96 CHAMP

Sounds like you guys had a great time Champ,, I have no doubt you guys had one enjoyable outing and am sure if you put him in your boat he must be one heck of a guy, I imagine his son had quite the time also.They could not have been with a better person to show him the area & make a new friend with!! Congrats to all of you.

Those are some nice fish, congrats. On the smallmouth I caught more this year than I have ever, down here in the Shell Knob area.?

Nice fish Hammer, it's a blast being out after dark, be careful and good luck

Good you got it fixed 176, always something, keeps things from being boring I reckon.

Boring it wasn't, going to cost me, I drained all the fuel out yesterday, the fuel looked real bad, taking it to the marine center by work, tech told me I believe he wants to get some oil in system to prevent rust I believe , take power head off to get to some screens, there is a drain hole some where and have to replace some o rings in process. I really not sure what he said, fishing wrench probably would know, be quite a spell before I get back, good fishing to all of you.

Glad to share with you Mike, I wish one of you guys could have been with during the bite, it was what we all look forward to, if that doesn't get your heart racing it is time to sell the boat and quit fishing, I called the wife and told her this is why we go fishing. Good luck to you.

This is a long post, Sorry, but wanted to share the end of the story My report is a bit late as I will explain in a bit, fished Saturday and i really do not remember much at this point as to much stuff had gone on, but Saturday night I caught a few good keepers on spinner bait, and several short fish, Sunday was a challenge until I figured out a spinner bait bite burning the blade just under the surface, the wind was blowing really good as I recall, it started up in big creek on many windy banks lined with that flat shelf rock in various sizes, the bite continued out to the main lake with big fish at 3.8. I was using a War Eagle in mouse color and a keiteck trailer. How many I caught I do not know but it was a great bite, thinking I ended up with 4-5 keepers, not sure, Monday as the wind picked up again I was anticipating another good bite but it didn't work out as I had hoped, go figure huh?? Although it wasn't bad, no keepers at this point, Then around 3-5 p.m. I stumbled upon a top water bite in big creek using the F-13, caught 5 really nice fish in the 17" range and other smaller ones, they were coming up out of about 10'12 of water I suspect and just crushing the bait, probably guarding nest I would assume. Through out my entire time at the lake I caught several on the top, with many coming to look but no takers. Tuesday was to be the last day and I wanted to concentrate on the senko more, I went into mill creek and caught a nice largemouth , a respectable 3.5#, some pouced on it while others you could not tell they even picked it up, throughout the day I caught several on top and with shakey head in 1/8 oz with a zoom shakey tail worm in Green Pumpkin, later in day toward evening when the front came in and it got windy mill creek lit up on fire. I was throwing the shakey head up near the bank with chunk rock and cedars, makes you wonder if the fish were there already or if they moved in to feed or guarding nest, some were females and other males with a mix of kentucks and largemouth, fished till iI could not see my line and it came to me that this should be a good spinner bait nite as a few weeks ago at night in the wind back here in Mill creek it was pretty good, what happend next was a pleasant suprise. Within 10 minutes my first hook up was I assume in the 4# range, I attempted to weigh the fish and the digital scale was acting up again, back she goes, these fish were on tonight and I am telling you they were just crushing this spinner bait,black & purple war eagle nite bait with #11 uncle josh pork frog with green spots was the ticket. I ended up with 6-8 keepers with 3 of the same size, the scale worked finally on the last one, it was 4.7. May have been the user more than the scale as the adrenalin was flowing, I had 3 dam near jerk the rod out of my hand they hit it so hard, several bent the spinner bait on the assault and several ripped the trailer off the hook, how they manage that I haven't the faintest idea as I can hardly get it off without taking a knife to it. This went on untill midnight when I fianally went back, it was the bite I have been working for for a long time, was just hoping to hook into a bruiser, none the less, a blast to put it mildly. My opinion that there is nothing like it when these largemouths are on this vicious assault. Hooking into one, landing him and watching him go back. So I get back to the dock around 1a.m. I am planning on going home Wednesday so I figure as pumped up as I am there is no way I can fall asleep so lets reorganize all my tackle, that way I will not have to do it when I get home. So I finally get to bed about 2 or so and I here this gust of wind blow a chair across the porch into the hand railing, Its the wind I say, then a few minutes later this wind shear hits, I immediately look outside and already I know this isn't good as I can see the dock and my boat is being swamped with probably 30 mile an hour wind gust and probably 2-3' waves. I have been through this before, I need to get my tackle out of this boat in fear of losing it, I get to the dock trying not to get blown off of it, in water darn near up to my knees getting my tackle and putting it in Darrell's pontoon boat that is on a lift trying not to fall in, I start bailing water out to no avail when Darrell shows up, grabs a comealong and chain, I hook it to the ring in back of boat to pull it up out of water, bilge is running,bailing water finally get ahead of it as the wind shear slows I step on front of boat to help keep the back starboard side up and I slipp and fall over striking my left arm on bicep muscle, very sore, but get out and we finally get this Champ back up out of the water, 2 stalls down a guy has a 20-21 foot basscat that is leaning heavy to the port side water up to my knees, Darrel gets a electric pump and we get her hooked up and start drawing her down till I can see control panel for power switch and then activate the bildge, there is a strong smell of gas on his boat, not good for him. He thanked us the next morning as he took it to the Marina up the road to have the fuel and oil pumped out. So Darrell and I finally get back to our beds at 4:30, got up at about 8:00 and the cleaning of tackle begins, It wasn't near as bad as it could have been if I would have done nothing. I finally got home last night at 10:00 p.m. Took the day off today to get cleaned up, going to put some c-foam in the remainder of gas today, hook up the muffs and let her run. It worked years back when this happened before but I had more trouble as the boat sat out there all night long partially submerged. Along with all that my I-phone was in my pocket when I went over board as all recent pictures will be gone I would assume. I realize I could have been seriously hurt when I slipped off the front of boat, I was constantly thinking about safety through all this with Darrell as he was also, but everything had turned out O.K.. A trip that I will not forget. Thanks for reading & be safe & good fishing to all. I personally told Darrell and Sheri how much I appreciate his help and there friendship. They are truly Good People!! Steve Went and got a new phone and it had updated the pictures

