NebSchmidty

I was also wondering the same. Is is something specific to the way the shad school (and therefore the bass chase) in the winter that makes it so popular during winter and early early spring season? Coming down the middle of next week and didnt know if i should bother packing my swimbait/rig setup. Heaven knows I already have enough combos to pack the way it is.

Nice haul. Must admit that I used to consider that ned rig kind of gimmicky or a one-trick pony...not anymore. Ultra-clear water with tough conditions, that little setup is money. Occured to me this morning, how similar it is to the faithful old beetle spin (minus the spin of course). As with the Ned, you can catch pretty much anything that swims on it. Thanks again for sharing your reports and insights from you trip.

I will second the difficulty with the high skies and clear water. Not a great stick, but couldnt buy a bite in indian point area after heading out mid morning. For this flatlander, its absolutely mindboggling to see 20in, let alone 20+ft deep. Setting sun turned em back on. Shakey w/ green pumpkin was the deal for spots and brown bass... all shorts, 15ft or less. Will take it after this AM. Actually looking foreward to the fowl weather forecasted for the end of the week.

Thanks for all the responses on this. We usually run into Branson West for our initial grocery run, so buzzing down to KC & Ozarks Bait & Tackle should be pretty convenient. Looks like they've got a pretty good selection based upon their website.

Long time lurker, 1st time poster. Wanted to first thank all those who post reports and TR insight on a regular basis... you all have been an invaluable resource to this "northerner" who is about to embark on his 5th annual pilgramage (aka - THE family vacation) to "the rock" and Branson area. TR is worlds away from the sandpits and sub-250 acre flood control reservoirs that I fish regularly, so OZA has been an AMAZING reference to help put me on the path to having a reasonable strategy/approach for landing some fish when I come down... although in October of 2011, I don't know that anything could've helped. With that out of the way, we plan on heading down April 27th-May 5th and staying at out usual stop which is Stillwaters on Indian Point. Given the unusual weather this year (has the weather really been "normal" any of the past 3 years?), I'm on the fence as to whether to finally pick up a swimbait rod (for a-rig) & stockpile some extra jerkbaits (basically staging/pre-spawn fishing); or should I go ahead and refresh the supply of tubes, grubs, little green worms, & split-tail grub jig trailers (the spawn-is-on bite)? In either case, I'm reluctant to go prematurely spending the extra $ on tackle either way based upon a guesstimate... I would rather just buy at the time that I'm down there and when I know with better certainty just what the fish are more likely to be keying on. I know BPS in Branson has a fair selection of lures... although one can usually tell what the hot bite is based upon what is out of stock. Does anyone have any local shops they frequent, that are in reasonably close proximity to the indian point area? I've given BPS enough $ over the years, so I would rather spend my cash somewhere local as opposed to the big chain store that is usually out of stock of what I really want. Suggestions? Thanks in advance.