Dock-in-it

Finding deep suspended fish has changed for the better in the past week. The early morning post spawn surface activity is starting to happen in multiple locations and this will probably last until July 4th weekend. A lot of the surface activity involves 12-14 inch spots & LM, but some quality fish are also participating. Without the appearance of a thermocline, the fish are using a lot of the water column. For suspended fish, I normally start with a hardy 3.3 rage swimmer and if needed I which to a less hardy 2.8 Keitech. I normally stay off the main lake and look for a combination of bait and deep trees. You do not need big schools of shad in the area to hold fish. It also helps if you can locate a dominate tree with several big limbs. The local fish will ignore the other nearby trees and it will look like a social event is happening in the dominate tree. I normally try to stay 80' away from suspended groups. When they stop biting you can throw a slab spoon beside the tree and every fish will dart for the spoon like synchronized swimmers and normally one will grab the spoon. But at this point the party is over. My FFS was set for 40ft down and 100ft out. WT 80ish

Thanks for the report. Have you guys seen any fry in the places you fish? I have not seen any fry during my Kimberling area trips.

I think each brand has its fair share of lemons. My Lowrance Ghost works good as far as the motor and steering. The spot lock on mine has a mind of its own. It can be death trap in cold water Temps because it can throw you out of the boat. Sometimes I hit spot lock and the motor speed goes wide open and turning from left to right,,,,etc. I only hit spot lock when I am braced for the unknown and ready to disable it. My spot lock worked good for my first 300 outings. Lowrance told me it is probably interference from my Lowrance graph, but the issue happens when the front graph is turned off. I will get it fixed via warranty, but an expensive trolling motor should work using technology that has been around for years. Lowrance was not able to master the simple concept of having the direction arrow match the direction of the motor....but got that fixed via warranty. If the boat sits in the garage 99% of the time, then any brand would probably work just fine.

Some say the spawn is over, but I noticed a new wave of staging fish today. So you might have a new opportunity to catch some shallow spots (and LM). I was going to check a few more locations, but walked up on a brand new fawn and turned around.

I fished this morning hoping to find some surface activity and was lucky to find it on my second stop. The mild wind and cloud cover provided a good combination for surface feeding and the bite went to about 9:15. Lots of bait and trees in the area. Used walking and wake baits, 2.8 swimbait, and a few on the spoon. The surface fish were moving so fast that I had to use a walking bait (sammy) that would cast straight on a hard/lengthy cast. A spook type bait wants to act like a curve ball when you cast it hard to a long distance target. Caught lots of fish (mainly LM) and the better ones were in the 2# range. So nothing big, but the action was fairly steady. The White bass were around and I caught a few. WT 62

You guys had good timing with the weather and definitely executed on a solid shallow bite. The lake will be crowded on Saturday and there will be plenty of fish caught. Based on what I am seeing, there will be a big wave of spawning activity in the coming days. Thanks for the report.

Fished this morning and the catching was fairly steady. Caught them out deep with plenty of trees and shad in the area. I strictly focused on suspended fish that were postured from 3 to 20ft regardless of water depth. Most of the fish were not bugging the big schools of shad nor utilizing the trees. These fish seem to pick a location to suspend and then feed on smaller pods of shad that travel by. The big schools of shad are deep and these fish want to suspend up high and feed towards the surface. Caught them early of topwater with both walking and wake baits. Then the swimbait worked for a while. Then I used a 1/2oz spoon to catch a few quality LM and some keeper SM and K's. The spoon fish were normally suspended 5 to 15ft and the 1/2oz spoon (with a 3/4oz size body) allowed the bait stay in the strike zone longer. This spoon falls a little faster than a Dixie Jet and I believe the faster rate of fall triggers the bite. WT 60ish I was pleased that it was not a grind.

Bill, you mentioned that active target shows the fish as vertical and that is true. But here is the scoop (and this is not exact), envision a diagonal line thru the graph from upper left to lower right and have the forward setting at 100ft. The fish near the boat will display as 'fish' and those away from the boat will display like a vertical stick (like rice standing up). When you fish vertical for deep fish, they will appear as rounded objects. Some vertical fish (perhaps down to 20ft will display with tail movement). But look away from the boat and they appear as vertical sticks.

