Ham

Thanks Phil. I have other places I can get this information, but it sure is nice having it here also.

Holy Crap Bobber! You guys have all the fun.

You do good work. I have a bass that my parents had mounted for me back in April 1972. A 6 lb 8 oz bass was a heck of a fish for a 9 year old. That is most likely the only fish I'll ever have mounted. You do mainly skin mounts correct? It's nice that some guys choose to take measurements and photos to have a repoduction made, but I haven't ever seen a repoduction that matches the quality of a properly done skin mount.

I did a quick search and the Arkansas record is 1 lb 8 oz.

Nice. Any idea if Arkansas keeps a record on Yellow Perch?

I guess it is the nature of the beast, but the number of follows that this style of baits gets is just heart breaking at times. I've read that wake baits shine when there isn't a lot of wind. Do ya'll find that to be true as a general rule?

Sounds like a heck of a week there Taxi.

Over six for sure. Could be seven. You really need length and girth.

I love BassCats, but I hate seeing that many on one lake at one time. I know that Mountain Home benefits from having the tourney, but I think Bull Shoals would let the boats spread out a bit.

I've been thinking about you guys getting together and wondering how that all went. Looks like you guys had a good trip. Truth be told many of the folks that are very passionate in their arguements against bed fishing are catching fish off of unseen beds. To avoid catching spawning bass, quit fishing on March first and resume fishing on July first or only fish in 20 plus foot of water during those dates.

Glad to hear you caught em. Bad deal for the diver. It's really interesting to me how the smallies congregate in certain areas of the lake.

That sucks.

The traditional floating worm deal is a post spawn bait. You can certainly tweak things and fish it earlier than that. Floating worms are also thrown on Shakey Heads a lot.

Took my G3 to Buck Creek. Met up with cajunangler at 0700. Ran to one of the major creeks in the area. Water temp in the main creek was 57 degrees. We saw water as warm as 64' later in the day. As is typical, water was VERY clear close to the main lake and stayed pretty clear until you go way back in the creek or in the back of a secondary creek. We had some clouds and a LOT of wind. WIND really makes things fun. You know the fish are biting, but you really are limited in how you can fish for them. We caught quite a few bass and we had some pretty decent bass as well. I let cajunangler post numbers if he wants to do so. We were THAT close to catching a lot more of the larger fish, but we couldn't quite seal the deal. Spinnerbaits, Sluggos, and Senkos caught most of the fish, but we caught fish on at least a half dozen other baits. We checked out just about every nook and craney in the creek because we are still trying to learn as we go. It helps to put your own eyes on a spot. We caught fish in water from 2-10 foot deep. The bite is ON. If you can catch a day where the wind isn't blowing > 20 mph, fish should be fairly easy to catch. Geat day. Pretty lake. Saw Bald Eagles and an Osprey. Put the boat back on the trailer at 20:15

Thanks for the info Taxi. The ramp definitely needed the repairs. I've been leaving Norfork alone until after the BassCat tourny anyway, but I'll look elsewhere if I go beofre 5-14-09.

I'd love to go Ollie. I work week on and week off so it all depends on the day you choose. Pick your day(s) and if I can make it work I'll shoot you a PM.

Great trip report. Sounds like a blast. I love a dry fly bite!

Hey Don, I just don't believe for the average fisherman TR is a great place to try to come fish for a few days on your own expecting to catch a bunch of nice fish. I've fished all my life and I will continue to fish until I die. I've had the chance and the desire to have fished a few different places. I can usually figure a few things out and catch some fish. I never catch the most or the biggest, but I typically do ok. I've fished in Canada, PA, NY, TN, TX, VA, AL, MS, AR, FL, and LA. I can honestly say that I think Table Rock is the most difficult place I have ever fished. It seems like in addition to figuring out the seasonal pattern and lucking up and getting some decent weather, you still need to know a fair number of good "spots" to be very successful on Table Rock. Finding those spots takes time and/or money. To me, a premier fishery is not one where the guides struggle to locate fish as often as ya'll seem to do at Table Rock. Maybe I have read too much into the posts where you and the other guides mention having tough days and while I don't expect any bass fishery to give up 25 pound sacks everyday, I do expect that a decent fisherman with decent gear should be able to go out and catch a few nice fish w/o divine intervention or having to hire a guide before I'll agree that it is one of our nation's top fisheries. I appreciate the information that you guys give out to help us all try to catch a few more fish when we fish at TR. I'm not unhappy with anyone over anything. I just don't agree with the label of " One of the best fisheries in the United States" . AND EP , Absolutely, if I fished Table Rock 200 days a year and had good relationships with other good fishermen that fished Table Rock 200 plus days a year, I would be expect myself to be very consistent at catching fish. I think you are 100% right that beating the bank is only going to payoff for a little while during the spring and a little longer in the fall at TR. Otherwise, you probably ougth to be fishing further offshore. Top quality electronics and daily use of GPS would be a must as well. I agree TR is a great lake for tourneys. It offers a lot of different water so the lake doesn't fish small and it offers a great challange to the touring Pros. Someone figures it out and brings in a sackful of beautiful fish BUT the main reason that tournaments are held at TR is that there must be local community financial support for them. The quality of the fishery is not the deciding factor on a national tour event. Sure, the tournament organizers want the pros to weigh big sacks of fish, but without local support (ie money) there will not be tournies there. Monroe/West Monroe turned down a shot at the Bassmaster Classic years back because they local governments decided the up front money was too high. They hold lots of tournaments out of Shreveport on the Red River because it is a good fishery AND the community puts up the front money knowing that they are going to fill up hotel rooms, sell gas and groceries, and fishermen bring family along that will shop and eat at the local resturants. There are lots of good fisheries that you'll seldom see a tournament on because of not enough up front money. BTW how many of the touring pros hire local guides to be shown the ropes before fishing Table Rock vs figuring it out on their own?

