Dock-in-it

I checked my notes from 2018 and the Spinnerbait work pretty good on occasion when the WT got to 47-48. Things are changing fast and I think all the normal baits will have the opportunity to shine for a while.

I have a 3ft rod and a left-hand reel with 65# braid. I am right handed so when I drop the lure retriever and it hits the a-rig I can engage the reel by pushing the reel handle against my side. The a-rig head goes inside the hound dog coil and the rig breaks loose almost every time. I known when I am about to get hung up so I do not set the hook in a tree (with a few exceptions).

This morning was taylor made for Live Scope. The fish were moving around a lot and with all the cover I could not just fan cast and let the a-rig go to the bottom. I would move the boat up into 20-30ft and find a few fish then back off and cast to them. The hound dog lure retriever seen a lot of action today. The wind picked up around 9:30 and I hit several spots with the jerkbait, but no luck. It seemed like when the feeding time was over (8:30) everything just shut down. Around 10AM I rechecked an earlier spot that had plenty of fish and it looked like a ghost town.

I fished a while this morning and found a few locations that had plenty of shad & trees and a fair amount of fish. The main activity happened from 7 to 8:30. The fish were feeding on shad and that seemed to accelerate a shad kill. There is a normal shad kill happening but when the fish are feeding on weak shad it makes the kill excessive. With a shad kill it is hard for a swimbait or underspin to compete, so I stuck with the a-rig and jerkbait (pearl +1). The a-rig was only effective on K's and the jerkbait worked on a 5# LM. The trees were too thick to work the a-rig near the bottom (where most of the fish were). The majority of fish where in 20-30 FOW and using the 15-30ft range. There was no wind early and that may have hindered the jerkbait bite. WT reached 47 around 10AM.

Just a heads up for the crankbait guys in the Kimberling area. The algae will probably be a problem from the bank to 8ft....it just went nuts today. WT went up a few degrees.

The guys beat up the Kimberling area. A lot of guys stayed near the launch site and as the day ends several come back early and hit a few spots prior to weigh in. The attached picture is from this morning near the Mill creek ramp. The South wind had blown it across the lake and it was about 100ft from shore on a north bank. The good news is they missed at least one good fish.

I fished yesterday morning and a few hrs this morning. Yesterday the A-rig was not yielding much so I settled on catching mostly K's on a 3" swimbait with 3/8 jig head to help cut thru the wind. Had 8 keepers and there was a LM in the bunch. These fish were in a pocket that had some shad. I fished another pocket that was loaded with shad and could not get a bite (with fish present). This morning my main goal was to stay out of the brutal wind and I caught 3 keepers. One on a jerkbait and two on the A-rig. The jerkbait fish was a SM on the main lake and the A-rig fish were in a protected pocket. I have followed the BPT on the Big O and I would rather be fishing Table Rock this week. I grew up in Florida and I know the cold fronts can shut the bass down.....we just hunted and fished for speckled trout in the winter months. I did see some BFL guys practicing this morning and I know the wind eliminated more than 75% of possible locations to check out.

Regarding the C-tail grub, I can still remember a Truman Lake hammer (related to Chomper Baits) fishing a tourney on Table Rock and winning with 20# using the C-tail). He had some help with local knowledge but he still got the job done. In Oct 2011, Paul Elias showed everyone what the A-rig could do and one of our favorite local guides got schooled real quick and won a Table Rock event in Nov 2011 and he caught a 6# kicker that he did not even need. Now the same guide may be introducing Live Scope + A-rig as the new combination required to be competitive in a February tourney. So jump on the bandwagon or be a contributor. In the tourney yesterday I watched guys looking down at there graph 90% of the time and throwing the rig.

Thanks for the report...A bunch of really nice healthy fish. The Kimberling area was just stacked with tournament boats. It will be interesting to see the results.

Yesterday morning I zeroed, but this morning was pretty good. Yesterday morning I was around a ton of shad and no fish, and this morning I just went fishing and did not worry about the shad. Champ mentioned when conditions get right the fish will move into the coves.....well the train has left the station.

The deep bite fizzled out for me around Feb 10th and afterwards even when you found the shad in a good location there were no fish. I fished this morning and tried the A-Rig and caught some nice fish. I had a nice limit by 7:30 and then a few more good ones around 9:00. After 9AM the sun came out and I did not catch another fish. I kept the boat in 30 FOW and cast to 12ft and did not fish around trees. Today, the fish were bunched up and if I got bit I just milked the area. There may be a suspended/tree bit but I did not try it. The fish can be caught on textbook locations and non-textbook locations as well. The strong north wind limited my options and I did not see another boat. Lately the Mill creek ramp has several rigs and today there were none. For those of us still going thru the learning curve, the A-Rig is the best February education tool that exist.

Hey Bill regarding fishing reports.... I fished the morning in Kim City area and the swimbait worked good. I had 15 keepers and the WT is about 45. You will catch 5 to 1 on the swimbait vs the vertical bite. Most fish will ignore the ice jig like it's not even there.

I fished a few hrs this morning after the rain stopped (about 8). The fish were postured high for a swimbait and the bottom hugging fish were not interested in a ice jig or spoon. I used a 3/8oz jig head with a 3" SB and 3/8 allowed for making an extra long cast. I stayed around trees and out of the wind. There were fish in 20-30 FOW but I caught more in the 35-50 range.

