fstaskiewicz

Sent you a PM.

I hear FC is a very good smallmouth lake too. The walleye fishing is very good as well. Never been there, so this will be a new adventure for me. Going with my three brothers-in-law on our 24th annual trip together. The four of us should be be able to figure things out quickly. I'll be happy to give you a report if you want to track me down before your trip.

They are tanks up there! And these fishe were spawned out! You should see the ones we caught last fall when they were putting on the feed bag for winter. Looked like they might explode.

As promised following our inaugural visit to Table Rock in late April, my son and I packed up Ned and took him north for some serious smallmouth bass fishing in the northeast South Dakota glacial lakes region. We fished Thursday through Sunday last week, and the results were pretty impressive, convincing and decisive. Since my 75-year-old dad was along on this three-generation fishing trip, we split time between hammering huge bluegills and slab crappies, and targeting smallmouths. And about a third of our smallmouth fishing was done with topwater baits. But when we hit our favorite rocky spots in 7 to 12 feet of water though, Ned ruled! The first two days of the trip my son and dad used plastic craws and caught fish. I threw a ⅛-ounce Ned rig and caught smallies too, along with a few jumbo crappies up to 13 inches. But the tide turned early Saturday morning when my son and I passed on topwaters due to the wind and went right to soft plastics. I boated a pair of nice bass on my first two casts with Ned. We had 11 before we went back in to have breakfast. Just two came on a craw. Point made. Sunday, our final day of the trip, we threw topwaters the first 90 minutes until the sun got too high, then all three of us turned to Ned rigs and deeper water and just hammered the smallies. In about 5 ½ hours Ned terrorized the bronzeback population as we caught and released 34 smallmouths, including 10 that measured 18 inches or better, the minimum length to qualify for South Dakota Proud Angler citations. My son got the biggest at 19 inches. One of those bass had my Ned in its throat, apparently from the day before when my fluorocarbon leader knot broke at the jig on a hook set. On a couple of side notes, we enjoyed 62- to 63-degree water and what appeared to be prime time spawn/post-spawn bass. Also, we did not lose a single jig in the rocks. The mushrooms heads always came free from those smooth stones and boulders with a little encouragement, or by just backing over them. So a huge thanks goes out to our southern brethren for introducing us to this great bait. We now have a new highly effective weapon in our arsenal for fooling big smallmouths, and apparently crappies too, in our favorite places to target brown bass. I’m heading back to South Dakota in a couple weeks to fish one of the Missouri River reservoirs, Lake Francis Case, for walleyes and smallies. You can bet I’ll always have a Ned rig tied on. I’m hoping Ned will also turn out to be an effective walleye bait as well. We’ll know soon enough.

My son and I really enjoyed our recent first visit to Table Rock. What a great lake to run 3/4 of a tank of gas through our new Lund and get more comfortable with all the great new technology we put on the boat. And best of all we caught fish despite the weather! Nothing impressive to report. We boated a dozen bass the first day after getting on the water at 12:30. Boated another 15 the next day and just four Saturday and four Sunday morning before heading home. I was very pleased to get my TR triple on my first three fish of the trip! I sure didn't expect that. Those spots sure are a blast to catch! Most of our fish were smallmouths with several spots and just three largemouths. We learned a lot about fishing this type of water. We have everyone who posts in this forum to thank for getting us pointed in the right direction. We caught virtually all of our fish in about 15 fow, although looking back we should've made ourselves probe even deeper. Most of our fish came on a Ned as well. What a bait! Can't wait to wet that thing up north on our favorite smallmouth lakes. It should be dynamite. Thanks again everyone. Your generous sharing of information is impressive and helpful. Frank That's my first Kentucky. My son's first Kentucky was much nicer. Plump too! My son got the best bass of the trip with this 17-inch smallie. He had another a tad shorter.

Great advice, Champ188. We typically add long fluoro leaders to our expensive braid to combat clear water conditions, rather that peel off the braid. We may just have to lengthen those pieces of fluoro for our finesse presentations. We're loaded up with Neds, grubs, tubes, mushroom heads, drop shots etc. for the spinning gear. Never fished a Ned before and looking very forward to that. Hoping for some topwater action, and a some after dark fun too. We love to target bass at night! We're sure excited to experience something different. Should be a blast! We should be on the road in under two hours, with 6+ hours of driving ahead of us from Springfield, NE. I'm sure we'll do lots of strategizing with the lake map on the way down. Plenty of water to fish!

My son and I depart from Huskers country for Table Rock this evening for our first-ever visit to the lake. We're hauling our new boat down for its inaugural road trip, so if you see us on the water in a white Lund Impact single console with a 115 on back, that's us. We're staying at Shore Acres Resort southwest of Kimberling City and plan to fish both directions away from the resort. We were supposed to be there last week, but my son had to travel for work. Looks like that worked out for the best for us based on the reports I'm reading about the fishing. This appears to be a very good time to be on the lake. We love the brown bass but are looking forward to catching some green ones too, and maybe some crappies and whites as well. I'll thank all of you on this forum now for all the great information you share. We feel like we're well equipped with plenty of knowledge to put together a fun and successful trip. It'll just take a bit to adapt to a big southern reservoir. We'll be on the lake bright and early Thursday through Sunday around noon. I'll be happy to share our fishing information and some photos here as well. Hopefully those reports will be good ones and beneficial to others, just like all of yours have been. We can't wait to experience your great lake, and perhaps even meet some of you on the water. Tight lines everyone! Frank

Be safe down there everyone! Scary stuff those spring storms. Hopefully I'll run in to some of you when I make my first visit to Table Rock in three weeks, meaning you won't be cleaning up storm damage and will be on the water enjoying some great spring fishing!

Indeed! The N stands for National Champions (x5)! Or Nowledge. Depends on your perspective.

Greetings everyone. Hope you don't mind having a Huskers fanatic on board ;-) My son and I are heading down to Table Rock on April 15 to break in our brand new Lund boat, and hopefully hit the bass trifecta. We chase largemouths around home and go north two or three times a year to chase smallies. We've never boated a spot, so hopefully we'll make that happen next month. And maybe track down some crappies to eat. We'll be fishing out of Shore Acres Resort. I've fished Truman, LOZ and Pomme de Terre in the past, but I haven't made it any further south. So I'm really looking forward to my first visit to Table Rock. In the meantime I'll be trolling around, primarily in the Table Rock forum, keeping tabs on what's happening with water temp and the fish. I like what I've seen so far. You all are generous about sharing info. And that Ned rig has me fired up! Can't wait to try that. Looks deadly. Frank