*T*

Good wake bait for flat water. Doesn’t shine/show as well when chop on water as Redfin. Fish catcher though. 

The things my little girl comes up with in the boat........
"Dad, that's a fish landing violation. 2 minute penalty."
"Dad, how close to the dock are we? I need to pee." My response....."we just left the house".
Me: "Hey Ally....do you know why the fish get under the docks when it's raining? So they don't get soaking wet!". Ally: looks at me like I have 7 eyes.
Such a blessing to have her ask......"can I go" before I have a chance to ask her.

2/3 of the water in that lake comes from Arkansas, you Missor-ites should be thankful we let you fish there.  😃

As long as its people from the same household, and they are being careful with social distancing, I don't have a problem with someone driving a few hours to fish for a few days. I dare say folks will have less contact with others fishing somewhere in the ozarks than most do "staying at home" eating at drive thru and carryout, and going grocery shopping and to home depot and lowes for "essentials" to work on all those quarantine honey-do chores.

Table Rock Lake Current Fishing Report Mid-Lake 4-15-20

Fat Jaw got me started.
Got started this morning pretty early for me in this cold weather.  Launched out of Baxter at 7:30 and fished till 2.  Little hazy at first then the wind swept in about 8:30 and it got super bright and windy.  Surface temps this morning 56.1 when I launched and the water is kind of a green tea color with visibility about 4-5 ft.
After these last few cold nights I almost didn't go but thought maybe the same jerk bait fish I caught Easter morning would be hanging around.  Started on that 50 yrd. point stretch that I caught most of them on Sunday.  I also almost went to Taney.  First 20 minutes I threw the Megabass in pearl and had zero bites.  I could see some fish relating to the bottom and I moved out from about 20' to 30'.  
Nothing on the jerk bait but I continued to see fish not on the bottom,but maybe a foot off and suspended.  I pulled back out on the  point boat in 20' and picked up the Pig Sticker 1/2 oz. in GPO with a Reaction Smallie Beaver on it and chunked it up into I'm guessing maybe 8 to 10 feet.  Big Brown fish caught it, then another and another and another.


  I lost count but I think it was about 15 to 20 straight throws with a keeper.either a jaw or a K.

 As the haze lifted, the sky brightened and I never caught another SM.

 K's continued to bite like they were at the last supper.

Another 4 plus Toad brown fish.
Continued to catch fish just drifting around this point in the wind by then, bout 9:30.  I was not catching them every cast but I was kind of shocked at some point when I didn't get a bite.  I left them biting.
Pulled back to a really similar interior gravel point going into a big deep spawning pocket put the boat in 20 and there they were again.  Cast after cast on the Pig Sticker.  I tried a jerk bait and a Keitech and I could catch one on it but it was just not the deal, they wanted it on the bottom.

They thought the Pig Sticker was Food.
Next location same type deal but I only caught two on it.  One nice K and the other a solid LM on a Megabass.

Caught a few on a stick bait and a swim bait but it was just not the deal.
Next spot same similar gravel run and it was totally Ri Dick U Lating.  Every throw was a 15 to 17 inch K on the jig.  I bet I didn't catch 5 short fish all morning and I'm just spit balling but probably 50 plus keeps.  That is super conservative, as the real number is not a number, it is nonsense.

About 1:30 pulled back on the original location and caught 5 more in 5 casts and put it on the trailer.

They were just inhaling the jig.
I've had great days here catching really big fish.  I've had days catching literally hundreds on a drop shot, but I have never had a day on a jig like today.  They wanted nothing swimming or really cranking as I threw a Rock Crawler to try and get them to eat it.  I would catch one on a jig, pick up the jerk bait and throw it.  Nothing.  I would pick up the swim bait and throw it. Nothing.  I would pick up the Rock Crawler and throw it.  Nada.  I would pick up the jig and throw it up there and "Thump there she is."  These fish were totally packed full of crayfish.  I don't think I caught a single one that didn't have at least one in its throat.  And these were monster craws.
Two big SM over 4 were the champs of the day, but just the sheer numbers of quality K's was something to always remember  I'm going to say the best 5 at just under 17 pounds, so not a tournament bag but for sure the kind of day that keeps up getting up early and going back out.

Best K of the Day.

