kyled

glad I asked! Thanks a bunch

I have not had a chance to make it up this year and was wondering how the ramp was? I know we had some flooding and it changes year to year. I am sure there will be some mud but can you get launched okay?

Money cant buy happiness but it can certainly give you some options, large boats, fast cars, and private planes being a few of them. My guess is the fear of death and the FAA keep the runways clear of people who cant get their plane out of the hanger, and speed limits do a pretty good job of making sure that those who want to drive a race car without the helmet or any training get safely from point A to B in about the same time as a guy in a Prius. Boats just seem to be the easiest way to separate an ego or mid life crisis victim from his wallet. However, making a horses arse out of yourself is not limited by your net worth or lack thereof. If you stand at the ramp above Hooten Town on the James River for a few minutes on any summer weekend or at Blunks on a busy white bass day you will see similar if not worse. It just seems like its the price you pay to enjoy the outdoors. If your boat is on lift, a low life at some point might steal something, if you trailer to a ramp at some point you are going to see a cluster beyond your wildest imagination (we all have stories). So all we can do is help when possible, not contribute to the problem (teach your kids), and know when its best to not involve yourself. On a side note...... my favorite ramp story. I watched a guy load an aluminum boat (tracker with maybe 50hp) on the trailer while blocking the entire ramp, make sure he got everything imaginable out of the boat and loaded in his truck then lean on the boat for five minutes talking to his buddy on the phone about how good the fishing was, after one more long look through the boat checking and rechecking storage lockers he got in his truck and gunned it when the truck and trailer started to roll back. This sent his boat sliding off the wet skids and landing on the ramp.... he never hooked up his winch or transom straps. So funny!!

I sure appreciate the tips, and will try the red worms and suggested depth and spots and report back soon.

Yep, I always catch those goggle eye on accident and on everything from finesse worms to full size brush hogs.... I have never seen any rhyme or reason to it though.

A few times lately I have tried to lay down the bass rods and catch a few panfish on ultra lights just for a change of pace. It seems like it would be very easy but to be honest I have had very limited success. There are always a few real small sunfish on the bank that will play but never anything consistent or much quality. I would appreciate any tips or guidance in the correct general direction.... I have tried dragging fake crickets and worms around off points in 10-20ft of water like has been suggested in past threads but not had any success. I fish mostly from Indian Point down to Kimberling. Would micro crank baits work better? or swimming minnows?

The s shape is pretty odd but the hump seems to happen fairly often. I call them Brahma bass, or camel bass and my theory is their hump is where they keep their water stored which is why they don't have to get a drink every day like other bass.... for the record I have no back ground in marine biology. My fishing buddy thinks these are the fish that eat all his pinchers off his paca chunk trailers and the plastic builds up in there. Its amazing how much time you have on your hands to think about stuff when your not getting bites.

Thanks for all your input!! I really appreciate it. I will put my due diligence in on the recommendations of other options before I pull the trigger, overall it sounds like just asking a simple question probably saved me time and a little disappointment and I am leaning more towards the Light if I do go the St. Croix route and it also made me think a little harder about reel selection and the entire combinations of rod, reel, and line. Thanks Again!

Can some of you more experienced anglers help clear up some confusion for me? I have fished my entire life but never really paid that much attention to equipment and some of the minor (or major) details. Recently I have been thinking about upgrading a few of my rods, and with spring approaching I would like to get a good quality rod primarily to throw 1/16 oz jigs at crappie, sunfish, and the occasional finicky white bass but could be used to throw 1/32 and 1/8 as well. I already have a couple of medium light rods made by falcon and shimano and they seem to be great for 1/8oz but loose some feel with 1/16. I know everyone has an opinion on rod companies but the two that I have been looking at are the St. Croix Premier 6ft ultra light or the 6ft light. I thought the ultra was the way to go but read an article in a magazine that stated a light action would almost always get more casting distance than an ultralight??? which confused me (I mean they tell right on the rod blank UL cast lighter jigs) .... My specific questions are: All things being equal (line, rod length, jig weight, rod maker) 1. which would give the best casting distance UL or L? 2. would one be more sensitive (bite detection) than the other? 3. Is there a rod I missed in that $100 range that is an absurdly better option? I want to thank you for your help in advance as well say thanks for the awesome information that helps me make the most of my time on TRock.

I have no idea what the bite would have been like, but for the high level and low level this is recorded at Shell Knob also included is the shoreline. Highest lake lever: April 27, 2011 (935.47) Lowest lake level: February 5, 1965 (881.54) Table Rock Lake shoreline length at 915: 745 miles Table Rock Lake shoreline length at 931: 857 miles

Really good info!!! That's what I was looking for, Thanks.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine the other day while fishing. Now keep in mind he is not any rougher on fish than most people but in the process of getting one unstuck and returned to the water I ask him "how old do you think that fish is?" I like to think I am more careful than most when handling a fish that is going to be released, but before I sound like I am preaching I have thrown my share of gills and crappie in a bucket. Regardless, it was just a fun jab between friends to get my point across. I soon realized when he guessed that I really had no idea. So like the nerd I am, I started doing a little research and it seems it depends on strain of bass, average water temp, forage... and so on. However, from what I found it looks like 5 or 6 years is pretty common for a bass to get to 15 inches? All of the charts put the fish at 17 inches around 10 years old. Does this seem correct to you guys or pretty accurate to table rock or have I just misinterpreted this research?

