RSBreth

I saw some dead shad flipping around in Indian Sunday - made for a tough bite for sure. Maybe they'll be more hungry this weekend - maybe not.

I flipped a coin and went to Table Rock to mess with Smallmouths but I kind of wished I had made down there instead. I thought it would clear off but stayed cloudy until 1 P.M. or so. Better walleye at Bull conditions than Smallies at Table rock conditions. Thanks for the report.

This is why I always bristle at the idea that a single fishing report (or good Lord forbid an actual picture or two of the big ones in the fishing report) will bring a ton of pressure to any body of water. Sure, someone might think "Hey - I'll go down there and hammer them this weekend" - but of course the next day things have changed, and if it's a really refined technique (suspending jerks count as that) they will come away very disappointed. Will they try again the next day? Maybe. Probably same result, too. Will they be back? Hmm. Don't know. Perseverance seems to be discouraged these days. Much more easy to hop on a hotter (easier) bite somewhere else or when it warms up in a month or two. The Walleyes of upper B.S are for the best of the best - I consider myself pretty good on Black Bass year-round but they still kick my butt, often. I wouldn't bet against Buster.

You're assuming the pictures would be posted here or somewhere else. You're actually assuming a lot. I'm sorry if you disagree, but whether or not pictures are posted (or not) and whether "some people" see "some pictures" (or not) there's a lot of paddle boats tooling around the lake on any decent day. But I guess we also need to track down snickerdoodles and force him to take down all his YouTube videos, obviously people are seeing them and driving here from all parts unknown just to crowd our little lake because they've seen a fish actually caught from there. Like was said - it wasn't horrible until the boat house started renting little play kayaks. For every guy in a johnboat fishing and minding his business there's 5 or 6 jacka@#$s paddling their little rental pool toys all over where you were trying to fish.

I guess I'm out at this point - if you have to stand to set the hook you either have a physical limitation I'm not familiar with or are a disciple of Bill Dance. I'm not getting where the type of boat makes a difference.

Yes, I'm sure half a dozen guys who would be fishing there anyway start taking a few pictures and seeing who did better, and then it's "THE END OF THE FISHING WORLD AT LAKE SPRINGFIELD AS WE KNOW IT!!!!!!!!!!" Welcome to Ozarkanglers.com.

Yeah - a little slow to load during that time.

Until you hit a rock and ditch it. I'm with Al on this one. Giving up a light, nimble, and easily maneuvered paddlecraft for a barge with it's only upside is stand up fishing - it's a whole lot of shrug to me. Wow - I just looked it up - almost 80 pounds naked. Yeah - have fun with that. It's like the big SOT kayaks that need little wheels to get them to the launch because they're so heavy. Maybe you'll only fish little ponds that have a good paved ramp, then you might be o.k.

Another no vote on river reels against the Shimbindo's. If you stay dry in the big boat they're fine, but I have a mix of older BPS Pro Qualifier, Pflueger's and some Abu. I'm really impressed with the newer Orra S - so much so that I'm not sure if I'd upgrade or just buy another one.

Better than I thought - like I said I've never caught very many good ones in that stretch in Winter.

I was down there from about 8 A.M. until after 3 P.M. I was trying to get down for the early morning bite but stayed out too late.

I fished around Swan yesterday - only a couple of small male walleyes on a deep suspending jerk - one largemouth on a weighted shad rap so it would suspend, and one nice rainbow on the same shad rap by the bridge. One smallmouth on a bucktail with a leech trailer - I was sure it was a walleye until it jumped! I was using a new-to-me Academy brand deep suspender - this one is ghost shad:http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/h2o-xpress-8482-suspending-jerk-bait/pid-22547?color=Ghost+Shad&N=4294956313+97009336 Pretty nice for the money - almost like a Lucky Craft Staysee. I did add a feathered treble on the back, and did have to add a little extra lead to get it to suspend - for 4.50 I'm not complaining. Usually I'm throwing a deep Husty Jerk or Staysee to get down deeper, but I'll add some more of these.

I fished down there yesterday - just a few little males - the big ones will get working with the warm up this week I would think.

There's usually something good in the annual guides. This is a treat.

Please post up if you went - I'm curious because I never do very well in that stretch in winter.

Yeah - get out and walk it, stupid. I paddle up all the time, it just takes a little more muscle but after a trip or two you figure out how to do it for whatever stretch of water you're on.

O.K. - got it - but this isn't a regional stop. Just a piddly local stop, I guess so I never read that.

I've fished it a lot over the years and my experience mirrors Al's - not a lot of size although to look at it you'd think there's some bigger ones in there in all the timber. I have caught a lot of numbers though - it's not like there are no fish there.

