Dock-in-it

Bill, regarding your graph picture with surface shad and the associated big K's. On Nov 14th I got oh the same scenario with magnum K's and could not believe their willingness to bite the 2.8 Keitech. So yesterday I return to the same location and the small pods of surface shad had mostly short fish and the shorts would follow my bait (leaving the real thing behind) and they would rarely commit. I think when quality fish are feeding at the surface they are more willing to commit.

Champ, speaking of paying attention to what's going around you. About 20-25 yrs ago Bill Babler had a website for his guide service and he would do a fishing report from time to time. It was probably in the April/May timeframe and the lake experienced lots of rain and was very stained....and I fished over the weekend. Bill comes out (let's say Monday) with a report that his guide trip caught 75 on a grub. So I am back at work and read this report. So I wrote him an email to ask how he caught 75 on a grub in the stained water. He wrote back and said the stain doesn't matter, you just have to pay attention to your surroundings. Then to make me feel better he said that someone in the network of brethren (guides) always figures them out. So to this day, I always pay attention to any surface activity...and whatever else is going on.

I do use livescope, but 2D is excellent option for deep fall/winter fishing. I started to take a 2D picture this morning to prove the point....here is the scoop. I normally go to spots where I keep my boat in a 1 or 2 acre boundary. I will move around and eventually almost every 'deep' fish in the area will be seen under the boat because they are also attracted to boat. The fish near the surface are chasing shad so I see those without the need for any graph. If your in an area with lots of fish you have a better chance of triggering a bite fishing vertical under the boat because fish like to be triggered with up/down bait movement and a group of fish will react to aggressive vertical jigging and one of those fish will normally grab the bait. This morning I was probably around a few hundred fish. If you want to fish deep in the fall/winter and you have 2D, then consider thinking about the spawn. From November thru March, the deep fish will setup in areas that are tailored made for staging for the spawn.....just keep in mind you need food, trees, and spawning habitat.

I have fished several mornings this November and the deep bite is pretty good. I normally keep the boat in 30-60 FOW and the best baits have been a 2.75 Damiki style bait and a 2.8 Keitech. I look for areas with trees and shad. The fish do not seem to be interested in a spoon or ice jig, but the water temperature probably needs to drop several degrees (currently 60-62). Right at daylight, the main activity is near the surface (3-15ft down) and once the sun gets high the bite is closer to the bottom. The fish suspended halfway down the water column are tough to catch because they do not seem to be interested in feeding. The Damiki and Keitech can both be worked horizontal and vertical, one of my best trips involved jigging the Keitech with 3/8oz jig head in 30-40ft where large schools were postured near the bottom. Drop speed can be the ticket that triggers bites, so I use jig heads in 3/8 to 5/8 range. There is an abundance of 8-13" fish so that looks good for the future keeper stock. Most trips produce a high percentage of K's but this morning included a few good LM.

Fished this morning and the shallow topwater bite was pretty good. I caught them on a plopper in ledge rock cuts. Also tried the buzzbait when I encountered wood cover but it produced no bites. I like the cuts that are about 100-200 yds in length and have a mixture of ledge rock with some good spawning rock in the area (small rock/gravel). I normally avoid the lengthy cuts that just have several hundred yds of good looking ledge rock. Had 5 decent LM, missed a few, and caught some shorts. WT 80

Fished by a kids summer camp boat dock this morning that had 4 inboard ski boats and each one had the storage covers up to keep them well ventilated. Perhaps they had read this thread.

Bill, thanks for sharing. I was hoping you would let us know the scoop on the shallow bite in your zip code. I think the real shallow bite in Kimberling is probably wrapping up. I had 7 LM keepers on Saturday morning but this morning the keeper count was 2. The shallow bite was a nice change of pace for this time of year.

The shallow bite with a spinnerbait has been very consistent for several days. The lake has been dropping approx 5" per day for weeks and the lake is getting close to summer pool. With that in mind, the LM are right on the bank (in 1 to 3 ft) and they seem to have very little interest in hanging around the outer edge of the bushes. The best banks are fairly flat with gravel/small rock & some buck brush and the key is having big isolated rocks. These bigger rocks hold the fish. The water has a nice stain color and this stain might hold some LM up super shallow even when the lake gets to 917. Conventional wisdom suggests the fish should be on the outside edges of remaining flooded bushes, but if you focus on that strategy you will miss a lot of opportunities. A 3 hour trip will normally produce 4 to 6 keeper LM with all being in the 2# range. Lately I have not been able to catch any shallow fish over 2#. I have tried topwater up shallow and it is not working for me. One of the pictures shows a bare bank at the end of a long stretch of buck brush and it has a big rock of the edge of the bank. A few days prior to the rock being exposed I caught a nice LM from it when it was in a foot of water. WT 86