It seems few topics garner as much heated debate as thieves and boat docks. I have nothing of any substance to add but would like to point out a couple of things that have stood out to me in this thread. When words are written and not spoken they can easily be misinterpreted but it seems like this is what I have gotten from it. There are some of the opinion that step one is grab a gun and go protect your property. Then you have those who say if you got robbed its your fault and you should have put your boat in the garage and locked all rods in a gun safe. I feel the answer is not one or the other. To those who take it upon themselves to protect their property: I do carry a firearm with me most of the time, however its not to prevent theft. I despise thieves and just all around worthless people as much as the next guy. But if it came down to loosing one of my nice rods,graphs, tackle or have to deal with repercussions of killing a man over it. They can have it. A few hundred or even thousand dollars worth of property would be a drop in the bucket to my legal fees even if I am within my rights. Not to mention the emotional effects that cant be undone. I have insurance that will replace (for the most part) my property. To those who feel everyone should just assume your going to be stolen from. Sometimes people just want to vent a little, we all know there are thieves and at some point will be victimized by them. When that happens you are already mad enough and frustrated. Adding "I told you so" might not be the best course of action. A few of the comments seemed very calloused to say the least. If you cant show compassion or let someone vent, then no comment I guess is the next best option. Telling someone its their fault just piles it on and makes the experience a lot worse. Now back to fishing!!!

I have often wondered about the importance of color and I have gone back and forth on my opinion.....as of right now I feel color is not as important as action to bass (crappie is a different story). Even though I say that I still throw painted lead worm weights and jig heads because they look better to me

Alright........... I cant stand it any longer. At the risk of showing my ignorance, what does any of this top water action have to do with a Pony????? HEHEHE The name of this thread has been driving me crazy because I cant figure it out!! Just for the record if I need to purchase a Pony to get top water action like Babler and the rest of you fellas does anyone recommend a good stable or trainer because I am open to the idea?

we caught a few nice ones Saturday morning in/around brush 8-12ft. Then just for grins went to an undisclosed spawning cove in the cape fair area and to my surprise caught a couple real shallow. I dont think they are spawning yet and it was not hot and heavy but still fun until the wind blew us off the lake.

I am glad I was not the only one who could not get a bite. I am pretty sure we fished every color of minnow and slider produced. I saw a bunch of boats in Beaver when we got there but never saw a fish caught. Fishing was so slow most of the conversation in the boat was due to how high the flood line was on tht bluff. Hard to believe water gets that high.

I know this might be a dumb question, but why does the limit change to 4 fish??

Sounds like you guys vertical fish with slit shot and minnows. I will try that, I have been using 1/16 oz jig head with minnow hooked through nose because I was getting twisted up with split shot.

Thanks a ton. I appreciate you taking the time to help me out. I will be sure to report back how I do next time.

I fish the Power worm a fair amount down at table rock and have had the nights where it seems like they only want the back half. On a few occasions I have switched to the smaller worm (maybe 6in??) and got just as many bites and a lot better hook ups. Sometimes I throw that 6 in power lizard and it seems to work when they are hitting short. However one rare instance I could not get bit on anything but the big worm so I ended up threading about 2 inches of worm on the hook before I texas rigged it. I proceeded to catch 4 or 5 keeper blacks in the same places I was getting "blue gill" bites earlier. It really opened my eyes on how a bass can bite so different from day to day.

I have been playing around with this recently and have had some mixed results. I would love to get some feed back on what I might be doing wrong or maybe some pointers on what works better. I have been using the green submersible lights and a floater white light or two. I have been mixing it up with two greens and one white floater. Two white floaters and no greens. Not sure which I like better. I have been anchoring up in about 20-30 ft of water where I know there is brush close. I would love to catch whites and crappie and if I got an eye that would just be bonus. I have been using minnows with split shot and nose hooked with jigheads. My questions are: How many lights do I use? Do I drop it all the way to the bottom? Is there a better bait than minnows? Do I fish in the light or off to the side? If you don't catch any for an hour or two do you move or just wait it out???? Any help on this would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Bill, I also find your 3/8 shaky head and the gentleman who only throws 3/4 footballs interesting. I don't have that much time on the water or a large basis of knowledge but it has always made sense to me that for a bait that is designed to be fished on the bottom you would want it to spend as much time on the bottom as possible. Also (probably because of my lack of feel) I have always felt like I had more touch and feel with the heavier jig heads. Guys I fish with always try to match the weight to the depth (i know in a swimming bait this makes sense), but my argument has always been for bottom baits that if it works at 25ft it should work at 5ft just as well. I am sure this is like everything else with fishing and it is a grey area but this at least makes me feel better about my logic. The only other person that has ever reinforced my logic was Mike Ioconelli. I watched a video with him and he was talking about using tungsten heavier weights than most people throw to trigger strikes because the bait was falling faster. I somewhat sluffed this off as a sales pitch for me to buy a bunch of tungsten weights but that is a different topic I will ask about it on another post.

Thanks for giving me some clarity on this guys, as well as the pros and cons of straight flouro vs braid n leader. I was going to ask about the hook set but dtrs5kprs cleared that up, sounds like you need to pop them pretty good. I use flouro for almost everything else I have just had issues in the past with line twist on spinning reels. Does anyone else use centipedes or double ringers????? Its about all I have ever had success on but will try some of the ones you mentioned.

Oh I forgot to mention I usually throw it on a 6'6 M lews spinning rod with 10lb braid tied to a 8lb flouro leader. Never tried it on anything else but feel free to let me know if you would change anything with the set up.