Leaderboard

First off let me say I will try and not make this to long and a big thanks to all the guys and ladies on this site for their unbiased going on's with this great lake we have. I have been a OA member for several years and even post from time to time, normally I fish Nofork/Bull. These highland lakes with their beauty and humbling fishing characteristics make it a challenge. Everyone always denotes fishing to putting those dang jig saw puzzles together as kid, Well I wasn't good at that and I like CATCHING better than fishing any day. I have been on Table Rock for about 9 days stright since the 23rd of Feb fishing Webb's Elite Solo Feb 25/26 and then the Open and I will be quite honest I struggled to put the winning pattern together in either one. I'm not a grub fishing dude I have never gotten that down (BUT I KNOW THAT IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO) to catch them this time of year if the A-Rig isn't in play and love to fish a crankbait this time of year. As I had a sammich with Champ & Donna before my elite solo (She can make A great Sammich BTW) after I had been on the water a few hours & yes we where not around the lower end. After my solo tournament and finishing mid pack with the crankbait and Jerkbait I realized I needed to go to the clear water and try the Grub thing. After a couple of days of riding around all the boats from KC to Long Creek bridge and catching some quality I wasn't satisfied with my practice and ran back to my Crankbait & Jerkbait fish and started catching numbers and Quality mixed in with out the boat pressure I was seeing down the lake. I made the decision to make a long run to above Eagle rock for the Open and knew I wouldn't have the pressure as I would down the lake and If I could get lucky I could end up with a good kicker up there on the crank/JB. Day 1 after arriving to my first spot and then second spot with out a keeper and very few shorts. I rotated back through and began catching quality on a Gizit, I was always told by my Dad to never leave fish to find fish. These fish where not going to be moving a along way (they can not go that far up there) so I had to adjust my bait and presentation and Boom a limit, but without a kicker I left early to make the run back and try some clear water spots (just shorts), ended up in 50th place after day 1. Day 2 dawned still cold and bundled up for that long run again, but this day was my long day and I could stay until 3:15 before I had to make the run back. I never finished out my limit even with the Ned I could only manage shorts, but I had the kicker a 4.5-5 lbr that helped boost me up to 36th and a nice check to help pay for my trip. I found water temps during these 9 days from 48 to even 60 on one of those shorts and flip flop afternoons. I never caught anything from the green algea/snot in the clear water and never caught anything from the 60 degree stained water either. I caught fish where shad was to places I didn't even graph a bait ball much less see any. Lures ranged from a Crankbait (WW/RC), Jerkbait, Gizit, Shaky head, Swing head, and yes the NED. Practice was more running and gunning, but on one of my best days of catching before the Solo I did have 27 fish with 7 of those keepers mostly the swing head and 2 custom Rock crawlers did the damage. The shorts also where not those little dinks most where just shy of the 15 inch mark. A good number of just sub legal fish where caught. During the rest of practice I didn't do a lot of catching just looking. The clear water fish I did catch were of good quality I just couldn't duplicate those in areas I thought I should have. I'm never a fishing in a crowd type of guy so I opted to go to the river and I avoided the crowds and actual had fishing areas to my self up there and I learned more about those fish and what they do and where they go up there. Thanks again to all you guys and gals I enjoy these highland lakes and trying to figure them out. We are blest with very good people on this site and if you see me out there on the water please come by and say hey. I run a Basscat and it always has Purple in it.

I slept in Tuesday. Didn't get to Mutton Creek until about 10:45am. Cloudy skies, water temp at the ramp about 49*, wind blowing like crazy. Ran up river just south of Chicken Rock and found 52.8* water and started fishing there. Started out with a Hula Grub and a Ned rig tied on and fished for about an hour with just a couple bites. While working down a gravel point we met a guy fishin' off the bank. He was throwing a little minnow bait and catching fish about every other cast. So.....I laid down the bottom bouncers and pick up my little ultralight with a little rattle bait on it and commenced to catching fish immediately. Thrashed 'em pretty good the rest of the day. Skinny water, high wind, fish biting like crazy.....Wow.

Fishing this weeked was great. Today I only had a couple of hours to fish due to having to come back home. I got on the lake around 8am fished til 10am. As i was backing my boat out of the slip I saw shad just rippling the waters surface. I made the executive decision to turn the big motor off and jump on the deck. I told my fishing partner "I dont believe there is any need to leave here." We litterally fished and area about and acre in size. During that short time my best five went 17.4 lbs. I fished the dam area and focused my time in the gut of a creek above submerged trees. 76fow with the fish I was targeting suspended 22fow to 42 fow. My bait of choice was a 5/8 oz underspin with a 3.8 kitech. I made Long cast and allowed it to drop for 5 seconds on the shallower fish and 13 seconds on the deeper fish. Super super super slow reeling. When they hit it, they were crushing it. Other areas that seemed to be productive this weekend were main lake points leading into creek channels where deeper water was available. Again, same technique as above. The guy in the red shirt is my brother in law's nephew. He has only been on a larger body of water like the rock twice. Both times were with me. Last year and this year same time of the year. After the trip last year he was hooked, after today, he became obsessed. Today he caught the biggest fish he has ever caught. It was fun to be a part of.

