bluebasser86

Sorry for the late report but my already sick self during the trip ended up coming down with pneumonia when we got back, so I haven't done much of anything the last few days. We had a small group of friends down for a buddy "tournament" that we ran MLF style but still only tracking our biggest 5. My buddy I fished with had never fished Table Rock before, and after this trip, he's completely spoiled. We never caught fewer than 30 fish in a day, both managed 5 fish limits each day, including several solid fish in the 3-4 pound range. I was concentrating on channel swings at first when we got to the lake Thursday around noon and managed to find one little cut that they'd corralled shad into. I did alright for myself there, but Coty would have had a high teens bag by himself, all on a 3/8oz underspin and 3.8 Keitech. He caught the 3.68lb smallmouth, and 4.20lb largemouth on back to back cast. It was pretty unreal. Friday we fished around Aunt's Creek. Caught fish about everywhere we stopped and were able to duplicate the small pockets where the channel swung in, again with the underspin. Didn't catch quite the quality, but Coty had another high 3 range fish along with several solid 2.5-2 3/4 pound fish. Towards the end of the day we ran back near the ramp and found fish busting. Fish everywhere on the graph and they were pounding the underspin. All barely short of just barely keepers, but still a lot of fun. Saturday, we started around KC, but the torrential downpours seemed to shutoff or underspin bite. We managed to get a small limit before running to Aunt's. I started throwing a jerkbait and about the time the wind started blowing, they started really eating it. I ended up catching our 2 biggest fish of the day, a 3.68 largemouth and 2.90 spot that looked like it was about to explode. The fish had stuck to the channel swings or close to steep drops, but seemed to have moved to gravel or sand banks or points. We ended the day with 13 3/4 pounds, less than half a pound from second. Sunday, We decided to stick it out in KC because it seemed the better quality bite was there. Started out the morning hot and heavy, but mostly smaller smallmouth. They really wanted the jerkbait, so I kept feeding it to them. It was dead calm, and the bigger ones didn't seem to want to move for it. Finally got a little ripple on the water, and I quickly boated 3 keepers before we made a short move to a point I'd wanted to fish if the wind started moving towards it. It was a good call as our biggest of the weekend literally tried to swallow my jerkbait. It had been a tougher day, so we were feeling pretty good, but really wanted another quality bite to feel like we had a shot. Then the sun came out, wind died, and so did the bite. We went a couple hours only culling up a little with a 2.5lb smallmouth on the jerkbait, but still had a 2 pounder to get rid of. Decided to try to the little pockets again to see if there was any magic left. Very first one, Coty got slack lined on his underspin and put the one we needed in the net. We ended up with 14 3/4 on the day, which gave us the win by almost 2 pounds and big bass for the weekend with my 4.14lb fish. It was an absolute blast. Always love fishing the lake, but I've never seen her show out like that.

Overstock baits had 5" smoke red/black flake Yamamoto grubs buy 1 get 4 free on Black Friday. Glad I grabbed a bunch, I'll have to toss them while I'm down there this weekend.

I feel uneasy just looking at that first picture, doesn't even look right with that monster on the back of a tin boat. I'm not a go fast kind of guy though. I'm fine backing off the throttle a little and putting along at 45 in my Stratos. Don't usually make any long runs anyways.

We used to trap them with gallon milk jugs. Bury the jug up to the opening in the bottom with bait inside and a short piece of rope tied to the handle. They crawl into the jug to get the bait and can't get back out because of the smooth sides and inward sloping top of the jug. If they really try hard I'm sure they could swim up and out, but it would take some work. Used to catch lots of them that way and the "traps" were easy to come by.

I'd rather ban the wake boats and cruisers than the jetskis. The jetskies are annoying sure, but the wake boats and cruisers are just dangerous and do lots of damage to the shorelines and docks.

I looked into them a good deal when I bought my boat. Seems like the PP had more moving parts to break, but the Talons have a tendency to get mud and silt stuck inside them if they're used on soft bottoms often. Not sure if that helps, but those were a couple of the important points I found.

Hyperpigmented melanosis, it's harmless and supposed to be a sign of a healthy body of water and a healthy fish.

No pheasants left in Kansas, coyotes ate them all, don't bother.

I'm guessing a standard cab truck? I put mine in the cab when I'm going fishing in my kayak and I can fit my 8' swimbait rods in there with no issues.

I have several rods with micro guides and like them. Haven't broke one yet, but I know it's been an issue on some rods. They suck when it's cold because they ice so fast. Not fun if you fish braid to a leader of any length, or when the cottonseed is falling either. It feels like you're just fishing with the blank.