The deep bite is still good but the aggressive bite timeframe can be very narrow. For me the bite starts to fade out about 8:30, but I did find a good bite on Friday at 10:30 and left them biting for a Saturday trip ( but they disappeared... as usual). This morning they wanted a vertical presentation (ice jig, spoon, 1/4 oz swimbait) and they wanted the ice jig and spoon fairly still. They liked the 1/4 oz swimbait dropped straight down and they would ignore a 3/8 oz. Some fish were postured for a vertical SB but they did not seem very aggressive. Had 10 keepers , 2 SM and 8 K's. WT about 45. Lots of shad are using the 80ft range, but I normally like to settle for the limited shad in shallower water (35 - 60).

Fished this morning from 7:30 to 9:30. Was fortunate to catch some quality fish along with several other keepers. From 7:30 to 8:30 the bite was steady. The bite started to slow down at 8:30 and at 9:00 it was done. The technique that worked best was dropping an ice jig to the bottom around visible fish then slow crank thru them. The graph pics show fish above and below my bait and they would approach the ice jig from the top and bottom. And the bottom guys would be your best bet.

I fished this morning and the deep bite is still working but the fish are fairly stubborn. From 7:30 to 8:30 the fish were postured for both vertical and hortizonal presentations. I could not get the swimbait to work so I just stayed with the vertical baits (4" grub and ice jig). Dropping the 4" grub worked the best and triggering a bite on the initial drop was key. If you had to work the bait in front of their nose they would ignore it most times. Another technique that worked was dropping the grub to the bottom and slow crank it up through the fish. The ice jig worked best if the fish where within a few feet of the bottom. There was a light sprinkle from time to time, then about 10AM the constant drizzle started and I headed in. WT about 45. Caught about 20 with approx 8 keepers. Had one decent LM and the rest were K's. Also, finding shad is a challenge for me and I am not really sure where to look. I scouted a few creeks one afternoon and did not find any nice schools of shad. This post has been promoted to an article

I like the bait recommendations and they are a good excuse to order more stuff. I fished Mon, Tue, and Wed. On Monday the fished preferred the swimming grub/swimbait over the ice jig. On Tuesday the fish preferred the 4" grub worked vertical and the ice jig and swimming the grub did not get much attention. On Wednesday the fish were starving and everything worked because the shad were plentiful. The loons around me would kill 2.5" shad, but when I caught a fish they had 1" shad in their mouth. So the deep bite is working but you have to figure out the preferred presentation each day. Attached are a few graph pics showing the different depths the fish were using today. Also, there were plenty of shad & fish in the 15-30ft range (I caught a few but they were short), perhaps some shad are shallow due to the current flow or the fish just pushed them shallow.

I fished this morning and the deep bite is still going Ok. Lately I focus more on resident fish versus looking for the right shad scenaro. The cold, wind, and fog conditions limits my search options and travel distance. This morning I was able to catch them vertical on an ice jig and hortizonal on a 4" yamamoto grub. The vertical fish were very stubborn and it was much easier to get them to hit the swimming grub. The graph shows the vertical fish and the fish pictures were caught on the grub. I wish I would have committed to the grub but when the vertical fish appear on your graph it is hard to ignore them. A regular swimbait would work but I just stuck with the grub. I was fortunate to have several loons working the area and most of them focused on water less than 30ft.

I started catching the fish in 60 FOW and as I moved to 40-50ft the fish were stacked. About 9am when the sun was bright I looked even shallower and found them on the bottom. I had a jig tied on but did not throw it. The graph shows them on the bottom.

The fog this morning provided ideal conditions for the deep bite. The catching lasted until 8:45 and then the sun popped out. The graph pic shows that the fish where postured for both vertical and horizontal presentations. I stayed with the vertical approach (ice jig). Approx 20+ keepers in 90 minutes. 60% K's, 30% SM, 10% LM.

I fished this morning and the deep bite can be good if you find both shad and active fish. I routinely find lots of shad, but not able to see any active fish. The shad and fish movement appears to be non-stop so you have to spend lots of time searching for the right scenario. The fish are feeding throughout the entire water column so both vertical and horizontal presentations will work (3" SB and ice jig). Once you find them they are very scattered and it is tough to find a wolf pack. Once the morning bite is over (9am or 10am) the fish just disappear. I have found fish this week on the main lake, coves, and in the creeks. One day I spent 3hrs searching and never found anything worth stopping for. This morning I caught 12 to 15 keepers ( all three species ) with lots of smallmouth in the mix. WT 49.

I tried the deep bite yesterday for about 3 hrs and the bite was very strong. Both the ice jig and 3" SB worked. This morning I fished for a few hrs (avoiding the extreme wind) and ended up with 6 keepers but I put my bait in front of approx 40 fish. With the major frontal conditions they just ignored the ice jig most of the time. This morning I had to stay on the trolling motor even in a protected area and I think the constant motor noise had a negative impact. I always like to take my foot off the trolling motor when my bait is in front of one. The graph pic is from yesterday and the fish pics are from this morning. Yesterday I was in a few creeks and today I fished a deep cove with timber. Also lots of shad are in the creeks and coves. I think the new current from dumping Beaver has repositioned a lot of shad. For me the shallow bite starts at 38ft.

The fishing was real good this morning. I used a repaired ice jig to catch most of them. The tremble holder on the bottom broke off so i used 65# braid (looped twice) to hold the treble hook on an O-ring. I did catch one over 5# so even the big ones liked it.

Bobby, I found these fish in the mouth of a very large spawning cove that has a fair amount of timber and a channel swing nearby. I was fortunate to see the active birds while searching the channel swing. In the winter time the gravel flats have too much wind for my taste, but I would fish them if I seen the birds going crazy.