I fished shallow the last two mornings and the bite is picking up. There was a slow period for several days after the shad spawn fizzled and the COE was not running much water. Once the COE started dropping the lake it appears to be having a positive effect on the bite. I am using of a spinnerbait and plopper and both are working well. A buzzer will work but I have not committed much time throwing it. Yesterday morning I had 6 keeper LM with 4 on a spinner and 2 on the plopper. This morning I had 4 keeper LM with 3 on a spinner and 1 on the plopper. I also lost 2 good LM on the plopper. The deal with using a moving bait is the best bite window is the first 90 minutes of daylight (6-7:30). After that timeframe the bites are few and far between. About 90% of the time I am fishing locations where I can hit the bank. WT 85-86

Fished this morning and I started out looking for deep fish but then changed to the shallow bite after a few stops. The first deep location was void of any fish and the second location produced 3 keeper K's. So many historically good deep locations are not holding fish. I started fishing shallow around manicured yards and that only produced a few shorts. Then I fished a point with the type of bush/tree (picture below) that seems to outperform other flooded cover/trees. Caught 4 LM on a spinnerbait and these fish were suspended next to bushes on the old shoreline depth (10-12ft). The 'point' bank was in the shade and there was a slight breeze. The submerged portion of the pictured bush/trees are getting void of leaves and this might make this cover less effective. Water color ranges from stained to somewhat clear. The stained water seems to be in locations were boat waves keep the shoreline churned up. WT 79-80

Fished this morning with spinnerbait and had 9 keepers with 4 K's and 5 LM. 2 keepers from manicured lawns, 3 positioned on type of bush/tree pictured above (on a point), and 4 on gravel parking areas associated with docks. The wind seemed to help the bite this morning. WT 80

The shallow flooded cover bite has changed for me from manicured lawns to the original shoreline depth (11-12ft at 928) with a certain type of bush/tree. This morning I tried manicured lawns with no success, then tried the front of three docks and each produced but they were short K's. So I tried a nearby medium slope 'ledge rock' main lake point with isolated cover and had 5 LM in 20 minutes. At that point I realized I had not done enough homework to know which points had a good combination of slope and isolated buck brush/trees on the 917 level shoreline. The picture below of bush/tree is by far the best fish holding cover. It is not really buck brush, but a small tree with limited height potential. Cotton woods, Oaks, Willows,,,, etc are very low percentage targets. Also lots of fry around....perhaps a combination of bass and shad fry. WT 78 -79

Got out for a few hours after the rain stopped and was able to catch a limit of LM. The one in the picture was waiting for a picnic table to open up. My rain gauge also showed approx 4" in last 2 days.

I grew up in the Florida panhandle fishing shallow around lots of cover (both in the water and overhead). I really like the challenge/entertainment of making accurate presentations to shallow targets. The Table Rock floods of 2008 and 2011 really made me explore fishing shallow on this lake. I prefer catching LM and the current shallow bite is working better than the deep bite. The deep post spawn bite around Kimberling did not unfold very well.

I have been fishing a residential pattern with a spinnerbait and catching mostly LM. Looking for manicured lawns with very limited cover. I prefer the lawns near the main lake. Topwater might work but you will need a slight breeze to push the leaves and saw dust to the bank. I have not spent much time trying topwater. Thick cover will produce but it seems to be limited to the shad spawn in the first hour of daylight. Residential areas also have numerous small docks and running a SB parallel to the swim decks will produce (but too many are shorts). I am seeing some fry around thick cover but that has not translated into bites. The water is fairly stained with the WT around 75-76. The pictured contraption in the middle of the lake is the old gas dock/store from Port of Kimberling. Not sure if it will be disassemble or used elsewhere.

With this being a heavy boat traffic weekend, I would recommend the following for bluegill fishing in the comfort of shade. Get plenty of fish food or dry dog food (whatever works) and feed the first two boat stalls on each side of the dock then move out to the middle "cable" stalls and feed each side. Then if Lazy Lees still owns that next dock over (the one with boats in it) I would feed it. Since it has boats in it year around it will be probably be the better bluegill dock since it is shaded year around. The above suggestion may not work but it might be worth a try.

During the cold months I routinely fished swimbaits with 1/2 and 5/8 oz jig heads. I wanted to see how the heavy jig heads would work during the post spawn and I have been pleasantly surprised. Been throwing a 1/2 oz tungsten jig with a 3.8 Keitech using 15# line on a med hvy casting rod. It is kinda fun to make a solid hook set. The 3.8 size seems to keep the dinks at bay. The 1/2 oz makes it easy to keep the bait down where the deeper fish hangout. I set my graph at 40' and routinely see bass swim down below the 40' mark. The main technique(for me) to trigger deep fish is casting beyond the fish and retrieve the bait well above their head so they have to swim upward for several ft (8 to 15) and then speed up the retrieve as they get close to the bait. The water color around Kimberling Bridge is a dark brown and it is just plain brown around point 6 . I assume the water has a brown tint beyond pt5. The water color seems to be a combination of James river dirt, turnover, and algae bloom. I have fished around Baxter and the water looked good. ⁰ The visibility seems to be 18 to 24 inches but I caught several fish this morning that were 40' down and they would react upward to my bait when the bait was 10-15 away. WT 69

The shad spawn may be hijacking the smallmouth. The high water in the bushes provides the shad something to spawn on. As the shad travel down a bush line the smallmouth will follow. There are plenty of smallmouth out deep taking advantage of plentiful shad and the shad spawn. On a different note, this spring I am seeing an abundance of short fish out deep.