Only Bummer of the day was I lost 2 very large walleye right at the boat.  I had my net out but both had the jig back deep and both cut the 10 lb. line before I could get them in the net.  Man would that have made a day catching supper too.
I get to fish a lot and I'll catch them good again.  Probably not like today but I wish one of you all could have had this day.  I was going to say I wish my son would have, he loves to fish a jig, but he would not have hung in there for that many fish.  He is a 2-3 hr. guy even if they are tearing it up on a Redfih, he just won't fish that long.
The rest of this week and into next might be record breaking, so if you can get out there and enjoy it, by all means do.

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Which two are you.  I'm 71 and my wife says I'm the first two.🙂

Fished Joe Bass today and team to the dam to start my day.   2 good keepers on first spot.   Then it went dry for a spell.   Finally caught another keeper in long creek.   Caught 2 more for my limit back toward kimberling.   Had 7 bites boated 6 of them with 5 being keepers.  All came on jerkbait.  25 and change was first when I left big fish was 7.20.  My 5 weighed 12.18.  I was glad to have them.   Good luck when you get to go. 

Hey Bill regarding fishing reports.... I fished the morning in Kim City area and the swimbait worked good. I had 15 keepers and the WT is about 45. You will catch 5 to 1 on the swimbait vs the vertical bite. Most fish will ignore the ice jig like it's not even there. 

Launched out of Big M today around 0915.  I started later today as the forecast called for fog and cold and I hate fishing in ice fog.  Well when I got to Big M it was still right around freezing and still foggy.  Fortunately the sun burned though and it warmed and really did feel like spring out there once the afternoon rolled around.
Had to work for them today, caught 13 total, 3 keepers, biggest being a smallmouth that was a crawdad short of weighing 4 lbs.  Fish were scattered, almost all my bites came in 20-30 FOW of points, steep rocky banks, and run out rocky ledges on a couple of cove mouths.  Fishing the Ned rig really slow, as a matter of fact had several bites on the bottom below the trolling motor - I think those bass are just swimming along, following the bait and when I stop it, and just shake it a little, for 10-15 seconds they'll pick it up.
Been fishing a new Ned type bait called a "Sukoshi Bug", it's in the pic with the largemouth.  So far it hasn't fished any better that the traditional cut Zinker, but it does catch fish and it is something different to show them.
Water is still a stained green color, maybe 5 feet of viz.  Forgot to check the WT, but I'd guess 47 or so.

Good info!  Will try that approach next week. Thanks!

@Justin92297 and I left Columbia around 3:30 a.m. and got on the water at like 7:30 on Saturday the 25th. I fished a 2.8 keitech on a 1/4th oz head all day through trees. Justin threw the same small swimbait and an a-rig. We caught over 40 keepers and probably 55ish bass and fished all day. Most fish were 20-40 feet deep. The key was to mark bait and then count the swimbait down to that depth and just reel it back in very slow. Creeks without bait didn't have any fish in them that we could catch and most of the bait seemed to be in the middle of the creeks. Had 16.60 lbs for our best 5.
 
Sunday we did the same thing. Drive till you find bait and catch them. It was that simple. Had 31 keepers and probably 45ish fish. Lots of boats out on Sunday. Didn't see too many people catching though. Fish are so fat right now. When you reel them up they are spewing up shad like crazy. Really hoping to be back down soon. Anyone know what those smallmouth are doing? We didn't catch a single one.

January is when I get walleye fever. I don't catch a bunch ,but when I get bit it's generally a keeper .It's the same thing every year. Suspending jerkbaits Or live minnows . 
No giants yet,but did have a couple bites yesterday. My hands are huge,so this 19" looks small
One got away,this one didn't.
Happened to be my 1st fish or the year
Both bites were in 5-7' over 15-20' approximately. 

I got down to fish Mon - Weds for some solid time on the water.  Stayed mostly between Pt 11 and Pt 9, most of the time pretty close to Pt 10.  Mornings were more productive than afternoons, but still was able to catch fish either time of the day.  As others are saying, most fish were in 30-45' of water, close to or on the bottom, with standing timber nearby helping.   While I did have a few on the McStick, wayyy better catching with the Gulp drop shot or 3" or 4" swimbait on a jig head.  Definitely a light bite for sure, and the calm winds certainly helped stay on top of the bait while watching the electronics.    The bellies on the K's were full to say the least!
I was reading this article this morning...100% exactly what I found the last few days.  https://www.wired2fish.com/tackle-tips/damiki-rig-vs-drop-shot-when-and-where-to-use-each/#slide_1
 

I wonder if crows have folklore with legends and memories that are passed down from generation to generation.  If so, you could be part of it.