My thoughts aren't being very well received by alot of my customers but I'm not gonna shut up about it because when the day comes that I am done working on their boats I am still gonna be fishing. Largemouth Bass, by nature are home range critters that typically live their entire lives within a couple square miles or less. When you take a fish from Jackson branch and release it at Alhonna or PB2 (or anywhere else for that matter) that fish is totally lost. It doesn't know where the good cover or ambush spots are, or anything. Imagine if you were plucked from your home town, blindfolded, and dumped in a faraway town where you've never been before. You don't know where the grocery store is, and even if you did you gotta have money....so finding a new job and place to sleep is priority one. Your only hope is to follow someone else around until you can start to figure things out. And then just when you finally start to get a grip on your new pattern of life.....Boom, you eat a freakin jerkbait and get dumped in yet another foreign town and have to start from scratch all over again. Ain't that a kick in the nutts? Largemouth bass can't live like largemouth bass anymore. Because of this constant relocation they are being forced to live like anadromous stripers. Constant roamers that are always lost and near impossible to pattern. You just gotta find schools of them offshore. Face it, when 40 boats can go out and everyone can find schools of 5+pounders..... That's not Largemouth bass behavior, that's Striper behavior. Those are fish that have schooled up because they are LOST. A few tournaments per year would be no big deal. Even once a month wouldn't be so bad. But for the love of God is anyone else keeping track of the number of tournaments being held on every lake in the country on every weekend and several evenings during every week ? It is way past time to start considering alternative ways to score all of these events, because this constant shuffling of keepers is just wrong. We have the technology available to catch-score-release. Nobody needs to see you on a stage parading around and drying out two fistfuls of big bass. Grow up, get a life, and start caring more about the fish you love to catch and less about your gay little dream of being the next KVD. Sorry, but that's the way I feel about it. There are too many fish being relocated over and over and over again, just for your entertainment. It was cool when it wasn't happening every single day, but it's not cool anymore. And no, post tournament "release boats" are not the answer. Immediate release in the same area where the fish are caught is the answer.

RPS inspired I decided to make my own tartar sauce for the fried crappie. Now we normally make our own tartar, but today I followed the recipe link that RPS sent and made the mayonnaise as well. I did not deviate from the recipe and was pretty happy with the results. Very easy to make. BH - don't worry we are very familiar with our chickens here at Follyfarms. Each are handled with care. So not worried about the raw egg in the mix. So I chopped capers and the Betterhalf's homemade sweet pickle relish and added that to the mayonnaise. I also added about a teaspoon of powdered mustard, tsp of rice wine vinegar, and tsp of garlic powder. Mixed well and ready to serve. We ground bread crumbs and I mixed in oregano, s&p, and garlic powder. So I breaded the fish, seasoned flour, egg wash (more follyfarm eggs), then coated with the Italian syle bread crumbs. Does anyone remember Gordon Elliot's Door Knock Dinners show on Food Network where he and a chef would go into someone's house and make a gourmet meal with what they had in their fridge and pantry. Well I have no claim to be a chef or that this was a gourmet meal. However, I dug around in the freezer and pantry to find what to make with the fried fish. I pulled out a can of black beans and a can of chili flavored kidney beans. So I mixed the two beans, added Dijon mustard, dried onion, a spoon full of bacon grease, ketchup, brown sugar, dash of liquid smoke, and then added, possibly a little crazy, but diced black mission figs. I cooked this as long as possible to allow the "baked" bean flavors to meld. I found some frozen spinach. I cooked the spinach with garlic powder (again) and a mixed vegetable spice mix. The last piece to the meal was heating up leftover asparagus.

"Steve McBasser" There were more posts where he was throwing a custom wart that looked a lot like the old yellow with a brown stripe back. Not that I stalk everyone. Just those who catch fish ?.