Love my old St. Croix Pro Glass, but they're hard to find anymore. Recently picked up a 7' MH/M Quantum KVD cranking stick and it's the best cranking rod I've owned next to the St. Croix.

I fish mine on a supertuned E5 Curado. It'll sling them a mile.

I had a huge owl pick up a jitterbug while I was night fishing once, one of the biggest explosions I've heard at night. I caught a blue heron night fishing this summer. I was running a bladed jig off the front ends of some shallow docks and never saw him until he had already flown through my line and gotten tangled up, the hook buried right at the shoulder joint. Thought I was going to be brave and unhook him, but after he took a couple lunges at me with that bill, decided to cut my losses.

I guess going to the backs of major creek arms and fishing under the hundreds of diving seagulls to find whites in the fall is a big secret at LOZ? Besides, they weren't even big ones. Most of the ones we caught wouldn't have been big if they were crappies. I doubt we had one that would have measured 14". Super fat from gorging on all the 2-3 inch long shad they had corralled back there.

We could have caught them until we got tired of catching fish last weekend but we were fishing a bass tournament. About as far as we could go up the Gravois, right across from Gravois Mills Access, just look for the diving birds. Even had my first ever double on an A-rig.

Bow to Stern has been good for me.

Yes, the jig addiction is very real. Last year I added these to the arsenal for when the cover is a little too thick for a regular jig. Just add a hook and soft plastic and it's ready to get into anything.

Jigs are my favorite bait. I'd rather be on a good jig bite than topwater any day because I lose fewer fish and catch bigger average fish, plus the heavier gear is nice and hammering the hook home on a jig just gets me going. I make all my own from pouring to painting to wire tying the skirts. It's nice to be able to make a jig for the exact conditions I'm facing and the satisfaction of catching them on my own creation is always a bonus. I do my own bladed jigs too and a bluegill color was good for both weedless jigs and bladed jigs this summer. Then the last few weeks I've been fishing dirtier water and they've been loving a junebug jig with a sapphire blue trailer.

A hybrid striper, or wiper. They don't get nearly as big as a pure striper does. Plus it was on a jugline instead of rod and reel so it was the alternative record like wrench said.

I've had good success with them, but I've also found the new run of WW to be pretty good as well. A buddy of mine gets the one knocker WW blanks and paints them whatever color I want for way less than I can get the pre rap WW for.

Great job and pictures! My son turns 3 in December and caught his first fish by himself this summer, it was a very proud moment.

Yes I don't leave hooks laying out on the deck and keep my rods to the side out of the way. I fish barefoot any time I can and haven't really even had a close call that I can think of. I normally have my golden retriever in the boat, who I'm more worried about getting a hook than I am myself.

A small zip tie will fix that in a hurry.

My dad and I were down enjoying the lake this past Monday-Wednesday. It was a great time despite the wind and heat?? Didn't expect to get hot all 3 days in mid October, but it sure was. My dad isn't a bass fisherman, but my parents have a timeshare type thing down there and they were going to lose their points this year if he didn't use them so he asked if I wanted to go, of course I did, but I made sure he knew that Table Rock is plenty capable of shutting down even the most experienced anglers. He didn't care, so away we went. We didn't really keep track of fish each day other than keepers, which we figured we had at least 15 over 3 days. The only bass we didn't catch a keeper of was spotted bass. We both had keeper largemouth and smallmouth and I caught a keeper meanie, only my second meanmouth ever. Fish were extremely shallow on small rock to sand with cedars being a bonus. Only caught 3 fish deeper than 5' in 3 days with the 3 biggest largemouth, my dad's biggest smallmouth, and my meanmouth all in less than a foot of water. The howling winds made it impossible to fish deeper, so we couldn't have asked for any better. Whopper Plopper 90 in Munkey butt, T1000, and Sooner along with a War Eagle in Spot Remover or Purple Shad did most of the damage. Also caught a few on a 200 series Bandits in Spring Craw, grubs, Ned, Spook Jr, and a shakyhead. Big fish for the weekend was my 4lb 6oz largemouth on a Plopper in 1' of water. Threw a wake like a submarine while it was tracking down my bait.

Thanks for the report Quillback. My dad and I will be down at Table Rock Monday-Wednesday this week. Dad's not a bass guy, I was shocked when he asked if I wanted to go. Your steady reports along with the reports of others give me something to start with in hopes of making it a productive trip for him.