Leaderboard

My wife caught a 6 lb largemouth bass today late morning near Hideaway Marina (point 11 area) on a blue/green 5" grub in 30 feet of water. The fish nailed the grub and the fight was on. Such a beautiful fish. She measured 21" in length and had a girth of 16". We took pictures and released her. This is the largest bass we have caught while fishing Table Rock Lake.

We have several members here who serve in various roles of law enforcement. God bless you guys and stay safe out there in these troubled times. Most of all, know that you have our prayers and utmost appreciation for what you do.

While not a MO deer I do hang out here on the forum so thought I would share my personal best deer. I shot this one in Nebraska. After seeing this guy Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and not being able to get a shot; he finally gave me an opportunity Wednesday. My personal best by far!

My 12 year old daughter is getting in to fishing. We traded in the Zebco 33 and fishing off the dock for the real thing (spinning rod) and fishing off the boat. We went out for 2 hours last night for the first time. She caught 5 including a 4 lb 7 oz LM and a 2.5 SM and a nice Ky. I can't believe the luck. She was fishing a Ned on a 1/16 head and would just let it lay on the bottom while playing around with bugs landing on the rod tip. I hope she stays interested so I have some one to fish with in my old age which started some years back. Also teaching her to drive the boat. Bobby PS I caught zero.

Table Rock Lake Current Fishing Report Mid-Lake 4-15-20 Fat Jaw got me started. Got started this morning pretty early for me in this cold weather. Launched out of Baxter at 7:30 and fished till 2. Little hazy at first then the wind swept in about 8:30 and it got super bright and windy. Surface temps this morning 56.1 when I launched and the water is kind of a green tea color with visibility about 4-5 ft. After these last few cold nights I almost didn't go but thought maybe the same jerk bait fish I caught Easter morning would be hanging around. Started on that 50 yrd. point stretch that I caught most of them on Sunday. I also almost went to Taney. First 20 minutes I threw the Megabass in pearl and had zero bites. I could see some fish relating to the bottom and I moved out from about 20' to 30'. Nothing on the jerk bait but I continued to see fish not on the bottom,but maybe a foot off and suspended. I pulled back out on the point boat in 20' and picked up the Pig Sticker 1/2 oz. in GPO with a Reaction Smallie Beaver on it and chunked it up into I'm guessing maybe 8 to 10 feet. Big Brown fish caught it, then another and another and another. I lost count but I think it was about 15 to 20 straight throws with a keeper.either a jaw or a K. As the haze lifted, the sky brightened and I never caught another SM. K's continued to bite like they were at the last supper. Another 4 plus Toad brown fish. Continued to catch fish just drifting around this point in the wind by then, bout 9:30. I was not catching them every cast but I was kind of shocked at some point when I didn't get a bite. I left them biting. Pulled back to a really similar interior gravel point going into a big deep spawning pocket put the boat in 20 and there they were again. Cast after cast on the Pig Sticker. I tried a jerk bait and a Keitech and I could catch one on it but it was just not the deal, they wanted it on the bottom. They thought the Pig Sticker was Food. Next location same type deal but I only caught two on it. One nice K and the other a solid LM on a Megabass. Caught a few on a stick bait and a swim bait but it was just not the deal. Next spot same similar gravel run and it was totally Ri Dick U Lating. Every throw was a 15 to 17 inch K on the jig. I bet I didn't catch 5 short fish all morning and I'm just spit balling but probably 50 plus keeps. That is super conservative, as the real number is not a number, it is nonsense. About 1:30 pulled back on the original location and caught 5 more in 5 casts and put it on the trailer. They were just inhaling the jig. I've had great days here catching really big fish. I've had days catching literally hundreds on a drop shot, but I have never had a day on a jig like today. They wanted nothing swimming or really cranking as I threw a Rock Crawler to try and get them to eat it. I would catch one on a jig, pick up the jerk bait and throw it. Nothing. I would pick up the swim bait and throw it. Nothing. I would pick up the Rock Crawler and throw it. Nada. I would pick up the jig and throw it up there and "Thump there she is." These fish were totally packed full of crayfish. I don't think I caught a single one that didn't have at least one in its throat. And these were monster craws. Two big SM over 4 were the champs of the day, but just the sheer numbers of quality K's was something to always remember I'm going to say the best 5 at just under 17 pounds, so not a tournament bag but for sure the kind of day that keeps up getting up early and going back out. Best K of the Day. Only Bummer of the day was I lost 2 very large walleye right at the boat. I had my net out but both had the jig back deep and both cut the 10 lb. line before I could get them in the net. Man would that have made a day catching supper too. I get to fish a lot and I'll catch them good again. Probably not like today but I wish one of you all could have had this day. I was going to say I wish my son would have, he loves to fish a jig, but he would not have hung in there for that many fish. He is a 2-3 hr. guy even if they are tearing it up on a Redfih, he just won't fish that long. The rest of this week and into next might be record breaking, so if you can get out there and enjoy it, by all means do. This post has been promoted to an article

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 View full article

20”. Out of cold muddy water.

I went to my favorite Ozark stream for a short half-day trip on Saturday, Oct. 26th. Got there by about 9 a.m. and caught a 12" smallie on my first cast on the new Z-man Crawz on a ned head. Fished around with a ned rig for a while and caught maybe a dozen more smallmouth and one small largemouth. A few nice smallmouth, a 15", a 16", and a 17". Rain started and the water started to rise fast enough to watch. I have seen this water rising start an absolute feeding frenzy on what I just call creek baitfish: small suckers, darters, top minnows, brook silversides, and many others, I'm sure, that I've either misidentified or don't know the name of; so I switched up to a jerk bait. My favorite creek jerk bait is a Rapala x-rap, color is dependent on water clarity, but its the best creek jerk bait I've ever used. First 10 minutes with the jerk bait and I caught probably a 6 or 7 more fish. This time with a 3 lb largemouth mixed in with the smallies and a couple smaller largemouth. Moved on to the other end of this pool and caught a nice 16" smallie and another 3 lb largemouth on the ned. Switched back to the jerk bait there with no success and moved back to where I started. Waded out really deep to get to some of the sections of the pool that I hadn't reached yet. About 3 twitches in I got slack-lined on the jerk bait and immediately thought I had snagged a rough fish. Then a big old LMB shook his head at the surface. When I was fighting the fish I thought it was like a 4.5-5 pounder. A big one, no doubt, but I have caught them that size in this stream before. When I landed this fish my jaw dropped. It was a 6.64 lb largemouth that was 23" long. Biggest stream fish for me for sure! I fished for another hour or so catching a few here and there with another 16" smallie. I had to head back to host a Halloween party though and ended the day with 25-30 bass. Amazing trip and I can't wait for some more creek and river excursions as all of the lakes are fishing so tough still!

