Sore Thumbs

Nope, brush piles deep.  These fish are really hard to come by.  We went a hour without a bite and then it was just one here and one there.  If you see one and hit the spot lock they just vanish.  Just about as hard as it gets if your not a everyday fisherman or you get really lucky.
Some of these fish just run when you stop the boat over them even prior to dropping the bait, you can see them take off.

First time out on the Rock since August 6.  Launched the boat just as it was getting light and headed down the lake.
Spent about the first hour tossing spoons, and top waters at scattered fish chasing shad on top.  Could not get a bite.  Switched up to jigs and shaky head off a steep bank and still nothing.  
I was starting to wonder if I was going to get skunked.  In desperation, I motored over to a gravel runout where I had caught some last time I was out almost two months ago, threw a c-rigged worm on the point, boat was sitting in 30 FOW, and I noticed some fish showing up on the graph under the boat.  I did not have a drop shot setup rigged as I was not planning on fishing the dang thing, but there were the fish and I had not boated one yet.  Got set up, dropped it down, and had a spotted bass in about 10 seconds.
Spend most of the rest of the morning drop shotting.  Caught several off the first spot, then the fish moved out.  Bounced around to a few other spots and would pick one up here and there, never was hot fishing, but I would get a bite or two at just about every spot I tried.  Didn't see them schooled either except at the first spot I found them.  Put  a dozen 13-15 inch spots in the boat.
There are a lot of shad scattered about and some bass are chasing them out in the channel.  I caught my biggest fish, a 2.5 lb. spot on a Whopper Plopper at 9:30 AM out in the channel, a couple of casts later hooked the only smallmouth I saw today on the WP only to see it jump 3 feet out of the water and toss the Plopper.  Might have been a 2 lb. fish.
They were just too scattered to get a good top water bite going, but maybe the up coming weather change will get them going.

 
A few swimming under the boat.

 
 
 
 

Same here. I was having my best season so far too.

File Photo
 
Worked a Corporate deal for Buster this morning.  He had a group staying at BC, pretty much non-fishermen but very nice guys.   These were drop shot people and I don't mean soft plastics.
Dam/BC area  is more than a challenge no matter what your using.  I fished 3 hours yesterday to get a handle and only caught 3 jaws. 2 keeps and 1 short on a 1/2 oz, Pig Sticker GPO with a Smallie Beaver trailer in Goby.  30'
Surface temps 81.3 water is a little dingy.  We had 9 spotted bass, all keepers up to 17.5 inches and 2 if you can believe it crappie.  The crappie were a double out of a deep tree on crawlers.  Most bass we had on any location was 3, the other 6 were one and done on 6 different locations.  All on the bottom 35'
Every bass, all 9 had at least 1 hook hole besides ours, and one of them had at least 3 as his mouth and jaws looked like he had a serious case of acne.
The fishing pressure from point 5 to the Arkansas line up Long Creek is just insane with not hundreds but thousands of guide trips on top of normal fishing.  This is not even counting a single derby.  MY how times have changed. 
Looks like a break coming on Wednesday.   Good Luck

I fished the Kim City area on Sept 25 & 27 and was off the water by 10:30. Fished for smallmouth on flat gravel from 15 to 20 ft. Had 5 keepers one day and 7 the next. I used a 9/16 and 5/8oz jig in GPO with a GP zoom craw. I did not catch many shorts. I am not fishing the long gravel runouts, but I am normally real close to them. There is a crankbait bite, but I only fish it at daylight for about 20 minutes. The CB fish are normally short K's and SM, but I have caught some keeper SM. Regarding the deep topwater bite, it can happen back in the creeks but conditions have to be perfect for the 'quality' LM to participate. 

It's not the same or even close. But to be honest, I have kept more up to date on the BASS tournaments than BPT. The 1,000 dink format has just killed it for me.  The initial novelty of it has completely worn off in my book. I have almost no interest in MLF at this point even though they have the majority of the world class bass fishermen in their circuit. I have a BUNCH of the MLF episodes DVR'd and haven't even bothered to watch them. I'm probably in the minority here but that's just how I feel these days.

Elite series just isn’t very elite anymore. 

Friday will be the day they catch em. I’m hearing smallmouth won’t be a big factor. They are dropping the water level a ton. The hopes of flipping bushes in the river are almost gone. Friday will be the day to watch. Topwater nite will be on. 

Let me unmotivate you.  Last 3 days I have had 13-11-3 fish with a total of 11 keepers.  That is in 16 hrs. of hard fishing.  Just to hot and slick.  Time of day seems to be no factor.  You can fish a location that you can see fish and they won't bite and then come back in a hour and catch a couple.  Early does not seem to matter, except to get you out of the extreme heat.  Yesterday when we quit at 11 AM the surface temps were pushing 87 degree in the lower James.  Today they were about 84-85
This is kind of like really early Spring in the aspect that if you catch one you better stay close and hang in there, cause they are not biting everywhere.

