Stump bumper

This is what goes through my head every time someone cuts in front of me to get the ramp and then can't back a trailer to save their life.

Fishing weekends is ok, if you start after dark....bad part of the weekends like this on Beaver I have made trips just to check out sun bathers and not found any worth checking out, come on those small bikinis have a weight limit girls! How the world has changed and not much for the better. When I was in high school we had a line backer that weighed 250 his senior year and was a giant to the rest of us, now that is the size of the cheerleaders. Somewhere out there someone put on a bass tournament today, still can't figure out how people get paid enough to afford those big trucks and big boats without any common sense what so ever.Then again every wake boat makes me think the same thing....mostly when I watch them try to back the trailer.

According to the article they have it backwards, threadfin spawn several times of the year and all day and all night. That could explain why 80% can die in a cold winter and black out your depth finder in July. When they are that size you would have to net them to be sure, but the big gizzards will move in and out of coves until late May and that triggers big fish to follow. Almost over now, but threadfin will keep going tillthey fill the lake.

I will be out of town this week , but may take you up on that when I get back. I have been thinking about some live bait fishing up that way, it has been a long time since I have seen Holiday Island.

Got out to PC around 4:30 could not get anywhere, 8 foot waves and no wind, Jet skies coming from every direction. Took me almost an hour to just turn around and get the boat back on the trailer. Last time I will attempt a weekend until November. I don't know what people were doing in the parking lot but Benton County Sheriff's Dept was busy handing out tickets. Any outings from now until November will be launching in the dark and back on the trailer by 7am. Water temp in PC was 75.

Sounds like fun, I can't get those top water striper bites either.

It is so different to read that fishermen are "amazed at how many bass they caught on Beaver." I don't know if it is the water color or the high water the last few years or just the way we are fishing but I have been just as amazed with the number of 15-20 inch fish I have been able to catch. Thanks for the article.

Don't ask to borrow any of MY tools...you loose too much stuff.

If you have been zipping around after top water and confused on the lake right now this article might shed some light on where the lake is at right now. http://www.lurenet.com/blog/when-and-where-do-shad-and-bluegill-spawn

Prairie Creek marina is tearing them up ! There was a caucus of a Flathead that had to go over 20lbs at the boat ramp last week. I have sat out on the boat ramp and fished under the lights this time of the year and caught dozens of channel cat. Hook line and sinker has every kind of liver and frozen cut bait you would want and they also have gold fish. Right behind the pavilions out to the main channel is notorious for monster cats bending hooks and breaking lines. The later the better with most action starting at midnight in my experince, but I have been coming in around 9pm and seeing bent poles.

I have married 30 years, all vacations I take the boat now, wife maybe.

Water around Horseshoe Sunday was 71 steady, that is a little different. Wonder if it is different parts of the lake or difference in fish finders.

Sorry you are not going to be on the water for so long, when you get back rig up for Stripers. If you could keep us updated on the stripers like you do crappie we would have to password protect your post.

Maybe they have stopped being open water feeders and are hanging close to trees and brush now ? I was on them last summer and fall when I was spooning trees but I only do that when the fishing is tough and wind isn't blowing. You could be on to a pattern. My PB was 8lbs years ago on a drop shot in tree 30 feet down.

I was down by Horseshoe last night and they were coming out of the water about 3 feet high around dark. I would troll over to where they came up and they were gone. Then they would repeat about 200 yards away, that went on from 7:30 until 9:00 and I didn't get one white or striper. Seems they were coming up from 30-40 feet hitting shad balls that were 10-20 feet deep then going right back down, could not graph a big fish less that 50 feet deep. I trolled bomber long As all over that area hoping the size would get them to come up with no success at all, if I had had some 8in gizzard shad I am sure I could have got one. Gar feeding on top everywhere around dark and did get a few spots out in 90 feet of water. It was really cool to watch the stripers come up out of the water all together sometimes 10 at a time just like synchronized swimmers. I have fished that lake for 15 years and never saw anything like that. Right now with the shad spawning I am convinced the all the fish start feeding at dark when the shad start moving in and stop about a hour after sun rise when the shad go back deep. If you want to net shad you will have to do it before sunrise.

No one is posting pics of Walleye and I have not caught one lately. Where did they go? Anyone holding back?

I am really surprised there are stripers that far south, you have motivated me to get out of bed Sunday morning.

From now on leave the Stumps to me....

Looks like a good day.

Both of you brought up top water, not really a wake bait, for waking you are not walking the dog or spitting like a injured minnow but cutting a V across the top with the lure just under the surface. This was first a way to get stripers out of deep trees, later adopted by bass fishermen. I am not really sure if there are different times that one is favored over the other, but I do know keeping a V cutting across the top is harder. Not saying one is better, just an observation. I have also noticed striper fishermen throwing spooks instead of pencil poppers or redfins. I think it is the amount of shad in the lake making all the fish lazy.

I usually throw a wake bait when I see shad flipping or scattering around top, a lot of times that is not going down the bank but out in 90 feet of water with the shad making a line from 40 feet to 60 feet. The bass or stripers or sometimes both will dive below the shad and break off a ball and run it to the top, those are my favorite times to run a big redfin through them. Sometimes that Bomber long A will call them up from 30 feet deep, but I have not put very much time on it this year. Not really a pattern, but I have hit some good fish just pulling around a wake bait in deep water, right now I am seeing and catching a few fish suspended about 20 feet down off of points near creeks and cuts. I got 5 keepers and a few shorts off one point yesterday letting a small swim bait sink down to them, with the storm coming in , it was way too rough to wake. If you are around point 9 when the fish come off the trees and drive the shad to top it looks like the lake is boiling sometimes. But that is me, I like open water, there are others who stay in the creeks. From what I have read waking was invented for Ozark lakes..

I might hit PC after 5 depending on work load. It will be hot tomorrow. Congrats on getting the boat back. Did the insurance take good care of you?

I haven't heard much about the wack bait bite lately. I have seen spots chasing shad almost as big as themselves on top and swirls of fish pushing shad from 50 feet to the top. Thought I would pull a Bomber A and a redfin tomorrow to try to get a striper bite, I know it is a lazy way to work these lures but might get something to rise. Any ideas, anyone tried it this year?

That is light brown around the gills not green, I think that fish was on a bed behind a big rock in about 4 feet of water and just starting to darken up. That is the reason I didn't take time to weigh it, I wanted to get her(or him) back to the bed as soon as possible. Just my thoughts, I didn't see a bed just guessing from the tan and the fact it was very close to 50 feet of water and still that dark makes think it was a bedding small mouth. I could be totally off base, JMO.