Caught em good today! Covering lots of water and chasing the wind. Cranks and blades in 6-10 ft. Nice to see some quality come out of the Rock again. Haven’t been posting, but this day was worth sharing. 18# with those three, 23 overall. Good luck Want to add this. My dad was buried 8 years ago on this day. Just want to say publicly that I miss ya and want to thank you for taking the time to take me fishing. This post has been promoted to an article

So, first day off the boat toter. Only things that broke were one braid-fc leader and my sunglasses strap. Good start. Fishing was, well, scary. Decent limit by 930ish. Full keeper slam by 10 am. Hard one was the spot. Go figure. Three keeper meanies total. Tried to stop counting keepers at 15, then hit 2 more back to back and gave up. That was around 230, fished till 445 or so with no drop off. Water 65-68 or so, colored up. Pretty shallow bite. Best one was a 19 & 1/2" black. If it didn't rhyme with bread, or something... Got a little touchy with the sun, but they didn't move. Just hunkered down and bite got softer. Keying on little features, and not avoiding rock snot at all. The jaws are just an immovable force when you pop them.

Fished both days this weekend. Spent our rainy/chilly Saturday from Owl Creek up to state line and managed 15-20 bass and four really nice crappie. One of the bass was a very nice LM and we had several other keepers. Unfortunately, we invested 2 hours in those crappie. Quality always seems to be good in the White but can't say the same for numbers. At least not for my efforts. Bass came on a spinnerbait, Bomber 6A crank, Senko, Keitech single swimmer and a crappie jig. Depths were from practically dry ground to no more than 12 feet. Just FYI, there's a fair amount of mud rolling down from the Roaring River, along with quite a bit of floating debris in both the upper White and Roaring Rivers. Be careful running. Launched Sunday at Viney and fished downstream to near the White/Kings split. Tough going for us. Managed about a dozen bass, of which two were nice keeper spots. The rest were sub-keepers. Spinnerbait, single Keitech and Ned were the players.

We were fortunate to fish in the BPS US open this past November. The experience was unbelievable and first class! We qualified on Bull Shoals, winning the family big bass division and finished 17th out of 250. We received $2000 at the tournament and qualified for a chance to fish for 1 million dollars! Thanks, Bass Pro Shops!

Disclaimer alert - as previously noted, I am geographically challenged, especially on the water, so I'll let Champ188 fill in those pertinent details and any other snippets he deems noteworthy. Splashed at 8:00 a.m. and put it on the trailer at 5:30 p.m. Long day and not our easiest ever. Certainly not the numbers we had on Thursday. No wind the first part of the day and ducked in a slip at Big M twice to avoid short showers. Hey, I'm on vacation. Don't have to tough out the rain. Best I recall WT ranged 49.1-52.7. First fish came at 9:15 a.m. Finally got a little something going when the wind showed up. Ended up with 20, mostly spots, no brownies. Five keepers for around 15lbs anchored by this beauty. Got my heart pumping on 6lb line. Sheesh. Had to run around the back of the boat like crazy Iaconelli feeding line. Mix of baits and mix of water - spinnerbait, Ned, swimbait, crankbait...maybe one on a FB jig. Beat the wood again and didn't seem to help a lot. Good looking stuff, too. I was sure hoping to capitalize on the bright skies this morning and run that swimbait through tree tops for a big chomp, but the fish had different ideas. Hope this girl shows up next Saturday for the OA derby.

Not a Table Rock fish, but a dandy none the less. Was walleye fishing up here in Kansas and pulled out a lake monster. She still swims! Thought I was hung up on a rock when she hit, then drag started singing as she made a big run. Honestly thought I had a carp at first. My wife netted her and yelled "OMG you caught a dinosaur!" I'll never forget that HA! Just figured the folks on this board would appreciate her magnificence! Fish was right at 9 lbs -Bigler

Grandson asked me to "fix" his reel that his Dad had messed-up. Quickly discovered Dad had looped line around the rear of the spool and had just kept crankin'. Easy fix and an opportunity to show "Patch" how to disassemble an open-face and how they work. Included a little lesson on how to correctly set the drag and how to fight the fish with the rod and not just by crankin' the reel. Showed him how to take care rigging-up the Ned Rig and how it was important to get that worm on the hook shank straight and he watched Mr. Fumble Fingers (me) struggle with it and tied it on. Later that evening he takes the same rod/reel/Ned and lands, gets a picture of and releases this beauty....

Started at the dam early and it was just not what I wanted it to be. Had several fish with a 4.52 jaw but not many bites. Loaded u.p the rig and headed for Baxter. Temps at the dam were 56 when I launched at 6. Relaunch at Baxter at 11 and the temps were 60 and it was just flat on. I caught them on a Keitech 3.3 and a jerkbait with the boat in 30 ft. Fish seemed to be in that 15 ft. range suspended and moving up. Fished from 11 to 5 and did not go 10 minutes without a bite. Wind was just perfect. Had 2 keeper walleye one 19 inches and one 22 inches and I released them. Had 10 crappie, the biggest I have ever caught. One here and one there. They were monsters. Biggest at 3.08 and 18 inches. Next biggest at 3.02 and 17.75 inches. The 10 weighed in at a little under 24 pounds. Smallest was a shade under 17 inches. I have fished in my 65 yrs. on Lake of the Ozarks, Lake Barclay, Kentucky Lake and Toledo Bend and never had a 2 pound crappie let alone a 3 pound crappie and for gosh sakes catching them on Table Rock is just unreal, I'm in a fog. Knife is 15.5 inches long. Every crappie came on a suspending jerkbait. Color did not matter as long as it was Blue. They were not schooled, one here and one there. Pole timber was always present. Best 5 bass would have pushed 17 pounds, all the best being jaws. This post has been promoted to an article

