johnm

I saw your monster Brown today on another site.  40.4 LBS!    Nice!! 
40.4lbs - 41.25" long - 28" girth.

January is almost done, can't wait for February and March to get here.
I fished from 0900 to 3 PM.  Didn't cover a whole lot of ground, I found fish on a long rocky runout with timber and stayed there for a while, it was my best spot and produced 10 bass, all on the ned except one on a Pointer 78.
Picked up a bass here and there on some rocky points on the Ned, finished the day with 17 bass.  Most of them were in 10-20 FOW.
I was fishing the Ned really slow, dragging it on the bottom.  I had several fish follow it right to the boat and I'd see them on the transducer on the bottom straight down.  I think I caught 4 or 5 just jiggling the Ned right off the bottom under the ducer when they'd show up.  I'm convinced those bass were following it to the boat and wouldn't eat it until it was wiggled in their face.  Very little wind today which certainly helps fishing that Ned really slow.
Wt was 42 when I started, 44 when I left.  Water is still stained green.

 

As Eric Prey and Pete Wenners have been alluding to on their videos the jig bite here is extremely strong.  Bass are just gorging on Crayfish.  Seems like a lake wide bite, it has been for me as in the past week I have been from point 1 on the White to point 15 on the James to  point 23 on the White.  It is going all over the lake.  Boat positioning is critical for this bite as it seems to be right at the thermocline.  With lake temps today at 83 degree these fish are holding in the 26' to 36' range and most are bottom hunting and not suspended.

Big baits and heavy equipment are the ticket on deep jig fish.  Notice how that Nichole's craw is just flopped over it is extremely soft and swims like a complete alive thing.  I'm using Falcon MMC Signature Rods in Heavy Action and also Falcon Cara Amistad.  15lb. carbon line
Lots of power pole boats on the lake practicing for a late Oct. derby.  They are catching them, flat out hammering them.  From what I heard today its taking about 2 hrs. to put 14 to 17 pounds in the boats, with lots of LM and SM in the 4 lb. range.
These guys have not going out early, they are catching them all day long, sunshine or clouds it does not matter they are feeding up.
I have visited with Champ about this bite for years, it is a big bait bite, with lots of the pro's using 5 inch baits and 1 oz. jigs.  They are using big jigs and bigger trailers.
My absolute go to bait on this bite is the 3/4oz Pig Sticker Quick 5  with a Nichole's Texas Craw trailer, either in Copper or WMC.  Jig color is either GP Orange, Brown Orange or WMC.

The Nichole's craw is a very large trailer suited for the 3/4 oz. jig and the colors are about as good as I have seen matching up with the Pig Sticker.
A lot of the pro's are throwing hard heads or Biffle Bugs in that 3/4 to 1oz size.
Most of these fish are coming on the flatter stuff holding right at the channel breaks, and dragging the edge or winding it with the hard head is money.
That's about the best information that I can give you.  Good Luck

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Mink.

Nice and I think it is somewhat early for the traditional BG spawn.  There was a thread a couple of weeks back with folks saying they saw them nesting, but I think its usually closer to the last of June before they really start the boy/girl thing.
As long as I remember Beck, he guided a guy that came every year the last week of June and they just slayed them.  Billy guided him in the Wolf Pen area on the deeper timbered points and I can remember a lot of days they had a basket full of the really big ones.  Bill thought they were spawning around the deep trees or were just post spawn fatting up. 
He never cleaned them but he would do his best to show you where they lived and if you wanted to keep them you had better have your own knife sharp.
I'm going to try some of those deep timbered points up the White after seeing this to see where they are.  As always up there 18 to 25 ft. seem to be a magic number for the biggins.

Fathers day weekend and have not spent much time on table rock this year but am regretting it.
My son and i had no trolling motor this weekend (planning on boating and swimming mostly.) We went fishing (drifting) mid lake only for a short time and caught only quality fish on jig mid way back in coves. It was exciting kids loved it. The exciting part is that normally they are 14.5in. All day... but Seems the average is better this year than normal, 75 percent of our largemouth were 16 + in. Great keeper ratio! Glad to be back. 

