Environment

Commentaries

WKMS welcomes community members to self-voice self-authored compositions that express opinion, introspection or humor on topics of interest and importance to our audience. If you have an opinion, interest or review you'd like to share with WKMS listeners, please see the guidelines below. The views expressed in commentaries are the opinion of the commentator and don't necessarily reflect the views of WKMS.The station will review every script before it is recorded with respect to:Libel or slander.Content that is more promotional than provocative.Accuracy.Personal attacks and ad hominem attacks.Political or religious content that promotes rather than informs.Appropriate usage, language and form for civil discourse.The station will assist authors with:Making appropriate edits.Bringing the communication to proper time length, generally about 600 words or 3 to 4 minutes of spoken word.Recording the communication in the WKMS studio (unless other arrangements that yield equally acceptable audio are agreed to).Editing the communication and placing it in the WKMS schedule.WKMS will require authors to provide the station a final script that will be filed in the news department and will be placed on the station's web site.WKMS will need authors to provide a suggested introduction for each communication as well as a standard announcer outro script that includes author name, general place of residence, and whatever other personal information might lend authority or authenticity to the communication.WKMS will schedule produced communications and inform the author of time(s). Generally these are aired three times each, but the rotation is solely at the discretion of the station.WKMS will refuse to air communications that violate rules of the Federal Communications Commission for non-commercial, educational stations. Further, WKMS will refuse to air communications that would, for any reason, undermine its goodwill with the audience it serves.If you find these terms agreeable, please email msu.wkmsnews@murraystate.edu to schedule a time in a studio to record.

FLW Fishing Report: The Fish are Biting in February

WKMS | By Tracy Ross,

Matt Markgraf

Published February 24, 2012 at 12:25 PM CST

The dreary February weather hasn’t stopped the fish from biting. Hear more with the FLW Fishing Report...

Scott Ellison here, with the FLW weekly fishing report. Anybody seen the sun lately? It seems that the only time it came out in February was on groundhog day. The groundhog saw its shadow, and here we are with six more weeks of winter weather. It’s no so cold, but it’s definitely been cloudy and windy.

The weather isn’t stopping the fish from biting, though. All in all, it’s pretty good. Crappie are biting well in blood river, big sandy and Jonathan Creek, but really they’re biting up and down the lake, on the flats in 10 to 13 feet of water. Some people are even catching them fishing from the bank, such as off points or where bridge dikes narrow the channels. There doesn’t seem to be any one type of jig or tube, or any one color, that works best, which generally is the case when crappies get more aggressive this time of year.

Bass fishing is also fairly good, and even smallmouths are starting to show up with the largemouths. Alabama rigs and swimbaits are still the hot setup, and guys are catching most fish around offshore brushpiles, creek channels and points. Eric Benson at Benson’s Sporting Goods also said that more rockfish in the 10- to 12-pound class are being caught on alabama rigs too.

It’s getting to be time for white bass to start showing up below Kentucky Lake Dam and Barkley Dam. If you’re fishing from the riprap, throw an inline spinner or some sort of swimming jig. You might catch a white, and you might also snag one of those big Asian carp, because they’re really starting to congregate in the tailwaters. If you’re just after eating fish below the dams, give the crappies and yellow bass a try, too, because they’re starting to stack up. Either species is being caught on the same small jigs being used above the dam: bobby garland slab slayers, yum vibra king tubes, and such as that.

The big outdoor show in the Paducah Expo Center last weekend went well and a lot of folks showed up. All sorts of hunting and fishing gear were on display, but the main event was the appearance of FLW pros Scott Martin, Mark Rose, Terry Bolton and Paducah’s own Dan Morehead. All of those guys are coming off terrific tournament seasons. Martin, the son of famous pro Roland Martin, won the FLW’s Forrest Wood Cup Championship last August on Lake Ouachita. Rose also had a great season, and won an event on Pickwick Lake and finished third in the overall angler of the year standings. Morehead won the Everstart National Championship out of Paris Landing last fall, and Bolton, who used to guide on the lake when he attended Murray State, made a top thirty appearance in the standings.

Point of clarification about the great outdoor show: some people who attended apparently thought it was a show sponsored by FLW and complained about the $5 fee charged for adults. How come you charged $5 for the Paducah show but charged no admission for the outdoor expo that you staged in the CFSB Center in Murray last spring?, they wondered.

Well, the Paducah show wasn’t one of ours, though we had a booth there, and we don’t charge admission to our outdoor expos. That holds true for this year’s show in the CFSB Center June 9^th and 10^th in conjunction with our Walmart FLW tour major event on Kentucky Lake. It’s free, and you and your family will be welcomed. Mark it on your calendar.

That’s it for now. This is Scott Ellison for FLW, reminding you that spring isn’t sprung yet, but it’s at the starting gate.

Scott Ellison is a lifelong fisherman and FLW College Fishing Promotions Manager.