Slothman started a very interesting topic on CHIRP and I'm going to carry it on a little here, and I want to preface this by saying Table Rock Lake as it is what I know the best but am still learning on every trip to the lake. With the various types of underwater eyes we now have as far as some of the best freshwater electronics that have ever been invented by a multitude of companies how are they helping us. From scan to sonar just what are they doing for us? Table Rock and the White River Chain of lakes are for the most part ruled more by seasonal patterns, water depth and movement than they are by structure. How many of us thru either side scan or just our sonar mark places that look good, but don't have fish on them. I will bet everyone reading this piece. I have over 1,500 gps marks on my card with the majority of them not being structure, but there are plenty that are. Do they hold fish? Sometimes but most often not. Structure on Table Rock is like a Hotel or a Bed and Breakfast. The fish may visit, but they don't live there. They may stay a while and new guests from time to time check in, but most including the largemouth are on extended travel holiday. Most should own a 5th. wheel, cause they are on the road 90% of the time. Why? I will tell you at times I know and at times I don't know. Here is the place that Bo could jump in and help as he is one of our posters that is perhaps more in tune with seasonal patterns and the movement of fish than the majority of us. What is puzzling is most of the time the fish are moving just to be moving. There is adequate forage all over the lake and for sure enough forage to sustain them where they are, but they pack there sunscreen and head off to another location on the pond. That's why when folks ask, I say they live in the water, not by this or that structure. Table Rock fish are perfectly happy to suspend at depth and not relate to any structure whatsoever. Does water temperature influence migration? Yes and no. there are fish everywhere in the lake and I have had a many of trip that looking for warmer water in the early season is the wrong thing to do. Sometimes 45 degree water has more bites than 53 degree water. Warmer water at times make fish rise in the water column, or become more active. It puts some gas in the tank and make them move. Is this good? Sometimes. at other times it turns concentrations of fish into single targets of harder to hit moving fish. The only pattern that really holds on the Rock is a deep Winter and a Deep Summer pattern. Winter fish love 50' and they love it in deep vertical cuts or channel swings. Summer fish love the thermocline. Best depth for the last 30 yrs. has been 26' What does this have to do with structure. Just about nothing. Most of these fish hold on zero structure. At times they will relate to deep trees but most often they will not be so much in the tree as above it or just within 30 or 40 feet of it. Really, most often they will relate to runoffs and sharp drops or they will relate and suspend near changes in the bottom or transitions. A good example is I took a BFL angler out last year for a day prior to his tournament. We found a huge concentrations of K's on the bottom on a channel swing inside flat. I mean a huge concentration. We could have jerked them on a spoon or a drop shot and still been jerking. It was post spawn and every fish in the area was congregated and getting to know each other. He went back the next day and the flat was empty. Said it looked like a pool table top. After he left I took my client out there and found them in 2 minutes. They had moved from 22' on the bottom out to 22' suspended over 90' in the middle of the channel. No structure, just setting out there enjoying their day. That's Table Rock. Another point of Table Rock is fish love flat pea size gravel, with absolutely no structure or cover. It looks like the Serengeti down there but there are hunters that roam it, almost every month of the year. Mostly SM. When either the Conservation Department or fishermen add structure the fish leave. It is far from, "If you build it they will come." Don't work that way on Table Rock. Some of my best locations for both SM and K's have been totally ruined by adding structure. The bass just leave and don't come back. There is already plenty of structure in Table Rock that the bass very seldom if ever relate to, adding more is really not the answer, and adding it to locations that have none and trying to attract bass most usually has the opposite effect. As I said there is a bait or food form most everywhere and there is bait around existing structure and there bass are not there, either. I guess this is a long winded version of saying buy and learn to use your electronics as you see best, but just because you have 1,500 way points does not mean you know where the fish are or when they will be there. Good Luck

Caught yesterday by Dennis Shorb, the same person that picked up the nails and assorted hardware off the H ramp. Maybe a reward for a good deed? 27", 9.3 lbs. Mid lake deep water fish. It has obviously eaten its share of shad.

Started out of the Knob at 5:30 and I was not the first boat on the water. It is a total disaster up there at the ramp that is pretty much caved in from the wake boats. Shoreline damage at Shell Knob is without a doubt the worst on the lake. It is totally full of wake boats and now I am seeing lots of 35' plus type boats, cruser style. Headed up steam to the mouth of the Kings and fished 3 pts. that are very good to me usually. Mostly with a 2.8 inch Keitech and a drop shot either crawler or Yamamoto cut tail. Three small K's about 14 inch the first hour and all three had multiple hook holes, so they are being investigated. I brought 60 cleaned and washed crawlers and used about 1/2 of them on really nice blue gills. 18' to 26' on gravel. Clients wanted to keep them so we had a dozen big gills in the tank at that point and I knew I was in trouble as far as the bait supple. Next hour and a 1/2 we used up the rest of the worms and kept another bunch of gills and caught a dozen small bass and 4 small 12" walleye. We had an hour and a half to go and I told them we had to make a bait run so I pulled into Big M. and bought 3 more boxes of crawlers. With that 3 boxes of crawlers we caught 19 more walleye and at least 20 bass and a really nice flat head. Here is the rest of the story. Pulled out of Big M. and headed back toward the Knob. One particular runnout not be named was calling my name so I pulled in on it. Quill has fished in probably more than me, I see him there most times I'm up the river. It was still cloudy and there was a slight wake boat chop blowing in on the point. I hit it to shallow, I thought. I came onto the point at 12ft. and my graph just blacked me out. The water color in the White is really about as dingy as you will see it in August. Looks more James River green. By the time I got shut down and the Garmin dropped I was in 18' and the Livescope looked like a shotgun had hit the screen. The 2D was totally full on the other graph. I rigged all three clients before I let anyone drop cause i knew I would never get them all in the water any other way and all three dropped. First drop 2 keeper walleye and a nice 12 lb. flat head. Talk about a zoo and fire drill, I had one on my hands. I had 3 fish on the floor of the PHX and rewormed them and they dropped all at once again. The guy the back had kept the worm on as the Walter had not got it off the hook. All dropped. I scrambled to throw the fish in the well and all three were hooked up again. All thee had nice keeper K's on. I chunked them back and rewormed 2 clients as the guy in the back had again not lost his worm and as far as worms go it looked pretty good. Back they went and again in a manner of speaking all hooked up. Mind you we are in about 17' of water. 3 keeper walleye and none even remotely needed measuring. The guy in the back again did not lose his crawler and at this point i'm telling you that is a record. Back down they all went and again the guy in the back caught another keeper walleye and the two in the front caught keeper K's He did lose his crawler this time, but what a run. This went on till the 36 crawlers were gone and their trip was over. On this location we had 19 walleye with 15 keepers and none of the keeps need to be measured. I let them keep 9 walleye for the 3 of them and looking back I probably should have just let them keep a couple each. None the less they were thrilled. 28 gills, 9 walleye and the kitty went to the dinner table. Yesterday they loaded the boat with quality rainbows on our trip to Taney so i'm sure my luck is at least ran out for the next week or so. 23 total walleye on a 4hr. trip is by far the most I have ever seen or even heard of on the Rock. 15 keepers is by far them most I have heard of. RPS may know someone that has done better, but it was unreal. Bill Beck and 2 clients caught 12 keepers off Viney about 10 yrs. ago spooning in the Fall, and that was the best I knew about until today. My best day ever was with Buster Loving on Bull Shoals, we had Brent Frazee of the KC Star and we kept 12 that weighed 57 pounds at the pothole. All on Buster's custom painted and custom billed jerkbaits. That was for sure a day 20 years ago. On to the wake boats. They were all over us all day except for the walleye runnout at the end. It is totally terrible. It was close to impossible to load my boat at Shell Knob ramp with the rollers coming in. There is a trick however. I only had 1 ft. of the trailer in the water. That's right, 1 ft. Back in wet your bunks and nose the boat on the trailer. Next big breaker that comes in ride it to the winch and you got her done. Most likely a day on the Rock I will never forget. Good Luck

