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For what it is worth on the sticks and the Easter weather of last year...when the front dropped the temps it seemed like (at least for me) that the stickbait bite sort of turned back on up the Kings and around Kimberling, along with swim grubs around Kimberling. Had been doing ok on little plastics, even some blades with wind, before that. Dropping water and a big front could kill the move to the bushes and sort of cause a "reset" pretty fast. I kind of enjoyed last year...it was like getting two springs in one. Wish it hadn't killed a bunch of my trees though.

Anyone have the phone number for the Corps handy? Thanks.

Just wondering if folks would mind posting updates on access areas as the water (hopefully) starts to drop. Will be headed that way 4/6 for the first of my three weeks this spring. Would surely appreciate any ideas on where to get it wet. Thanks in advance.

Great fish, gotta like the lack of quit to get that bite. Hard to stay focused with that much junk to flip at. Remember fishing at Truman in 1994 (had to launch in a ditch at Windsor Crossing because the whole park was flooded)...we caught them swimming jigs for fish suspended in the flooded junk. If you let your jig get down it would be under them and they wouldn't go down to get it. Different lake, but similar conditions, about the same time of year.

Hope everyone is staying safe with all the water. It's a big problem for fishing, but that is just the little issue. Will be down 4/6, hopefully things will be settled somewhat by then.

I build most of my spinnerbaits, have played with a bunch over the years. Latest one I'm stuck on is a small head-hidden weight type (like screaming eagle or mini-me), built on a compact frame with a 4/0 or 5/0 mustad round bend hook. Prefer small blades: #2 or #3 Col lead / #4 Willow trail. Will go up to a #4 / #4 1/2 willow combo on a heavier head (3/4oz). Like the heavy heads due to the wind that is required for a good blade bite in the clear water. Can even drop them down thru flicking shad in the fall. Will throw some smaller heads in the spring around bushes and up the rivers. The above blade combos will slow roll or burn equally well, and are just bit smaller than most stock combos. Prefer light shad colors...blue hi-lite pepper, clear silver flake, hi-lite no flake, as base colors. There is a purple hi-lite pepper that is hard to find, but makes a great "lavender shad" pattern with some smoke purple and purple strands. Mix in some light blues, smokes, lavenders, chartreuse, etc as accent colors. "Spot Remover" chartreuse patterns are also important. I use a lot of painted blades...white, pearl white, chartreuse. Snowball is good...white head/skirt/blades. Other combos are mostly gold lead, nickel trail. War Eagle is hard to beat for a commercial bait...have had some trouble with fish throwing the screaming eagle due to the small hook (I think). S.O.B. Mini-Me's are well made for this type of water also. Don't get caught up in paint details...War Eagle heads pretty much prove those are not necessary on a blade. It took me a while to figure it out because I learned to fish in mud in IA and northern MO where it didn't matter as much, but wind is absolutely the key. More wind is better, but sometimes even a little will make some blade fish catchable. The wind theme shows up in almost every report, technique review, etc on this forum.

Fishrman...sent you a pm in reply to earlier Q's. Will be in Kimberling over the Turkey holiday. Capt. Don...not sure which H'bird rep you mean, but if it is Dave P. I'm sure he would do a great job if available. Stayed next door to him on two trips at the lake this spring, was good enough to show me the new units when he was at the Ranger tmt in May. Those H'birds are cool units, from my perspective just too much to re-learn for a 15+ year Lowrance guy. Would rather spend lake time fishing than fiddling with a new unit. Takes some looking at to figure out what the picture is. Guess we've come a long way from the old green box.

Thanks for taking the time to post your report. Looks like things should be in decent shape around Thanksgiving. Are the shad more bunched up in the morning or afternoon?

Fishrman...that is exactly why I bought my first X15 in 2002. It literally openened up a whole new world, went from spending all my time shallow and struggling up the Kings or James to blowing around in the middle of the lake chasing deep fish. Really prefer a deep spoon bite over almost any other way to catch them now.

Both are good units. I have the 17 at the console, 15 at the bow, both RAM mounted. At the time I ordered my boat, I went with the 15 because I was used to it from my previous boat. Probably should have gone with two 17's. The 15 is good, but the 17 is clearly better. If they are a good price I'd jump on them. Either one will draw the weight, line space, and 4" worm on a drop shot once you get them dialed in. And fish too, hopefully.

Thanks for the report, and a follow-up Q if I may: Do you mean flat gravel out in the lake or inside the creeks?

Depends on what you like to do. There are some good rig places betwen Viola and the White, also good topwater that direction. Around 39 and the island is usually good for topwater. Farther up the river should be more of a jig or flip bite, maybe some square bill fishing.

Bill...that is great info. Other than the mess, I'm sure not too proud to enjoy some good shad crazed whites.

Just dug the camera out of the Ranger. Couple of pics, sorry for quality as I was alone and using timer function most of the week. Pic of one good fish is on another card somewhere. Blacks were on a blade. All are still swimming.

Should be a little brown jig bite, possibly some carolina fish on the inside gravel turns on the river. Water color and conditions might be dicey with the rains. Usually some topwater fish working shad up and down the river channel. Have not been up there since week after Easter, but that is about how I would start.

