Remembering Toby Keith
Jeff recorded this week's report from the Luck E Strike plant in Greenwood, Arkansas, a week after losing his friend and partner Toby Keith. Toby met Jeff at Grand Lake in 2020 on a fishing trip with a mutual friend and had a lot of questions about Jeff's years guiding, fishing tournaments and building a tackle company that started in a garage in Grove, moved to the industrial park, and sold its intellectual property in 2017. Toby had a genuine affinity for the tackle business. His family has told Jeff many times how excited he was about Luck E Strike and Fish Lucke ("he's doing things for you guys he won't even do for the entertainment side," they said). The two originally planned a product line called Toby's Tackle. Those ideas are being folded into Luck E Strike, and Toby Keith fans will appreciate some of the names.
Red, white and blue
Toby felt strongly that the brand be red, white and blue, so all the color changes were made when they took over. Toby Keith decals and t-shirts are on LuckEStrike.com. The new catalog is already over 40 pages. Toby was a visual guy, and Jeff says he would have flipped over it. Jeff asks everyone to lift up a red cup a few more times and toast Toby, his patriotism and everything he did for our country.
Lake conditions
Snowmelt and rain are running quite a bit of mud. Water is murky around Shangri-La and clearer the farther down the lake you go. Inflows are pretty well over for now.
Paddlefish
Haydn says the fresh water moved the Spoonbill all over the place, so expect to hunt for them this week.
Crappie / White Bass
Crappie fishing is still really good, a little shallower in the upper end and deeper on the south end. Jeff expects people to start slaying White Bass and Crappie quickly up Spring River.
GrandFishingReport.com
The revised GrandFishingReport.com site and the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group are going strong. Local companies that want to sponsor the report can send information through the website. Catch the Grand Lake Outdoor Report on KGVE 99.3.