Maybe my reading comprehension went South but I don't know what any of this means. It's a moving water catch-photo-release tournament, so observable doesn't matter, and the "founders" part - ?? The Ozark map isn't up unless I miss something.

Since it's literally down the road from me I pretty much have to do it. I think there aren't any big prizes ( kayaks) because it's a smaller stop. I think the regionals have better stuff but it's just 30 bucks to enter - not bad at all. I need to get a Hog Trough measuring stick though, there's another 15 -20 bucks... I'm also waiting to see the boundaries. Lake Springfeild will be out, but what about upper Bull Shoals? Linden?

That's funny - I think I finally hammered out the design of a 1/16 double wire weedguard swimming jighead I've been wanting for swimming grubs last weekend. Just like a really good 1/8 ounce finesse jig with a perfect hook and skirt - hard enough to find that I just finally had to make my own. My 1/16 isn't a mushroom head though - I don't care for them. Anyone can fish however they like - as long as it's legal I don't give a rip - and Table Rock can be a real tough lake if you don't fish it enough to know it's moods so I get the finesse angle there - enough so I always have my tiny finesse jig tied on and shaky heads and a 4" worm 1/16-ounce mini-Texas rig or dropshot or whatever. But when I'm fishing for Smallmouths I'd rather fish bigger and faster - I'd just rather catch 12 bigger fish in an afternoon than 50 little ones. I know, I know, you'll catch bigger ones on the little baits, too. Just not as consistantly, and everytime I read of people obsessively counting every fish and how many fish per hour or whatever I'm reminded of a passage in one of John Gierachs essays about how everyone thought catch and release regulations would bring out most people's better angels, but for a lot of fishermen it just allows a higher "'body count" like the old bait store photos with two hundred fish strung up on the meat pole while still retaining the illusion of standing on some moral high ground. Or something like that. But again - you fish how you want, I don't care, I'll read about it and skim anything off I think is useful for my own style. On a lighter note, I do find it ironic that on several of the bigger Bass forums they have long comparisons of which shaky head jig will stand up on the bottom, which worm will float when whatever head is one the bottom, some even used the term "Ned Rig" and even linked to the story about Shin Fukae winnin on the FLW Tour on Beaver Lake with a jigworm: http://archives.in-fisherman.com/content/meet-shinichi-fukae-wizard-finesse-0 but evidently none of them never really read anything because you don't let the bloody lure touch the bottom. There's even a diagram of the swim retrieve of page three of that article. Sorry - I just find that funny and thought I'd share.

http://www.kayakfishingseries.com/tournament.php?id=616

Whatever you do - DON'T put rod holder where the tips of your rods stick out like 'Ol Hooker at RiverBassin has in some of his early mods. If I remember right He moved them inside after a while, and I don't know if he snapped the rods or came close but anyway - if you re-do the seat so there's space on either side it's easy to carry acouple or 4 or 5 rods if they aren't too long. I have a Pack and just left the seat in the original postition so I could carry longer rods under the deck. I didn't screw anything to the hull but I did add double sided velcro across the center thwart to lash down the rods when running trickier water or quick portaging. Don't have any "inside the deck" pictures handy but can add some when I get more time. I like to keep it light because I usually paddle and portage upstream and float back, although I hit bigger water with the Pack, too.

I really like the Flicker Shad - purple tiger in the #7 size great catch everything lure. In response to the "Bps cranks like Bandits" - they really don't run like a bandit - maybe halfway between a Bomber and a Strike king series 3. If you want Bandits, you pretty much have to buy them. I'm not sayingthe Bps cranks are bad - I fish them - but they aren't a knock off or really close to Bandits at all.

NanoFil is the stuff when it come to casting distance - I've been using 6 and 8 for finesse stuff on the big lakes and really really like it. Nothing like being able to toss a 1/16 jighead and 4" grub 60 yards AND still be able to get a hookset on a bass at that distance. Amazing stuff but if you do the leader thing (I do) you have to really know how to tie a good knot because the stuff is so slick. I've been doubling the NanoFil with a 5 turn spider hitch, and have been trying out the Yucatan knot to join the leader - works good but you have to practice. http://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/yucatan-knot/ With 6-pound Nano I had a 3X Orvis Mirage leader (listed as 9.2 pound test) and snagged pretty deep in some chunk rocks off a point at Beaver last year - i pulled and pulled and broke the leader at the knot on the jighead, not the line/leader knot. So retying is the same as just using whatever line without a leader - of course, after tying the leader on.