I went down and fished the Blue ribbon section of the Current on Sunday the 26th. I was looking to catch brown trout to meet a personal goal I set for the year. I just needed five more browns to meet that end. As I was heading through Montauk, I had really no idea on how many people would be camping in the park or fishing in the blue ribbon section three days prior to the trout park opener. I really didn't see many camp sites full as I drove past. There was just a single car at the access point when I pulled. I decided to head down stream about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile and fish a couple of decent pools and runs before I headed upstream. I was committed to stay on the water to meet my goal. I started with 1/8 oz zig jig and fished the fast water heading into the top of a pool that I knew held fish. The only action was when I sunk the point of the jig into some of the wood lining that run. When you are wade fishing you don't have much option if the water is too deep to really change the angle on a hung bait. I didn't break my line, just the hook point. I switched to a 1/16 oz jig and then a 1/32 oz to fish the main body and tail of the pool. I had fish follow the jig, but not commit. I went further downstream fishing the jigs in the runs as I went along. I got down stream to one of the deeper holes. The last time I fished this hole, there was a blow down on the bluff bank. Now there was that same tree and two other blow downs on the near side of the hole. It made for an interesting wading situation. With the deeper water, I put back on a 1/16 oz jig and cast upstream in the open water between the trees. I hooked and landed a 10" male creek chub. He was colored up and primed for breeding. I didn't get any other hits on the jig as I made casts closer to the big rocks that I have caught large trout from in the past. I switched to a rapala countdown and got bit by what would be the largest trout I would encounter that day. It came to the surface where I could get a good look at it and then got off. Though I knew that it was not likely to get this fish to bite again, I switched to a couple of different baits and had no other hits. Disappointed, I made my way back upstream. I put back on the countdown and fished a run that I seem to catch a fish almost every time that I fish it. I made an upstream cast to the far bank and ran the bait just in the seam between the deeper water with the rock bottom and the smaller gravel/sand bottom. I would change up the speed of my retrieve and just as I slowed it down - FISH ON! I got my first brown of the day in the net. I kept with the same bait and the variable retrieve and cast up near the head of this run and hooked the largest brown that I would land that day - 17+" and probably 2.25 to 2.5 lbs. Took off as soon as I let it go. As I headed back upstream I ran into fresh boot prints, but did not see any fisherman. Not surprisingly I also did not have any bites in the obvious runs and pools until I reached one of the larger pools in this stretch. It's hard to fish this pool effectively. I saw a large splash near the large boulders that I was going to run my baits past. I cast first just below the boulders, Nothing. Then the money cast which landed 10 to 15 feet above the splash that I had seen. The fish hit as the bait passed the splash zone and it felt heavy, unfortunately it came unhooked. At this point I had been on the water for about 2 hours and covered about 3/4 miles of water and only 2 fish landed with 4 trout bites. I went back to the access and got a drink. There were now two new vehicles and the one there previously had left. Also another car came in with three guys. I headed upstream and followed new boot tracks. Even though I knew at least one guy was up ahead of me and three guys were coming up behind me I still fished several of the traditional holes an runs that I have caught fish in the past just in case one was willing to bite. After fishing several spots I had no bites, which was in line for what I had expected. Several of these holes had much more sand and silt built up covering the preferred rocky bottoms that I normally find these trout. Maybe we need a good 2-3 foot flooding event to wash out some of this material. I finally met up with one of the fishermen. I could see his buddy well upstream from the two of us. I told him that I would go well up ahead of them through the woods to let them fish without disturbance. As I passed the guy upstream he was headed downstream or at least that’s what it looked like to me. I went another 100 yards upstream of him. Much of the water between us was a mix of boulders, bluff rock, chunk rock, gravel and sand with deeper water along the bluff bank. I wanted to fish the “S” curve just upstream from where I came out of the woods. I was changing my leader and bait when I noticed that he was headed back upstream. He would cast and then walk upstream 10-20 feet then cast again. Just as I was done retying he was right next to me. After a brief discussion, I left and headed further upstream without making a cast. I was now fishing sections of river that I had not fished in years. So it all became nostalgic in a way. I would think about fish that I had caught or lost in these spots in the past or how the water ran past a rock or rootwad in the past. So I knew what cast I would make when I got to a long sweeping bend in the river that has a deep undercut on the outside bank. I had tied on a floating rapala and made the cast and I didn’t get bit until the bait was about 6 feet from me. The brown came towards me and jumped while throwing the bait. Now the dilemma, the leader was past my first guide, so is this a caught fish. I deliberated this for a while and decided that since I had no “reel” control of the fish that it became the third lost fish of the day. The section above this sweeping bend fishes like a pond. So I cast towards the woody cover on the far side. I got to see the fish come out of the treetop and hit my bait. I tried not to horse the fish and got the 15” brown into the net. Now I was three and three on the day. It was just after 2 pm as I was resting I saw a mink up on the bank and watched it as it headed down to the treetop that I just pulled out that last fish. I was just below a section of the river where many years ago I had spooked a giant (>24”) brown while heading upstream. On that trip, after a couple of hours I was able to come back down stream to that same spot and snuck up to position myself for a cast. I made that cast and the fish bit. As she rolled I saw her tail. It looked wider than my hand as it broke the water and then she was off. That image haunted me for years until I finally caught a 23.5” brown trout (still my PB) from this river. I made a cast to that same spot. The cover had changed a bunch. I still got a solid hit on the bait, but this fish did not get hooked. I switched back to the countdown and headed further upstream. I lost another one that hit the bait as it passed through the hole below some bank brush. It threw the hooks when it jumped. Down 3 to 4. 50 yards upstream I caught and landed my fourth brown, a 13+” fish, at the head of a hard “S” curve bend in the river. I have evened it up 4 to 4. I have caught many fish in the past in the next long bluff hole. I felt confident that I would at least get the opportunity to land that fifth brown. Unfortunately due to a couple of laydown tree, the water was too deep for me to wade and fish effectively through most of that hole. I could only fish the tail and then the head of the pool and not the middle. No bites or taps at the tail of the pool. I got up on the bank and circled to the head of the pool. I could see trout and suckers on the bottom near the woody cover. I got some looks on the countdown and then I switched back to the floating rap. I caught my first Current river brown trout in 2002 on an F9 original sliver/black rapala. Now I had on one of my hand painted floaters. I made a cast upstream towards the center of this large wood pile. My retrieve was twitch, twitch, reel then twitch, twitch, twitch, reel and repeat. I could see two trout following my bait. I let the bait pause causing it to float slightly and first trout hit the bait and missed getting hooked, but the next one got caught. This 12” brown was not the largest, but after 8 hours on the water and nearly 5 river miles of hiking and hard wading it was one of the best fish that I have ever caught. This fish represents 14 years of enjoyment on the Current river and the 300th brown trout that I have caught in Missouri. I had to stop several times heading back to the access, sometimes to just take in the scenery and other times mostly to rest. On one of those breaks, a gray shape moving along the bluff top 80 to 90 yards away caught my eye. I watched it as it came into and out of view as it proceeded along the bluff top. This was only the second bobcat that I have seen in Missouri. On one of the last rest stops, I was just sitting listening to the drops of water coming off of the bluff and the soft gurgle of the river as it passes me. Could hear a kingfisher chittering as it flew above the river and a couple of squirrels barking in the distance. I sat and thought that these might have been the best sounds of the day only to be surpassed by the head and tail splashes of a brown trout on the line and the not so silent prayer of “stay on, stay on, please just stay on!”

