Dock-in-it

I fished Kim City area this morning and had 5 keepers on the underspin with 3" swimbait. Tried 5 locations and the 5th location was a channel swing with the right mix of trees and bait and there were just a few dying shad at this location. Watch for any surface activity and take advantage real quick. The surface activity is short lived. The lake is busy.

Has anyone used one with air temps below freezing, where you have a little ice in the guides and on the reel face where the line enters?

Bo-doodle does it again.... good job. How bad is the bottom green slime in the depth range you are fishing? In the Kim City area it is a nuisance at least out to 10ft. I fished Friday and Saturday morning. On Friday morning, I had 5 keepers and blanked on Saturday morning doing the same technique in the same general area. Caught my fish slow rolling a 2.8 swimbait on 1/4oz head scrubbing the bottom.

QB, are you seeing lots of shad and is there a shad kill going on? in the Kim City area there are tons of shad everywhere I want to fish and a steady shad kill.

David G, this time of year I fish between Pt6 and Pt9. Just fyi, there are plenty of rigs at the Mill Creek ramp, so the area is getting a little attention.

I tried the a-rig this morning for the first time this season and had some success. I started out with swimbait, grub,,, etc and realized the few fish I was seeing were not interested in those baits. I had 4 keeper LM, one weighed 5.10 and another 6.3. Also had 4 shorts. Based on previous trips, I knew where the bait would be located. The LM were setup over trees and there was stacked shad about 70 yards away. I did not catch anything around the stacked shad. For some reason the LM preferred setting up in good trees vs being in the middle of shad. I tried three locations this morning and they all had shad and deep trees. There was no wind early this morning and the wind picked up around 10AM when I was wrapping up. WT 42-43. The rain seemed to put a little stain in the water. The vertical deep bite might be over, my screen showed no fish 90% of the time. The fish did not seem active today, so I was lucky to catch a few.

I normally fish from 7 to 10AM and I struggle on plenty of days. I fish deep 90% of the time. If I find active/feeding fish, I am able to see (on my screen) the feeding period start and stop. Some days it is done by 9AM and others it will last until 10AM. The screen will show fewer and fewer fish as the feeding period peaks and starts to wind down. Currently, the key for me is finding the right amount of shad. Some places are stacked full of shad and I have to avoid those locations. On some of the days you fished there was no wind in the morning feeding period, then the wind would pick up for jerkbait conditions but the feeding time had expired. I really like the very calm mornings because I can idle in a area and search with my eyes for flickering shad. I can easily see flickering activity 200 yards in any direction. I have invested a little time with a crankbait and you can catch some on primo locatons when conditions are right.

I had 6 keepers this morning (5 SM and 1 LM). All on the kastmaster spoon. I tried underspin, grub, and swimbait, but no bites. I tried the ice jig on some stubborn fish and realized the fish were better postured for a hortizonal presentation. The kastmaster works good when the shad are thick and you need a little flash to attract a few bites. The a-rig would have produced a lot more bites, but I thought i still needed a little more practice with old school baits.

The WT bumped up to 45. The feeding activity stopped at 10AM. You probably would not comprehend the potential of this location if you scouted it after 10AM.

The main lake deep bite locations have become overloaded with shad and I can not find active fish. I assume they only need to travel a few feet and eat all they need in a few minutes. With the warm temps and calm conditions this morning, I decided to spend time scouting both main lake and creeks. I was able to find active fish in a creek. I did not find any big balls of shad in the creek , but there were small pods of shad from the mouth to the back. I caught fish on a ice jig, jerkbait, 4" grub, kastmaster casting spoon, and a under-spin with 3" swimbait. I only had 4 keepers, but that was my fault. I could not figure out the best bait/presentation. I am sure an a-rig would work. There is also a crankbait bite at least on the main lake, but I think you would have to run and gun and just hit the premium locations vs going down a bank. There are two LM pictures, one caught this morning feeding on shad and one caught yesterday on a crankbait with a crawdad in his throat. Notice the difference in girth, the shad eater has a full stomach. This post has been promoted to an article

Lately, I have been avoiding creeks and staying on the main lake. Staying on the main lake limits your location options for a particular day because of wind speed and direction. For quality LM locations I look for deep scattered trees associated with a deep gut or channel swing and you need plenty of shad in the general area. Start looking at daylight and do not stop the boat until you say WOW. The feeding period is short and you can not waste time in a marginal location. Currently, I try to keep my boat in 50-75 ft while searching. The gravel flats will hold them, just start looking in 50' and look for fish more so than shad. Winter winds do not give you many days to fish gravel flats.I struggle on plenty of days, but I enjoy getting even with them from time to time.

