Outdoor Girl

Gearing back up on Sundays at the Cape Fair Marina on Table Rock Lake.... Our "Sunday Fun" tournament is your typical bass tournament open to all tournament fishermen. This tournament starts back up August 14th, 2011, and will run through October 16th, 2011 - which is the fish off. Hours: 7:00am till 2:30pm weigh in. This is a 5 bass limit tournament with a 1 lb. penalty for every dead fish weighed in per boat. Entry fee: $35 per team. One person can fish as a team. The tournament will pay one place for every four boats entered. Big bass will pay $50 for the heaviest bass weighed in each tournament. Additional sponsor prices! Cape Fair Marina will hold out $2 per boat for permit fees when exceeding 12 boats. Registration will be accepted on the day of each tournament up until 6:50am. Call the marina for further information..........417-538-4163

It's back! At the Cape Fair Marina on Table Rock Lake.......... The "Wednesday "Retirees / Disabled" is our introductory weekly tournament created to introduce new and seasoned fishermen to tournaments and starts back up on August 10th, 2011. AUGUST take off is at 7:00am and weigh in is at 12:00noon. September and October take off 8:00am - weigh in 1:00pm. Entry fee: $30 per team. 4 fish limit. One person can fish as a team. One person in the boat must be 55+ or disabled to enter the tournament. Fish off is on October 12th, 2011. Call the marina for further details...417-538-4163

Black Bass: Not only is the air temp over 100, but the water temps keep bouncing over 90 or better. The good bass are working as hard as we are to keep cool in this drought. Most of the bigger bass have moved deep meaning that they have suspended over deep points and bluff ends and there is no tougher fish to catch than these rascals. Deep diving crank baits will get a strike or two and swim baits will work, along with rattle trap type baits during the hot part of the day. If you can find water running in some of our bigger coves there will be bass looking for it. The rivers are a little cooler and have more oxygen content but the river can be hard to get the bite started. Big plastics are still the go to baits. Early morning use buzz baits and top waters in the very back of flat coves. If you night time fish for blacks, now is the time to start working those spinner baits right up on the bank. Day time spooning using your graph to find the old channel drop bends will find stacked up bass. Crappie: Find a floating boat dock over deep water and throw a white or gray road runner as far back in the stall or shaded edges and let it sink with that little spinner twilling and watch your line for the twitch. You can also use plain old bobber and minnow set up and let the crappie come and get it. Catfish: We are getting reports of nice channels being caught from the bank with night crawlers most everywhere. Trot lines and limb lines are taking their share of big cats. Use gold fish or small perch for the best results. Good green water color and water temperatures all the way up in the nineties.

finalkffacflyer2.pdfkffacRules and Regulations.pdf The Buddy Bass Tournament will take place on Saturday the 24th alongside a seperate Kids Fishing Derby both at Cape Fair Marina. See flyer and rules & regs for further details. There are going to be some amazing items at this auction on Friday night to benefit St.Judes and Kids Fishing for a Cure. Some of them are: Rods & Reels Guided Fishing Trips Guided Hunting Trips Guided Bow Fishing Trip Gift Cards/Certificates Gift Baskets 200 gallons of propane Marine Batteries Sportsman's Gold Marinades Tackle Tools 30.06 rifle signed memoribilia collectibles the opportunity to partner with a pro fisherman for the next day's tournament custom knives and much more!!!!

Tournament of Champions(2).doc Here is the flyer for the Champion Boat Owners tournament in October....

August 20th, 2011: Rogersville Strutters Benefit Bass Tournament 6:30am to 2:00pm 3 Big Bass Payout 1st: $300, 2nd: $200, 3rd: $100 Smallest live weight wins one free entry to the Big Bass Bash at Lake of the Ozarks on October 1-2 $60 Entry Fee/60% payback Benefits local disabled youth September 24th, 2011: Kids Fishing for a Cure to Benefit Child Cancer Research 6:30am to 3:30pm $100 with optional $20 Big Bass/70% payback Auction the night before at Flat Creek Resort October 8, 2011: CHAMPION BOAT OWNERS Buddy Bass Tournament 7am to 3pm $60 entry fee/100% payback $10 optional Big Bass