Bout time to pick up the “Big Boy Tools.”  Had a day to pre-fish, my next 6 days after tomorrow are on the Rock. Watched Pete’s report and he said they are just about to start on gravel and today they were. Had 17 with 14 keepers all Jaw’s. Best 5 at 17lbs. Best 10 would push 30 pounds.
 Mike it’s about time to go as soon as I get a minute. It will only get better. 
I fished 5 hrs today and if I would have been on a jig to start no telling what. 
I fished 20 run outs today not staying or catching over 3 on any of them. I just wanted to see if they were there.  They are just getting there.   Fished from Cow to point 10 and to point 16
The bite was they would slack you. Just throw 3 sheets to the wind if you could not find your jig and they were on it. Got slacked a dozen times. Only one swallow. Durn 4 pounder and he hurt my shoulder to boot
Boat in 35’. Fish in 12’ to 25’. Best deal I’m spit balling here was around 20’
Pig Sticker Quick 5 in GPO with either a GP Beaver, Yamamoto twin GP or a big Lake Fork Craw. GPO. 
Lake is TOTALLY full of Gizzards. If you see a big blow, use a big Swimbsut or Dixie Jet
lots of Knot Heads blowing. Or as we now call them Bass Pro Tour Fish. I didn’t mess with them
Funny deal. I pulled in on a run-out flat WAY, WAY behind another boat. Guy and his wife in a brand spankin new Ranger. He had already fished the bank and was at least 300 yards away.  As close as he was to the bank I was for sure he was fishing the flower beds in the yards so I didn’t think it would matter if I fished behind him
i caught 3 absolutely thumpers and if I’d have thrown as far as I could my bait still would have landed 15 yards deeper than he was sitting his boat 
I guess both he and his wife were watching cause he snatched up his motor and Zoomed back past me giving me the universal single finger salute as he passed. 
Kind of funny cause I would have given him any jig in my box and told him what I was doing 
People, can’t figure them out. 
GoodLuck

Triploid Brown Trout, Lake Taneycomo September 4th. 2019  Girth 28 inches, length 41 1/4 inches weight Forty pounds 6 oz.  Certified Missouri State Record.

Really at this point I have no idea for a title for this post or a reason that God made it possible for me to catch it.  It was simply his plan.  For sure a day I will never forget, with a sad note in that we were not able to get it properly released even with the amount of care that we provided.  Again it was not to be and there is a reason for everything.
On a much brighter note, I just caught the State Record Brown trout and got a big congratulations call from the Director of the Missouri Conservation Department.
Today was a pleasure fishing trip for me.  Seems like there has been a few lately just getting back from Alasky with Phil, but never the less my long time best friend from Grade School came down to trout fish today and we were going to get him a couple of nice plump rainbows to take home.
If you have been following our reports you know that the fish have been all over the Power Worm.  Bubble Gum.  Don't buy any.  Both Duane and I have been fishing the same stretch of water just below the restricted zone for a week.  Duane more than me, as a matter of fact I keep wanting to fish a scud in the restricted zone and he as they say, "made me do it."
None the less, since we were going to keep a couple we started  below the mouth of Fall Creek, with the Pink Worm.

At this point I will tell you there is never a day that my equipment is not gone totally over.  I never fish terminal line or tackle two days in a row.  Never.  Everything is broken down and rebuilt, everyday.  Never fail and what I and Mark were fishing was put together last night.

Main line on the Daiwa Fuego,   BP Excel mono in 4 lb. to a carrot float.  Below the float a Spro, sampo style swivel and then 7'6" of Orvis 6X tippet 3.1 lb. test at .005 diameter. 

 All fished on a Rod Shop 7' Signature White River Outfitters Custom Rod.  We were using of course the pink worm.  Worm was on a 125th. oz. full micro jig.  First super glued and then cemented. Prior to Turner Jones passing, he made me 100 heads with out bodies on size 12 mustad hook.  They are very good, in the Full Micro size but a bit weak in the half micro size of 14.  These were the Full, they work perfect with the PW as the  head glues directly to a wide flat jig head surface.

