Dock-in-it

Hey Dutch, here is the info on the bait. A regular fluke will work, but the jerk minnow is just a confidence thing for me. The setup will work vertical, casting to surface/chasing, and utilize as a 'quick drop' swimbait. The drop speed of the 5/8 makes them react pretty good some days and some days they ignore it.

I fished this morning and scratched out a limit from the few fish that were in the creek section. The bait was not very plentiful, but just enough to hold some fish. You are not able to depend on the shad being in the same creek from one day to the next. This morning I just relied on patience and finally aggravated some nice LM and a few decent spots. I used a 4" Damiki rig (5/8oz head) and 3" swimbait (5/16oz head). The pictured LM were caught on Damiki in about 32ft. The swimbait fish were in 35-42ft and I would see them on FFS and let the bait go to the bottom and slow retrieve. I caught a bunch of short swimbait fish. I fished the 5/8oz Damiki on 10# line to make it fall fast. WT 54

I fished this morning with great conditions (mild air temp and no wind) and finally got to experience the winter time surface chasing. I idled thru an area for an 1/8 of a mile with shad balls everywhere, but no fish to speak of. Once I got past the concentrated shad I kept idling and luckily found the fish grouped up in an area with limited shad. Caught surface/chasing fish on topwater wake bait and 3" swimbait. Also caught plenty of deep fish on 1/2 spoon on 6# line. The 6# lets the small spoon drop very fast. They would bite the scope spin if you had multiple fish chasing the same small group of surface shad. The fish ignored a 7/8oz spoon, 5/8oz ice jig, and Damiki rig. Today, I used 2D sonar vs FFS because FFS was showing too many distractions (blue gill, crappie, gizzard shad,,,,etc). I use FFS a lot but decided to go old school today. WT 55

Assuming there were approx 200 boaters, less than 30 had a limit. The two previous BFL winners on TR (April) had about 5# each (they are extremely good with FFS). So the extreme water level/visibility change made it tough.

It was mentioned in this thread that table rock may crest on Sunday at 925.8. This estimate no longer seems to be the case. Has the COE provided new guidance regarding crest level and timeframe?

The deep swimbait bite is still productive but a lot of the fish are shallow on/near beds. Finding shad is key for the offshore bite and the shad are constantly moving and will vacate a location causing each day to be a new scouting trip. We should be able to catch both pre-spawn and post-spawn in a matter of days. The 3lbs range spots are more difficult for me to find, perhaps they are spawning. Today a lot of the shad were too deep (below 25ft), but I did find some up in water column and that allowed for a decent morning. Caught fish on 2.8 and 3.3 swimbait and the underspin worked as well. WT 60.

I will assume Rick Kisek has FFS and has learned to use it very well. Currently FFS for offshore suspending/staging fish is extremely effective. There are two categories of these fish, those relating to bait and those that are not. Those relating to small pods of 'surface bait' are very willing to bite and FFS makes catching very efficient. The bait is postured from the surface to 10' down and the bass are located a few feet below them at 12 to 15ft (over what ever depth, normally 20 to 50 FOW). Normally your Offshore FFS presentation has four success factors... boat control, fish movement, fish depth, and casting accuracy . But with fish relating to surface bait, you eliminate fish movement and fish depth because your bait only has to drop for 2 to 3 seconds to get to 12 to 15 ft. You can locate staging fish without FFS and do Ok, but with FFS you can do better than Ok. With the early bite, the clock is running and FFS allows you to catch more fish before the bite clock expires and the bait fish drops down. FFS has changed the deep offshore game and guys are going through the learning curve at a rapid pace. For decades I used a 5" screen and had some success and now with FFS I am enjoying a new learning experience. FFS is not required to catch plenty of offshore fish, but it will eliminate many many years of learning curve.

BFL again. But another one day deal. LOZ was cancelled due to snow awhile back and rescheduled to Table Rock. Amazing to see so many major sticks struggled yesterday.