Dam-Long Creek area with Mike Hit the water out of Old 86 yesterday morning at 7:30 in the Geico Ranger with a really stiff South wind and some pretty good swells. Water was clear and 48 degree. Plan for this morning was to crank and throw the stick bait on windy banks and then take a breather and do a little vertical stuff if we could find them. Always good to see and fish with Mike. The guy is always in a great mood and really reminds me of Beck which was also one of his best friends. He loves to fish and simply loves what he does. He is pretty good at it.😎 Started on a transition bank with a lot of wind and some big surf pounding it. I was on the sticker and Mike started with the RK. I hardly had my butt in the seat when he said, " There she is." Really nice 2.5 lb. LM. Wind was really blowing down the bank, kind of had the boat sideways with me on the back and Mike on the front. He was fishing a bit deeper with the bow in 18 to 20 feet and me in about 1/2 that and still almost full cast from the bank. About 3 cast later and he was winding it pretty good and also pulling it he caught a nice Jaw. Again probably 2.5 or so. Here is a tip, don't be afraid to throw that Spro Rock Crawler deeper than you think. Mike was throwing it on 10 lb. Carbon and he was ticking the bottom at 12' . We fished a 300 yard stretch of the transition until it flattened out and he caught 4 all keeps with the good one pictured above. I wasn't really warmed up good yet so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Wind was blowing a gale and he had a phone call to take so we pulled into a creek to check for some deep ones. They were there but fussy as all get out. While he was on the phone I caught a good keeper K swimming the Keitech Deep-Deep at 50 feet plus. As soon as he was done he put 2 more keepers in the boat also on a swim bait deep. I think I'm down 6 to 1 but who's counting. Saw some Loon's working in another creek and went in. Here is where I was totally blown away. Mike is a Garmin guy and we watched the Garmin Panoptix Livescope all day. He kept saying Bill, Bill get up here and look at this. At a spot in the creek he said," Bill get up here and look at this, there is a school of shad 50' in front of the boat at 30' with a school of bass under them at 35', I'm going to catch one right under that school from here." And, Durn he did it, Threw past the bait ball counted it down and swam it through the bassyou could see the fish fighting back toward the boat after he hooked it. Simply amazing. 99% of us would have never caught the great Brown Fish that Mike pulled from the middle of the creek suspended under shad away from everything. With a pretty nice wind on a transition bank going into one of the major creeks in the dam area, we started fishing the McStick pretty serious for about a hour and I even threw a Megabass a bit but no bites at all on the stick bait. If the Table Rock Hammer cannot catch one on a stick bait its probably time to put it down. I asked if he wanted to catch some deep jig fish and he was all on board so we motored up Long Creek to the ridge I had been doing well on. We both fished a Pig Sticker 5/8 and 3/4 GP Orange. Now durn it, I'm pretty good at this and these are my fish. As you can tell this is probably not going to be good for me. Stinkweed put 3 keeps in the boat before I got one. PS Mine was bigger. He then put 1 more keep and 1 short in so at this point I'm pretty much toast but it is sure fun watching him catch them. Dudes we caught some jig fish out over 40'. He is "EXTREMELY PATIENT" He calls it Hard Headed but if he thinks he can catch them he does not move. Same thing with the Rock Crawler he will throw it and throw it. It works if you can make yourself do it. The day he caught the 5 pounder he said he threw it and caught 5 in the first hour, nothing for the next 2 hours still throwing it and then 4 more in about 45 minutes with one over 5 and 1 around 4. We stopped at another transition on the way in and he caught another really nice LM on the RK. again he was fishing it probably a bit deeper than most of us, I'm saying that crank bait fish came out of probably 15' plus. Mike fishes a Motorguide Tour Pro and it lifts and deploys with 2 fingers. It is totally silent both turning and running. The new MG with spot lock is not out yet but Motorguide has told him it will be something special and should be out soon. Mike has been very loyal to Motorguide thru all the spot lock deal and also with the new Garmin so I'm excited to see what he thinks of the new motor. Final score Mike Mcclelland 12 keepers and one short. Bill Babler 3 keepers. Last time I beat him 8 to 3, so he got his revenge and really gave me the best water to fish all day. We'll get out another couple of times in the next two weeks before he has to go back on the road. It was a fantastic and educational day with a really good buddy. If you all have any questions about equipment or technique you would like Mike to answer just post them here and I'll see what he has to say. Good Luck This post has been promoted to an article

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

Not even sure where to start with this... Some of you know I posted an unspoken prayer request on 1/8. A few know the specifics. Well, these are the basic details. In December my wife had a flare up of headaches and dizziness. Nothing super alarming, especially for a pharmacist in winter. Then on 1/2 she woke up with double vision. A week later she was having surgery to remove a brain tumor. You probably won't hear a lot of folks say "Hallelujah! My wife is having brain surgery!" But I did. We did. Because it wasn't inoperable, which it certainly could have been. God is good. Never doubt it. The pathology report really hit us for a couple of weeks. All we knew for certain was that it wasn't the always benign tissue they expected based on the MRI. Local pathology wanted extra eyes on it, sent it out, to Mayo as it happened. Both identified it as a different type, but also benign. Requires a little more watchfulness on everyone's part, but still a good prognosis. Did I mention that God is good? Overall she's doing very well, just in the middle of a long recovery. She's struggling with some double vision, lot of possible causes, but none emergent or requiring intervention. We're hopeful that it will resolve, but realistic about the possibility it might not. Compared to how things might have gone, she is so very fortunate. God does not forsake His own. Throughout, we have felt surrounded by the prayers of faith filled folks, many from the members here. It was like a wall was built around us, around our family. We lived on prayer and faith. Can't thank you enough. Not if we did it every minute. So I guess that covers the thanks, and the update. That leaves the jigs. We are obviously behind on everything from production to getting back to folks about orders. We're working on it, and we're getting there. For now, we're basically in a backorder situation. We're still trying to make both unpainted and painted jigs. At some point, it may be that we just have the unpainted available for a while. Painting is obviously the slowest part of the deal. I cleared some space in my inbox. My email is still the same, feel free to use it. Honestly, it's probably the easiest way to reach me currently. There's so much more to tell. About lessons learned. About friends. About faith. Would be happy to talk about it with anyone. Especially if you're struggling. Hope everyone has a great spring. "My" fish probably needed a year off anyway 😉.

Sometimes we just have to tap the brakes and give thanks for the true blessings and the mercies that we have been given as a result of the greatest sacrifice. I am more blessed than I deserve and thankful for the grace that is bestowed upon me - if it were not for those two things I am not sure where I would be in this crazy world. Happy Easter everyone C4F

Hog Wally texted me last night and said he was thinking about going out today and did I want to go. I told him Mary wanted me out of the house, so that would be perfect. Of course, the weather didn't look very good when I got up at 7 AM. Rain. Cold. Well, at least no wind. These days I live less than 2 miles from Hog Wally, so it didn't take long to get there. He said his wife was sure I'd cancel because of the weather, but he knows me better than she does. The idea was to fish a certain area of the river where he had found a bunch of bass. But we both talked about the fact that it was a walleye kind of day, dark, gloomy, rainy, cool...Not many people know how to catch walleye on the river better than Hog Wally, and he said the places we were going to be fishing had some big walleye. But this wasn't Black River, or Current River, where the really big walleye are. We figured we'd catch a couple nice ones if we were lucky. I caught a 16 inch smallmouth on my first cast at the first place we stopped, but although I got a couple other bites, we caught nothing else there. So we headed on to the place where we really wanted to fish. The bass were there. Again I caught a nice spotted bass on the first cast on a jerkbait, and we fished along the rocky bank, catching some smallish smallies. Then we got to a nice dropoff coming out of the riffle, and HW hooked a big fish. When he got it up within sight, he was all excited. "It's a big walleye! A real big walleye." He netted it. Laid it on his measuring board, which goes to 26 inches. It was a couple inches past the end of the board. I guessed it at a good 6 pounds. He said that fish made the day for him, and I agreed.It was far too pretty a fish to keep. He released it. A few casts later, he got another walleye, this one about 22 inches, and he decided to keep it to go with the spotted bass we were keeping. Then he got a third fish, this time a nice sauger. It went in the live well, too. We drifted down the pool, picking up bass now and then. Finally HW suggested we go back up and try that walleye spot one more time. He hooked another big fish. "This one's big...really big...OH MY GOD!" I've seen some big walleye on Black River, but this rivaled some of those fish. The northern Ozark streams just don't produce the huge walleye that Black and Current do, but here was the exception. I netted it eventually...His scales, which are pretty accurate, settled at 11.95 pounds. I believe this might be the biggest walleye I've ever heard of coming from the Meramec. It was certainly HW's personal best from there. Yup...it was a walleye kinda day.