We were running a bit late and not on the water till 8 as Mark drove down about 60 miles.  Our first pass he put a nice rainbow in the boat while I got him going, just like I would on a guide trip.  Here is the great deal.  Very much unlike a guide trip I was going to get to fish.  On the second pass I grabbed a rod after he was drifting nicely and about that time a cloud came over and it got kind of dark on the water.  Looked great.  My float dipped under and before i could even lift the fish came to the surface and just swirled.  I told Mark this was a big fish, then I said a HORSE as the drag started whirling and buzzing, smooth as silk.  We were fishing a trough and the fish immediately headed for mid-stream.  By then just a 1/2 minute or so Mark had reeled in and grabbed the net.  I hit my bow switch and trimmed my main motor out of the water and pointed my trolling motor to the middle and let it pull drag keeping the rod high letting it absorb the pressure instead of the line.  The drag was set perfect, I never had to touch it, it just peeled off like string after a kite.  The fish made 2 circles in front of the boat and then headed to the back.  Went under the boat and then came out with its head up.  We were not quite ready and back he went under the boat.  He did the same thing again and we were ready.  Right into the Fish Pond net.  As we lifted him into the boat his nose went thru the basket as I lowered him and he rested on the carpet.  We immediately put him in the live well and did our best to keep him frisky and he was fantastic until he wasn't.
I have 3 people in this world that I would have loved to share that type of an experience with.  First is my son Steven and the next two are my buddy Mark and of course Phil.  However Phil and I have had similar experiences in strange lands.
Just feeling so blessed and again, right place, right time.
Good Luck 

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My neighbor called me this morning and told me about a fish kill on the James. I informed him that I was taking my Granddaughter and a friend tubing today and I would check it out. We tubed between Cape Fair Marina and point 13 and saw about 20 crappie and a few catfish floating as well. Has anyone else seen this on different parts of the lake?

Why do they always ignore the fact that the problem is OVERPOPULATION ? 
There are just too darn many boats on the water at once.....But they are so freakin' greedy that they purposely omit that as a possibility and refuse to report it.     Everything is political and about the dollar.

Glad you guys are ok. I run way too fast at night on Beaver. I need to check the laws here as well.  Great reminder that I need to be more careful. 

Last night I hit a boat that had no lights on just out from the eagle rock marina. My buddy had pointed out a boat by the bridge with no light on and next thing I know we hit something.  It was another boat with no lights. They had some neck and back injuries and we taken in ambulance. I don't know if they were sitting still or idling. It scared the crap out of us! We are fortunate. It could have been a lot worse. I was doing about 45 or 50. Be careful out there folks. Too many don't use their lights at night. 

Jamie, welcome.  You are staying in a very nice area to catch your first Small Jaw.  With the water up throw a Ned Rig or a small jig 3/8th to 1/2 oz in front of the bushes with your boat in 20 plus feet and drag it out.  Look to fish as much flat gravel as you can as the fish, especially the Jaws like gravel.  Green Pumpkin, watermellon, or peanut butter jelly are great Table Rock colors.
Rumor has it that a carolina rig bite is stating and its a good way to find fishing depth.  Use a Zoom Fish Dr. or Centipede and drag it from in front of the bushes out to about 30'  We use a splitshot rig here or a Mojo jig, which is just a light line finess C-rig.  1/4 oz. weight about 3 ft. above the hook, usually 8 lb. test line and a size one or 1/0 hook.
The walleye are a totally different game.  Yes there are plenty at the dam, but it is truly a treat to catch one down here.  Most walleye start at point 9 and go up the White River.  Target these with a dropshot or bottom bounder on the gravel runnouts in 15' to 30'  Live Crawlers seem to be the best deal for the Eye's.  They were hitting a small swimbait, but have really backed off, for best results use live bait.
Good LUck
 

hi folks, im jamey from ms. . i got a cabin for four days at table rock next week. i've never caught a small mouth or a walleye and its a bucketlist deal ive always wanted to do. ive never seen the lake know nothing about it. been studying the online maps a little. im mainly a finesse guy. do a lot of dropshotting, shacky head and wacky rig stuff but i got the tools to do just about anything. just looking for advise on what to bring and relative depth fish are right now. my boat is equipped with helix 10 si at bow and helm. any advise is appreciated. thanks.

Beaver dam yesterday afternoon. 
 

Yeah.  Having Bull the way it's been and not holding anything in TR is maddening.

It’s frustrating seeing Beaver and Bull full to the brim and TR was almost normal. I know it’s way above my pay grade but I still don’t understand why they wait til the last minute to do anything. 

I believe you are right. I forgot about that. They definitely do in the BFL All-American. 

I swore that they made everybody run Rangers on the final day for years.

Not required to run a Ranger. They were sponsored by Ranger and had incentive money if you owned a Ranger. Extra $25000 to the winner if they owned one. 

Not required to run a Ranger. They were sponsored by Ranger and had incentive money if you owned a Ranger. Extra $25000 to the winner if they owned one. 

Kinda like Prairie Creek on Beaver Lake.