Fished this morning and the bite was pretty good. I kept the boat in 30-50ft and used a 2.8 Keitech. Bounced around to several staging locations and caught fish with and without shad present. You can find plenty of fish in areas without shad, but they seem pretty smart and tough to catch. In a scenario where a group of fish are actively feeding on shad you can catch multiple fish from the group. But if you see a small tight group of fish without shad then you are probably just going to catch one because the chaos causes the group to disperse. Plenty of locations have massive balls of shad without any fish in sight. Caught LM and K's and they all looked healthy. Fished several locations and after all the rain the water was still extremely clear. WT 55.5

Fished this morning and was mainly staying out of the way of tournament anglers. Hit several locations and finally landed on some nice LM. The fish were in a spawning area with lots of shad. The depth was 10 to 15ft and the fish were feeding on the shad. Used a Keitech 2.8 and a 4" Yamamoto grub. Only had 4 keepers but I think I could have had a solid limit in an 8hr tournament day. The shad were so thick and the fish were really dialed in to the real deal. WT 57ish

Fished this morning and found fish shallow (8-12ft) and deep (25-50ft). The shallow fish where around spawning banks and the deep fish were in 25-50ft around trees in spawning areas. Shad can be seen anywhere in the water column and I mainly focus on bait hanging around 1-15ft below the surface regardless of overall depth. I fished 3 locations and would start my search out deep then move shallow. I did not catch a Kentucky up shallow but did catch LM and SM in the 8-12ft range. Had 12 keepers and 8 where LM. Used a 2.8 Keitech on 5/16 and 3/8oz heads. When deep fish are high in the water they seem skittish when the boat gets within 60ft. So the heavy jig heads allow for long cast even in windy conditions. WT 48-49

I fished this morning in post frontal conditions and the swimbait bite was pretty good until 9AM. There was basically no wind so that allowed for moving around checking multiple locations. The large winter time groups of fish have thinned out and you have to cover a lot of water with the trolling motor. I was mainly looking for a scenario of 2-3 fish swimming together high in the water column. There are also a lot of singles roaming around and they are tougher to catch. Most of the fish were steadily moving around trees and there were also some holding in the tree tops. Kept the boat in 30-50 FOW with plenty of trees and the shad were very limited. I used a 2.8 Keitech on four different jig heads from 1/4 to 1/2oz. If a fish is 20-40ft down, I use the 1/2oz head to get the bait down quickly to fish that are constantly moving. Had about 10 keepers.....mainly LM. WT 45 to 46

Fished this morning after a 7 day cold snap and the swimbait is still working on LM suspended high in the water column (5-20ft). I caught all LM with the boat in 30-60 FOW and they were in tree tops at one location and at another location they were mainly relating to bait. I also checked three locations that were not holding fish. One of those locations had a ton of bait in a 10 acre size area, so that was puzzling not to see any bass. I am not sure where the K's are hanging out, but it appears the cold snap put them on the move. I used a 2.8 Keitech on 5/16 and 1/2oz jig heads. The morning started out with the air temp around 27 and warmed up pretty quick. WT 43-44

I got out this morning and fished until 8:30 and the swimbait bite was pretty consistent. I used a 2.8 Keitech on different jig heads (1/4, 1/2, and 5/8). The heavier jig heads were used on a baitcaster and helped in making long casts with iced up guides. The LM seemed to prefer the upper water column (10-20ft) and the K's were postured deeper (20-40ft). I had about 8 keepers and just stayed in one area due to the brisk/cold wind. I kept the boat in 30-50 FOW and the area had plenty of trees and the shad were in very small pods throughout the water column. The vertical fish under the trolling motor are pretty tough for me to catch, they seem like they are just enjoying the shade of the boat. You can aggravate some into biting, but I like casting and using the swimbait away from boat. I caught the pictured LM on a 1/4 oz jig with a 2.8 and they were postured high (10-20ft). Did not see another boat!! WT 45.8

I fished this morning and was able to catch some LM and K's on a swimbait and Damiki. I was around fish that were feeding on bait near the surface. The fish were really focused on the bait and most would ignore my presentation. Once you catch a fish within a group the others get educated real quick. The ratio of LM and K's was about 50-50. I would swim/shake the Damiki on a 1/2oz head and it produced better than the swimbait. I kept the boat in 30-60 FOW and there were plenty of trees in the area(s). The WT was in the 46-47 range. There were more boats than I expected...not sure of any tournaments.