Thanks BB I did give it a go and I like most people resorted to what I'm confidant in. I had a good tip from Matt who won the Elite solo and another Solo competitor that it was real specific to what they were doing (this grub deal) and with the right conditions it was good for a limit and good ones, but if the stars didn't all line up is was work. I was told as you said to stay way out off the channel swings with timber (under the surface) and the transitions from bluff to big chunk rock. And the better swings where not the bluff end ones that are easy to see on a GPS map but rather the mid bluff ones and the actual old river channel ones way out in the middle. Well as luck would have it on the first one I stopped at on practice Tuesday morning I had a 3.75lb LMB... I say to self Wow this is easy. Then the next 4 hours go by without as much as a sniff and seeing boat after boat and some even pulling up to same location that I had just left. After this good start then the lack of bites with all the boat pressure in this clear water I opted for a long run. Both like I said to avoid boats and to get into a confidence area. With modern electronics, GPS mapping, the internet, and a welling mind with a little patience a guy can pick up a lot with out every splashing his/her boat in the water. That's is what I do when I go off to these places I have never been. Mitch-I was using an old colored Brown gizit up the river in 5-15 fow (on the bottom) I even had to employ a 3/8 oz head to keep it there, they didn't hit it if it came off the bottom. I could catch these fish in practice on 2 or 3 Rock Crawlers I had painted up by a couple of my custom sponsors. But when the Open tournament came around they would only bite the RC in certain little windows. I knew the fish where there and I used the old Ozark winter time trick of when you can't get bit from fish toss a gizit. I'm not a guy that has a lot of raw talent like some have out here, it is a struggle for me to get the bite going from keepers and I have found over the years that simple is way better than a rocket science pattern. In the clear water I was tossing a 4-5" grub and 4" swimbait that a local company makes for me on 1/4 and 3/8oz heads I pour myself Hope this helps a little just remember (K.I.S.S)

I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about fishing. And one of the things I think about is coming up with different, or better, lure designs. Usually it's something that I've seen or read or heard about that sets me to thinking. It's how I came up with my homemade Subwalk, a lure that sinks slowly and walks the dog from 6 inches to 2 feet under the surface. It's how I came up with simpler design for my homemade crankbait than the commercially available version, which isn't available anymore anyway. One of my holy grails of lure design is a deep diving crankbait that runs at least 7 feet deep, but that has the same kind of wide wobble as my homemade shallow running version when you put some skirt material on the belly hook. I've tried just about every commercially available deep diver on the market, adding the skirt material and seeing how it wobbles. In nearly all of them, the skirt tames the wobble into something that isn't very wide, and that just makes the skirt itself kinda wiggle, not sway widely the way I want it to. There are, however, a couple of commercially available ones that come close, as long as you keep the skirt fairly sparse. One is the Norman Middle N. The other, and the better of the two, is the Rebel Deep Wee Craw. This weekend I decided to play around with some designs, one goal being to see if I could come up with a deep diver. First, I went to the local tackle shop, looking for smallish, deep diving crankbaits that I hadn't yet tried with the skirt. Ended up getting a Bandit 300 series, and another lure, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Both had big bills somewhat similar in shape to the Rebel, though not exactly like it. Back home, I first switched out the belly treble for one with a skirt attached, and then went out to the pond by the house to try them. Neither worked...that same problem of the skirt barely wiggling. Okay...back to the basement garage, take the Dremel tool, and grind off the bills so that they are the exact shape as the Rebel. Back out to the pond. Slight improvement, but still not close to what I was looking for. Back to the garage, study the lures side by side with the Rebel. Hook placement...the belly hook on the Rebel was significantly farther back. Kinda tough to change that on those hollow plastic lures, but I figured out a way. Back out to the pond...another very slight improvement, still not close. At that point I was out of ideas. Could it be the body shape of the Rebel? So I carved out something with a similar, but simpler shape out of a wooden dowel rod. I had some circuit board bills that I could shape into the Rebel bill shape, but you can't put the line tie in the bill on a circuit board bill. But I figured out a way to make the line tie somewhat close. In the pond...nope, not even close. It was time to surrender...guess I'll just have to buy some more Rebels. But I had another project in mind... Here's the thought process...Bass Pro makes a lure that has the head of a popper, in hard plastic with a treble hook attached, to which to afix a big tube. It's kinda goofy looking, and I would have probably never bought one, but they sent me one to use in one of the catalog cover illustrations I did for them. I had taken it out to the pond just to see if by chance it was any good. I was surprised that you can actually get the thing to walk the dog pretty well, That was one genesis of my idea. The other was that the problem with typical walk the dog lures is that bass blow up on them without getting hooked, seeming to instantly reject them when they strike. What if you had a soft (or mostly soft) walk the dog lure that the fish could take well into their mouths and maybe not reject it instantly? Hey, that Bass Pro popper kinda fits the bill. But how about a more typical walk the dog lure shape for the head? So I turned out a couple of ideas on the lathe. Added hook and line tie, afixed a tube, and went out to the pond. The first prototype worked VERY well! The second, with a shorter, smaller diameter head portion, did not. But now I had one that did work. I turned out a duplicate, more or less, and painted them. It'll take another day to finish the paint and finish, and then a day to let it all dry, but this one looks like a winner at this point.

