Fishin4Fun

That is at State Park? I’m getting mixed messages as I have asked around. I also heard Long Creek. Taking my daughter and want to make sure I show up to the right place. Thanks.

Does anyone know if we can attend the launch and exactly where it will be in the morning?

That was probably us. We got off the water around that time. We were fishing the grass right there before heading back to the ramp. There were 3 or 4 boats pulling out when we got off.

My son and I were out kayak fishing Saturday evening at the same time you were around Rockaway Beach. We saw the jet boat a couple times and it really didn't cause us any issues. We got hit by larger wakes from some of the boats that were out there than the jet boat. Glad to see you faired a little better than us in the fishing category. We only caught 1 little largemouth each and that was it. The water was definitely dirtier than the weekend before. The rain from the night before definitely stirred things up. Water temps were anywhere from 59 degrees to 72 degrees, depending where we were around Bull Creek. Thanks for sharing your report.

Congratulations on a great day out with your son. Nothing better than that. I still love going out with my son and he is 18 now. Time flies by, enjoy every minute.

Sounds like I better get me a guide trip. Thank you all for the feed back thus far. This is good information. Tyy

Hello All, I'm always up for learning a new method of fishing. Some I have liked over the years and some not so much. We each have our favorites. So, I have seen a ton of talk on this forum about fishing with spoons. I have never fished with a spoon, but would like to give it a try and see if this would be a method I enjoy fishing. So here is my question/s... What spoons do you like best for fishing on Table Rock (brand, size, etc...)? What colors are your favorites? What are the best methods for fishing these and types of locations (vertical jigging, bluffs, docks, etc...)? What is one piece of advice you would give a newbie or nuggets of wisdom you would be willing to share? I thought this post might be a good way for myself and others to learn fishing with spoons and then hopefully make it easier for others down the road to find information on this when coming to this forum. Thank you for any and all wisdom and advice you are willing to share.

Great report Bill! Thanks for sharing! Are you finding that the 90 Whopper Plopper is working better or is the 130 just as good? Thanks! Tyy

I did a ton of research on spinning reels and found that the Daiwa Procyon was highly rated and recommended. I just purchased one on Amazon for around $123 and just got it the other day. It is a sweet looking and feeling reel, now I just need to get out and use it. Might be a good one for you to check out. I couldn't find any in the stores around here, but it looks like normal retail is $149 and the reviews said it was worth every cent. Look at the reviews on Tackle Warehouse. I hope to get out and use it soon. Good luck on your search!

Sounds good Ryan! Yeah, I lived right by the Henry's Fork. Fished it some and the Snake as I lived right by that in the Pocatello, Idaho area. I actually grew up in the Sun Valley Idaho area and fished Silver Creek and the Big Wood River a ton if you are familiar with those at all. Fly fishing was all I did back then. I will definitely go check out the Ozarks Smallmouth Alliance. Thanks for sharing!

Very nice catch Ryan! Pretty sure you were the one I was talking to at launch on Saturday in regards to the take out at Mud Bank. All worked out and it was a great trip. Definitely some nice smallies caught on Saturday. Thanks for sharing your fly pattern. I am from Idaho and use to fly fish all the time, but haven't since we moved out here. I might have to get back to it after seeing these pics. Tyy

Thanks for the fishing report. Some good looking fish there, even if they weren't huge. Getting out on the water makes it all worth it.

Donna, you can get the measuring boards/Hawg Troughs at Ozarks Extreme Outdoors on Indian Point, just south of Silver Dollar City. We use them all the time for our kayak tournaments.

Thanks for the great report! Hopefully they will still be on next Saturday. Will be back down there to try my luck.

Hi Dewayne, The water around Kimberling City looked good to me. I know the water down by Indian Point was definitely more stained. I haven't been down that way for a while, but some friends have been and they said that part of the lake had been turning over more. I fished Whites Branch a couple weekends before and it was definitely more stained than on the west side of the Kimberling City bridge. I'm sure the guys with boats could give you more detail as they get around a lot more than I do in my kayak. I've heard most places west of the bridge are clearer than east.

Had a great day on the lake kayak fishing with my son in the Kimberling City area. Fishing was pretty good. We caught largemouth, smallmouth, spots, sunfish and I think goggle eye. I have attached some pictures of our day and catch. My son turns 18 tomorrow and he wanted to go fishing for his birthday. Couldn't have asked for a better day. Absolutely beautiful out! All fish came on the Ned rig and a square bill crankbait in a shad pattern. We tried swimbaits and a whopper plopper too, but no luck with those. We found that sitting our kayaks in 5 to 10 feet of water and casting deeper and working them back towards us worked well with the Ned rigs in the morning hours. Later in the day we found the fish in 2 to 4 feet of water. My 17 1/2" largemouth was caught on the square bill right by the shore chasing shad. He hammered that square bill and gave me a great aerial show coming out of the water 2 or 3 times. That poor fish has seen better days as you will see in the picture. Pretty beat up. Between the two of us we probably caught 15+ bass, plus all the sunfish and goggle eyes. We launched at 6:30am this morning and were off the water at 1:30pm. Water temps started out around 65 degrees and were pushing 70 by the time we got off the water. Love days like this! Wish I could get out more often, but like most, I am a weekend warrior fisherman. The rest of the week I am pressing the time clock. I guess it gives me something to look forward to when Friday rolls around. Thank you to everyone on this forum board for all the great information and sharing your stories. It helps make a day like today a memorable one for my son and I.