Made it over to Big M this morning, launched at dawn.  Plan was to hit a few summertime largemouth spots and go from there.  Plan didn't turn out well, could hardly get a bite early, the exception being a carp that probably went about 15 lbs. that decided to eat my c-rigged craw.  First carp I can remember catching on a c-rig, and he had it in it's mouth so I can only assume he meant to eat it.  I was hoping it would turn out to be the biggest bass swimming in Table Rock, but I could tell after about 10 seconds that it was no bass.  Thought it might be a gar or drum, a little surprised to see old bugle come to the net.
Later in the morning I headed out to a place I have named "Keitech Point" and swam the Keitech.  Caught some there, made a location change to another rocky point with trees and caught some more there.  All spots, except for one 12" largemouth.  Caught a little over 20 and when I left about 1130 AM they were still biting.  Had a wake boat towing an inflatable couch with 3 kids siting on it pass by about 50 feet away and that made me decide it was time to go.  
As I cam into the Big M launch there was a white garbage bag floating in the water in the middle of the cove, I decided to get it out of the lake and dump it in the trash can.  Went to lift the bag and it fell apart spewing bottles, cups, and other trash all over the place.  Had to drop the TM and net as much as I could.  As they say, no good deed goes unpunished, LOL.  

 

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Some days its not easy and you have to put on your thinking cap and today was one of those days.  It would have been pretty easy to say there are to many people on my locations and they are just not biting, but I bowed my neck and then got lucky.

 
Hit the water with Charolette and Mike this morning at 5:30 and had to wait at the launch for 20 minutes at Baxter.  Lots of fishermen does not even cover what was out there today, not even close.  From Baxter to Shell Knob there was a boat setting on every gravel runnout and then some fishing up close.
Surface temps at the start were 87 and when we finished at 11:30 they were up to 88.8 on the Lowrance.

Started slow for us with a bit of a top water deal, but most were small whites and we gave up on them after catching several.  Looked like young males and the mess they were trying to make verified it.
I'm going to tell you all, I  could not get on anything I had been fishing.  Not a single location that I had fished in the last two weeks.  It was all covered up.  I'm going to say between Baxter and Play Port there were easy 50  bass boats and aluminum fishing boats out this morning.  Some of this stuff I have been on is hard to find, not just your regular point runnouts but some ridges and humps.  All covered.  I don't know everything and lots of people can read electronics and today for sure proved both deals.
At about 7:30 I decided my blood pressure was high enough and went to the deep trees.  Just took a breath and told the clients "Were not catching them anyway, lets go look in some knarley places and see what we will see."

First set of deep lumber solved our problem.  As soon as I pulled in I could see them setting just above the trees at 35' suspended.  trees were in 70' to 90' way, way out off the bluffs, almost to the middle of the coves but on the edge of the White River channel.
First drop the clients got a double on the Purple Yamamoto cut tail and it was on like Donkey Kong.  Drop shot, jigging spoon or deep swimming a 3.3" Keitech in Rainbow Shad on a 1/4 oz head it did not matter, they simply snarffed it.  When you caught one a dozen would chase it to the top.  Had one fish spit up a big shad, 2 small crayfish and a purple Yamamoto worm we had lost a few minutes previous.  It was like a frenzy, as some traveling up with him gulped his stomach contents as fast as he spit them out, including the purple worm again.

The swimbait will catch these fish, but you are risking it and the high dollar tungsten head in these trees, and its not worth it when they are on that spoon and drop shot, so I put it up and we just up and downed them.
Fished till 10 on that one set of trees and I believe at least a dozen doubles, really to much to count.

 
  I told them lets look on another deep set of trees headed in and "Boom, There it is."  Again this set of trees in the same depth off a similar end was loaded.  They are easy to see and I should have taken a screen shot and didn't.  I will on Wednesday if I remember.
Kind of learned a lesson this morning, as I was becoming frustrated big time with the fishing traffic and pressure.  I don't own the lake and it is Summer play time, but work time for me and work time is thinking time.  I know they smelled my brain bubbling trying to figure it out.
I got really lucky and did.
 

