Steve McBasser

The guys in my Sunday School class get together twice a year and do a camping and fishing trip. We stayed at Campbell Point again this year and had a ball. We kinda just put it out there what we plan to do and then let everybody come and go as they please. Some of us went down early Thursday morning and stopped and had breakfast together at Alice/Irene's and then went on down to Shell Knob. When we got there our camping spots were still tied up so we decided to go on out and start fishing and come back and make camp later. Wednesday and Thursday both were absolutely picture perfect days to be on the water. Especially if you like to get a sunburn. The fishing was a little tougher than we had hoped but everybody caught fish and contributed to the fish fry we had planned for Friday night. We caught blacks, smallies, kentuckies, and mean mouth. We also had a handful of walleye and some cat fish. We had one boat come in late Friday evening and they had a live well full of fish but we didn't need any of them. We already had plenty on the table. Saturday was a bit different...... those of us that had any quittin' sense at all packed it up early and headed toward the house. Brad and I on the other hand, stayed and fished in the monsoon. I know from experience that snotty weather usually brings on the bite at Table Rock and Saturday was no exception. We absolutely got drownded...... if that's a word. But the fish didn't mind the weather at all. The fat girls put the feed bag on and we were there to take advantage...... The rain just added to the adventure. Then...... we topped it off with pizza before we headed back to town. What an awesome trip.

Dude..... that freaking Ned is amazing...... good recovery..

No..... I don't know why I always catch the biggest ones...... I just do...

This time I called my buddy Andy and he met me at the Masters ramp at 2pm. Fished the clear water with bottom bouncers in 7-15 feet and caught lots of bass. And a few walleye.... Had a ball...

It has been quite some time since I went fishing by myself but it had just been too long and I had to go..... Put in at Cedar Ridge a little after noon and ran toward Highpoint..... It was cold and blustery and rained all day. Probably never got to 50* all day. In spite of that I caught a little bit of everything and had a ball.....

Wow guys..... beautiful fish...

Please Lord.... no floods this year....

Nice fish..... Gonna try to fish the Hideaway area on Monday of next week.... Can't wait. Its been 7 or 8 weeks now since I wet a line...

Great discussion guys. Thanks for the input. We catch our fair share of Kentuckies in the areas I generally fish which is from Wolfpen Hollow almost all the way to Roaring River. The Shell Knob area and Baxter both have excellent numbers of Kentuckies. Like I said in my original post, they save the day for me quite regularly. I was thrilled to see them so plentiful so far up James River as well. I catch tons of kentuckies. And yes.... most are short. But I like lots of bites. I don't have to bag 2 and 3 pounders to have fun. If I was still fishing tournaments it would be different. It may be because I am stuck on this blasted Ned rig TRD and can't make my self lay it down. It really does catch an abundance of short fish but occasionally catches a beast too. I can catch 10" to 14" kentuckies all day long and NEVER get tired of it. Besides, they keep you entertained between the keepers and they come pretty regularly too. Can't wait to get back after them.

It had been about 35 years since I'd fished the Hideaway area of Table Rock Lake. So....when my buddy Gary invited me down to their recently purchased cabin to do some fishing, I was too excited to sleep. I jumped up well before the alarm went off and headed south. I reached the cabin well before the sun came up and to my surprise Gary's wife was up too, fixing a bacon and egg breakfast for us..... Awesome. After finishing our coffee we headed toward the dock, lowered the Charger off the lift and loaded my stuff in the boat. As always, the old Mariner Mag fired first crank and we headed up river. Just seeing those banks again gave me an odd feeling of de ja vu. This is the very cove where my love for catching fish started. My grandparents bought property at Hideaway before the lake filled up. Some of my earliest memories are sitting on the boat dock with a Prince Albert can filled with garden worms and a Zebco 202 on a little glass rod. At the age of 4, I could bait my own hook, catch perch and take them off the hook and repeat...... The thrill is the same or even more now...Anyway....We hoped to start catching fish right off the bat of course but instead it was over an hour before we got bit. We caught 'em here and there all morning but really didn't get them figured out until the early afternoon. We wound up catching several fat spotted bass that just tear you up when they hit. Some guys complain about all the kentuckies in the lake but as far as I'm concerned, I love 'em. They have saved more trips than I can count at Table Rock. We also caught a handful of keeper large mouth and a couple short smallies. Hope you guys are getting to go too....

well done Dutch

The Ranger is a '94 364V with a super sweet XR6 Mercury on it. My next door neighbor's wife won it in a Bass'nGals tournament back in the day. She fished the circuit for several years. It was the best cared for old boat I have ever seen. They are both in their 80's now and just don't feel like fishing anymore. So after fishing together about 200 times over the last 19 years they asked me to help them sell it. I immediately told my buddy Dean that I knew was looking for a boat and he came right over and bought it. It was a win, win, win....for everybody all around. The neighbor got his boat sold, my buddy got him a boat, and I still get to fish out of it.... Life is good.