I doubt they live that long.  Was many years ago.

Dam-Long Creek area with Mike
Hit the water out of Old 86 yesterday morning at 7:30 in the Geico Ranger with a really stiff South wind and some pretty good swells. Water was clear and 48 degree.   Plan for this morning was to crank and throw the stick bait on windy banks and then take a breather and do a little vertical stuff if we could find them.  Always good to see and fish with Mike.  The guy is always in a great mood and really reminds me of Beck which was also one of his best friends.  He loves to fish and simply loves what he does.  He is pretty good at it.😎

Started on a transition bank  with a lot of wind and some big surf pounding it.  I was on the sticker and Mike started with the RK.  I hardly had my butt in the seat when he said, " There she is."  Really nice 2.5 lb. LM.  Wind was really blowing down the bank, kind of had the boat sideways with me on the back and Mike on the front.  He was fishing a bit deeper with the bow in 18 to 20 feet and me in about 1/2 that and still  almost full cast from the bank.
About 3 cast later and he was winding it pretty good and also pulling it he caught a nice Jaw.  Again probably 2.5 or so.  Here is a tip, don't be afraid to throw that Spro Rock Crawler deeper than you think.  Mike was throwing it on 10 lb. Carbon and he was ticking the bottom at 12' .  We fished a 300 yard stretch of the transition until it flattened out and he caught 4 all keeps with the good one pictured above.  I wasn't really warmed up good yet so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

 
Wind was blowing a gale and he had a phone call to take so we pulled into a creek to check for some deep ones.  They were there but fussy as all get out.  While he was on the phone I caught a good keeper K swimming the Keitech Deep-Deep at 50 feet plus.  As soon as he was done he put 2 more keepers in the boat  also on a swim bait deep.  I think I'm down 6 to 1 but who's counting.

 
 
Saw some Loon's working in another creek and went in.  Here is where I was totally blown away.  Mike is a Garmin guy and we watched the Garmin Panoptix Livescope all day.  He kept saying Bill, Bill get up here and look at this.  At a spot in the creek he said," Bill get up here and look at this, there is a school of shad 50' in front of the boat at 30' with a school of bass under them at 35', I'm going to catch one right under that school from here."  And, Durn he did it,   Threw past the bait ball counted it down and swam it through the bassyou could see the fish fighting back toward the boat after he hooked it.  Simply amazing.  99% of us would have never caught the great Brown Fish that Mike pulled from the middle of the creek suspended under shad away from everything.

With a pretty nice wind on a transition bank going into one of the major creeks in the dam area, we started fishing the McStick pretty serious for about a hour and I even threw a Megabass a bit but no bites at all on the stick bait.  If the Table Rock Hammer cannot catch one on a stick bait its probably time to put it down.

  I asked if he wanted to catch some deep jig fish and he was all on board so we motored up Long Creek to the ridge I had been doing well on.  We both fished a Pig Sticker 5/8 and 3/4 GP Orange. 

Now durn it, I'm pretty good at this and these are my fish.  As you can tell this is probably not going to be good for me.  Stinkweed put 3 keeps in the boat before I got one.  PS  Mine was bigger.  He then put 1 more keep and 1 short in so at this point I'm pretty much toast but it is sure fun watching him catch them.  Dudes we caught some jig fish out over 40'.  He is "EXTREMELY PATIENT"  He calls it Hard Headed but if he thinks he can catch them he does not move.  Same thing with the Rock Crawler he will throw it and throw it.  It works if you can make yourself do it.  The day he caught the 5 pounder he said he threw it and caught 5 in the first hour, nothing for the next 2 hours still throwing it and then 4 more in about 45 minutes with one over 5 and 1 around 4.
We stopped at another transition on the way in and he caught another really nice LM on the RK. again he was fishing it probably a bit deeper than most of us, I'm saying that crank bait fish came out of probably 15' plus. 