My oldest grandson caught his first trout in Oct 2015 during a camping trip with my wife. It was about 2 weeks before my Cancer diagnosed. We had borrowed a pair of kids waders and he was using spinning gear. Just a little feller of 6. We raised him for the first few years as his Mom and Dad got their young lives together and figured things out. He has been like my son. We had not been back till now. I had him this weekend. We took out Saturday and spent the day exploring things in the cold windy day. We did not fish, just touring and learning. The mountains of the St Francois chain, the wilderness between Arcadia and Salem, the Huzzah hatchery ruins, and Montauk itself. Spent the night at Rolla in a motel and enjoyed the Sirloin Stockade buffet. Sunday morning, we hit Montauk below the place in the campground where he landed his first trout. I bought him a little blue Cabelas starter rod a couple of years back and we have been out on ponds, lakes, and streams catching warmwater bream and bass. This was his first trout trip with it. He pulled this one out on a San Juan worm I tied. Several more during the day and a chub. During those 6 years, he has changed a little. He wears my stuff now. That is a pair of my waders and boots. He can tye some flies. He can kill a deer. And I am back up to almost full strength to keep up with him. It was a beautiful winter day in the park. Over the two days, we learned again about the trout hatchery and the runs, the springs, the geology of the whole area. We enjoyed the wildlife and the history of things. And the experience of it all.

I know this isn't Table Rock specific, but wanted to share my spoils from last week. I took a trip to Green Bay for a duck hunting/small mouth trip that we try to fit in each fall. Typically we focus on the duck hunting but the wind kept us out of the layout boat for the most part on Thursday. Friday it was still kicking pretty good but was scheduled to slack off as the day went on, we decided to small mouth fish. That turned out to be a wise move as we boated 40+, largest was 6.36lb's, with many over 5lb!!! It was a day to remember to say the least! Below are a few pictures and i highly recommend the trip up north!

The wife and I decided to take our other grandson fishin' on Tuesday 5/28 and we had a ball. They ate the Ned Rig so good last week so I tied one on for everybody and they are still eating it up.....I taught Ethan how to fish with a spinning rod and how to work the Ned Rig. I even gave him my fishing pole. He started catching them really good.....then he started getting cocky......So I had to show him who's boss..... It was a great day. We caught fish and laughed until we cried several times. The boy is a blast to fish with. My wife was the camera "man" all day and did an excellent job. What a day....

After the saga I had with Hydro Tec on my last Skeeter I decided to forego another rebuild and sold it as is to a guy in Tennessee. I picked up a 15 FX21. I was not going to buy another boat without a warranty. Excited to go fishing and contribute to this forum again.

Hit the Meramec today. The last 3 weekends have been blown out due to high water, but before that - back in March, - we were really putting a hurt on 'em, numbers-wise. Which usually isn't the case this early in the Spring - at least for me and the people I fish with. With the weather decent, the river level and flow back to near normal, my buddy and were chomping at the bit to see if they were still in their haunts and active. Well, they weren't. We only caught 6 fish the entire day, but one of them was the freak below. I've been Ozark Smallie fishing for about 10 years and have never caught anything close to this, nor have I personally ever seen a another fish this size. 5.51 lbs on the Rapala digital scale. Didn't have a way to measure her length, so I am not going to take a guess. Beautiful, healthy, fat fish. She didn't have a mark on her, except on the top of her tail. Not sure what that could have been from. I could probably fish these rivers for the next 50 years and never catch another fish this big, so it was a very special moment! This post has been promoted to an article

We've been taking up space in the 417 for a week now, will get some fish info up in a bit. First...thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to pray for my wife Heather, and for our family. We cherish your prayers, and are still finding our strength in God. So many times, He was all we had to cling to. Overall, she's doing well, better than before surgery in many ways really, but it's been a rougher road than when I last posted anything. Right after that update, she developed multiple pulmonary embolisms, and we started treating those. That was just after Valentine's Day. Hopefully, that's about to come to a resolution, should know in a few weeks. About mid April her three month MRI came back showing something that still enhances. That's most likely residual tumor. We're in the process of trying to find out what the plan is for dealing with that. Many of you have been through something similar, and know that "unsettling" doesn't come close to describing it. It's been...rough. That covers it pretty well. Knowing it's a long process and being caught up in the process are different things. So jigs...we were almost up to speed on pouring jigs when the clot issue happened. That quite simply changed a lot of things. For now we're on what I would describe as a hiatus with the jigs. Just not going to spend hours over a hot pot when I might regret it later. If things work out well, we will be back at it, because the darn little things work. Girls just headed home this morning. On top of everything, in the middle of this our daughter made an AAU basketball team, and is in the process of applying to the Air Force Academy, and Annapolis. She leaves for an Air Force engineering camp in Colorado Springs in a couple of weeks. Basketball like crazy until then. Busy busy. When I say I love you all like family, please know that I mean it. This is a pic I wasn't sure would ever be taken...

Today, probably as good as Table Rock can get. Started at 6:50 to 58 degree surface temps with fish busting off the long points. Looked all over and not a single bed yet. Surface temp at 3 pm when we quit was 63 degree Fished from SK to Emerald Point and not really much traffic. Only ones were folks that should know better that pulled in front of me and threw the trolling motor in. Guy in a Bass Tracker pulled in front of me less than 50 yards. I went around him and he just threw a total fit. ????????? Unreal. Fish were not up early other than the chasers and I had to work for about 3 hours. At 10:30 the water hit 60 degree and it was crazy stupid. I got on one location and it was literally shooting targets with the Garmin Livescope, at least 2 dozen staging at 20’ over 35’ Picked up Becky at noon, she brought lunch. Should have left her on the dock as she put a Bigtime Whipping on me with the little Keitech. Haul today was 1 short walleye a 1/2 dozen whites, 3 crappie and I’m guessing 60 plus bass with perhaps 15/20 fifteen inchers. Becky had a great time and that matters most. We’re Retired. 😜😜😜😜 Good Luck