Man, it sounds like your paying your dues and getting some payback. Regarding the hook set, I think you have the right approach. I use med-heavy rods in 6' 10" to 7 ' and use 14lbs/green bass pro shops mono Excel line. The 14lbs probably has a smaller diameter (compared to 20lbs) that allows the spoon or ice jig to fall quicker and still have plenty of strength. Regarding the missed bites, that is part of the deal. Its like they are slapping it. Just get the spoon/jig back in front of them and try to aggravate one into biting again. I was glad to get your report that the gravel roll offs are still working.

Nice fish and good numbers. Did you see any surface activity in the calm conditions?

I struggled on Jan 24-26 catching only one fish in about 7 hrs of fishing. I could find mountains of shad, but no active fish. This morning I was able to find the bait and active fish. I capitalized on a early 30 minute horizontal bite that was done by 8AM. I had 5 good keepers, mostly largemouths including a 6.8 lbs and a 3lbs. They came on a 4" yamamoto grub in smoke/red flake on a 3/8 jig head. I would cast the grub and just countdown to 3 or 4 seconds. From 8-10AM, I caught 7 more keepers vertical fishing with a 7/8oz slab spoon. One of those was a 4lbs largemouth and the rest were mainly Kentuckies. I did not catch one vertical fish on the ice jig and I wasted a lot of time trying. The vertical fish wanted the slab spoon near the bottom and just barely twitching it about every 5 seconds. I could not catch any vertical fish that were above 35ft. The vertical fish are very stubborn and you have to have more patients than they do. I kept the boat in 40 to 55 feet of water. Water temp is between 43.5 and 44.5. There are two pictures of the 6.8 LM and the other two pics are the 3lbs and 4lbs LM. So 12 keepers and about 25 total. View full article

The WT was 45.3. It might take a long lasting extreme cold spell to drop down from 45. Last year the WT was 46 to 47 on Jan 11th and it took 7 days of extreme temps to drop the WT to 43. These comments just apply to the Kim City area.

I fished 3 deep bite locations this morning. Finally found some bait & fish on the 3rd stop. The strong wind really limited the locations I could try. Managed to catch 5 decent keepers and a few shorts. I caught keepers fishing both vertical (3) and horizontal (2). In the productive area, the shad were stacked solid from 40 to 70 ft. I had to get on the edges of the stacked shad to catch them. Caught keepers on ice jig, 4" grub, and kastmaster spoon fished horizontal. Most of the vertical fish appeared as singles on my screen and I did not catch any of those. I needed 2 or 3 fish looking at my jig before I could aggravate one into biting. Boat control was key, because it took a while to trigger a bite. There was no magical feeding frenzy today, you had to be patient and work for each bite. About every 30 minutes a fish would chase shad to the surface and a few times I was within casting distance to take advantage. No Kentucky keepers today. Stayed in 40-80 feet of water. Did not see another boat. This post has been promoted to an article

Good deal. I struggled this morning. I was around a bunch of shad, but the bass sightings were few and far between. I lost an ice jig today, so your trip was even more cost effective.

The person that tagged the fish responded to my email. He mentioned tagging about 18 fish last year. Based on a general understanding of the release area, the two fish I caught migrated about 1/3 of a mile.

Sorry, my mistake. He caught the fish on 7/14/2018. The date was displayed as 2018-7-14 and I looked at 14 as the yr since it was the last number. He may be the tagger since his entry is the only one for the tag#.

Started out this morning in the fog and finally made it to my destination. The fishing has been tough for me this week. Could find some fish but nothing bunched up. But this morning was excellent, the fish where bugging the shad on top and throughout the water column. In the first few minutes I caught another tagged LM. This time I studied the tag and seen a tag number and website. Fishtagger.com. The fish weighed 4lbs 7oz. I looked up the tag online and another person caught the same tag# in 2014 and mentioned the fish weighed 4.8 lbs. I sent the guy an email and hopefully he will respond. I caught the fish on a ice jig in about 60 foot of water. I caught more on the ice jig and lost a few good ones. I was on a bunch of fish and they were ignoring my jig. There were fish chasing shad on top and I thought they were small. I picked up my spinning rod rigged for vertical fishing with 6lbs line and a 3/8 jig head with 4" yamamoto smoke red flake grub. I started casting to see if a horizonal presentation would work and started catching fish routinely. All three species. I caught a 6lbs 2 oz LM that I netted and the hook never penetrated and fell out in the net. The tagged LM was caught 200 yds from the last one i caught in December. I noticed Mill Creek ramp had about 5 bassboat rigs in the parking lot. If they used an A-rig they probably did well. I did try a 3" plain swimbait and a under-spin, but they preferred the c-tail yamamoto. The kastmaster spoon fished horizontal will catch a few, but they seem to get wise to it after a few catches.

Excellent feedback. Thanks for the level of detail.

Can you tell us more about the effectiveness of the gulp products on Table Rock or is that a product that should only be handled by a professional.