First of all, thanks to everyone on here for the well wishes and congrats for the tournament. It was a blast leading the tourney going into the last day but a kick in the gut when I couldn't seal the deal. Day 1--I drew a young Iowa pro Greg Vance. Great young angler and was very happy for me at the end of the day. He fished the Bassmaster Classic last year through the BASS nation qualification. He was on a pattern of swimming a grub and swimbait out over deep water. We would sit in 50-80 feet of water, make a cast, count down to 6, 8, 10 or whatever and work that desired zone. We were on our second spot and had caught 1 short a piece when we looked across the lake and the gulls were diving hard core! He said 'We have got to get over there!' We raced across the lake and I caught bass on my first 3 casts with one of them being a keeper. We followed the bait around for the next couple of hours off of that flat, gravel/chunk rock point as they moved out over deep water and then back up shallow(1-15 feet of water) Most of my fish came on a 4" swimbait on a Arkie lures 1/4oz jighead with a light wire hook. The light wire hook was key because they were coming up behind the swimbait to eat it and your rod would just load up. The light wire hook would pierce the lips easily. 1 of my big fish came on a underspin also. I had 6 keeper largemouth there and culled a couple times. We were in the white river all day. 3 fish limit weighed 11lb 2oz..good for 1st place after day 1. Day 2-- I drew Elite series pro Brian Snowden. Brian is a class act...not only one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, but when he found out that I was in 1st, he said he would take me to some smallmouth spots to make sure I get my limit. We fished around Kimberling city on wind blown main lake and secondary points. I caught 4 keeper smallies and culled once, all on the 4" swimbait on the 1/4oz head. Again, he worked hard for me to get my 3 fish. And then he showed up to the weigh-in because he said he was sitting at home and he told his wife 'Let's go over to the weigh-in and watch Mike win the non-boater side.' But I didn't hold up my end of the deal!! Lol 3 fish limit weighed 6lb 5oz..good enough for 1st place heading into the final day. Day 3--I drew Elite series pro Tyler Carriere. Tyler also was a pleasure to fish with and tried his best to get me around fish, he had caught around 15 keepers on day 2. He said we would go catch our limits and then he would need to go crankin' to catch a big fish and try to catch up. I told him if I caught my 3 fish limit, I was sure that it would wrap up the win for me. We went out and caught tons...I mean tons...probably between 60-70 shorts. Tyler had 2 keeper spots and I couldn't manage a keeper all day. We stayed within 4 miles of take off all day. He had just burned through his fish the first 2 days and there wasn't anything left but shorts. He was dropping a Damiki rig on them...I was doing that, swimbait and ned rig behind him. Went to the weigh-in and the tournament director saw I had no fish and knew I was bummed. He asked me if I would still come across the stage to talk about my week and I said 'Of course.' I got up on stage and told the crowd that just a few hours earlier, I had caught one on my swimbait, measured it and it went 15 1/4" and I threw it back in the lake. Chris asked me why I did that...I said 'Because I didn't think you would let me weigh in a crappie!!' It got a good laugh from the crowd and Chris. It was one of the biggest black crappie I have caught in a long time! After that, I thanked my pro's individually and gave them thanks for helping me for the finish. I came off stage and my daughter brought our Yorkie over to me...the Clunn's were standing a few feet away and I found out quickly that they were Yorkie lovers as they have one also. I spent several minutes talking with Rick about the tournament and then went to find my family. I ended up falling to 6th place and finished exactly 2 pounds out of 1st. All I needed was 1 good keeper on the last day. 1 keeper would have won the tournament and a new Triton. It sucks being that close to the win without closing it out and it runs through your mind constantly...but it makes the fire inside burn hotter to win a major tournament one day!!

Bill Beck, (Table Rock Lake Guide Service) had just one of those wonderful days yesterday with good friend and Client Troy Majors. The mission was originally slated as a walleye seeking deal, as the week before they had caught several nice keepers. Today however turned bright and windy to quickly for that and the boys set out to try and tame the elusive Table Rock bass. Fishing up the White River section of the lake Bill targeted suspending fish with a homemade under spin in 1/4 oz. using a 3.8 inch Keitech fat paddle tail as the trailer. To say they had a really fun day would be an understatement. Bill said they had 21 keepers mostly fishing to suspended staging fish. I believe some locations held bait and some were just prime locations for that type of bass movement at this time of the year. Read the BASS blog on how Mike caught his fish on the 3.4 inch swim bait and you have the same deal. 30' to 50' suspended. Only difference is that Michael only used about 10 gallons of gas fishing the dam and take off area and Bill fished the same types of locations up the White River. Judging from the up coming forecast and now getting into March, I don't think these will back off, Many of you know way more then I do, about fish movements, but I think the pre-spawn and the staging process are well under way and will continue. Get out there and try these techniques and see if they will produce for you like they are for a lot of us. Good Luck

Launched about 8 fished til 4. Boated 34 bass, maybe 8 or 9 keeps but nothing too big. Best 5 probably not much over 10lbs if that... Fished channel banks and just inside a few main lake points where we could get out of the wind (blew like crazy out there all day.) Most came on ned, a few on warts and one on a jerkbait. Bass we caught were mostly hanging somewhat tight to steep banks or bluffs in 5-20ft. Water temp 48.5-49.9

Fished with a buddy in Sons creek near Greaser Saturday. Caught 28 bass, 12 whites, 1 keeper crappie. Only had a couple of keeper bass out of the 28. Caught them on the redeye shad, crankbait and jerkbaits shallow. Very fun day!

