Skeeter ZX190

Dutch: I used to fish Table Rock quite a bit back in the late 90's and early 2000's. Back then I had a PinPoint graph on the bow. Best graph I ever had. Wished they still made them. I could fish suspended fish and do well with a spoon or dropshot. On Table Rock the fish just seem to school more making finding them, and fishing them easier. I am still a strong believer that on Stockton the fish scatter in the summertime and you will find one here, and another one there. No rhyme or reason other than they are cruising looking for shad. On Table Rock they seem to gang up. Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Weird how 2 lakes, close in proximity, both clear, both rocky, but they fish very different. For me anyways.

I beat the heat on Tuesday and still fished. I grabbed my fly rod and waders and went to Bennett Spings. I know it's like shooting fish in a rain barrel, but it was still fun. Standing in waist deep 50 degree water sure makes 93 degree days bearable. And the trout were biting what I was offering.

First trip to Stockton since back in May. Water temps were 89 to 90 around the dam area. 5 to 6 foot clarity. We mainly went down for some boating and swimming but I did take my son and a friend of his out for a couple of hours to see if we could catch something. Jacob and Ray are both in the Navy and came home for a visit. I hit 3 main lake points that I have caught fish off of in the past in the summertime. Only a few bites on each of them. My son Jacob caught 3 total bass and one was a keeper smallmouth. His friend Ray caught 2 short smallmouth. I caught a keeper largemouth, a short smallmouth and two rock bass. Everything caught was on the ned. I tried a texas rigged blue flake power worm but couldn't buy a bite on it. Fishing Stockton in July and August has always bumfuzzled me.

Thank you Dave for the update. You and your wife have been heavy on my mind. Praying that things go well from here on out.

Thanks for the report. Good job. When you say you fished deep water, define deep.

Great job. But you don't have a salmon or a sturgeon. 😃

It would definitely give the Missouri Water Patrol something to do. Drag for my body! 😁

I wish I had an underwater camera. With the water clear like this I would use it to find areas in 10 to 20 feet of water with a big concentration of stumps. It would have to hold lots of smallies.

I have only used two jig head makes. One is Dave"s. The other is the Z-Man Shroomz. I started out using the Shroomz because that's what I could find. After hearing about Dave's, and attending his class a couple of years ago, I bought a bunch of his. Dave's are far superior in my opinion, but also hard to find since I don't live anywhere close to Springfield and with his wife's health issue, I don't know when he will be back in productiin. Therefore I will be forced to go back to the Shroomz head, but I plan to make a modification to see if that reduces the frustration. The Shroomz has a little wire keeper to hold the Zinker Z in place. After a fish or two, the bait will get pushed up and twisted on that wire keeper. It can be a pain to get the bait back in the proper position so it runs straight. I plan to either pinch it down or remove it and then glue the Zinker Z in place. With Dave's the Zinker Z gets twisted too, but it is simple to straighten the Zinker Z out. Based on advice I learned on this forum, I got one of those small tackle boxes with the rust inhibitors so I could make up some baits ahead of time. That has worked exceptionally well with Dave's jigheads. I would never try it with the Shroomz. Those light wire hooks will rust out in nothing flat. Not sure what the difference is in the steel used between the Shroomz and Dave's, but it is significant. If I go fishing with a Shroomz and store my rod in the rod box, in less than a week that hook has rusted to the point where you can easily break the hook shank. I've done the same with Dave's and it is still good to go after months of being stored.

Not really topwater but a super fluke. Had a couple of kentuckies just hammer it right on the surface.

Green pumpkin and PB&J. PB&J seems to be really good on Table Rock.

Dave's wife has some serious health issues. There hasn't been an update since back in February. I doubt he is making jig heads.

I had a couple of smallies that spit up some small crawdads. Probably about 2 to 3 inches long.

Got on the water at 8:30 am and off at 3:00 pm. There was some rumbles of thunder so I decided to get off the water while the getting was good. I don't think I would look good with curly hair if I got hit by lightning! 😆. The fishing was better and worse than on Monday. It was better in that I caught more fish per hour than on Monday, but it was worse in the overall quality. Only 8 keepers today as opposed to 21 on Monday. Not sure if they just had lockjaw or if they are moving out deeper. I ended up catching 65. All but 2 came on the ned. Those 2 came on a fluke. 6 to 10 feet of water was best. I fished from Orleans Trail to the dam, however I did hit one cove close to where the Big Sac and Little Sac part. Was disappointed to see that an eagles nest is no more. It was in an old dead tree and I think the area where the nest was is now broken off. Several years in a row I would see a young one being raised.

Which one? Or both?