Steve McBasser

I don't know Mav..... We took the grand tour down there and the folks than ran the place seemed nice. Was just a little more than we wanted to spend. Looks sharp from the water too. Wish I could be more help.

Ha ha...... I've been known to tell fish stories. Just sayin'.....

Thanks Quill..... Always grateful to find a few biters....

You are right about that. I'm going to order about 15 more of them tomorrow. I already called my buddy Andy that paints them for me. Should be back in business shortly.

I like catching fish, DEEP because of the novelty of it. Its cool to be able to find them on the graph and then drop something to them and watch them come up and get it right there on the screen. However, given the choice I would much rather throw out a bottom bouncer of some sort and stitch it back in the 6' to 25' range of water. The phrase that pays here is "I like catching fish", so whatever is required is what I do.....

Finally got a chance to get back down to Table Rock and throw that blade bait again. I had been chomping at the bit to get back down there ever since Dean and I went on my birthday trip. Put in at Campbell Point again and ran up Big Creek. Gary and I fished some of the same water that Dean and I did and the fish were still there. Lost my last blade late in the day so I changed over to a grub and picked up a few more. They were definitely hitting the blade better. Water temp started out at 43* but by the end of the day we were seeing 46*. Big Creek was stained from the recent rains with lots of debris on the water. The fish we caught up there were 6-8' deep. The main lake was still crystal clear with no debris what so ever. We had to fish much deeper in the clear water to get bit. Most of the fish came from the 20' to 24' depth range.

Ron and I went back down to Bull Shoals on Friday 1/27. Water temp was a balmy 43* when we launched at 9:45am. Put in mid lake again and had a ball. Shallow water cranking was the only thing that would draw a bite. But that's OK because we know how to do that. The wind was tough and we lost the cranking battery about 11am so we had to do a little rewiring in order to save our trip. Wound up with 9 largemouth. 7 were keepers.

Nice fish.....

Ron and I went back down to the Bull yesterday and caught a few. What a beautiful day. Foggy start. It was after 10am before we could see to navigate. We caught them shallow on a crank bait, and a jig....and deep on a spoon and a blade bait. 68* day in January is pretty awesome. Water temp started out around 47* but was pushing 50* by the end of the day. Its snowing right now as I am typing this. Gotta love the Missouri Ozarks.

My buddy Andy and I bought these off of lure parts on line. Then he paints them and I put the split rings, hooks, and eyes on them. That makes it even more fun to me....

I had thrown it a few times but had never had a bite on it until Friday. It is so much fun to learn a new bait and technique. I am totally green on this thing but so far I'm loving it. Can't wait to get back out there and do it again.

Made my first cast at straight up 10am. Went there to find the deep fish and did so almost immediately. Never caught a blade bait fish in my life until Friday. Weird bite but I loved it. Caught quality fish too.....Find fish on the graph first. Rather than vertical fishing, back off of your school about 3/4 of a cast. Pitch to them and let the blade go all the way to the bottom. Jig up about 2 1/2 feet and let it fall, reel in the slack... Repeat. Bite usually comes on the pull up, not on the fall. When you jig up you will feel a very pronounced vibration of the blade. You're doing it right. Put in at Campbell Point and ran up Big Creek. Can't wait to get back out there. Hope ya'll are getting to fish too.

After the big camping/fishing extravaganza up at Stockton back on Oct 28, 29, and 30 I attempted to take my 87 yr old dad up there to get in on some of the white bass fun. Unfortunately, before we got a chance to put the boat in the water he fell and broke a hip coming out of the bathroom up above the boat ramp at Mutton Creek north. So, for the last many weeks I have been staying with him as he recovers from hip replacement surgery. I am also happy to report that after 8 weeks of healing and rehab he is back to being independent and living by himself again. He is amazing.... Anyway.... I was able to get away last week and fish again with my buddy Ron. It was so nice to get out again. Especially on a 72* day. We put in at mid lake again and found them pretty quickly. We had a ball.

So we caught tons of white bass but the traveling trophy can only be won by catching the biggest black bass, So..... After we broke camp at 3pm, most of the guys went home but just as we were about to leave my buddy Andy showed up. So he and I went back out for another 2 1/2 hours and caught some more. We spent the first hour and a half white bass fishing and then bass fished until it was almost dark. Luckily they were biting too so now the traveling trophy is back on my mantle where it belongs. Hope you guys are catching them too....