As we all know the weather is hot and is going to get even warmer and the fish know it too. The bass and crappie have move deep during the day and early morning and late evening is a good time to be on the water. Night time fishing is now the time to go. Black Bass: Day or night 10 inch plastic worms are one of the good go to lures along with plastic craws and creature baits. Early morning fishing with buzz baits and spinner baits is pretty good until the sun comes up. If you do fish during the day for bass, work the long sloping gravel points all the way out to 25 or 30 feet using drop shot rigs and Carolina rigs with 4 to 6 inch plastics. The big bass are suspending during the day and if you can find them with your graph, a spoon, swim bait, or deep diving crank bait may trigger a strike. The big night time bass are moving to the banks late to feed. Dark colored spinner baits run along the bank edge with get some good bites and work the flats with exposed brush will catch a bunch of “short” bass. Crappie: Bring your floating night lights and some good crappie minnows and look for brush piles on the bottom and brush around private boat docks. The crappie will move in to feed and some good 10 inch or better crappies are biting. Crappie can be caught during the day if you fish deep (18 to 25 feet). Good old minnows fished straight down will do the job. Catfish: We have some really nice big cats coming in and a lots baits and ways to catch them are working. Trot lines and especially limb lines baited with small perch or live goldfish are really taking some nice flatheads and channels. Cut baits slowly drifted along 45 degree sloping banks will catch channels during the hot part if the day. Even fishing from the banks with dough baits and stink baits is catching some good catfish. Jug fishing, foam doodles and old floating buckets baited with live bait during the day is a ball if you can keep the gar fish from stealing the bait. Worse yet is to hook one of these 3 or 4 foot toothy rascals and try to catch up to your jug. Water Temperature and Color: Day time temps are in the upper 80’s and low 90’s and water color is a good clear green color. The thermo cline is around 25 to 28 feet and is pretty uniform all over the lake.

A lot of the information comes from all the fishermen that come in and out the doors everyday....Thanks for all the compliments, but yeah, my "male" employee actually writes them....a little concerned you guys don't think a girl could write one though.....LOL

Black Bass: If you just enjoy catching bass and you’re not concerned about them measuring 15 inches or more than now is the time to hit the water. Short bass are hitting just about anything thrown up close to the bank. A fourteen inch fish is fighting like a 5 pounder. The bigger bass have move out for the most part to their summer pattern and are suspended at 20 to 30 feet deep over point structure and bluff ends. Rattle traps and swim baits will take them during the days and dragging football jigs over the gravel points will also work. Night time the bass are moving to the banks late and spinner baits and big worms will catch them. Crappie: The crappie have also moved deep but good stingers are coming in if you know how to fish deep and willing to put up with the heat and direct sun light. Good old crappie minnows will catch some nice size fish and if you have a good graph and pick up those deeper brush piles you will take home some good eating fish. Catfish: Now these guys are a different story. Channel cats have moved toward some of the better gravel banks and a person fishing from the bank with dough and cut baits and even frozen shrimp will catch some nice 2 to 5 pound cats. Limb lines and trot lines will get you some really nice cats with lots of them running to 20 pounds or better. Flatheads are hitting live small perch and gold fish on limb lines and trot lines and we are getting reports that they are hitting bank fisherman’s lines too. White Bass: You would have to rate these guys as fair to good and if you are willing to fight the sun and heat and will troll over the long lake points with crank baits and rattle traps you can catch a bunch. Also if you don’t mind just setting out on some of the big flats and just wait for the schools to blow up on top chasing shad you can have a ball with top waters like Pop R’s and chug bugs. Perch: This is not a laughing matter; we are seeing some monster perch being caught, some weighing up to a pound or more. If you use a small popper around some of the private boat docks and use a good ultra line rod and 2 to 4 pound test line these perch will wear you out. Course, good old night crawlers will catch a mess of some of the best eating going. Water Temperature and Water Color: The lake is warm especially on the top 4 or 5 feet. Water temps of 90 degrees or more is very common. The thermo cline is setting up at 25 to 26 feet deep and water temperature is closer to 75 degrees. Water color up the James River and Flat creek is kind of a dirty green but further down the lake the color is a nice green with good visibility down to 5 feet or better.