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Fathers day weekend and have not spent much time on table rock this year but am regretting it.
My son and i had no trolling motor this weekend (planning on boating and swimming mostly.) We went fishing (drifting) mid lake only for a short time and caught only quality fish on jig mid way back in coves. It was exciting kids loved it. The exciting part is that normally they are 14.5in. All day... but Seems the average is better this year than normal, 75 percent of our largemouth were 16 + in. Great keeper ratio! Glad to be back. 

Fathers day weekend and have not spent much time on table rock this year but am regretting it.
My son and i had no trolling motor this weekend (planning on boating and swimming mostly.) We went fishing (drifting) mid lake only for a short time and caught only quality fish on jig mid way back in coves. It was exciting kids loved it. The exciting part is that normally they are 14.5in. All day... but Seems the average is better this year than normal, 75 percent of our largemouth were 16 + in. Great keeper ratio! Glad to be back. 

Fathers day weekend and have not spent much time on table rock this year but am regretting it.
My son and i had no trolling motor this weekend (planning on boating and swimming mostly.) We went fishing (drifting) mid lake only for a short time and caught only quality fish on jig mid way back in coves. It was exciting kids loved it. The exciting part is that normally they are 14.5in. All day... but Seems the average is better this year than normal, 75 percent of our largemouth were 16 + in. Great keeper ratio! Glad to be back. 

Fathers day weekend and have not spent much time on table rock this year but am regretting it.
My son and i had no trolling motor this weekend (planning on boating and swimming mostly.) We went fishing (drifting) mid lake only for a short time and caught only quality fish on jig mid way back in coves. It was exciting kids loved it. The exciting part is that normally they are 14.5in. All day... but Seems the average is better this year than normal, 75 percent of our largemouth were 16 + in. Great keeper ratio! Glad to be back. 

Fathers day weekend and have not spent much time on table rock this year but am regretting it.
My son and i had no trolling motor this weekend (planning on boating and swimming mostly.) We went fishing (drifting) mid lake only for a short time and caught only quality fish on jig mid way back in coves. It was exciting kids loved it. The exciting part is that normally they are 14.5in. All day... but Seems the average is better this year than normal, 75 percent of our largemouth were 16 + in. Great keeper ratio! Glad to be back. 

the best to keep hands warm and dry is to put on rubber surgical gloves under finger-less gloves

great day for deep fishing.  put in before 9 and it took a while looking to find some.  depth was pretty much on the bottom 45 to 50 feet.  caught all of them on 3/4 ZincSpoon and a 3/4 GrassJig head with a 4"swimmer.  keeper ratio was pretty good today.  ended up with 12 keeps, but we did have a true grand slam.  keeper lmg, k's, brownies, and a 22" walleye.
bo
 

Yes and can always look up previous reports from the same time of year you are planning on going...

Yes and can always look up previous reports from the same time of year you are planning on going...

I always bend the blade inward so it barely clanks against the shaft every time it revolves around

Sad news, he knew SO MUCH about fishing . What an Amazing guy...
Would love to hear him say "cmon girls breakfast is ready" as he threw a spook...
My best condolences to his family and close friends...

I been down the last two weekends and noticed the jig bite or drop shot was best. I drop shotted around the 25 ft mark on bluff ends where the shad drift through the main channel and the kentuckies were sitting there waiting for a snack.... Seemed like if u got bit and it was a keeper, then there is many more of close to the same size together
And the jig bite seemed best by docks close to deep water or with a little breeze blowing in on them.

I been down the last two weekends and noticed the jig bite or drop shot was best. I drop shotted around the 25 ft mark on bluff ends where the shad drift through the main channel and the kentuckies were sitting there waiting for a snack.... Seemed like if u got bit and it was a keeper, then there is many more of close to the same size together
And the jig bite seemed best by docks close to deep water or with a little breeze blowing in on them.

Loose connection either in the pedal or trolling motor head or at the battery

Loose connection either in the pedal or trolling motor head or at the battery

Loose connection either in the pedal or trolling motor head or at the battery

It's as busy as 4th of july today around pt 9