Jbrant

What part of the lake are you on?

We fished out of Shell Knob on Saturday and Sundary morning. First time on that part of the lake for us. Started in Mill Creek Saturday morning. Caught two in here, one keeper, both on the Alabama rig. Both came off of channel banks towards the back of the creek. Bounced around a lot - moving towards the dam - and caught our only fish on a jerkbait in mid afternoon. We went back to Mill Creek and caught 4 more off the Alabama rig almost in the back of the creek - all grouped up in one little spot. We finished the day with 7 fish, 2 keepers, biggest went a little over 3. We fished Sunday morning from around the bridge up past the mouth of the Kings. Caught 4 more early, 2 keepers, all on the Alabama Rig and didn't have another bite the rest of the morning. Those fish were on a channel bank and the secondary point adjacent to it. All of our fish were relating to trees, in at least 12' of water. The wind didn't seem to make a big difference. Water temps were much warmer Sundary morning (pushing 49) then at any point Saturday - which I was suprised by. We threw a wiggle wart quite a bit with the cloudy skies and rain on a secondary point and on channel banks and never had a bite. Saw some balls of shad in the coves on Saturday - up near the surface.

Great topic. I don't get to fish Table Rock as much as I do LOZ - but its the same thing there. I can fish the same areas with the same baits and not put up anywhere close to what those guys are.

How are the roads down there? I was planning on coming down to Joplin tonight and finishing the drive tomorrow. As of last night, our roads (west of kc) weren't in real good shape.

Message sent.

This time of year, how important is wind for the jerkbait? The last two days I've went, there hasn't even been a breeze, and I've struggled. Also, how big a role does cloudy or sunny play on those calm days?

Probably going down Tuesday or Wednesday too. I haven't seen a whole lot of info on Stockton other than what is posted on this site.

What brand of line and what test are you all throwing the 110's on?

My wife's Grandpa was there Wednesday. He caught 6 keepers around the dam in about 3 1/2 hours. Biggest went 4.5. All on jerkbait, all scattered. Water was anywhere from 39-42. He talked to another guy at the ramp - he had a 5 1/2 but I don't remember what else he caught. I'm curious about the deeper jerkbaits as well. I'd never heard many guys talk about throwing them until recently, I'm going to have to buy a couple.

Smbasser what are you looking for on the flats? Are you fishing main lake flats or in the coves? I've never had much luck with flats.

I hadn't thought of it that way (being two years old). Then again, I didn't ask them to replace it - just sent them a note asking what I could do with it. I also don't fish much in the winter. I might get two or three trips in a year in the late winter or early spring. I bet I haven't thrown that thing more than 6-7 days on the water. I was a little surprised they volunteered to possibly replace it.

I contacted Megabass. They are having me send it in and they'll send it to Japan for inspection. They will more than likely replace it (depending on the wear & tear of the bait).

I'll try the sawzall deal and may try to contact megabass as well. I did get the balls dislodged several times by holding it upside down and hitting it on the side of the boat. Every time I cast though they would get lodged in the tail again. Maybe the sawzall would do a better job of working whatever is causing this loose.

Thanks for the advice - I'll probably try that. Only questions are 1) aren't those tungsten balls and 2) will tungsten rust?? As for the other thoughts, I'd be one of those guys doing whatever I could to get that bait out of the tree!

I've got a Megabass 110 that I've been using for a couple of years. Went fishing yesterday and it constantly set nose up/butt down in the water when it was stopped. On the pause, the tail section dropped rapidly and it set completely vertical in the water. The tungsten balls were sitting in the tail section and wouldn't move to the belly after the cast (they would move about 1/2" then stop). If I hit the bait against the boat just right, I could get the balls to move forward and sit in the belly. I could flip it out beside the boat and it would suspend perfectly. But every time I'd make a cast, the balls would roll to the tail and become lodged again. Anybody else had this happen?

What tournament was that?

Went today from about 8 to 2:30. Spent the whole time in the mid to lower Pomme. Started pretty slow caught a few random fish - small Pomme keepers early. Also caught one big Muskie. As the wind picked up, so did the bite. Caught our best fish on the main lake, in the wind. Probably caught almost 20 bass, most smaller Pomme keepers. Did get in one stretch of bank where we caught 3 between 3 and 4 pounds. Ended up with almost 15 lbs on our 5 best. Most of the fish came on a wiggle wart or spinnerbait - caught a few on a jerkbait. Water temps were in the low 50's, had at least 3' of visibility around the darn. Was cloudy and windy all morning - sun poked out a little later. Our bite died off about noon. Good day to be on the water though (lots of others thought so to - lots of boats out).

We fished all day Friday and 1/2 a day on Saturday. Spent both days in the Long Creek Arm. On Friday we fished from Big Cedar to the state line, on Saturday from Big Cedar up to the Old Hwy 86 campground. We caught a total of about 15 fish - mainly spots, with a couple of smallmouths and two largemouths. One keeper, couple that went about 14". It was pretty tough. Caught most of our fish Friday on a spinnerbait shallow. Caught most of them on Saturday on a tube on bluff ends. We beat the banks in the wind with chunk rock pretty hard and didn't have much to show for it. Also fished some main and secondary points.

Thanks for the report. I'm heading down Thursday.

Good report - thanks!

We are coming down the 25th - staying at Big Cedar. Been down the last two years in early October, hoping that coming a little later will help the bite. We would really like to find some shallow fish. That spinnerbait bite sounds like fun.

We went down a week ago. Fished pretty much the whole Lindley and a little bit on the Pomme side. Water clarity was pretty good a long way up on the Lindley side. We caught about 20 fish. 5 best keepers were aroudn 9. Caught them on a lot of different baits in a lot of different areas - never really dialed in to one bait, one location, one pattern (pretty random). Found a few areas loaded with shad but that didn't seem to make a huge difference.

Heading to Pomme tomorrow. Anybody been on the lake recently?

Fished about 12 hours this weekend - mostly early morning. Fished Proctor Creek, Pearson Bay, Bollinger Creek and a few small creeks close to those. Fished the back ends of creeks, fished secondary points, fished channel banks, fished flats in the creeks, and fished main lake points. Fished shallow, fished deep, and tried to fish for suspended fish. Fished around docks, under docks, fished some brush, and fished on empty banks. We caught about 25 bass. One keeper (3.25) and the rest were all about 12". Caught some on square bills, some on a 3 arm a-rig, and some on t-rigs. Maybe our mistake was moving around too much and trying to many different things - we eventually caught a small fish just about everywhere we tried - but couldn't find any quality. Anybody have any better luck???

Fished about 6 hours yesterday around the dam. We caught about 20 bass - mostly largemouth with a few smallmouth's mixed in - with 4 keepers. Most of our fish came off of main lake points. Caught a few off some secondary points (saw one guy catch a nice on at the ramp as were putting in). Went in one main lake pocket and could see bass cruising everywhere but couldn't get them to bite anything. Most of them came off of soft plastics, caught one on a top water. Caught a couple right off the bank and some out to about 15' deep.