From last week....new one coming soon....... The good news is that the lake level is falling every day and we are slowly seeing more of our parking lots. The marina worked all of the Memorial weekend shuttling folks from our temporary parking area up by Shad Rack resort down to the lake. It seemed like our guests enjoyed the pickup ride to the lake as much as getting their boats in the water for the first time in a long while. Our bass tournaments have started up again and both ramps are open now. There isn't much parking yet but parking along side the road edge is being allowed by the Corps. The really good news is that the sun is shining and its getting warm. Black Bass: There is so much water and so many targets to throw at that it's confusing. Flipping and pitching the deep bushes and trees is producing some good size bass. Use creature baits and flipping jigs and work each good target from all sides as the big bass are really buried deep in the brush. When you can find a way to get your baits all the way back to the bank edge, do it. There is a ton of bass right on the banks in inches of water chasing the bass hatch and those 17 year bugs that are falling out of the trees. Early in the morning and late in the evening the top water bite is fantastic. The schooling bass are chasing shad right up on top and there is a ton of cruising bass that are blasting buzz baits, Pop R's, Spooks and spinner baits buzzed on top. Mowed lawn edges and open gravel points using smaller size plastic worms and finesse baits will catch Spotted and Brown bass all day. The only down side right now is that it seems the night time bite is very slow. Crappie: Some good crappie are still being caught fairly shallow outside the bushes and tree trunks. Minnows are still the go to bait with just a plain old bobber and small hook. Coves like Bear Den and Peach Tree and Kearney Cove still have good numbers of crappie less than 8 to 10 feet deep. They will hit crappie jigs and small spinners also. White Bass: They are everywhere. We have some large schools right around the Marina and on both of our gravel points. Trolling crank baits over these points will get you a bunch of good eating. Road runners and blade baits just fan cast out around your boat and reeled back at a medium speed will catch the rascals. This can even be done from the banks if you can find an open bank area. Catfish: About the best advice is just do some kind of catfishing. Limb lines with live bait is working as well as cut baits drifted on shallow sinking banks. Chicken livers and dough baits will work from the clear banks. The cats are getting ready to spawn and are hunting those rocky banks and bluffs containing holes and caves that they can back into to make more little catfish. Locate these spawning areas and set your limb lines and expect to catch some dandy cats. Water Temperature and Water Color: We have a really pretty green shade of water color with vision down a good two to three feet. The water temperatures are in the 70's with a slow climb to the 80's during the hot part of the day.

I think we've been in a unique situation with the flooding and nothing has been quite normal. It looks to me like there was a break down in communication, and I apologize. The people at the shack shouldn't have told you to even talk to Stan if you were going to use their launch and park on the road. Not sure why that happened. I DO know at some point there wasn't any parking ANYWHERE and we were accomodating everyone we could with our extra parking lot. Again, I apologize for the breakdown in communication.

I'll do what I can!

September 23rd and 24th, we will be hosting Kids Fishing for a Cure. A branch of Kids Hunting for a Cure, KFAC introduces children to the great outdoors, encourages parents & kids to spend time outdoors, and raises money for children's cancer research. This will be the first event of it's kind on Table Rock Lake. On the 23rd, we will be holding an auction and meet & greet. On Saturday, the 24th, will be an adult buddy bass tournament and kids fishing derby...more details to follow....but mark it on your calendars!

Hello, my name is Kim and I manage the Cape Fair Marina on Table Rock Lake. I heard about this site and thought I better check it out. I spend just about every day out here on the water and get a lot of fishermen coming in to share their stories, etc. If you're in this area, stop by and say HI!

I would like to comment on this one as the manager of Cape Fair Marina.... First of all, Stan was working on orders from me, so if you would like to "report" anyone, I would be the one you should report. Second, there weren't any parking spaces at the marina at that time. What we did, was PAY for the use of a parking lot outside of the corps park to try and accomodate as many of our slip renters as possible. (The people who rent slips from us do not have the option to put their boat in anywhere else because their boats are already parked here.) Then, we used employees and company vehicles and boats to shuttle those people to the marina so they could access their boats. As soon as the water on the road was low enough to deem it safe, we PUSHED the corps to open the road so the fishermen could access the ramps and we used OUR equipment and employees to clear the CORPS parking areas of debris for the fishermen to park as the water receded. We also sent out messages on facebook, email, etc. to let people know what the situation was, as up to the minute as possible. We even spent time calling around looking for access points for the fishermen to launch when our ramps weren't accessible. We still have less than 1/3 of our parking area which is JUST NOW able to accomodate trucks with trailers. Here at Cape Fair Marina, we went above and beyond what most others were doing to accomodate EVERY person during this flood. Third, I would like to say that we have continuously made improvements to the marina to accomodate fishermen. We dedicate 1/3 of our store to bait and tackle priced unlike anywhere else on the water. Stan runs himself ragged at all hours and on weekends to make sure we have plenty of bait available and searches for all tackle requests made by fishermen. We installed a FREE fish cleaning station, and set up a weigh station for spoonbillers....free of charge. Myself, Stan, and the marina owners are all avid outdoors people and strive to accomodate everyone to the best of our ability. We also post fishing reports, discuss lake conditions with fishermen who call in, give up-to-the minute fishing information as anglers come in and share what's working for them, advertise tournaments, help tournament directors with whatever is needed, etc. Finally, we have always allowed fishermen to park in our marina zone, even though our employees and slip renters aren't allowed to park in the corps area. There have been many weekends where our parking area was filled with boat trailers and there wasn't room for much else. I would encourage anyone who has an issue with our marina to contact me. I am always willing to listen and try to find a solution to benefit everyone involved.