Dan Sweeney

You'll drag a bit but not too bad. Generally on King's if the gauge is above 4 it is a great floating but tough fishing, 3.5-2.5 very good fishing and adequate floating, and below 2.5 is good fishing if you are very sneaky, but pretty much more of a hike than a float. That seems to hold fairly true for me up as far the old Rimkus access (now closed, but a few miles above Rockhouse) even though the gauge is wayyyyy downstream. I consider 3 to be about the sweet spot where it all comes together best.

Ahhh Red Green, the source of so much wisdom.

That's about a wrap. Gonna head out today and this weekend, Lord willing, but then it will be back to the bow for another month. That ought to get us almost to the white bass run and crappie waking up. Good times all!

Towards the end, the past couple of weeks, there have been a few teal and the usual mixed bag of divers around. Most of my hunts are for an hour or hour and a half after work in the back ends of coves close to home. It isn't magazine cover stuff, but I typically am not enamored with glossy magazines anyway, and it's a fine way to spend an evening after working all day.

I'm not a very handy photographer, but these might be my best shots of the lake. Not a lot was to be had on these particular mornings, however.

It finally cooled off a bit. Started seeing some more birds. I've kind of become a fan of these Goldeneye.

Found a pretty island with some geese flying by. This was the day before I traumatized myself by trying to return to this island in the middle of the night in a two foot tall row boat in two and a half foot waves across a mile of open water. I had a life jacket on, but all that would have done is change the cause of death from drowning to hypothermia and make the body a little easier to find. I wore blisters on my hands from the oars and couldn't drop them long enough to check where I was in the dark looking for the little island. That was not a great experience and I'll never knowingly do it again.

Gotta wonder at some of our access points around here... Anyway, it gets done. Found a few birds most days. They were kinda tucked up under the seat in the above. Those were buffleheads and a coot or two for the gumbo pot. I've noticed one can't be too picky or you'll go a long time between meat.

I browse more than post on here but thought I'd throw out my 2nd year big water duck hunting experience. I'm not sure if I am so much learning to duck hunt as learning to shoot ducks on our big, deep, not-so-fashionable waters in NWA. That said, it's a heck of a lot of fun and the variety is nice.

Depending when exactly you went by, at least one of those rigs could have been duck hunting the islands. Now that it's frozen some further north it's gotten relatively good here. Course, our season is about over, but there are birds here now.

I know it's a fishing forum, and I'm certainly not totally done with the rod and line this year, but it suits me if the water climbs back up near the bank brush for duck season. A big pile of brush for a blind looks pretty suspect with forty yards of barren gravel behind it. I'll fill my pond up for quick hunts before work too. I'll take it!

The Carlisle oar locks, either steel or plastic (I've used both. Ever seen how quickly a steel oar lock sinks when you decide to adjust the positioning while mid-lake?), seem pretty decent to me. I ordered them but you might check around more than I did. The metal run around 25 bucks or so and the plastic around 35. The plastic come with sleeves to fit different sized sockets. If (when) you lose the sockets, a 20 gauge hull makes a fine replacement. I got oars from either Cabelas or Acadamy, I forget which. I am thinking I'll make my next set. As far as functionality goes, the plastic ones are much, much quieter. I have caught scores and scores of fish and snuck up within slapping distance of assorted critters by rowing. I've never tried trolling for striper yet, but I am planning to give it a go this year. I've been doing my homework and I suspect that with no motors going I can cause a lot less disturbance and manage to make it work at least some of the time. If nothing else, it's a lot of fun and a light to fair workout depending on wind and who is in the boat with you. I'm still tinkering with rod holder ideas and things of that nature but will have it up and going soon after AT.

I have shot at few ducks with it, mostly on my pond rather than Beaver. If I miss on my pond I can track down the arrow. If I miss on Beaver....... Not so much. I usually take it with me in case a deer wanders down by the water or so I can kill time in the middle of the day on the islands or below the Corps property line. I've yet to get one that exact way, although that bow has put ten deer in the freezer the past four seasons. It's not actually a recurve. It's a straight stave selfbow. I have a couple of old recurves but I don't hunt them much anymore. Too modern.

It's not tiny, and it's fairly stable (semi-V), but it does place some limitations on the amount of water that can be covered in a given amount of time. But, it works well, is EXTREMELY low maintenance, and has little to no administrative requirements (taxes, registration, etc).

A boat you row.