Fished this morning and was able to find a good deep bite with topwater being the best bait followed by underspin and 3.3 swimbait. First stop had plenty of shad in 20 to 30ft and caught a few on swimbait. Second stop had small pods of surface shad and the fish were postured about 5 to 10ft below the bait in 30 to 70 FOW. Had about 20 keepers that were mainly pre-spawn with some post spawn mixed in. The FFS picture shows the surface shad scenario. The fish under the shad preferred a sexy dawg Jr walking bait. They would smoke the walking bait and just slap a wake bait (surge shad). The underspin and 3.3 worked OK but the topwater really triggered them. I should have used the topwater exclusively to maximize the number of bites WT 60-61

Deep swimbait (not good for me). I have been trying to find deep suspended fish and have not found much. You can find plenty of shad but no fish and there has been a very steady shad kill going on for two weeks. Also the gizzard shad have consumed the upper water column and they are very prevalent around areas with trees. The high volume of gizzard shad makes it difficult to hunt deep suspended fish. I have not tried very many gravel points/runouts with the boat in 20ft and casting up shallow. Last year, the month of April was great for deep suspended fish and this April I get a reminder why they call it fishing vs catching. SHALLOW Fish. A fair amount of fish are on the bed or cruising up shallow. The issue is the shallow algae/slime and floating slime. I looked shallow for 5 minutes this morning and seen 6 LM. I think the last 10 days were probably tailored for the Ned Rig guys. I do not have any Ned tackle so I am just guessing that the fish have been on the bottom in that 10 to 20ft range. Water clarity varies in each location. WT 58 to start and probably gets to 60ish in the PM.

Just my two cents worth. FFS will educate you how smart a bass can be. I normally have 4 different swimbaits tied on and rotate thru them when I can see what appears to be bass suspended in a tree or under/around shad. When the fish are clearly bugging shad and you get no takers after 20 good presentations with different swimbaits then the next 20 good cast will probably deliver zero results. I waste plenty of time on smart fish and I always have to move on and realize that sometimes the bass are really zeroed in on the real McCoy. If they will not commit to a swimbait, then going through the tackle box trying different lures will probably produce similar results. I have been there done that too many times.

The shallow RK fishermen should have a good day in the wind and stain. I fished a RK this morning and had 3 good LM. I was in lazy mode just trying to avoid the major wind. Slime is a problem near the old bank line. Started in the back of a creek to avoid extreme wind and find some nicely stained water as compared to the main lake. You could not avoid the wind, but some manageable wind definitely helped. Started catching fish around mid creek area in the little cuts or lay downs. I was very surprised by the water temp. It reached 54.5 yesterday with 80 air temps and 20 mph SW winds. But this morning the water temp was 50 and air temp 45. Also the extreme winds and current have really changed water stain conditions for the better in certain areas. I did not see another boat except the 2 dozen Joe Bass guys headed towards the James / White split.

Fished this morning and finally found some fish around 9:30. Water clarity is something you have to factor into your fishing style (deep vs shallow bushes). I fished deep with a swimbait and underspin in stained water with decent visibility. I found fish bugging shad and kept the boat in 25 to 35ft. The fish get real lure shy once they know your presence and see your lure several times. So I keep the boat about 80ft from the shad/fish. The smallmouth really like the underspin when they are around shad. The fish got smaller when I tried shallow (12 - 15ft). Water clarity at Mill Creek ramp is probably 18 inches. 8 keepers WT 53.5 and varied with stained conditions

Forgot to mention the shad kill that has been going for several days. The kill is happening from the shore to what ever depth. The shore line is littered with dead shad (especially behind lighted docks) so perhaps the crawdads are not up shallow. The stained water has lots of shad shallow and plenty out deep. The stained water is soaking up heat and lots of shad are right on the surface.

Bill, did you happen to catch any of those float-n-fly fish that were suspended way up in that 10 to 15ft range?

Dutch, I think it a K...But it does have a tinge of mean mouth. I caught this one last week and it weighed 3.58#... I believe it is a mean mouth.

Fished this morning between Wolfpen and Baxter. There is a solid mud line on the James side of Pt9 and the White side of pt9 looks good. The water has a lot of brown tint in front of Mill Creek ramp (still have 4 to 5ft of visibility). As the White and James blend together the Kimberling area should be Ok for the deep bite. Fished a creek with plenty of shad (in the gut) around deep trees and was able to catch some nice Ks on a 3.3 swimbait. There was not very many fish around the shad, but just enough to catch a few. 4 keepers. WT 51+

Fished this morning and finally found some fish on my 3rd location. The boat was routinely in 40 FOW and the fish were postured around small pods of shad. Also had plenty of trees in the area. The shad were postured from the surface down to 20ft. Like my last report, 95% would not commit and the other 5% were mainly LM. I did catch one good SM and the K's did not participate. I think there were a bunch of crappie or bluegill bugging the shad. The 3.3 swimbait worked the best and the underspin caught a few. Had about 8 keepers....and left them biting. WT 50 I shook off a 5# LM at the boat ( It spit up nine 4" shad). I had too many eye's looking my way. It was the only boat around me all morning.

