sholder02

Did you lose all contour lines, or just the ones around some of the points/flats?

What size of hook?

About 2-3 foot visibility.

Fished a small derby out of Viola. We never got further than 5 minutes from the ramp. The shaky head (Trick Worm) outperformed the jig by probably 10 to 1. I caught a spawned out female that weighed 4#'s. 14#'s won it and 4.25#'s was big bass. We weighed-in ~11.6#'s (3rd). Considering we had a 4 pounder in the livewell, it's pretty telling what our other 4 fish looked like. We caught a ton of fish. We did better on really steep banks (not bluff walls) or at least having deep water nearby. The spawned out female was caught on a jig in ~18' of water. The water temp was as high as 67 in the backs of some of the pockets. Water clarity was ~4'.

Speaking of a rough day... My brother and I fished Joe Bass on Saturday out of Ahoy's. Friday, we prefished between Baxter and Big Creek. We found fish throwing crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs, and swingjigs. We got on a good dock bite late morning/early afternoon towards the back of creeks on pea gravel. Based on the fish we were catching, I figured we'd have between 10-12 pounds on Saturday. I knew that we weren't on a winning pattern so scrapped it tournament day. I wanted to find prespawn fish. I was hoping to find them deep over trees. Pulled up to our first spot Saturday morning and within the first 30 minutes, hooked a female full of eggs with the A-Rig. That pretty much ruined me. I glued that to my hand and we fished deep for nearly the entirety of the tournament without another keeper. Plenty of shorts...but no more keepers. For what it's worth, there's a good dock bite skipping jigs around the front of docks towards the backs of creeks with pea gravel banks.

HLS in Rogers still has some (except for Red Craw).

Did you find that in Rock Creek? There was a boat half-sunk in its stall most of last year.

...says "Peaked in high school Rob Lowe."

Jug N Plug in Shell Knob carries the Keitechs. I'd give them a shout to see is they stock what you're looking for.

I just received an update from Navionics: Thank you for raising this issue to our Cartography Department. Navionics has investigated your report and we are pleased to advise you that we are currently working on the correction for the missing seabed areas that we have available which is scheduled for 2/25/15. We will contact you once the alteration is incorporated into our database with instructions on how to obtain this correction. There are sections of the lake without depth contours due to lack of source information. We do now have the ability to accept sonar log information from users to incorporate into our SonarCharts layer. Our new, innovative SonarCharts program can accept multiple formats from Humminbird, Raymarine, Navico brand or Garmin chart plotters, as well as with the SonarPhone feature in our Mobile Apps for iOS. For more information you can go to: http://www.navionics.com/en/news/humminbird-lowrance-raymarine-simrad-and-garmin-now-can-be-used-improve-chartsSonarCharts is currently available with Navionics+, Navionics Updates, Platinum+ and HotMaps Platinum charts, as well as within our Mobile Apps. All current chart information is also viewable for free through our WebApp at http://www.navionics.com/en/webapp. Now you can easily know what areas are currently charted and view our newest data. Thank you for being a valued and helpful Navionics customer and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

For those of you that have the app downloaded on your phone, you should notice it there as well.

I had the Navionics Hot Maps (Premium) in our old boat and just left it in the graph when we sold it. After the new boat was purchased, I went to Cabela's and picked up the same card. I took it home and ran all the updates for it. Finally got to put it to work in December. The first thing I noticed is that there were absolutely no contour lines in Cedar Branch (near Emerald Beach/Big M). The more I got to looking it over, there's quite a few places where the contour lines will just abruptly stop. The main lake point/flat at Viney creek doesn't show the shallow contour lines, either (as a specific example). I called Navionics and the guy I talked to said to make sure all graphs were up to date (HDS 12Ts) and to call him back if I was still having problems. The next time I was at the lake, I updated the graphs and still didn't have contour lines where I KNOW there were some before. I called Navionics back and the lady I spoke with pulled up the map on their end. She agreed that something was wrong and said she'd create a ticket to have it looked at. The reason for my post is for two reasons. 1) If you haven't updated your card in a few months and aren't having problems with the contour lines, you may want to wait. 2) If you're seeing what I'm seeing, please give Navionics a call to voice your concerns. Even though she could see the problem, as well, she acted like I was the first person to call in and bring it to their attention. I'm afraid if I'm the only call they get, they're probably not going to be in too big of a hurry to figure out what's going on.

As others have mentioned, someone will have a conflict no matter the date. That being said, Joe Bass has a tournament on the 14th that I'll be fishing. I believe there are a few members that also fish Joe Bass. No matter the date, thanks for facilitating this.

Turn your trailer hook around so it faces down (assuming you're not running it over cover). That will help with the ones slapping at it. Out of curiosity, what tournament goes out of Big M?

Steak Inn