techo

Is he the same guy that had a shop in Nixa a while back? If it is....he made awesome spinner baits.

That wasn't boring at all! We didn't get on the lake this weekend and wanted to say thanks for letting me live through you this weekend!

It appears I now used the paper plate. I apologize if I offended, i tried to reply to your statement about Bill and personal. I thought I wrote better than I fish and could pull it off, share some insight without offending to the point of chasing someone off. I hate to see you lurk as you obviously have skills the rest of us would like to know more about. Most people ( me anyway)would rather shallow power fish than finesse deep fish. I would rather learn than have you lurk. It appears you make some jigs and spinners too. I love the jig fishing and thought about making my own.....but if you hang around.....that might be another good topic to start up! Once again I didn't mean to offend and apologize of I did so.

Terry, Ever wonder why the food cost so much more at a fancy steak house? It is the delivery. They cook that steak over an open grill pit and serve it on a hot steely plate surrounded by goodies. Taste good and people pay a whole lot more for it than if you cooked the same steak over an open grill and served it on a paper plate with some chips. Your delivery on advice , thoughts and suggestions were challeging to say the least. In the last few days you have made suggestions as to how to manage Table Rock like they manage the lakes in the far north which are covered by ice four months a year. Ozark folks don't care much for how other people do stuff as this is an area with a huge history. Then you suggest you don't have much respect for Missouri's version of the DNR. Some of those guys are actually friends of ours. I think a couple have spoken at seminars. I know you were talking about the practices, not the people, but again it is the delivery. You said them not their policies. To top it off.....you tell Babler you disagree with him and don't like black and white statements. He is a highly respected guide that has acked up his advice with 20+ pound bags in tournaments. On a topic labeled for the KVD fishing tournament in the Table Rock forum you post pics of small mouth bass caught on a MInnesota lake, asking if it brought back memories. I took that as a suggestion that you didn't believe I fished up there and committed the same violation of forum ettiquette. Another paper plate. Maybe shallow fishing works for you year around because it is your strength. In general.....Table Rock is a different kind of clear water lake and the majority of anglers have to go deep in the summer. If the guides come on here and give advice.....and it doesn't work....they get emails and PMs asking why they steered people wrong and asked why are they trying to keep people off the fish so they can have them for their clients. There really isn't much of a benefit for guides to post on here what is or isn't working for them as they fish almost everyday. It is mostly regulars that read and post on here and they don't hire guides very often as they have a good idea about the lake anyway. In other words this forum doesn't generate a lot of business for guides. I normally try to stay pretty politically correct and not make waves. You mentioned Bill made it personal. As an admin of the forum....I doubt he would respond to that. I was just trying to show another side. I expected a few fireworks out of him after your post as he is a feisty feller that has a passion for Table Rock and really wants people ot enjoy the fisheries. He ducked one time and told me to cast a red fin over his head at a fish that had swirled on the surface. I laughed at him. But that is how he is about fishing. He wants everybody to be successful and have a good time. So saying what works for you might have been a bit less challenging than saying you disagree with someone and dislike black and white statements. Of course I could be wrong! After all everyone knows food while camping taste way better than some steak on a hot steely plate at a spendy steak house.

Just have the ones with the kids though.

Maybe! I guess we really hich-jacked this thread!

Well that wasn't near as fun as I thought it was going to be!

To many years in the gym lifting weights! We won our body transormation contest this year....so took up running. I have had two knee surgeries and want to run a marathon in November. The knees are whining a bit. I didn't mean to steal the thread topic though! I am to fragile for rugby! Checkers?

I lived in MInnesota for about twenty years. I lived on Rainy Lake for nine. The DNR are not highly thought of there either. I am sure they do a good job, just easy targets......same here. Is our fishery in trouble? It seems like Table Rock is doing fine and just has the ups and downs of seasons and regular fluctuations. Generally speaking.....you can go out on Table Rock and catch something. Don't get me wrong....I am all for treating the lake with respect and anything that can make it healthier is good by me. I was just wondering if the lake was not doing well or living up to expectations with the suggestions regarding tournaments and fish management.

I wil PM you a spot, but live crawlers is what we use when we take the neighbor kids fishing. Beats all of the fake stuff hands down. Plus just fun to put on the hook. On a side note.....seems like your a pharmicist? What do you think of glucosamine for the joints of us aging folk?

"My wife dove in a few times around the cliffs to cool off and said the ledges were covered with big brown crawfish." Thats a good woman right there! Wish mine would dive under and see what the fish are eating and then report back. She would probably go look, but wouldn't tell me!

Exactly right!

Oh yeah....Charlie Campbell told me about that spot. I think he tells everyone though!

The jig bite has been odd this year. I always have an Eakins jig tied on with a double tailed grub, I went with Bill Babler (Bull Shoals) earlier this year and took a rod with one tied on. I never ever go on Table Rock without it. Yet this year it hasn't produced for me. I have had a few little bumps, but I think we have only caught one fish all year on it. Just an odd deal for us.

