Took some much needed time off from the Salt Mine and fished with my brother in law, my nephew, and his friend in the Kimberling City area last week. No, all of us were not in the boat at the same time. Fishing shifts were taken, the ones that weren't fishing had chores to do. Didn't know what impact the cold front that blew in early last week would have on the catching, but kept an open mind and figured something out. I can tell you now the front had little to no effect on the fish, other than it might have pushed them somewhat deeper.
Water temp was in the mid to upper 50 degree range on Thursday with it rising to the low 60's when we got off the lake Sunday at noon. The morning bite was slow to get started, but when the sun hit the water the catching was on. Caught most all of our fish in gin clear water with about 14 foot visibility. Targeted areas were main lake points leading to spawning pockets, secondary points inside creeks or pockets all with a mix of gravel and small rock. Fished some deeper stuff with larger rock and didn't do good on those. The best depth for better quality fish was 10 to 20', with good numbers of smaller bucks coming much shallower. Our best baits in order were: The Ned Rig on 1/16th head for flat water and 1/8th in the wind, 5" zoom fat albert grub, Keitech swim bait, and a finesse C-rig fished on spinning tackle with either a doctor or 4" stick worm.
Our fish total for the trip was in excess of 100, with a mix of K's, small jaws, LM, and goggle eye. We even caught several keeper crappie on the Little Rig. The goggle eye's were huge sows ready to discharge their load. We caught so many eye's that I wondered why we didn't keep some for the dinner table, but they are all still swimming. Our best fish were smallies with several in the 2 1/2 to 31/2 lb range, but we also had some football K's full to the brim. When the water was slick we did see some bucks in or around nest, but not many momma's
A wonderful several days fishing on the Rock! What a great fishery we have. Good Luck.