Devan S.

Me and a buddy fished Saturday when they kicked up generation. Stayed between Fall creek and Cooper creek. Threw jerkbaits the whole time and caught nothing. We knew going over the chances were slim but we were only after one bite. For as busy as it was with pontoons, kayaks, and fishing boats, everyone seemed to be very cautious and courteous.

I wonder if it partially has to do with the additional action of the marabou. Maybe it makes the jig look slightly more realistic compared to a jerk bait or crank since the marabou can dance and flare. I've bought a couple Hudd's and I've been toying with the idea of coming down and tossing them around or even throwing a Keitech.

I believe there is a video out on youtube of sizable schools of striper below the dam in the tail water taken by some divers several years back. Really its surprising there isn't more frequency to catches like this.

The Kings river is the one I'm closest to finishing complete. I lack from Marble up stream and between Marshall ford to Rockhouse. Marble up is difficult for me to commit to because of water levels. The only gauge is at Berryville and therefore isn't representative of the river level that far up stream. I'm always hesitant to drive all the way down there just to have to drag through every thing. Marshall ford to Rockhouse involves a long shuttle ride. To the point I would rather do Marble to Rockhouse in a multi day. I tell myself every year I'm gonna take a week off and do the whole thing or just finish up the sections I'm missing but I haven't done it yet. Flat creek is another one I need to check off. For its relative proximity to me I haven't floated a single section....Maybe someday.

Don't think a pond is really the absolute solution. I have a small pond stocked with Catfish and it's hundred of yards from any house except for the one I own on the property. Randomly people started telling me they saw lights down there in the middle of the night. I started scoping things out and started finding trash around(liver tubs, kid sized flip flops, worm containers, fishing poles, stringers, tons of junk line). Turns out neighbor kids and their dogs(between 8 and 12 y/o) were coming through the woods and across a field with a bunch of cows in the middle of the night. Keeping every fish they caught and taking them back to their parents and having family cookouts. I finally camped out and ran the kids off only to get a dirty phone call and confrontation from my neighbors informing me of how rude I was to their kids. I simply informed the kids they did not have permission to fish, keep fish, cross my property, trash my pond, or disturb my cattle. It wasn't that I didn't like them; I just didn't want the liability of a bunch of kids after dark, around a pond, in a field full of momma cows. I wouldn't allow it with my own kids in that situation let alone someone else's. The back and forth continued to the point I put up private property signs and had to get local authorities involved. Frankly if it wasn't for mom and dad loosing their house and being kicked out, I think I would still have problems with those now young adults.

couldn't agree more.....I think finding a warm weekend during C&R season is much "easier" to enjoy for them. The only downside is the park isn't chock full fish like it is on kids day.

If your strictly wanting to fish there are quite few coves/small creek arms where the bigger boats wont be as plentiful. Think way back in roaring river, owl creek past the boat docks, rock creek, and maybe Viney cove(viney cove will be subject to large boats). There are decent smaller ramps in owl creek and several in Viney Cove on the Emerald Beach side. Use google maps to get locations. The problem with all of this is at some point your going to have to run down lake or will at some point meet or pass a pleasure craft unless you launch at owl creek and stay up past the boat docks(even then it might happen). If I was really wanting to fish a larger area you could put in at Hickory Hollow on the Kings side and fish a lot of the river. Still yet there will likely be some level of boats even up that far and the lake is much smaller up there. Unfortunately it wont be until school starts before its starts throttling down and then the weekend will still be busy. Your best bet will be launch before daylight and pull off as they start coming out.

I would almost dismiss all your cat fishing adventures. Take me to Table Rock and let me put out a trot line or jugs or limb lines and I can catch catfish. You put me on the bank soaking livers, live bait, or stink bait and I cant count on 1 hand the number of fish I have caught over 10+ years. I just cannot sit in one spot long enough and I am convinced not all bank fishing locations are really good cat fishing spots. Me and a buddy spent a whole summer bank fishing late into the night, every night when I was 18-19 for cats and outside of maybe 2 night most of the time we didn't catch a thing. I would also expand the time your fishing. My idea of summer is mid June to late August also the one time of the year I try to avoid fishing if at all possible. To me not much is happening that time of year except in the rivers where you have been successful. Get out in spring, fall, and even winter and I bet your luck picks up.

Bill...out of curiosity, how would you split the people you take into 2 or 3 groups and what percentage makes up each group? Additionally could you put those groups ranked into difficulty of taking on a trip. Obviously individual personality of each person can make or break a trip but just generally speaking how does it break down?

I would answer 2 distinct ways: As an informed fisherman or local- I would be trying to gain knowledge on how to fish deep/use electronics. Dealers choice on when/where/and how. I want you to show me and give me the best shot. Catching is an afterthought mostly. Like has been said I want to translate what you have showed to do it myself and duplicate it elsewhere. I wouldn't expect to catch zero fish but I realize that a 3-4 fish total day could happen. As a non-informed vacationer- I would think this is Table Rock and is played up so big as a heck of a fishery(Records broken on MLF, ect). I would be looking for a significant amount of numbers of all 3 bass species and be hoping to luck into a 4+lber. I also probably wouldn't want to be up at the crack of dawn or have to drive from one end of the lake to the other.