We used to have a bunch of chickens, would get 200 to 400 chicks every year and raise them and start butchering when they were big enough to split in half to fry. I was the guy taking care of them, never hated any animals as much as I hated them things. My favorite job was catching and head chopping. When they got to the perfect size we would have butchering days, when we would clean as many as 96 at a time, those day we recruited grandma to help. I bet I could still cut one up to fry in a couple minutes. Only good things about them were lots of fried chicken (including livers and gizzards) and plenty of fresh chicken guts for trotlines. We had some Bantys running around eating bugs, some laying hens, a few geese (close second on the most hated list) and for a while guineas. Can still remember the day the big old game rooster that liked to attack everything, made the poor choice to attack my German Shepard. Poor old dog thought he was gonna get his butt whipped, I gave him some extra feed instead and then cleaned the rooster. Honestly I don't miss them a bit. Remember mom pressure cooking the old hens and that dang rooster. Today a crock pot would render them tender and make some good noodles.

Stopped by on my Lunch break today. Hadn't had much success this winter with size. Was ripping a lipless crank through the grass. Caught these two in about 30 minutes. Wish I didn't have to head back to work. The front moving in with the recent warmer temps seemed to have the girls turned on. Both fish looked very healthy and fat. Big one was probably about 4 inches longer than the 18" ruler I had.

First of all, thanks to everyone on here for the well wishes and congrats for the tournament. It was a blast leading the tourney going into the last day but a kick in the gut when I couldn't seal the deal. Day 1--I drew a young Iowa pro Greg Vance. Great young angler and was very happy for me at the end of the day. He fished the Bassmaster Classic last year through the BASS nation qualification. He was on a pattern of swimming a grub and swimbait out over deep water. We would sit in 50-80 feet of water, make a cast, count down to 6, 8, 10 or whatever and work that desired zone. We were on our second spot and had caught 1 short a piece when we looked across the lake and the gulls were diving hard core! He said 'We have got to get over there!' We raced across the lake and I caught bass on my first 3 casts with one of them being a keeper. We followed the bait around for the next couple of hours off of that flat, gravel/chunk rock point as they moved out over deep water and then back up shallow(1-15 feet of water) Most of my fish came on a 4" swimbait on a Arkie lures 1/4oz jighead with a light wire hook. The light wire hook was key because they were coming up behind the swimbait to eat it and your rod would just load up. The light wire hook would pierce the lips easily. 1 of my big fish came on a underspin also. I had 6 keeper largemouth there and culled a couple times. We were in the white river all day. 3 fish limit weighed 11lb 2oz..good for 1st place after day 1. Day 2-- I drew Elite series pro Brian Snowden. Brian is a class act...not only one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, but when he found out that I was in 1st, he said he would take me to some smallmouth spots to make sure I get my limit. We fished around Kimberling city on wind blown main lake and secondary points. I caught 4 keeper smallies and culled once, all on the 4" swimbait on the 1/4oz head. Again, he worked hard for me to get my 3 fish. And then he showed up to the weigh-in because he said he was sitting at home and he told his wife 'Let's go over to the weigh-in and watch Mike win the non-boater side.' But I didn't hold up my end of the deal!! Lol 3 fish limit weighed 6lb 5oz..good enough for 1st place heading into the final day. Day 3--I drew Elite series pro Tyler Carriere. Tyler also was a pleasure to fish with and tried his best to get me around fish, he had caught around 15 keepers on day 2. He said we would go catch our limits and then he would need to go crankin' to catch a big fish and try to catch up. I told him if I caught my 3 fish limit, I was sure that it would wrap up the win for me. We went out and caught tons...I mean tons...probably between 60-70 shorts. Tyler had 2 keeper spots and I couldn't manage a keeper all day. We stayed within 4 miles of take off all day. He had just burned through his fish the first 2 days and there wasn't anything left but shorts. He was dropping a Damiki rig on them...I was doing that, swimbait and ned rig behind him. Went to the weigh-in and the tournament director saw I had no fish and knew I was bummed. He asked me if I would still come across the stage to talk about my week and I said 'Of course.' I got up on stage and told the crowd that just a few hours earlier, I had caught one on my swimbait, measured it and it went 15 1/4" and I threw it back in the lake. Chris asked me why I did that...I said 'Because I didn't think you would let me weigh in a crappie!!' It got a good laugh from the crowd and Chris. It was one of the biggest black crappie I have caught in a long time! After that, I thanked my pro's individually and gave them thanks for helping me for the finish. I came off stage and my daughter brought our Yorkie over to me...the Clunn's were standing a few feet away and I found out quickly that they were Yorkie lovers as they have one also. I spent several minutes talking with Rick about the tournament and then went to find my family. I ended up falling to 6th place and finished exactly 2 pounds out of 1st. All I needed was 1 good keeper on the last day. 1 keeper would have won the tournament and a new Triton. It sucks being that close to the win without closing it out and it runs through your mind constantly...but it makes the fire inside burn hotter to win a major tournament one day!!

Everyone should bring a lawn chair to sit in at the weigh in / picnic!

Dude, that is one Super Report. If folks on here need vindication about how to fish to suspended fish, you just threw the bacon in the skillet. That my friends is how you catch excellent bags of Table Rock Bass this time of the year. Thank you so much for reporting. Tell us where that ramp is that you released those pigs and we will try and keep them exercised for ya. Thanks and Good Luck

Good thing is that when they come thru Beaver Dam, they are in trout waters and seldom venture very far down the lake.

QB and I both live smack dab between Grand and The Rock. It can be a tough decision which way to go sometimes. The thing I like is the diversity --- between the two lakes, you can fish polar opposite patterns in the same seasons. And some of you thought an old right-wing conservative like me couldn't even spell d-i-v-e-r-s-i-t-y.

