Stricker9

Fishing has been pretty slow for us. However, it looks like things are getting close to taking off. We saw several balls of shad getting run back in Baxter last evening after 5 PM. However, none were full blown feeding frenzies. They would come up and bubble for about 20 seconds and then go away. It was wild as it appeared there were about 4 different schools running different balls within our eye site. But, they wouldn’t stay up long enough for us to get to them and they kept moving as they do…. Seems like it might be getting close to taking off.

Out of curiosity, are you going back up big M or staying out close to or on the main lake? We started our trip yesterday and caught a handful with a couple of nice smallies out close to the main lake. We pushed back in a different cove today and, outside of a couple of stragglers, it had been rough going.

Thanks for the input, all!

All, I would greatly appreciate your input for a Fall trip. My brother and I have been coming down to the lake for the past 20+ years during the Spring, but pushed back our trip this year do to the pandemic. As a result, we plan to come down in the September/October timeframe. Any insight when we should aim for during that 2 month range? Any specific recommendations would be greatly apprecaited. Thanks!

... it is and it is very busy.

Does anyone know if The Mill Creek ramp is open?

All, Thank you for your input! Skeeter, Great to hear from... you helped my brother and I out a couple of years ago when we had boat issues and gave us a ride all the way back to Aunt's Creek area. We actually have rented a house right across from the marina and have rented a slip from the marina for the week. So, I will definitely consider giving them a call.

My family and I will be heading down to the Baxter area for a week long vacation starting on Saturday (can't wait to be there). I have a couple of questions and would greatly appreciate the input of this forum: 1. Is the ramp at Baxter open? If not, where is the next best place where I can put in close to Baxter? 2. Any fishing tips anywhere for the Baxter area or within a moderate boat ride (Aunt's Creek, Campbell, KC, etc.) would be greatly appreciated. At times, I will have as many as 4 fishing out of my boat and some will them will be my young kids. So any tips that would accomodate that situation would be very appreciated as well... thinking we could successfully pull off fishing the ned rig or even going as basic as dropping nightcrawlers down (will definitely be the case when my 6 year old join us). As always, any input would be greatly appreciated.

It is worth noting that Bill at Baxter Marina handled this exceptionally well. He immediately owned it, got us right in a shop to get our engine fixed, and took of everything.

After a really good and enjoyable day of fishing, we encountered engine problems up by Baxter. As we are staying in the Aunts Creek area, it presented quite a challenge for us to figure out how to get a back from Baxter to our resort so that we could get our trailer and go get our boat out to have it fixed. As luck would have it we met Wilson, who turns out to be a member of this forum, who immediately offered to give us a ride. What a great guy! He gave up an hour of his day to go out of his way to help out some fellow anglers. He wouldn't even except our offer to give him some gas money. Thanks, Wilson!

Sorry to offend... We only clean what we eat (about 10 fish a year). Additionally, we are selective with what we clean (we do not clean anything over 18 inches). i believe in catch and release. That said, I do not feel guilty about having a fish fry or two each year... It is the perfect end to our annual fishing trip.

Also caught this little guy on Ned... for a brief second, I thought I had a hawg.

I beg differ... We had quite a bit of fun around point 11 and across from there on the bluffs yesterday.

First of all, I would like to thank the members of this forum for openly sharing your tips and stories. I stumbled across this site last year and have found the guidance to be very helpful. My dad, brother and I have been making the annual trek to the lake for either the last week of April or first week of May for over twenty years now. Unfortunately, dad passed away two months ago. However, it has been great remembering him and celebrating him by keeping our annual tradition alive this week. We only get out one or two other times a year outside of this trip. So, we are more casual fisherman and do not catch the numbers that many on here appear to do. However, we have had a great week. We fished primarily spinner baits on windy banks and, where we could, across points and caught numbers. Yesterday we made the switch to the Ned Rig and caught numbers as well as 5 keepers. We had success in shallower, flat cuts as well as on the backs of islands closer to deeper waters. Thanks again to all of you that share as we really appreciate what we are able to pick up from this board.