Sorry! I hate giving out specific points and usually PM that kind of info. That particular spot isn't much of a secret though. If there were sloping gravel points in Aunt's Creek I would mention it. Maybe not!

Schooners would be a good area to look. Go past the big docks and look for some sloping gravel points to your left.

Tfsh4bass, It probably makes a big difference on how deep the fish caught are. We were at weigh-in for about ten minutes and saw quite a few bags weighing in with dead fish. SKMO, You have offered for him before and he appreciates it. He is only home for a week and it is during his son's first birthday. He has missed a lot of his first child's firsts. I gather he intends to spend quite a bit of that week with his little lovely wife and the little booger eater. He has pretty good access to fishing as he is the one person I would let use my boat. If he ever does fish with you.....bring a chain saw! He ends up in the trees quite a bit. Seriously....he appreciates it and is a good man! He said to tell you thanks.

Hey Capt Joe. I used the pushing the side fin down, go two or three scales out from the tip of it, slide the needle under the scale and then lift it straight up and push down method. I am not sure of the proper name. I will try the mouth method next time! Thanks foir the link.

We have a small bottle of some orange stiuff that Captain Don recommended a few years back. We throw a capful in every so often. Surface water temp started at 83 and ended at 84 yesterday, with some fluctuation depending on where we were. I am not sure it would have mattered filling the livewells earlier or not with the water already so warm. Great suggestion though! I received some phone calls from wiser than me folks. I think I did not fizz right. The needle felt like it popped through one layer (not sure what elese to call it) and felt deep to me so I stopped. It sounds like the needle has to enter two layers and you almost feel it give when the bladder is penetrated. I wasn't expecting any kudos from anyone....just giving a report and feeling like a fool for having to return fish and not weighing them. I felt pretty terrible for not knowing how to handle the fish in the proper way to weigh it and save it. We didn't do much to deserve praise as we didn't give much up. We fish tournaments for fun and would not be in the money if we weighed those fish anyway. Thanks for the kind words though. It seems every day on the lake is a learning process in one way or another. The people on here make some lessons easier to learn and some lessons easier to take. On a side note....my usual tournament partner Adam is coming back from Iraq for a week visit in about two weeks. I have the bad news to tell him. The Mrs is my regular partner now as she really enjoys fishing the tournaments.

Did you go down by the dam? I headed up to yu usual haunts around Aunt's Creek and it wasn't as bad as I remembered. There are usually a ton of boats around the swing. We left one of my favorite spots that most everyone else fishes to get ice and came back... no one jumped on it. So we got it back. I walked around the tournament early, but didn't see any orange stickers and couldn't pick you out. We are usually easy to pick out as Shell is one of the only females at the tournament sitting in a boat. Glad you weighed some good fish!

Fished the last Table Rock AIA Tournament of the year today. Had my favorite partner, wife. We are in the running for being invited to the championship and just wanted to weigh fish for points. So off to the points we went! Caught a few shorts on top early. One was 14.75 inches. Tried a c-rigged centipede and caught the first keeper about 7 o clockish. We caught two more keepers on the drop shot right after. The down side was, when I went to put the third keeper in the live well....I saw both fish swimming on their side. We emptied our ice from the cooler in the live well and they seemed a little happier. We decided it wasn't worth it to kill three fish for points and an invitation so we (took pictures) released all three. All three swam away pretty good and we kept fishing in the area...so hoping they turned out all right. I didn't see them on top of the water, so I believe they were okay. The best one released was about 3.5 pounds. The other two were smaller with one barely 15" and the other 16". We caught another 2.5 pounder toward the end of the day and stopped by a marina and boufght six bags of ice. That bass was very lively when weighed in and swam off in a huff when released. That bass came out of 106 feet of water and was my third try at fizzing. I am not sure I am doing it right as I don't hear or feel anything when inserting the releae needle. We ended up for the day catching a huge blue gill. a white bass, four bass that would have kept, two bass that might have kept if you pinched the tail just right and I am not sure how many shorts. Saw a few dead fish at weigh in. I think our best bag would have been 11 pounds if we kept them all. Biggest bag was 18 pounds when we left. Quite a few big boats bouncing us around out there. It was an enjoyable day still.

I talked to Mark on Friday. I guess it was a last minute thing setting this one uo and they intend to be back earlier next year. I brought up the same point. We have the AIA tomorrow and dread the boat traffic!

mark, Nice meeting you and your posse today. I learned more about sunglasses than I knew existed. I was bummed that BPS didn't have the glasses I decided on, but we can always order online. On the downside.....the Mrs has decided she won't give up her seat for KVD in this weekend's tournament. I hope he isn't too hurt, but she is the boss! Good luck on your tourney!

That is a better site. I forgot about it! There will be more boats than that fishing tomorrow with the KVD tournament.

Very nice pic. I have a Pentax K100 that I am still learning on.