Bigmo

Alex, congrats on the shallow bite. It is a pleasant surprise this time of year when the shallow bite happens. If I get out tomorrow i'm going to hit some of my favorite shallow banks first. What was the water temp in your area? I had a shallow bite going on around Thanksgiving but water temps went down and so did the bite.

Ham I thought about posting the pic with the gps on it but there were shad stretched out for hundreds of yards plus if anything I post can help somebody as new as me who's getting use to fishing deep water is ok with me. Bill was right they were always moving. When I started looking for them before 11 they were sitting in 80 fow 50' down. They slowly made their way towards the 50' depth sitting in 25 to 30 fow. By the time I left fish were in the 15' depth. I didn't have any luck throwing a jerkbait or a-rig in that depth.

bill my front graph is on the blink right now so I had to fish by looking at the rear graph on the console. I can't wait until Santa Claus brings me my New graph I was just lucky they were fish all around me from the front of the boat to the back of the boat

I had my line blacked out with a magic marker at about 50' and coming up from that depth was a concern. Every white I released took off in a hurry so I figured they were good. I took several other pics that had the screen completely covered in shad and fish but they didn't come out as well.

I went spoon fishing for black bass and after finding shad suspended anywhere from 60 to 80 foot of water, I thought I found them. To my surprise I pulled up white bass for the next hour and a half one after the other. After deciding to keep my limit I quit on a good note. The shad were suspended off the main channel below the mouth of the kings.

Water temp was anywhere from 40 to 47 degrees the last two days. Yesterday I caught a total of 5 in 5 hours. 2 LM and 3 spots. The LM were on jerkbaits in 15 to 20 ft. of water on 45 degree banks.. The 3 spots were on a 1 oz. war eagle white spoon in 50' of water down 20'. Both LM were a little under 16" and one spot was a little over 15". Today was worse, I fished the White from the mouth of the kings and then down past the kings river marina and I managed only 2 non keeper spots on the white spoon. I got lucky enough to follow several gulls diving for shad and managed to find thousands of shad under me with only the 2 spots to show for it. I did throw a tube and a football jig on the steep bluffs and lost a fish on each. There's always tomorrow.

When I quit today before 11 the winds were starting to pick up and I figured I better get the firewood stacked and some of my other honeydoos done before the cold got here. I saw and heard several other boats throughout the afternoon on the kings river and I was kicking myself for quitting early. I know they're several fisherman that read these posts and never chime in so here's your chance. How did you do or did you hear any good or bad? Just wondering.

Abkeenan is right about the War Eagle in the mouse color. Sorry sometimes I don't think when I write. I'm sure other spinners work great but i'm partial to the mouse color. It seems to catch it's share of fish.

Something I didn't post about the shallow bite was it helped to have laydowns and submerged bushes. The banks that had the most wood on them worked the best .Alot of times we tend to bypass these banks because they're so shallow looking. I just happened to have a friend show me that they are great for a spinnerbait and ever since I seem to hit them more than a lot of my deeper spots. I use to hate throwing a spinner and now it's a favorite to throw. Some bites did happen almost halfway to the boat but they were few and far between.

At 8 am with no wind and water temps 54 to 55 I caught 8 in the first hour in the shallows with a mouse spinner and then someone again flipped that switch. Not a bite for the next hour. I remember a post recently about someone catching them on the end of docks with a worm so I pulled out a green pumpkin ribbon tail and fished the ends of docks in the shade and from 9 to 10:30 I caught them like they were never going to eat again. After 19 with 4 keepers someone flipped that switch also. The wind started to gust and I figured I had one last good day for a while. I'll have to look it up but thanks for the worm bite report on the shady sides of docks. Thanks to everyone who post their outings good or bad.

You're right I was a very lucky man yesterday. With no wind I didn't think I had a chance with a spinner but like you said fishing is fishing. I think they were going to hit anything in their zone no matter what I threw at least in the shallows.

I got on the water today around 1030 fishing the 45 degree banks throwing a jerkbait after hearing several others on this forum fishing them last week and catching fish. On my second cast I catch a 16 inch spot eight foot out from the bank and i'm thinking its going to be a good day with jerkbaits. I didn't catch another for 30 minutes so I threw the wiggle wart I caught them on before thanksgiving and I just managed one in the next 30 minutes. Before the wiggle wart bite last week I was catching them on a war eagle mouse spinner up in the shallows with my boat sitting in 8 to 12 foot of water. I hit the same banks the rest of the day and caught 15 with 5 keepers with nothing over 3 lbs. The other 10 were all 14 and 7/8 long and built like footballs. It's a good day when you see every bass hit your spinner and knock it silly this time of the year. I had at least 8 hit it and not get hooked so overall it was a good day for December. Water was 53 in the morning and 55 when I quit around 4. All my fish were in the Kings from the mouth to Kings River Marina. Hopefully tomorrows just as good or better.

