Sprint21fter

Fished the Winter Series kick off and had little expectations as far as what was going to happen. Kept an open mind and covered water. Our bite/pattern changed but we found our pattern had moved to a couple of different creeks. The fish pulled off the bank a bit and wanted a slower topwater, hence what Clunn was doing throwing a spook. Caught everything that bit but didn't have any size or a chance at a quality bite. It seemed off for us. Weighed 5 for 10 1/2 lbs. Weigh in came around and happened to be behind the winners as they weighed. Thanks for the butt kickin. Mr. Hodge. They weighed in 19lbs and won big fish with a 4 1/2.

My dad drew him in the last open they had in October a few years back and he was doing the same thing then that he is now. Watson forgot about the long idle back into state park the day before in that derby and was docked 6-7mintes late and had almost 15lbs that day. It was the tournament Short won. I have to give the draggers a little help your right about the 9-10lbs out there.

It will be won shallow! Quality fish are following the bigger sized shad into pockets or creeks. If it would have slicked off today then the draggers would be in the ball game getting their 12lb limit. You have to burn your trolling motor all day to run into the right creek or pocket that has the bigger sized shad in it. When you do you will catch a better than average size fish. Fishing this style you are expecting to get 5-9 keeper bites all day. It isn't for the faint of heart.

It will be interesting with the fronts coming in and good cool down. I bet the crankers and blade throwers will do pretty well. I am anxious to find out who my dad draws. Work kept me from fishing this one.

I caught a 50lb flathead on a jig on sept 3, 4 years ago. Completely by accident. 17lb line and a medium heavy rod was pushed to the limits.

It is fishing good, the size is the tricky part. Those big fish that live up there are smart and everyone fishes the same stuff with the same lures most of the time. Pressure affects that place a bunch. I know of a few tournaments anglers that still cash alot of checks fishing Kings river every year.

Took the family out and fished kings river a couple miles either way of the ramp at Viola. Wt: 77-78. Lots of bait in the pockets and main river flats. Threw a spinnerbait, squarebill, and topwaters and caught keepers on all of them. Had more keeper spots than largemouth. 7keeper spots and 3 largemouth. Best five 11lbs. In the next couple of years this end of the lake could get interesting with all of the 5-7inch bass swimming around. They are everywhere! Good luck to all who fish this weekend.

My team partner got to go yesterday and he caught really well to, he said he easily had 16lbs. Largemouth and smallmouth mix in his bag. Said they bit steady all day. Go figures they always bite during the week, and change on the weekends. We have been on a very good bite lakewide for the last month since the water color is the same across the lake. Crankbaits have been doing most of the damage.

Once we start having these little cool downs and transition starts happening, I just get in an area and put the trolling motor down and fish what is in front of me. I will have 4 rods, a bottom bait of some king, topwater-for fish that come up and work shad, crankbait, small swimbait/grub. To me the fish are so focused on bait and they move around by the hour it seems, you have to pretty much run into them. When you do find the fish they are aggressive.

Fished a club tournament on Saturday, with the clouds and wind early figured the bite would be pretty good. I was wrong, caught 1 keeper in 3 hours. Luckily, the mid-day/afternoon bite picked up and we scratched out 6 keepers for a smidge over 14lbs. Got a check, but if I would have fished clean we would have made 2 upgrades instead of having 2 swimmers in the bag. The pattern for the day was to burn up the trolling motor and hit as much wind blown banks as we could find. Transition is happening right now, just keep your head down and keep throwing, you can run into a big fish just get him in the boat. 1st place had 15lbs with 5 keepers, 2nd place had 14.39 with a 4.25 big fish they had 6keepers. The central open will be interesting next week. Good luck to all.

I have heard there have been some showing up in the Kings river arm, Deer Bluff area. Some have been coming up at the mouth of Kings River also. They haven't been staying up very long.

Took my brother-in-law out saturday to a part of the lake he hasn't fished yet. We put in at Cow Creek and fished from the dam back to the launch site before the boats got wild and crazy. To say the least the fish are very scattered but if you cover enough water you can catch a few. We caught 15 fish only 3 being spotted bass and the rest were largemouth. Did have 6 keepers. All fish were caught on squarebills. Monday I had the pleasure to take my neighbors out to the lake. They have only fished from the bank so this was going to be a new experience for them. Fished Kings river, and had them throwing rooster tails and I don't know how many bluegil/fish that they ended up catching. They were grinning from ear to ear all day long. Besides the bluegil there were a bunch of 12 inch largemouth and spotted bass that pulled their on the lines as well. If you want to catch alot of fish go up the kings and throw a little squarebill or roadrunner/roostertail. The quality hasn't showed up there yet but there are alot of undersized hungry fish up there biting. Good luck.

Clouds, rain, wind. What more could you ask for. I had a blast as well yesterday, just needed a partner to have been able to get in the money. See you at the next one.

I don't think we are having another one, seems to be affecting baitfish and other game fish instead of bass. There are a few bass floating but that is typical for this time of year.

I use O2, and have at least 10 frozen 2 liter bottles of water, my livewells have the oxygenator in them as well turn them on and keep them on. The bottles also keep the fish from being bounced around while running.

I over guessed them,when I weighed in they were 1/2 lb lighter then what I thought, still glad I got to tangle with them, it hasn't been easy, trolling motor on high all day

Had problems with loading other pics

Here are a few fish photos from the last few trips

It was chilly this morning, running down the lake

I think it depends on what they do with the water in bull shoals once bull starts going down then table rock will go down

There is nothing better than teaching and showing up and coming anglers the numerous strategies in the fishing game, he was asking and soaking everything in, it wasn't to long ago for me I was doing the asking and learning,I still have a lot of learning to do as well, see you at the next tournament

Fished same club and fished kc area, lost big fish by a couple of hundreths and a check by 1/2 a pound due to a deep hooked fish that died early in the day we ended up at around 13 1/2 lbs showed one of the high school kids to either fish for quality or numbers it wasn't easy but we had a great time

I have one in my boat and they keep em alive as long as your battery lasts. I have a club member who has been wrecking them up long creek on crankbaits as well

Aaron Martens hates drop shoting too

Well, now with school out I could log some hours on the lake. I took full advantage of hitting as many mainlake points that I knew of in the midlake area. June 4th-25th was as good of a spook bite as i could remember. Fishing 2 times a week and catching 10 solid keepers 4 trips in a row was unbelievable! Not mentioning short fish. These fish were setting in 8ft over 40 and 50ft at the tops of timber we would be 3 plus casts off the bank "calling" them up it was unbelievable! Never caught a big one but caught several 3lbers. After the low fronts moved through on fathers day the fish have seemed to become spread out since but the spook has still been producing early after the sun gets up it has gotten super tough for me. Good luck to all!