Mike fishes a Motorguide Tour Pro and it lifts and deploys with 2 fingers.  It is totally silent both turning and running.  The new MG with spot lock is not out yet but Motorguide has told him it will be something special and should be out soon.  Mike has been very loyal to Motorguide thru all the spot lock deal and also with the new Garmin so I'm excited to see what he thinks of the new motor.
Final score Mike Mcclelland 12 keepers and one short.  Bill Babler 3 keepers.  Last time I beat him 8 to 3, so he got his revenge and really gave me the best water to fish all day.  We'll get out another couple of times in the next two weeks before he has to go back on the road.  It was a fantastic and educational day with a really good buddy.
If you all have any questions about equipment or technique you would like Mike to answer just post them here and I'll see what he has to say.
Good Luck
 

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Sounds like a real show going on there. Sometimes it’s not so much the fishing but everything else we get to see out there.

Fished club tournament yesterday fished the conditions and went to cranking. Caught 8 keepers between me and my partner. Best 5 would have been 15 lbs. Covered endless amounts of water. Lots of fun when the big brown bulldozers show up! Wt: 49-50.

College indoctrinated me about chemistry and physics.  I took no classes regarding politics.  You are mistaken about what my education is in.  I formed my political opinions elsewhere.  In fact I couldn't tell you the political leanings of any of my professors in college.  Most were foreign, couldn't care less, and politics wasn't discussed.  

Gary and I were missing Table Rock and missing the Shell Knob Pizza Hut for several weeks. Late summer into mid-fall has been awesome at Stockton but the Rock was calling us big time. I picked him up at 5:30am and we headed that way. We launched right at 7am at Campbell Point. It was cloudy, low 50's, and dead calm. We like to chase the shallow water bite first so we did that for a few hours. We caught one here and there but nothing to brag about. The fish were scattered and chasing shad WAY back in some of the creeks. Even though the water temp was in the low to mid 50's the fish were busting shad on top pretty regularly. I managed to catch a few on a jerk bait but the schoolers were hard to keep up with. Finally about 2pm I decided to see if we could get some of the deep fish to bite. Everywhere we had been all morning and everywhere we went later on in the afternoon we were charting deep fish but couldn't get them to bite. Finally about 2:30 or 3 we found a school that was ready to play and caught several 12-14" kentuckies in short order. At 4:30 we ran to our spot we usually hit last and it paid off again. We caught a few nice chunky bass right at the end of the day and then headed toward the Pizza Hut...... Dang it. Closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the off season. Man, we had been looking forward to it all day. I may actually call ahead next time.....

This tree always had good fall colors, I think it is a cypress.  Only one around that part of the lake as far as I can tell, makes me wonder if it was planted there when the park went in.

 
Fishing was OK, started off fishing the Ned rig, couldn't get much of a bite on it, and the fish that I caught were mainly 12-13 inch spots.  Switched out to fishing a 2 3/4 inch tube on a 3/16 shaky head, and got better results, still mainly spotted bass, but got average size was better.  Only caught one smallmouth, a 12" dude, and only one largemouth, 14 incher.  Fish I caught were on bluffs, steep banks, and points, anywhere from 5 to 30 FOW.  
16 bass, 5 were keepers - seems to be a pretty good year class of 15-17 inch spots in the lake this year.
WT 51-52.

10-4 on that..... We love every single bite we get. Big, small, or in between..... If everything goes according to plan we are having a big fish fry on Friday night if you want to join us. We'll be in the north west camp ground at Mutton Creek. That goes for any of you other Ozark Anglers that want to join us too. Just bring your days catch with you. I'll have a filet station set up about dark thirty..... The men in my Sunday School class get together and camp and fish twice a year. This is our 9th year in a row.

We fished the USA Bassin championship on Sat and Sunday out of Mill creek.  Saturday we caught them on mainly jigs up the James pretty good. Then Saturday with all the fog we couldnt go to far so we stopped at a spot my buddy found them schooling a week earlier and we flat went to town catching them on top water over 175ft.  All three species mixed in.  We had a limit real quick and decided to go back up the James and look for a big one on a jig.  Caught lots of shorts but they werent biting it like they were the day before. 
Over all it was really tough for most everybody, very few limits brought in either day. We had a little over 12lbs the first day and a little under 12lbs the second day. Just enough to take the win

When the BPT MLF guys were here I learned something from Jacob Wheeler. He would find the schools and would back off of them a bit. he would cast to them with a small swimbait. Just food for thought and something to try.