I fished another part of Bull Shoals closer to the dam. I spent two days doing a lot of driving and a lot of trying different things as I put my eyes on sections that looked good on the map. I had fairly decent weather. Some wind and some clouds which helped. Wednesday I got a late start, but I fished until dark. Thursday I got an earlier start, but I quit at 4 PM because I had to work all night. As it turns out, I got a 15 minute nap before heading into work. Ouch. The fish are CLOSE to heading shallow BIG TIME. This will happen during my week at work. Figures. I caught 130 fish over the two days. Spots, smallies, LMB. One 25 inch Walleye on susp jerkbait, a bunch of crappie, and about 15 White bass that I caught spawning on a flat just before dark. Pretty fun making them run down an RC Wake. Water was too clear in the main lake. I can fish better when I go back up a creek until the water gets a little dingy. I couldn't make the stickbait work very well for me. I swam a grub pretty effectively. I switched to a crappie jig after a 14 3/4 inch black crappie grub ate my 4 inch grub. I still kept catching spots on the crappie jig. Some of the crappie had their spawning coolors on already. Some of the spots appeared to be full of eggs. Some Senko fish. Some stickbait fish. Lots of stuff will work. NO spinnerbait fish which was crazy. Water temps were about 52' both mornings, but really went up over the course of the day. Water was so clear where I lauched that in full sunlight you can see the color of the bottom in 25 foot of water. I got to see the walleye eat my jerkbait which was really cool. I did catch fish better in areas that had 7 foot or so visibility. You catch about 10 > 9 inch crappie fr every crappie > 10 inches. Fun catching but frustrating if your trying to keep em. So the fish are biting and they should start really biting soon.

Threads like this really make me wonder how Table Rock maintains its reputation as one of the premier fisheries in this country. I get that it has big Spots and big Smallies with some pretty fair LMB mixed in, but when guides frequently are left scratching their head because they came up empty, Hmmmm. I know that every lake has it's tough days, but Table Rock has more tough days than its fair share. The peak times at Table Rock are great. I guess the trick is to only fish TR when it is at its peak which is kinda like buying a stock at its low point and selling it when it is at its high point. A great plan, but how to get it done.

Man, I'm sorry about the prop Larry. If you have the time, that prop can be repaired. If you want to buy a new one, I STRONGLY recommend Power Tech props. Great prop. I wish I had broken the prop that came with my boat sooner. I can likely find the business card or you can goggle them on line. Call the guy and talk to him about what you need (ie motor you're running, pitch, and number of blades desired).

I fish St Croix Legend Ultra's (5, 6, and 8). I got them used and on close out when the cosmetics changed. I don't even know the normal price range, but I do know I absolutely love them. They sure seem to take the work out of casting. How do they compare to the LE's ?

HEY BILL! I was wondering how you choose which jerkbait style to throw first. Do you stick with what's been working ? Do you have favs based on water temp ? Ouiji board? The dog picks it for you? Thanks, Ham

I think they could accomidate you at Rim Shoals as well.

I have some old Tectan 4.9. It seems to be TINY thin, soft, supple and have almost no abrasion resistance. Fine for open water fishing. Terrible for river fishing where rocks or wood is involved. So, I don't know if you got a bad batch or not. Maybe Tectan is what it is. Abrasion resistance seems to be a function of two things. The chracteristics oof the material itself and the thickness of the line. If Tectan's formula doesn't have great abrasion resistence and you get it in a super thin size, you're gonna be plagued by breakoffs.