Wow..... What a blast. Perfect weather and the fish bit like crazy. 12 of the guys from my Sunday School class went up to Mutton Creek on Thursday morning. After getting special permission from the management of Mutton Creek we set up camp about 10am and were fishing by 12 noon. Normal check in time is 3pm. The plan was for everybody to meet back at camp at dark and start filleting fish for our big fish fry on Friday night. As the guys were coming in we saw that just about everybody had a limit of whites so needless to say we had plenty of fish. We had enough that we were taking fish around to share with other campers. We had 12 guys and 4 boats so we fished 3 in a boat. It was a little bit crowded but not bad. We drew straws every morning to see who would fish with who. It was fun to try to keep it mixed up..... We had sausage and eggs and biscuits and gravy for breakfast on Friday morning and bacon and eggs on Saturday morning. If you left camp hungry, you messed up somewhere.......We ate white bass, catfish, and walleye. All black bass were photographed and then returned to the water unharmed. All in all it was another great trip. Thank you Lord for the perfect weather and keeping us all safe.

Its a '94 364V....probably the nicest one on the planet.... The original owner won it in a Bass n Gals tournament. I fished with her husband out of it for almost 20 years and then they sold it to my buddy Dean so I still get to fish out of it every now and then..... It still shines like a diamond, runs like a top, and catches fish like crazy...

Ron and I put in mid lake again on Thursday of last week. Water temp was 80*, air temp 63*..... Fished close to the ramp all day and caught a handful of nice fish and a few dinks. We caught 'em on a ned, a hula grub, a crankbait and a jerk bait. Nothing to brag about but wow..... what an awesome day to be on the water.... 65* high for the day. Hope you guys are getting to fish too...

Andy and I just had a few hours to fish on Friday but we wanted to run down to Beaver Creek on Bull Shoals for some late summer fun. We launched the old Mon Ark at about 3:30pm and fished until about 7pm. We only caught a handful of fish but had a ball anyway.....Andy caught these on a custom painted "coach dog" super spook junior by scraping the shady bluff walls. The strike were explosive and the fish were crazy. They would jump 3 - 4 feet out of the water try to throw that spook but Andy had super sharp hooks and was able to hang on to them. It was a blast to watch. I caught a few on my crankbait and ned rig too but none were picture worthy.....

After a long layoff from Stockton I finally got back up there on Tuesday and Thursday last week. Based on my fishing journal we ran a typical September pattern for Stockton and in spite of the low water situation it paid off big.... Tuesday Gary and I were on the water by 6:30am and we were totally fogged in until after 10am. We caught a bunch of fish but they were mostly dinks. I had 5 walleye, 10 big green sunfish, and probably 30 bass. I also caught 5 white bass. Gary also had a bunch of dinkers. Then my buddy Dean and I went back up on Thursday and had just the oppisite kind of day. We didn't catch as many fish but the ones we did catch were better quality. The water temp was in the upper 70's when we started but was about 82* when we quit. We found the fish to be VERY shallow. Ridiculously shallow in fact. At one point we were in 3.7' of water casting to 0 and the fish were hitting it as soon as the bait hit the water. Windy gravel points and pockets were best and the little muddy sloughs were a sure bite. It was crazy.....

That is a beautiful smallie for sure Bill....

Can't always tear 'em up..... Better luck next time.

Dutch..... we used to call it scrounging....... You do what you have to do to get bit. Thanks for the report. Been so long since I've been up there, I'll have to learn all over again. Been hitting the Rock instead.

Gary and I caught them good enough on Friday that we wanted to go again on Saturday. We didn't catch as many, and the boat traffic was rediculous but we still had a ball...... The details were a repeat of Friday.

Gary and I took the Charger up river again from Cape Fair and caught a bunch of short bass and had a ball. The water temp was mid 80's and the air temp felt like a hundred. Found them schooling deep again so the little hammered jigging spoon was the best bait. They would push the bait fish to the surface every now and then and stayed up long enough to catch two or three on a little super spook jr before they went back down. When they did we'd drop the spoon down on them and pick up a few more. Running with the little short bass was some of the biggest whites I have ever seen. When I hooked one of them I could tell right off that it was not a little dinker bass. We probably caught 3 or 4 keeper bass total mixed in with the dinks and the handful of whites I caught were monsters. Fun day on the Rock.

We were targeting schooling fish at about 26-45'. They weren't near as thick as they were last week but we still caught a bunch. The only thing I caught on the Ned was the two little brim. We went to a couple of spots and bank fished just to get out of the boat traffic for a while. Yes... I know we were out in the middle of the lake but still.... there is no excuse for the way some people run their boats with absolutely no regard for anybody else....... sorry about the rant. Back to fishing....The slab spoon drew most of my bites but I also caught them on a white swim bait and a shad colored crank bait. It was crazy. Even though the water temp was around 90* the fish were extremely active. Everyone of them would jump multiple times before we could get them in the boat. I bet we lost as many fish as we landed. Still had a ball though.....