Alaska too. Record heat this week there. https://q13fox.com/2019/03/29/alaska-hit-70-degrees-the-earliest-ever-and-more-record-highs-are-expected/

40-50 yds under your conditions seems reasonable. I've never heard anyone say, "I wish I couldn't cast so far." I'm always wanting another couple feet or bumping the trolling motor to get me closer to something.

She is way to happy to be standing there holding his hand like that.

I wish I had a smaller boat just to try out fellows. At this point, in the fall I may just use my canoe to try and land a musky.

My biggest was just shy of 8lb. Caught it trolling cranks early in the year. Caught the Eye, White, Crappie, and a largemouth(5lb) off the same pile on consecutive passes over. My shoe is a size 12. My best 4 would have to be this spring early. Took a buddy and total numbers was into the teens. Big 4 would have been a 7, 6, 5, and 4. Still hunting the elusive double digit fish.

I went over the Eagle Rock bridge yesterday. There's definitely some trash/floaters but not enough that someone that was paying attention couldn't avoid. Water color wasn't bad. Cassville got hammered yesterday but all that water is headed down flat creek towards the James. Roaring River USGS gages barely showed a blip so the rain that fell wont have any impact on Eagle Rock area.

I think the state one way or another could give up the tax base without much issue. However put yourself in the landowners position......remember 99.9% of the people on this forum are likely stand up individuals. They pick up trash, respect a decent property line, respect any personal property near the river, so on and so forth, without any problem. The problem is that this forum is likely not indicative of the normal population. The clowns that trash your property or steal from you or whatever. What do you do about them? At the end of the day I'm with you I want more access but most aren't like me, you, and the rest of the forum. That's exactly why most people say I pack more trash out then I pack in.

Your trips are making me so envious.....I have goals and they often include catching a certain sized fish. After fishing in Colorado and targeting what is essentially bait to me(I know small trout aren't bait but on a size comparison they are), I know am looking into 3 weight fly rod and buying a pack of small hook and hitting up every ditch everywhere I go for work. It seems to me its less about catching a monster all the time and getting out no matter what the circumstances are. I still have goals(catch double digit bass, double digit walleye and double digit trout locally) but your pushing me into a realm I never really thought I would run into. I have zero knowledge of the "minnows" you catch but I am slowing getting hooked. Keep doing what your doing. I mean seriously who says.....I haven't crossed off Illinois think I'll go fish for whatever will bite. Count me in as hooked.

Heck of a gamble. I assume he couldn't run WOT the whole time with the waves and such? In an 8 hours tournament that's like giving up 25% of the overall time for travel. Back to the original post...it looks like you will loose 10+ mph based on the feedback in the walleye board. One would argue that 10 mph isn't truly significant. Likewise there has to be some other reason your looking at the 1880 MS style boat over what you have today that may override the loss of speed.

Agreed 62 is relatively slow in the world of go fast. However I think to 99% of people its all numbers game. Very few people are actually using the increase in speed their chasing. Its a proverbial peeing contest. To get an idea....I don't know of many people that run 60 miles in one fishing adventure and if they do most aren't running 60 miles non-stop. If they are they should probably pick a different launch ramp(except in a tournament in which case your giving up hours of fishing time so you have to balance that costs/decision). The difference between 60 mph and 70 mph is a 17% increase in speed but over 60 miles only equates to 8-9 minutes. I would say most people run less than 20 or maybe 30 miles in an entire day most of the time(still a bunch). Meaning the most you could gain is 4-5 minutes over an entire day of fishing. There's better ways to make up 4-5 minutes in a whole day of fishing to me. FWIW- its roughly 30 miles from Beaver Dam to just past Viney Creek up the White. 60 miles(roughly) to Kimberling City. 72-ish miles from Beaver Dam to Table Rock Dam. (all measurements from google maps so they could be +/- a bit) Don't get me wrong....its cool and fun....but any reason other than that is likely an excuse.

I've never heard of the guy..I agree he is a scumbag....but its impressive he was able to lie and deny his way as far as he did. Must be a ton of gullible people in his circles.

I try not to armchair engineer the corps however it is interesting that they seem to pass the inflows from Beaver directly to Bull Shoals. I get that they really cant let water out of Bull. I also get that the logic would be to fill from the top of the chain down for downstream flood prevention, but I would have thought at some point their would be some balancing act going on between Table Rock and Beaver by this point.

They post really good updates to facebook. Not sure where/if they post it anywhere else.

Looks like the Kings is close to cresting and James is slowing down(at Galena) meaning the bulk of the water for inflows is going to be the Beaver release with 4 days or so of dry weather should give some time to level things out. Will be interesting to see how much of that they pass through. GRDA posts current inflows into Grand Lake along with their current releases. Nifty to know how inflows/outflows are matched and how big or small of a rise to expect. Also making that data readily available really shows how flood control structures work. IIRC during one of the major floods I think they gave out some of that information when they were constantly making larger and larger releases.

My xpress is 17' the only complaint I have is that it has carpet and isn't 19 foot.