No expert claims, but I mostly use round heads 1/8-5/16oz. A good hook-Gamak, Owner, or Mustad needlepoint is more important than head style. Have tried darters, but they seem to dig into the cracks in the bigger rocks and stay there, where a round head seems to bounce off better. Something I am still learning and forcing myself to do, but man will they flat eat it some days.

Uh, oh...I hope we didn't just conjure up hard rain for next week. I guess it did rain more and more often about this time in 06. I was just glad it didn't storm during the days last week.

Did all of the rain ever start pushing wood into the lake? Started seeing lots of small debris around Kimberling Saturday (bits and pieces). Any big floaters coming down the White? I remember the pieces of boat dock, construction materials, and floaters that were coming down around Baxter this time last year.

Fished around Kimberling most of last week. Temps varied from low 60's Tues to upper 50's with the cooler nights and rain, then back to low 60's Sat afternoon. Very good finesse rig bite on shallow gravel places back in the creeks (4'-10') for brownies-fry or fish doctor, w'melon red if bright and green pumpkin with clouds. Also a good shakey head bite in same areas-1/8oz head and same colors. Numbers of fish in 16-18" range, plus lots of shorts. Blacks good on shakey head or deadsticking a senko around the first big rocks off the bank, back in little cuts and coves in the creeks. Had a good blade bite (two over 19", 5 other good keepers) the day the big front finished pushing thru with that little squall in the am, throwing it around those same rocks. Only saw 4 obvious beds, caught 3 fish from them but no big fish. Am fairly certain some of the fish were just on deeper nests. Best fish of the week was a 20"+ black on a rig. Had a hard time with the topwater bite, a few small fish on redfins, couple of good brownies on a spook. Might have just been in the wrong place for that. Fishing the shakey on 6# floro increased the bites in the range of 3 to 1 over 8# floro, even with some color in the water. Seemed like a lot of boats were fishing a little deeper than the fish were holding, maybe out of habit. Variety of stages on the fish, some pre-, some post-, some on beds. Will be back after them next week. Good luck all & thanks for all the info along the way.

I've run into that small fish bite around Baxter a few times in April. I usually just change to another area of the lake-either up the rivers for fish that are further along, or down the lake for fish that are still on an earlier bite. Doesn't always help, but it is easy to try.

Joe- A mojo or generic cylindrical finnesse weight will come thru that stuff better than a split shot at times, but yes, you should feel it stop and then (hopefully) pop free. A lot of bites will be after the rig pops free and begins to settle. Even swimming a grub can involve dragging the head right on the bottom. Did you try throwing a grub or jig spoon at the fish chasing bait? Were they chasing off points or in cove mouths?

Fished out of Viola last week. I'd look for fish on the flat gravel places near spawn coves and drag a rig. Windy day they will bite a blade shallower in the same places, esp if there is trash on the bank. Also some fish in, or moving into, the little cuts and hollows. Rogue bite was good, but that was with wind and lower water temps. Fluke and Senko are always good in the little cuts up there once they move in. Water color was good last week. Watch out for wood coming down the river if it rains much.

Bill...thanks for giving everyone the reminder on how to handle the pre-spawners. Have fished the lake almost exclusively for going on 11 years, and I agree there are really a lot more fish, including largemouth, showing up over the last 1-2 years (although maybe not in some of the old places). Good time not to ruin it by being careless with the fish.

Fished Wed thru Fri of last week in the Viola area. Decent rogue bite, some spinnerbait fish in the wind, lots of fish on Carolina rig on inside turn gravel areas on the Kings. Temps dropped over the week, to 52 or so Fri am (before the lightning). Best fish a LM just over 19 1/2" about 4 1/2#. Fish was back in a cut off the river, but would say she was already spawned out based on her condition. Started up there Wed just to avoid some of the rollers on the lake and was pleasantly surprised with the color and the bite. With the BFL and a 20+ boat club tmt going out Sat near the resort I was at, I took my chances fishing around Kimberling. Proved to be a good choice given the weather, as the swim grub bite was definitely going on the gravel points and banks with wind, between 8' and 20'. Had 4 keepers Sat, best a brownie 17". Actually got on one very good bank near Hwy 13 and sat there from 9am to about 245pm catching fish throughout on a grub and pointer on alternating passes. Just flat caught an awful lot of fish on Sat. Temp around Kimberling was in the 49 to 51 degree range. Best grub for me was a 5" smoke grub on 6# fluoro and a 5/16oz head. Also caught some fish on 8# fluoro after a reel issue, but went back to 6# and then went back to catching keepers. Best stick was a custom chartreuse foil with purple back...sort of a flashy T-Rock shad. Pointer was 100 size stock chartreuse shad, always good for me when temps are low or dropping. In both areas stick bite needed long pauses, harder jerks seemed key to trigger the bite in Kimberling, but still long pauses in between. Hope it helps someone. Thanks for all the info I received prior to last week's trip. Will be heading down again next Tuesday, hopefully some fish will be on nests.

Just curious if anyone fished today? We had snow this am in the KC metro, but nothing of the sticking variety. Will be sacked out at Schooner Creek Resort this time tomorrow, hopefully nursing chewed up fingers.