Champ you are right about the bigger spots being farther out. The biggest largemouth was also farther out.

After reading the report on the switch is flipped I had to get out today. I waited until 3 this afternoon and threw the wiggle wart only for one and a half hours. I fished up from the kings river mouth on 45 degree banks with my boat sitting in 15 to 25 fow. I caught 8 with 5 keepers with a 3 lb. lm being the biggest. The 5 spotted bass I caught looked like footballs. The largemouth were not near as well fed. I had them hit the wart as close as one foot from the bank and at least thirty foot out. I wish I would have started earlier but it was sleeting most of the day off and on. Sounds like it's only gonna get better. Water temps were 54.

I fished mixed rocks on most banks. Ledge rocks even produced some fish as long as it was a 45 degree bank.

I fished the upper white yesterday afternoon on 45 degree banks and threw a wiggle wart up against the bank and caught 8 with the largest under 5lbs. The other two keepers were a little under 3 lbs. I threw a I/2 oz. brown and green jig with a brown trailer with only 1 non keeper. The drop shot is still working in 32 to 38 foot of water. Fish were from 15' to 38' down. Majority I caught were on the bottom. I fished the same spots this morning and it was a complete reversal with the wart and jig. I caught 7 fish with 3 nice keepers all around 3lbs on the jig and 6 nonkeepers on the wart. Sounds like its only going to get better for the wart and jig.

I started at 10 am yesterday morning and caught a keeper lm on a top water on my first cast on the flats. I knew I was doomed after that but I fished the 45 degree chunk rock banks with a 3/8 pbj jig and caught 10 with 3 keepers within 5' of the bank. I had my 17 lb. line broke twice and I know my line was good, I wonder if they were walleyes. Every bite was in the shade and right after it hit the water. After seeing several stacked under shad I got the drop shot out in 80 ft. of water and caught 5 in the 20' range. I quit at 1:30 with a decent day after being cursed with the first cast fish.

There's a rubber boot on the switch under the foot pedal. Sometimes they come off and it won't work. Otherwise lift the pedal and they're are a couple screws attaching the switch. Undo the screws and take the switch off and take it to a marine repair and they can tell you if the switch is bad. A new one is under 20 bucks. Good luck

We started out throwing redfins and catching them around docks in the Kimberling City area. After they slowed down we threw a chrome or white spoon into slips and into the water where the topwater produced them and caught close to 15. We worked out way all the way back to Cape Fair Marina and caught at least 45 more on points with drop shots with plum and purple chompers, 5/8 oz. football jigs with craw trailers, Carolina rigs with baby brush hogs, deep diving crankbaits, and 12 inch worms. Most fish were in the 25 fow. Pete showed us that you need to fish out from the bank at least 3 casts deep. Big fish was close to 5 with a 4 and several keepers. What a day when you can catch fish until 2pm when everyone else is in where its cool or in the big boats. Thanks Pete.

I just found out he was wrong about TR, MDC plans to release 16,000 fingerlings on the Missouri side of Bull Shoals later this summer.

My UPS guy told me today they released stripers, fingerlings I would imagine in the lake today. Has anyone heard that rumor or know if it is true or not? He said Table Rock wants to compete with Beaver in the future tournament wise. Just wondering.

We just got in from braving it out this morning. From 8 till 1 we caught 18 with 5 keepers. I used Bills advise and sat in 30' and casted in and counted down or just let it fall in 10'. I was using a 3/8 oz. ball jig with a smoke grub. We lost several coming to the boat and had a lot of them just hit it and not get hooked. After 3 hours of deep fishing we caught several within 2 to 4 ft. of the bank on chartreuse spinnerbaits. In our area of the kings they are still where they were before the front. Not much has changed around here.

Just letting you blade throwers know that I averaged 15 for the last couple days with 3 keepers on a white/chartreuse and a chartreuse only skirt. They were all within 6 to 8 ft. of the bank. Probaly had the same amount hit the spinnerblade and miss. I also threw a 3/8 oz. shakey head with junebug colors and caught about the same ratio.

I've been using fishsticks in the shad and crayfish scents from Bass Pro and WalMart. I can tell a difference when I fish with someone who doesn't use it. It rubs on just like chapstick and it almost last the whole year. I use it on my cranks, plastics,jigs and spoons.

Hey guys i found 203 ft. of .043 spring tempered music wire at grainger industrial supply here in Wichita KS for $ 15.00 and change. You can go online and find different sizes. It works great and i've made several. The first i made was ok then as you go you start to make improvements on the rig. Can't wait to throw them next week.