Good luck to you Bobby

Went back out Monday about 9:00 am, caught 1 keeper on senko, when the wind picked up I went back to the spinnerbait and caught several, no keepers, noticed they were acting different than Sunday, went back up into big creek and got on a good top water bite with the F13, found just the right bank and caught 4 nice keeper males and several smaller ones in a matter of about a hour and a half, they were coming up out of 10-12' of water and slamming that bait, probably guarding nest I would assume, all in all a good day, have 1 more day tomorrow to mess around with, been trying to find a better senko bite, good luck!!

I on the other hand have a different report, I found yesterday to be a awesome day for a spinnerbait bite, was up in big creek when the wind picked up and decided to throw a spinnerbait, I immediately noticed the bass were chasing it but would not commit, so I try running it just under the surface and the game was on, I can't say how many I caught but I caught fish all day with the biggest being 3.8 lbs. For me the wind was the key, went out after dark and had a pretty good spinner bait bite also slow rolling. Thinking if the wind picks up today maybe the same, we will find out. Good luck

My plan for the next 3-4 days starting Saturday is to night fish more, I'll be happy to catch 1 nice one, the challenge begins.

Nice fish Pepe

Awesome day of fishing Champ, some nice looking fish, that weather you had today is just what the Dr. ordered, didn't want to tell you this but we put a GPS positioning tracker on your boat, we all know where you went, we'll see you there this weekend!! Ha Ha

is that a cotton candy chartreuse by chance Quill?? I remember years back we used to throw that color and from what I remember they really like that color. I believe at times that color does make a difference, good day of fishing, congrats to ya, when to many boats start about good time to explore new water.

You couldn't have met up with better people than those two , I for one am glad I have had the opportunity to meet up with them a couple times and always look forward to it again!!

way to go, glad you all got into them, thinking about looking for some crappie also, not yet exactly what the game plan is yet for this weekend

on top of all that try fishing with RA in your hands, you don't notice it to bad if you keep your hands working, its when you stop when it really gets to ya. Good luck fishing

Thanks for the update, M&M, I was down at the lake below the house with the senko yesterday and was having a blast with it, should get just right with it, I will be down Sat. thru Tuesday if any one is interested in getting together, just send a P.M. Good luck to all and have a great time

Thank you Ben, was wandering how it changed from last week when I was getting 57-58 degree temps

Pepe, was wandering if you are going to be around this weekend, will be down Sat. thru tuesday

That's a good story, sounds like you guys had a blast

we all have are good days and not so good days, still nice being out like you said, some of us have to work unfortunately, but our time for retirement will come, I used to turkey hunt all the time, down in the eleven point area, that area is not for the faint of heart, but I would rather be fishing any more. Good luck

That is a very nice small mouth. Congrats

Way to go, happy to see you get them