I have been fishing deep with a swimbait and the bite is pretty good. I fished this morning and stayed in one creek with the boat setting in 50ft FOW. The presents of gizzard shad was key. One location had lots of trees that topped out at 20ft below the surface and another location was the end of a channel swing with a few pole timber trees. The fish were using the entire water column and I avoided trying to catch them vertical. The fish that were down about 15 to 20ft were the easiest to catch. The deep fish activity really slows down about 8 to 8:30. Currently, the fish can be caught at any depth that you prefer and the bait of your choice. I used a 3.25" SB, underspin, and 3" Damiki. WT 47-49

I fished the past two mornings and the deep bite is pretty good. Had about a dozen keepers each morning and numerous shorts. Mostly K's with some LM in the mix. The ice jig worked best yesterday and the Damiki worked best today. The fish really like both baits reeled up very slow. Yesterday the Damiki worked several times on a long cast and retrieved about 25 to 30ft deep, but that did not work today. Today I found fish in two locations that gives me hope that the deep bite playing field is starting to expand. In the fall the deep bite locations are numerous, then lots of those area's fade out until the fish start moving with pre-spawn in mind. February and March will provide plenty of head fakes and I probably just got lucky today. Fished both days around plenty of deep trees with limited shad on/near the main lake . Caught most of the fish in 45 to 70 FOW. The bite wrapped up yesterday at 8AM and today at 9AM. WT 46

Has anyone tried the Float-N-Fly with Live Scope? I do not recall any report with the combination.

It is way to cold for me this morning. These days, my limit is 27 degrees with a mild wind and I will look for a location with no wind. Looking forward to my next opportunity to get out, but the weather report is not looking good. Cabin fewer may lower my limit to 26 degrees.

The K's were full of Float-N-Fly size shad and lots of LM were postured just right in the water column. Just have to keep an eye on the bobber. I seen a very large fish flash twice just below the surface about 20ft from the boat. That bobber would be out of sight in no time.

Dutch, I did not see another boat and I was on the main lake. No rigs at Mill Creek ramp. I forgot to mention that spot lock was super helpful in the wind for both vertical and hortizonal presentations.

I fished this morning and was glad the weather man was a little off. The fish were very active prior to the cold front moving in. Normally this time of year the chance for a surface bite is way less than 10%, but this mild winter has allowed for several surface bite days. I witnessed the surface activity first thing and decided to go with a horizontal presentation while it lasted then switch later to a vertical bite. The horizontal bite allows more chances for quality and the vertical bite gets the numbers with occasional quality. The horizontal bite stayed active until 8AM and the best bait was a Damiki rig (1/4oz and 3/8oz with 3" bait) fished about 5 to 10ft below the surface. The underspin produced a few. The deep horizontal bite is slow for me even though plenty of fish are using the 20 to 30ft depth range. The vertical bite was real good and the 4" grub (3/8oz) was the best bait, followed by Damiki and a few on ice jig. The ticket was to drop the grub thru fish and let it go to the bottom, then slowly retrieve the bait upwards. This technique worked over and over. I could not just leave it in their face or jig it. I left them biting at 9:30. I was on the main lake around trees and shad. The shad were stacked 20ft high in 42ft where I first started. Actually the shad were everywhere in the area. WT 50

Bobby, the line on the 3/8 oz Damiki rig was 8# BPS Excel mono green. Normally I would use 6# green mono on a vertical winter time spinning rod for plastics. I had the grub tied on the rod with 6# line. Your choice of line is probably better for detecting strikes,,,etc. I use 12# or 14# fluoro on the ice jig and spoon. I also use 15# mono big game for summer time spooning.

Hey Alex, thanks for the tip. I had topwater with me and should have tried it. I can normally catch about 30% of the winter time surface chasers with an underspin or swimbait, so I was dumbfounded with no takers. Next time they will see topwater on the menu. Looking forward to one of your cold water crankbait/jerkbait reports.