White River Outfitters Guide Service Let's face it, there are lots of ways to catch fish on Table Rock that don't involve getting snarled up or having a Master Fly Caster's certification. In Springtime is there a better way to catch big fish other than fishing a barbed wire contraption that's named after a Southern state. Probably not, with one exception, the Float n Fly. The Table Rock Lake, Float-n-Fly history goes back to a guide by the name of Bill Richey. Bill went to Dale Hollow Lake one early Spring and they fished the fly and had really good success. A light switch went on and he thought that will work on the Rock big time. Bill introduced both Bill Beck and myself the the technique and we kind of took off with it winning multiple tournaments and guiding clients to the biggest bass of their life with it. I caught my personal best Table Rock Bass on the fly, at 10.1 pound. Bill caught 2 over the 10 pound mark and also had a 12 year old girl, catch a 10.3 on it. My biggest on a guide trip was a whopping 8.3 pound a client caught about 6 yrs. ago. The Float n Fly works between late January and May if lake conditions are correct. We have not had a good year for it for the last 4 or 5 yrs. Good year is clear water, pool between 914 and 917 and if possible small shad die off. This is the perfect year as they are just inhaling it. I hit 3 different bluff ends today after guys fished A-rigs on them and caught keepers right behind them, no problem. Fishing a Float n Fly is a bit like a Ned in that it is pretty slow fished, but a better analogy is you fish it as if your were flipping a jig in a bush. Cast it out and let the fly settle, bounce it or jig it several times and then rinse and repeat. Both Bill and I bought specialized equipment for the technique. We both bought St. Croix rods that were 9' as they are tournament legal in most derby's. Some do not have length specifications and you may use any length rod you wish. i prefer a 10' to 12' rod. Any good large arbor spinning reel, at least 3500 series works great. Spool the reel with the 10 lb. braid, you select brand, it don't matter. I like white or hivis yellow. Just like a fly line you can see it and tell if you have to much slack. You need a Mr. Crappie high Vis float and a 3 way swivel. I use a Spro 3 way. First you attach your swivel to the float then you put your braid on one arm of the 3 way. I use a palamar and pull it super tight. Then for your leader you want to use carbon as it sinks. Bill Beck used 4lb. but I think 4, 6, or on the outside 8 works OK. 8 is easier to cast. At this point attach the carbon with a improved clinch with at least 6 wraps. I'm using 14' of depth right now as these fish are suspended deep, as deep as 30' and they will still come up for it. There are a ton of companies making Float n Fly jigs/flies. The best by far not even close is the Spro Phat Fly in 1/16th. in blue or shad. My favorite is the blue. It has a super sticky Gamakatsu size 1 nickle hook that you need to be careful of. There are a couple of things you now need to do. First you need to trim the fly back a bit. Yes its looks like a waving tail would be better but its not. Trim the fly. Attach the fly to your carbon leader with a 6 twist improved clinch and put the knot at the rear of the eye so the fly rides level, cinch the knot tight and it will stay at the back till you get bit. There you have the basic FF rig. Correct posture for the fly. Incorrect posture for the fly. After you have it attached use gulp or some type of attractant on the fly, you can pretty much just sop up the tail with it and that great. Casting and retrieving and fishing the rig needs some explaining. With 14' of leader below the float it takes a while to get proficient. First this rig is light, so you are casting or lobbing the float, the fly and line just follow, somewhat like a fly cast. Pull out at least 3' of braid to the float, dangling your leader and fly in the water as far as you can reach out with a 10' to 12' rod. Length really Really helps. Back cast the float and watch your back cast, when your fly hits the water, lob it forward at height and it will shoot right out there after a little practice. If your a fly fisherman no problem, Phil lilley was casting it better than me in about 5 minutes. The trick is watching your back cast making sure the fly is completely behind you prior to coming forward. Easy Peasy. When the fly hits the water it takes a few seconds for that to sink. Wait about a minute and then jig it several times and repeat. If nothing raise your rod tip as high as you can reach and them smoke it in as fast as you can turn the reel handle. Reason, You cannot slowly reel 14' of 4 or 6 pound test leader thru pole timber, cannot be done. Reel in fast and the fly will come to the surface following the float and rethrow to a new location. Strikes can be very easy or the float is just gone. Sometimes it starts walking, just like crappie under a float. When setting the hook set to 12 o'clock, this is a lift and not a snap or you will break that light line keep your rod very steady in that straight up attitude, allowing the rod to absorb the shock of the fish. Keep a big bend and if you need to use the trolling motor to pull the fish out of the pole timber to deep water, making sure previous to fishing that your drag is very loose. The better the reel the better the drag. Float n fly does not work well in wind or choppy water, it is best as a smooth water technique. It's hard to keep slack out of your line and for some reason the fish don't like the constant action of the chop. Go figure Location, most any bluff end or runnout pole timbered fast drop point I usually make a dozen cast per location and if nada, hit the road. At times they will get on the bluff walls in the small cuts and pole timbered pockets, where ever fish stage Pre or Post spawn. Table Rock, Bull Shoals, Beaver or any of the White River Lakes it will catch them between now and May. Watch your electronics, if I see suspended fish in the 10 to 30 foot range off those points they will eat it. Don't be intimidated by it and you will catch your biggest bass, maybe of a lifetime right here on the Rock Good luck This post has been promoted to an article

i hate losing at anything, and even includes fishing against my wife. attached are some pics from saturday's fishing. first, time linda has been able to go in well over a month. we ended up with 12 keepers, which was not too bad considering we were fishing the second day after a front. well, anyway, linda had 7 of the 12 keepers and had some dandies. this why i have to fish everyday. i need the practice to be able to beat her😃. bo

Caught my personal best largemouth today. 5.20lbs. Was a pond bass but none the less the biggest bass live ever caught. Sad to say it’s still a pound and a half behind my wife’s biggest bass out of the same pond.

Douglas Adams book title, but wonderfully appropriate for leaving TR. The moving van comes tomorrow and unloads in Tulsa on Friday. I will come back next week to take the boat off the lift and move it there. Assuming the flooding does not breach the dam, I will put it on Skiatook Lake soon thereafter. I will continue to read and post in the forum. The reports will be for a different lake though. Thanks to all here. You have been invaluable in learning and fishing this lake, and I appreciate all the wonderful things you find here compared to other forums. rps

finally got to feeling better and got out for a bit tonight. went fishing with my old buddy gary harlan. he is spending the summer here instead of falcon. too much stuff going on down there on the border. the dems need to talk to someone that actually lives down there and they will straighten them out pretty quick on how bad things really. now back to the news. we kind of did a bit of showing out tonight. plus 12 keeps and a host of those good ones. a 3/8 GrassJig got most of them, but got a couple on a beaver type bait on a 1/4 Pro Series head, and one on a tube, also on a 1/4 Pro Series head. the one bigger one that was caught on the bank came on the tube. all the rest were in the 10 to 15 ft. range more on the main channel and not back in pockets. only one of these bass seemed to have spawned. the rest were as slick and fat as could be. the pic on the two were caught at the same time. mine was on the tube on the bank and the other one more in the 10 to 12 ft. range. with the water fluctuating as it has been, there may be some bass spawning next month just as there were last year. bo

My personal best missouri walleye amd second best ever. 9lb 12 oz. 27 1/4 inch.