Thanks for sharing! Some great looking fish there. I have been finding the same issue. They have been picking it up and moving it, but not taking the whole thing. I have missed a lot over the last few weekends from my kayak. Slow has also been the answer for me. Thinking of hitting it again this Saturday and seeing if I can find some bigger ones. That one with the messed up gill plate looks like the same one Dave has caught 2 or 3 times now. I guess he's a hungry little guy. lol

Mike, we always appreciate the respect on the water. Thank you for that. Also, thank you for the information on the KBS. Their site shows 5/21, but obviously this shows otherwise. I will try to get to the bottom of this. Appreciate the heads up. Tyy

Hey Mike, I'm hoping to fish the KBS. I'm on the board of the Show Me Kayak Fishing Association and we are pushing this tournament to our group. Should be a great day and a lot of fun. By the way the tournament is May 21st, not the 28th. Do you kayak fish? Tyy

Had an ok day fishing out in the kayak. Caught 6 short smallies, a bunch of perch, a 9" bluegill and a nice 17" largemouth. Tried jigs, whopper plopper, swimbait and Ned. The Ned was the only thing I could get them to take (thanks Dave for the pointers.). Got some nice bites on the jig, but they wouldn't take it. Almost like they were just moving it out of the way. All the bites were light. Soft little ticks and some just picking it up and swimming with it. Definitely had to be very attentive to feel anything. It was a beautiful day on the lake, even if the fishing was a little slow. Here are a couple pictures from the day.

Great looking Slam Dave! Looks like you have them figured out once again. Will you be putting out anymore videos on YouTube on fishing the little rig? Would love to learn more techniques in fishing it. You have consistently shown what the naysayers say can't happen and that is catching quality fish. Would love to learn more if you are willing to share. Thanks for all your input on this board.

dprice, Father/Son time is the best! Love getting out with my boys. This was my son's first tournament and I loved having him with me. Hopefully many more to come. Flatbottom, I leave the floats on. I haven't had any problems with them affecting the sensitivity of the rod. The only think you have to make sure of is that the velcro straps loose end is away from your line or it will catch on it. Not a big problem, but worth it knowing that my rod has a chance to be saved if I go over or drop it in. Luckily I haven't had that issue yet, but I know guys who have. Some guys don't like them, but I rather be safe than sorry. Secondly, the measuring device is a Hawg Trough and it does have some curvature to it. It makes it nice for getting the fish to lay in it nicely. You can buy them from Eric at Ozarks Extreme Outdoors on Indian Point at Table Rock Lake. He ships to if you need it shipped. Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks Kramr!

Fished a kayak fishing tournament yesterday in the MO-Yak Open Series. This was our first tournament of the year. Thanks to everyone on this forum board and a few that offered me some pointers I was able to take 2nd place. Our tournament was a road runner style tournament, so we met at the state park east boat ramp and then we were able to drive to anywhere within the Core of Engineers boundaries on the lake. Myself, my son and a friend decided to head to Son's Creek branch to try our luck (thanks to some friendly help). We were on the water by 7:15 am with air temps of 38 degrees and water temps of 56 degrees. It was mighty cold on the feet to begin the day! Once we got out on the water and the sun was finally up we started to warm up. I found a point right off the bat that started to produce some fish, so I stayed in that area most of the day. There were a lot of bass in the 11" to 14.5" range to be caught. My largest for the day was a 14 3/4" large mouth. I did catch 2 15+" whites. Too bad they didn't count. Unlike other tournaments that go off weight, we go off length. We are able to count our 5 best fish for length. We do CPR (Catch, Photo, Release) so all fish are immediately returned to the water. My son and I tried a Rock Crawler, Ned rig, Carolina rigged super fluke, Carolina rigged lizard, underspin, swimbait, a texas rigged bubble gum trick work and a wacky rig. My son caught a large crappie on the swimbait and then all 4 of his bass on the texas rigged bubble gum trick worm. I caught the two whites and around 6 of my bass on a PB&J Ned rig, but my larger bass all came on a wacky rigged KVD Ocho watermelon green with red flake. None of the hits were hard on any bait. They were light hits with just a subtle tap or on the wacky rig it was light thump and then loaded up. I found that most of the hits came in 6 to 10 feet of water on points or back in small cuts around submerged timber. By 2pm the water temps were between 58 and 60 degrees, depending on where I was at. I still think the bass are pre-spawn and staging. The smaller bass were caught closer to shore with the larger ones being a little deeper, in the 8 to 10 foot range. I have included a couple pictures of my day on the water. It was a good day overall, just nothing of great size. Hopefully, this report helps someone out there as much as all the help on this forum helped me. If you are interested in learning more about kayak fishing and our tournament series please visit our website at http://showmekayakfishing.org. Good Luck and Good Fishing! Fishin4Fun

Very nice! Love when a quick trip produces like that. Great job!

Thanks for the report! Nice large mouth. Much rather have been out there today that at work. Oh well, maybe another time. Glad you had a overall good day.