The Current has been by far my favorite river for many years. Over the years I have fished other trout waters across the state and each have there own fascination, but I always return to the Current. Actually I have fished all of the other MDC designated trout waters across the state. However, I make it down to Current as many times as I can each year.

I haven't posted a report here in some time. I used to post a report weekly, but sort of let that slide over the years. I'm not going to start posting a bunch of reports again, but I thought I would share one for old times sake. At my last High School reunion, I ran into one of my buddies that I haven't had much contact with over the years. We picked up right where we left off. After retiring from the Armed Services, he is now teaching and living in our old home town. And he does a lot of lake fishing. He hadn't been floating much since school. So we've stayed in contact over different subjects and earlier in the week I got a hold of him to see if he had any plans Saturday. It was all clear and a plan was made to meet up. Early Saturday morning just before I was to hit the road, I get a text that he has been violently sick and won't make it. So I fix me a little breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, and fried O'Brien style taters. As I sit down to the feast, my brain starts working on what my next move is. My fist thought is to change up my float and have my wife help me with the shuttle. Now where do I want to float now? I think of a couple but don't get overly excited because it's getting late and they will consume some time to fish properly. Then it hits me. Another friend of mine is always good for a short notice float trip and he just bought a new canoe Thursday. So at 7:30 I send him a text asking what he was doing because my buddy had to back out. Within seconds I get a response that he's floating with me, where was we going. So after a few minutes of discussion, a plan was hatched and it was time to execute. I put my tandem back in the garage and get out the solo and hit the road. I get to our meeting point and in a few minutes I get another text from him. He has had some issues that have set him back about 15 minutes. Not a big deal I'm thinking. I start running through my head how many miles we are about to float and how many hours of daylight are left. It's going to be tight! It's now 11:00 and we are finally on the water! It is shaping up to be a more beautiful day than I thought. I thought we would be fighting the wind all day, but that really wasn't the case. And at times it was just dead still! We are not on the water more than 15 minutes and lines are tight with rods bent! The fish were spread out everywhere here too just like I have found them the last two or three weeks on other river systems. The water is still so clear that stealth is your best friend. They weren't very spooky but they were not playful if they knew you were in the area. Long casts were the play of the day. Knowing that we had a relatively long float, not by Al's standards, but longer than I normally do in one day, we tried to keep moving. We didn't do very well in keeping with this plan and kept telling each other we had to get moving! And that was the hardest part of the day! Keeping moving on. It was just so stinking good, we had to force ourselves to keep going! The next thing we knew, there was about three hours of daylight left and about 4 miles to go. Now knowing I have a heavy, slow canoe, and so does JTram, and we still wanted to fish, we had to set a pace and stick to it. Well that didn't happen. Now we have 3 miles to go and about an hour of daylight. And it's not 3 easy miles with the water as low as it is. And now the wind is in our face and pushing us back about as fast as we can go forward! We had predicted early in the trip it would be 6:00 before we got off the water. And now it was looking like it would be later than that! I hope not as I left my glasses in the truck and only had my sunglasses! Paddle, paddle, paddle! It was so hard to paddle right on by so many good spots! The fishing had just got hotter and hotter as the day wore on but we couldn't play along anymore, it had become a race against time! And we were trying not to loose! And we didn't! We got to the take out point at exactly 6:00! It was cloudy and there was barley any light left! We had just enough light to get everything loaded! The fish ate a variety of soft plastics. We didn't throw any cranks due to the gin clarity of the water. When it's that clear, I like to stick with soft plastics. We ended the day with 40 fish in about 4 hours of actual fishing. Not a bad outing for early March. By far the majority being smallmouth. Most of them in the 13-15 range. And a few nice largemouth thrown in to keep it interesting. I know it seems impossible to believe with all the recent reports showing up like sponsored infomercials, but not one fish was caught on a hd craw or ned rig.

Thank you very much Dwayne, that was exceptional. You were extremely versatile in what you did. I'm going to guess right now and I may be completely wrong, but for me I'm stopping the boat in 90+ feet, way out off the main lake points, channel swings and bluffends. If you are stealthy, you will see fish. If you run into the 40' and under before you shut down, you are most likely setting on them. I got another great tip today guys are also targeting these same fish on the bottom with a big jig in the 3/4 to 1 oz size and catching some nice LM in the 30' to 40' range on the bottom. These fish can also be targeted with the Dimiki rig or for us old dudes a C-tail Yamamoto or Chompers grub fished vertical on a 3/8 homemade bullet head. Thanks for that wonderful report and Good Luck in your derbies.

Spoken from a guy that takes a lot of picture worthy fish ! I also take a lot of picture worthy fish. I happen to like taking photos of minnows!

Everyone should bring a lawn chair to sit in at the weigh in / picnic!

I was also up at Champlain last fall for the northern open! I had a couple great pro's up there also..including Alton Jones jr. I've been close a couple times in flw tour tournaments but this one I really felt like it was mine to lose. Still a lot of fun and a good payday!

Great report! Thank You for sharing all the details. I'm happy to see that you got a check. There was a lot of good sticks, that never won a dime. I know that fishing the derbies is fun and exciting, but I didn't envy any of you blasting across the water in the early A.M.

Bank fishing the lower Meramec is tough, especially this time of year. There is a lot of unproductive water, and fish are in a few specific spots. Once the weather warms up for good, bass fishing becomes a little easier...if the river is reasonably low. Just look for good current and riffles. You'll always find spotted bass, at least, around the riffle areas in late spring and summer, along with the occasional smallmouth.