White River Outfitters Guide Service 6-27-18 That's a pretty big chunk of water I just bit off, and I'm even going to sweeten the deal going up the James to point 12. The are biting and I mean they are biting like I have not seen in the past 10-15 yrs. Sometimes not as fast but 6 out of 7 days if you want to, you can catch fish. I'm saying if you " WILL" fish like the fish want it and fish where the fish are, its easy to catch them. I don't do it everyday, some days and with some people mostly seasoned fishermen we make it hard on ourselves. If I have novice fishermen they catch them easy. If you want to drop shot any soft plastic or swim a Keitech fish are available. If you want to power fish yes, you can be successful, but sometimes you have to work a bit more at it. Surface temps have dropped to 83 degree but they will pop back up this week. We have a complete solid thermocline at 26' lake wide. There are fish off the flats, fish off the bluffends and fish suspended and on just about every major channel swing either just off suspended or on the bottom at the 30' mark. Only part of the lake would be called Super Hard from Long Creek to Point 5 Probably decent at night, but from what the Big Cedar guides are saying its miserable. Of course all they are doing is live bait fishing at depth on the same locations. Over and over and over and over. From Point 1 to Point 5 the whites have been blowing in the flat cove mouths most mornings. Its over by 6:15 at the latest so you need to get out there. Buster Loving has cleaned a zillion whites the past 3 weeks in that area. After the whites go down he is headed to deep trees and catching LM, and K's' suspended out of the tops at the thermocline and off some of the gravel in that same 26' to 35' range the same as Bobby is. By the way big shout out to Bobby for keeping us very well informed on the dam area. Lets take a big stroll here and go from Point 5 to point 12 on the James and that's a lot of Aqua, but still the same bite, if you want it. As usual this time of the year lake sections of fish group or school after the spawn and try to regain some flesh back after all the debauchery. You can hit 5 runnouts and nothing and then the 6th. will be completely covered. Be careful with the CPR as I said these are lake sections of fish. One day they will be on one spot and the next day there gone to another or just out loafing over depth. Early this week Rick Lisek had a 3 person trip and used a Chompers WMC drop shot worm up the James and they had 93 bass in a 4 hr. trip. He said at least 20 keepers maybe more as they didn't measure. All at the above mentioned depth, caught on the bottom mostly on gravel long points and runs in that 30' depth, or up suspended off the bottom. Had one of my good friend and client Ed Shawbaker out this last week and had easy 40 on a jig on gravel 26' right on the money. We were not throwing at the bank we sat in 26' and turned the boat bow toward the bank and fished a full drag in that depth and doubled on several as I spoke of earlier they were hard to detect, but were eating like pigs. Next day we threw the flutter spoon with James Atwood. threw the big Lake Fork and the Dixie, and they just waxed either. James got sick about 1/2 way thru the morning but I'm guessing we had 25 at least all on the spoons prior to " The Big time Potty Break." Most all were LM and most all were keeps. Day before yesterday we fished from KC to just above Baxter and it was the same deal only I picked up a tip from Quill instead of drop shot we swam the Keitech thru the suspended fish, again at that same 26' mark and caught fish after fish, it was completely silly. Yesterday I fished from Viola to Big M and again swam the Keitech. I believe the guys said we had 80 total it was stupid. Most of the time swimming the Keitech boat is in 60' to 70' to target these fish holding in the 30' range, usually about 1/2 way back. I will tell you I could have sat on them with the drop shot, but this is way, way more fun, and the bite on a single location will last much longer when you pull them from the school and drop them away from the school instead of just pulling them straight up and then dropping them straight back to rat you out to their buddies. Trick is you have to go slow and fish it thru the correct depth. If your not getting bit, your reeling it to fast. Back to my Ole Buddy Bill Beck here " Are you fishing it, or are you throwing it out and reeling it in?" As usual I should have listened to Champ much more closely as he put me on a fantastic head for this. I'm using the 3/8th. Wareagle with a 3.3 inch Keitech. The shad are exactly this size. If I try and use a 1/4 most of my clients do not have the patients to let it get down. The 3/8 gets there quicker and maintains the depth at a more even level. Depth is the key on these suspended fish. Easy for the DS but hard throwing and casting. I'm also swimming it on a heaver rod with 8lb. Maxi as I need the backbone to get them stuck 6'9" Cara T7 spinning rod with a Shimano Stradic. Sweet combo for this application with the big jig head and the heaver line. Just a bit much for the Squirrel tail It really likes the 1/8 to 1/4 up to 5/16. Even a better rig for this is the Cara T7 Cranker spooled with 10 lb. InvizX but not a ton of my folks can throw a B. Caster. Here is the deal on that Wareagle, it has double bait holder/ keepers I still put a spot of glue on it and clip off that nasty light wire weed guard. We used 7 total swimbaits to catch that 80 fish. TOTAL. That in the day of the jelly for bellie Keitech is more than great, its fantastic. Here is another priceless tip. You have to net the fish you catch with the swimbait. If you try and swing them they will shake their heads so violently that they tear the swimbait to pieces so just net them and save yourself a buck a fish. Get out there and look around, you just never know what you'll find in the briny deep. Good Luck This post has been promoted to an article

I hardly ever post anything, but Im on here a lot. My wife was diagnosed with early onset dementia 5 years ago. i haven't pickup a pole since then taking care of her is a full time job. now she's in a residential care facility getting close to the end. i buried my brother yesterday. all the post and pics helps me ease my mind for bit. So thank you from the bottom of my heart and keep those pics coming.

We fished our club tourney out of Cape Saturday. The catching part was fairly easy for all that entered, but the keeper bites were a different story. I had several dinks by 8, and caught the first keeper at 9 with a 7" ribbon tailed worm paralelling the bank in 15 FOW. At noon i pulled up to a dock in 40 FOW, cast my PB&J wacky worm on a head that aarchdale makes, and at the same time i cast, dock owner walked onto the dock. This was my first cast in there so i let it set. chatting with the owners. While this was going on, i was slightly jigging the wacky on the bottom. Went to pick up my slack and noticed my line was out of the dock, in open water. Quick hookset, few jumps mid-air, and one more right into the net. This fish measured right at 22" on the dot. Felt great after not fishing for the past 2 months to catch a nice summer fish, where i normally struggle like no one else. This post has been promoted to an article

Went down to a shallow overcrowded river in SEMO Thursday-Sunday. Nice drive on Thursday plus lunch at the Arcadia Academy. On site with plenty of time to set camp, and let the kids swim while the adults enjoyed several gravel bar cocktails before dinner. Family float on Friday. My friends son, and my two daughters did the whole 5-6 mile float on their little kayaks w/o incident. Not bad for kids under 10! We were very proud! Fishing was better than expected too. Lots of little rat smallmouth on 1/16 & 1/8 oz Ned's and a few better to 15" on top. Gals elected to gravel bar on Saturday while the boys floated & fished. Tons out Saturday but it did not seem to matter. We caught little rats everywhere we could sneak a cast in between other floaters, some nice fish too. One Hog!