Fished this morning and the deep bite was about as good as it gets. Went to my first spot and scouted for 5 minutes and then went to my next spot. When I arrived about 7:20 the fish activity was unreal. About 15 big fish busted the surface over a 10 minute span and my graph was covered with vertical activity. I did not catch a single surface fish and after several cast I decided to stick with the vertical bite. The fish would fight over the Damiki rig and mostly ignore an ice jig and grub. From 7:30 to 8:00 the catching was almost every drop. The shad were 100% scattered (nothing schooled up) and I kept the boat in 35 to 55 FOW. Then about 8:30 the ice jig started to work well. Then about 9:00 there was an empty graph and the party was over.  Caught all three species and the K's accounted for 90%.  I threw a jerkbait, grub,  and underspin at the surface activity and was very surprised I did not catch a single surface fish. I thought the grub would work so I started with it and they ignored it, then picked up the Damiki and if you missed one another would bite it. WT 50-51 View full article

Bobby, for me the 7 to 8:30 timeframe is key for finding shad and active fish. If you find fish after 8:30 then you have probably found a location that would be much more productive at 7AM. I have found the shad on or close to the main lake (within 500yds of the main lake). I have scouted creeks and have not found anything. I would recommend looking for coves on the channel swing side of the lake. These coves need depth (50ft) and trees.

I have mentioned before how scouting for shad after 8:30 can be misleading. The attached shad picture is at daylight and at 8:30 you can not find these same shad. The fish movement picture shows how fish will get to the side of schooled up shad and feed on small pods.

Fished this morning and the action was very steady until 8AM, then between 8 and 9 the fish were still active in/around trees and at the base of trees. The 4" yamamoto grub on a 3/8 oz jig head (6# line) was the ticket. The grub worked good early casting to surface chasing and keeping it in the 5 to 15 ft range. It also was very effective with vertical presentation. The fish responded well to the vertical grub and it would easily out fish the ice jig. The grub was not very effective with a normal swimbait retrieve (like 20 to 30ft down). Fished around shad/trees in 38 to 60 FOW. WT 51 I seen several fish jump out of the water chasing shad and a few loons helped to keep things active. All three species were very active.

Fished this morning and was able to avoid most of the north wind. Found some fish in 42-50 FOW around trees/shad and they were using most of the water column. Had 3 bites on the jerkbait (110 +1) and landed two, but the ice jig was the main producer. I tried Damiki rig, four inch grub, swimbait, and spoon, but no luck on those baits. There were lots of gizzard shad and blue gill in the area and that caused me to waste some time. The bite fizzled between 8:30 & 9:00, I could still pull some off the bottom but they would not commit. I did not spend more than 20 minutes throwing the jerkbait and I should have thrown it more. WT 52-53

This morning was very mild temps and the shad started out on the surface. The shad were flickering on top at daylight. I found a good group of fish around shad/trees in 34 to 42 FOW and the action was steady for an hour prior to the sun getting bright (approx 8AM). The swimbait worked extremely well because of surface chasing and several fish were using the upper water column. The swimbait produced several nice LM prior to 8AM. The better LM came in 20-25 FOW where they had the shad pushed toward the bank. The ice jig ( 5/8oz ) worked good and produced mainly K's and a few good smallmouth. WT 56

I fished this morning and the fishing was pretty good. I stayed on the main lake around trees and shad. Finding shad in the creeks and on the main lake is pretty easy and the schools can be very large, but finding fish is the issue. This morning I landed on the right combination of shad/trees and lots of active fish. I stayed between 40 and 60 FOW and the fish near the bottom were the easiest to catch. The ice jig (5/8) produced a bunch of K's and the 2.8 swimbait was used to catch a very nice LM. I wish I would have thrown the swimbait more, but when your graph shows fish under the boat you have to drop on them. The swimbait window was probably only good for a 15-30 minute timeframe prior to the sun coming up over the horizon. Also caught two nice walleye on the ice jig. WT 54.5 to 55.5. One graph pic shows WT of 50, but I had just put the trolling motor down.