to TR 5-6 times a year, and I really enjoy "yalls lake". However, I think we should all remember that in a public forum our attitude and tone represents our lake to a certain extent, and lately TR has received some poor representation in my OPINION. I have been surprised at some of the people that have been lining up to cast stones, as I have fished in several tournaments against a few of them and have always thought them to be stand up guys.

"JR" was in reference to JR Beehler. Many of the local guys know him. Hes one of the best on Beaver. Back before the FLW required anglers on the pro side to fish all the tournaments, JR had a third place finish in the Wal-Mart Open. Low weights were a result of the cold front. There was no early morning top water bite. 320 boats and big bass was 4.17.

It's $20 per person. I think they do it that way to get more "entries" so that they qualify for Skeeter reel money, etc.

Stump bumper, They have started. It's a 3 fish tournament. The hours are 7-10:30, and it's out of prairie creek. Last night was the first one I fished. There were 24 boats. The number of boats will increase as its still on the early end of night fishing. It took 11.98 to win last night. I always enjoy fishing this tournament. It's a nice break in the middle of the week. They pay 3 places for big bass, 3 places for big bag (3fish bag), and they pay for big kentucky.

Has anyone heard when the Wednesday night tournaments out of Prairie Creek start?

Check texasfishingforum.com for a lot of info about Fork. I use to go every spring, but I got tired of going all the way down there for three bites, even if the bites were donkeys.

nm

Mobile marine is on 264 on the way to hickory creek. About a mile/mile and a half off 71 just over the railroad tracks. They have a large marine repair business, but at some point they added a retail store in part of the building. I really like it. I think it is better than southtown (for bass fishing purposes) but not quite HLS. I use all three for different things. I am not a Rogers Outdoors fan either. Outdoor America has completely shifted to hunting. They still have some of their fishing stuff and it is all 35% off, but good luck finding anything worth having. I can't believe we dont have a large chain sporting goods place in NWA. I think Sportsmans taught us that for a large sporting goods store to be successful in NWA, it would have to be an Academy type store. In other words it will have to cater to all sports rather than just hunting/fishing/camping/etc. However, I would be fine with that. I think there are rumblings that such a store is headed our way as early as spring 2010.

Jaybird - it had even cooled off some on Sunday. I found 90-91 on Saturday between RB and PC. We may be casting in flames by the time August gets here.

The night fishing finally turned on for me about a week and a half ago. Also, weights in all the night tournaments I've been fishing have been up. Not doing anything fancy, just the typical night baits. The black spinnerbait bite is not quite where it should be, but if you throw it around lighted docks you'll find bites.

I've been fishing a lot of night tournaments the last couple of weeks, and I havent had very good luck either. Catching a few on a black spinnerbait, few on a jig, and a few on plastics, but no strong pattern. There have been some guys weigh some nice bags in the night tournaments, so it may just be us. That being said most people I talk to are having a tough time after dark. I think we still need a few degrees in water temp before it starts getting good.

The last couple of weeks there has been a pile of them on the north point of the mouth of clifty. They've got there mouths open too. If you put it near them they'll pop it. I don't striper fish much, but we caught half a dozen or more last weekend, because everytime they would come up we convinced ourselves that they were blacks. They've schooled for a good while the last 4 mornings we've been there, but you need to get there early. We were throwing a bone colored spook or a sammy. You can also catch them swimming a grub. No huge ones - the biggest one we caught was 10-12 pounds, but 10-12 on top is still a lot of fun. Click "striper" below for a link to a map with the area I'm talking about. striper

He was shot at earlier during the week during practice, not during the actual tournament.

Word is on Monday the 23rd, Sportsmans in Rogers will be receiving approx. $500,000 worth of merchandise from other Sportsmans that are being closed.