Finally got the youngin out last evening. Been trying to sense the oa outing with no luck do to weather! I decided on the blade, she was on her typical night crawler method (still working on patience for the bass). On a main lake point we push up to the bushes and started pitching. About the third cast had one just kill the war eagle. It was a beauty of a black!! She seen it jump and I quote her "dad I need a rod I'm bass fishing!" My heart melted right then. We fished a couple hrs lots of fun. I ended up just watching her fish a swim bait after that. No other way I'd want to spend my time! All day today was "can we go fishing?" So tomorrow rain please hold off we're hitting it early!

A few years ago, Hog Wally, MOSmallies , Smalliebigs , and myself, met on this forum and forged a bond through our passion for river fishing. That passion has manifested itself into a new lure company. I know you've Probably been hearing about it from us for a while, so we would like to formally announce the opening of our new lure company, Tackle HD, as of JAN 20, 2017. We are starting out with a few modest offerings, but plan on continually adding more products as we grow. Tackle HD is committed to the design and manufacturing of brand new products to the marketplace. All of our molds are originals. You won't find anything like them anywhere. All of our lures have been designed, tested, and re-tested to have a unique fish catching action and look, and an uncanny attention to detail. These lures are literally spawned on the bank of the Meramec River, in the heart of Missouri's finest smallmouth country. Our jigs have been specifically designed to work with each individual lure we create, but work well with a variety of baits. We will mostly be selling products online, but will sell through a very limited number of retail stores/tackle shops. Our products are made one at a time, all in our humble little shop in St.Clair, MO., by American workers. We're pretty proud of that. We also think it's pretty cool we all met on OAF. Thanks Phil Lilley! Here is the link to our website: www.TackleHD.com You can also keep up with the latest news via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! We will soon have a couple of videos on our website that offer instructions on things like rigging the baits, and fishing tips. Along with some success stories and pictures. Here's Al Lindner's son Troy with a giant smallmouth caught on the HI-Def Craw. We would ask our friends and fellow fisherman to like our Facebook page as well! Thank you for your support! Have a great and blessed weekend! Sent from my iPhone

They have this game figured out. So fun watching them beat me. Monday was a great day with 16 keeper bass, biggest 4.5, 4, couple 3's on a buzz bait shallow. Pea gravel with basketball size mixed. 30 degree banks. Had to cover A LOT of water, but worth it. Went out Tuesday n Wednesday and couldn't even come close to repeating. Decided to crappie fish and ....... more great memories for us.

Fished from 7 - 10:30 am today. Believe or not, for me fishing was better today than the recent 2/19 outing. I did not locate fish until about 9 am. Found them on a main lake chuck rock point in 50 - 60 fow and suspended from 25 - 40 fow and then on a secondary point in the same creek. The fastest action came later in the morning. Caught more than 20 for sure but at times I get so excited I lose count. More SM than Spots today and one LM. All the SM were in the 3 lb range. Water temp 45 deg. The damiski rig with the 3 in blue/white worked again. I tried the Snap jig some but it did not work for me today. Really nice morning. Bobby

Thank you all for the nice words on here, yes I really did catch it on a Red Craw RC, and it was on the back side of wind blown brush piles and lay downs. Wasn’t throwing it in the piles directly. I’m a Cape fair fisherman mostly because that’s where I feel comfortable. I don’t fish very often because of work and family obligations but really like the format of the big bass tour, makes an average Joe like me have a chance at winning a Boat. I’m still in shock over the whole ordeal. Lots of different emotions that have gone through my head the past couple days. Basically it was all about being in the right place at the right time. And yeah I’m not gonna say exactly where I was because I like to fish in those areas on my off days and an occasional tournament if I can. But no joke, a RC, it’s my favorite lure and I was gonna ride and die with it both days, I don’t throw the Alabama rig because I don’t care for it, it wears me out too quickly. Ps. I do have two boats for sale. The one I won and a 2014 Z9 loaded. Don’t know what either are worth but they are for sale.

We were late leaving home and then further delayed when we arrived at Viney to find the gate locked ... not sure why they couldn't let folks use the small ramp just before the toll booth. Regardless, we rolled back out of there, up thru Shell Knob and around to Campbell Point, where we finally got the bottom of the boat wet about 8:00. Put three (two solid keepers) in the boat first stop on a War Eagle 3/8-ounce double willow spinner bait and a squarebill of undisclosed make/model/color. Fish were up in the woods on the old backyard swingset/birdbath/garden knome pattern. Covered a lot of water over the next 4 hours and continued to catch quality fish. This bite finally died about noon, so we rod-boxed the winding sticks and pulled out some dragging stuff. Found a good bite along the tree line in several areas ... most came along the old bank line at 12-18 feet deep. Ned didn't seem to be the right deal but the jig worked very well, helping us cull up to a conservatively estimated best-five weight of 17 pounds. Ended with 21 total and 11 keeps.

Had the good pleasure of fishing with Huntest (the other Dave) today, we had what I think was just an exceptional day for this time of year. We threw the Ned all day, except for about 5 casts where I threw a shaky head, on the 5th cast I hung it up and broke it off, so back to the Ned. Anyway, me being goofy and always counting fish, I caught exactly 30 today, Dave got a little behind early as he was throwing a "Goby" colored Ned to begin with, and it just wasn't working, but once I convinced him "Dirt" was the color to throw, he kept pace. He doesn't count his, but we had 50 today probably, with maybe 10 keepers. 1/8 oz Neds, throwing them towards the bank and dragging them back slowly on the bottom. Fish have moved a bit shallower, we were getting them from 5 to 20 FOW, with a few out deeper. Gravel banks with some rock near deep water were good, and so were some rocky points. We did fish back in one cove, but only got one bass back there, most were near the main channel. Biggest fish was a 5 lb. LM, healthy fish, but had several of those big black patches on it. Never seen one with so much of that coloration. PB&J was working too. I don't know how much color matters, but they liked Dirt and PB&J today. Water temps were 47-49. Funny story about the 5 lber, Dave had hooked up on a decent fish, which turned out to be a 20" walleye (released), I had just made a cast, and I stepped back in the boat to net the fish or hand him the net I forget, anyway I was holding my rod with one hand, and once we got the walleye in the boat, I moved up to the front and started to reel, well that Ned had been sitting on the bottom, and when I started to reel I thought I was hung up, but it started moving and I realized it was a good bass. One of those flukey things that happen sometimes. Had a photographer with me today, so you get to see my smiling face.

First cast at 8:30 a.m., last fling at 3:30 p.m. Fished pretty hard throughout the day in the middle White River arm, roughly from Campbell Point to Baxter. Only had nine total to show for our efforts, with just two keepers. Wind howled all day, swinging around from northwest to due east by the time we left. Jerk bait carrying a lovely Tim Hughes custom paint job produced the first and biggest fish. After that, bites came on a crank plug, a single swimmer and the Venerable Varmint. Apologies (not really) to the BASS Open and other prefish drive-by guys if you don't know our lingo here. Weather has these fish stirring. Saw water temps up to 51. Pretty surprising where we found some of them.