First pic was of the crowd at the horn. The second pic was of a guy fishing while wet wading wearing flip flops. ? It was about 44 degrees at the horn.

I will add if you go down a bank a certain way and catch a few or feel that there are more there, if conditions allow turn around the other way and often time it will yield some more bites.

I picked up some of this limited release from Schalfly. It's got a whole lot going on. Lots of fighting with whether it wants to be a stout with chocolate and coffee notes or if it wants to be an IPA with the bitter piney hops. It's pretty good and different. With my wife being gluten intolerant she has found that the Stone Delicious IPA will work for her too since they process the gluten out of it. She likes there is still beer out there that is tasty that she can drink.

Every fish is picture worthy.

Some vegetables - asparagus, green beans, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower are examples - I could enjoy at any and every meal. And fruits, too. Tomatoes!

I just finished the mise en place for tonight. I have two portions of chicken cordon bleu that I bought at Harter House on a tray to go in the oven. I have orzo ready for a quick boil; I also have mushroom, onion, garlic, and chives ready to saute and turn the simple pasta into a pilaf. Last I have trimmed asparagus ready to pan roast and blacken.

Well, here's my own quick "first week" report. Friday I was off, so after sleeping in and taking my sweet time deciding if it was too late to even bother going towards there, I decided to head that way anyway, and decide on the go just where around there I'd want to fish. Eventually I decided to try wading downstream from the hwy 8 access, as far down towards the springs as I could given that I had another 4 and a half hours before sunset. Pretty soon in, it became apparent to me that my waders were leaking somewhere inside my left boot. I figured I deal with that later since it wasn't a catastrophic leak yet, but as the time passed, and the actual wading got tougher and tougher (surprising how many boulder fields there are on that section of the river), the leak was beginning to irritate me. After making my way a little over half a mile downstream at a slow but steady pace, I decided further wading while having a leak in one boot, is just not going to work, especially with the bottom as slick and difficult to traverse as it was. So I headed back upstream to my car, and even though I had my older waders in the car, I decided it was too late to change into them and give it another try there. Instead I opted to drive a little further down the road, and fish the park from the bank. By the time I started fishing it was about 5 or so. Usually I don't do too hot even when I'm there all day, but to my surprise, fishing a little crappie minnow crankbait, I caught 3 fish, including 2 12" trout, and 1 little sunfish. All near the riffle just down from the fish cleaning station. Both trout were pretty fun fights, but the first one was really feisty for a stocker size fish. It jumped pretty high out of the water several times and took some decent runs. I'm glad I had my drag set a little lower than usual. I'm still surprised it didn't somehow get unbuttoned in all that. Anyways, I also got a bite on a smaller sinking rapala, towards the end, but not near as much action as the little shad colored crank. Not sure if anything hit on the roostertail I had too. Anyways, the park turned out pretty good by my standards, cause coming in people were saying they weren't biting too good, and even in general I always struggle there even when others don't. Btw, I think they had stocked like 700 fish that day. Seemed a little on the low end for the 3rd day of catch and keep season but I'm not real sure of that.

It's nice seeing people catching some. Me and my boys were down yesterday afternoon/evening and caught 2 whites and 2 walleye off the bank with minnows and swimming minnows.

We caught several shorts today but managed a couple 21 inch keepers. Kinda skinny though but my son was super excited.

With my boat repaired and new electronics installed and working, I went out for the first time this year. I did a lot of driving around to set up and test the Garmin echomap. Sweet unit! I did fish some with a wart and a Ned. Nothing but lost warts (2!) to report on the cranking. I caught 3 on the Ned, including 1 keeper. I thought about the deep and slow grub or swimbait method Bill suggested, but at the present water level I would have to run to Big M to find 40 feet of water. BTW, If you boat above Eagle Rock, there are at least two potential hazards. One is immediately upriver from Sawmill Hollow. The other is just around the corner upriver from J.D. Fletchers old place. Both are in the middle of the lake. Be careful! WT -> 51.

Well it's not a huge walleye but it is my son's first walleye. He caught it on a silver 1/4oz jigging spoon.

That guy is either a man or stupid.Could be a movie star or pro athlete for that matter.

Congrats on the fish you caught. That pond can be extremely tough to even catch a keeper! Way to go! Goodluck out there! And thanks for the report I enjoyed every word!

I'm still holding out for the virtual reality glasses...all you have to do is look down and you can see everything in the water as if the water wasn't there.

Eeeew. You're not supposed to eat them! ?

It was a Bomber. He used to post reports on BBC, may still.

It was rough at the end!!!

As long as we have Beaver upstream we will have occasional visitors through the dam. The recognized Arkansas record striper was caught in the stretch between Beaver dam and Holiday Island by Jeff Fletcher (J.D.'s son) in 2000.

quill, you need to be processing what you should be learning here. any area needs to be explored with a uphill retrieve. there are just times that is the only way to make them bite. bo

It doesn't look like you need that ole boat anymore.

Those two dudes are out there. WAYYY out there.

Drove down to blunks with my fishing buddy to float from blunks to walnut springs and had a great day on the water my buddy hooked a real nice brownie down by McCord bend and then after that we got into some whites and he hooked something that stripped half his spool of line and then broke off I told him it was either a big white or it was a walleye and then we both floated down to the last bend by the bluff and then had to paddle in to a hard head wind caught a real nice female white while we were resting but all in all a great day the baits of choice were a hellgramite plastic jig and rooster tails and crappie sliders