I did not weigh any of the fish. I would estimate the biggest fish was in the 6# range. Just a side note, when I catch a nice smallmouth the pictures never do it justice.

Fished this morning and the swimbait & underspin worked good. My 1st spot was 35 to 50' with trees and very little shad. Caught a few good ones on 3.3" swimbait. My 2nd spot was 10 to 25' and loaded with shad and fish. The best fish were caught on a 3" 1/4oz underspin and others were caught on a 3.3 and 3.8 swimbait. I did not get a bite on a 3" swimbait and they also ignored the jerkbait. The area was choked with shad and plenty of them were showing stress from all the feeding fish. I did a 'good catch' post several years ago from this spot and it has not produced in the last 5 years and I was surprised this morning to see it happening. You could not use a steady retrieve to trigger bites. Most bites were triggered by burning the reel handle a few cranks. 95% ignored my bait and the other 5% made for an entertaining morning. I did not keep track of the fish count. WT 50

Fished this morning and finally found some fish on my 3rd stop. The first two locations (with deep trees) had plenty of shad from 15 to 50 FOW but there were no fish. The third location had shallow and deep trees with limited shad. I had 4 keepers on the 1/4oz underspin. The boat was in 30 to 50ft and the fish where suspended around trees that topped out about 10 to 20 ft below the surface. The chance of catching fish really went up if there were 3 or 4 fish in a tight group. Best suspended depth was around 20 ft down regardless of overall depth. I did see some single fish up shallow in 10 to 15ft. A regular swimbait would probably work good, but I had the underspin on 10# and it has been working lately. I had plenty of followers that did not commit, so perhaps an A-Rig would have produced a few more. After catching the keepers I moved the boat 100 yards and found a ton of shad, but no fish.

Bill, the suspended fish in January were really postured for a float-n-fly. There would be multiple opportunities within casting distance. Currently, they are scattered but with FFS you can routinely see an individual opportunity, then you have to move around to find the next. From 7 to 8am seems to provide the most opportunities. If you could make a long 60-80 cast for fish suspended at 10ft then you might be able to entice quite a few.

The deep fish that I see are not grouped up and are constantly on the move. Also, finding shad means nothing. I can find abundant shad from 10ft to 60ft and there are no fish to be found. Seems like the fish would rather chase a very small group of shad vs sitting around a train load. Based on reports, the quality bites are shallow (especially when using FFS). Based on what I am seeing on FFS, there are plenty of fish using cedars in 15-25ft and plenty of fish using shallow water (5-15ft). I no longer throw the A-Rig just so I can save my shoulders. I see fish running away from a 3" swimbait, so it would be interesting to watch them react to an over sized A-Rig. I caught several yesterday on an ice jig in 30 FOW on the bottom and caught some on a swimbait suspended at 10' in 50 FOW. The guys that are good with FFS and aggressively on the move are running circles around me with their catch rates. But March will bring new opportunities for the offshore swimbait bite.

Mill creek boat ramp has been busy for the last several days with guys practicing for the BFL. I was fishing this morning out deep over trees with a 3" swimbait and got hung up. I placed my boat over the snag and was able to free my bait, but I noticed a steady resistance while retrieving my lure and thought it was fishing line. I was surprised to see it was a chandelier A-Rig ( in good shape). I guess it was legal with 3 hooks.

I fished deep this morning and it appears the deep bite is changing. The fish are scattered, constantly on the move and using every part of the water column (5ft to 60ft). When you find winter fish grouped up you can catch a limit in minutes, but when they are scattered it can take multiple hrs. I had 4 keepers this morning in a 3 hr trip. In February of 2022, from Feb 7 thru Feb 11 (3 hrs per day ) I had 52 keepers because I found them grouped up, then I struggled during the remainder of February because they were scattered. In early Feb 2022, the water level and water temp were about the same as we have today. Today, the 3/8 Damiki worked best because you can use it vertical or as a swim bait. I mainly used it as a swim bait because the deep vertical fish were moving to fast. I was around trees most of the morning and stayed in 30 to 60 FOW. The A-Rig guys can do pretty good when the fish are scattered, especially around trees. Also, I am trying to find a deep bait that can be fished directly underneath the center of the boat (while the boat is still). WT 46