Sam

Best times to stay OFF Tablerock: Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day weekends when the party boats are going nuts, AND anytime one of these big tournaments comes. At those times I figure they can have the lake, have their fun, then go home- and the day after, things are back to normal. In the meantime, there's always Bull Shoals.

You know I did, that's the fishing trip drill - quart of chocolate milk for breakfast, quart of buttermilk for lunch (along with some cheese and crackers). Some rituals you just don't change - there's no telling what might happen.

Yeah, I should have said the side of the island toward Jackson Hollow or Aunt's Creek - they're closer. Anyway, the point on the downstream (northeast) end of the island. We put in at the beach where Y-40 ends at the water. We hadn't been there for awhile, and from the water I noticed that the store at the end of Y-39 is fixed up and open, and there's a good concrete ramp there now. I'll probably put in there next time I go to the Buttermilk area.

My partner and I fished out of Buttermilk Springs yesterday (Monday) from about 9 to 4. We weren't targeting bass, just panfishing for the skillet by throwing little crappie jigs up to chunk rock banks near deep water. We had a ball, and brought a whole bunch of big black perch and several nice crappie home. Of course we caught and threw back about 5 little perch for every one that was big enough to keep, and we caught and released a lot of short bass, so we had a lot of action with small fish all day. Fine with me, I'm easily entertained. My best bass was a 14 3/4" Kentucky, and partner caught a real pretty 14 1/4" smallmouth - fish like that are extra fun to catch on a light crappie pole. Partner got ahold of one fish he just couldn't turn - it didn't move like a bass, it stayed deep and it was so strong and heavy it couldn't be handled on the light rig he had. We chased it with the trolling motor, it finally broke off, and of course he's still talking about the giant catfish or walleye that got away. I'll let him have his fun, but I think it was just as likely a big carp or drum. For you bass fishermen - all day long there were several boats around the "downstream" point of the island there at Buttermilk, the end toward Joe Bald. Folks were catching and releasing bass there all day long. Some were spooning for them straight down, and the ones that weren't jerking a spoon were, I think, drop-shotting or using jigs and grubs. At one point we crossed the lake and scoped near where they were fishing, and all around that point in 60 feet of water there were a whole bunch of fish suspended 40 to 45 feet down, so that's what they were into. What a great day it was to be on the water in November. I've had a good fishing trip this week, and I'm looking forward to hunting deer this weekend. That's a pretty good deal.

I understand - and Bill, that's the way you make your living, but bass fishing is a hobby for some of your customers who have thousands of dollars worth of lures in their tacklebox. Isn't it something how devoted we can get to our hobbies? I'm not a serious bass fisherman, but I've spent outrageous amounts on other things like EXACT original parts for antique tractors I restore. That's because I want my work to be the best, not second best - and that's the same with real devoted bass fishermen. Good for them! For me, if you ever see me spend $28 for a lure, any lure - you'll know that I've married a young woman from Asia who's a professional pearl diver, and that she'll be with me in the boat any time that thing gets wet. I may have to tie a rope around her ankle and haul her back in, but I'm gettin' that plug BACK.

The way this is going, I'm gonna go down there with a bucket of creek minners so I can sell you guys some big bass for $28.95 each. You really pay that much for lures? Wow. No harm intended, I'm just kidding you all in a friendly way. Carry on.

I can't answer for sure because I haven't been since the water came up. Bull Shoals is about 20 feet above normal right now, and that could make fishing pretty tough. That's the area of the lake I fish, though, year after year. I sure wouldn't consider it a smallmouth hole even when conditions are good. I've caught smallmouths there occasionally, but I don't remember ever catching a keeper. For me, Upper Bull Shoals is for crappie, walleyes, white bass, largemouth, and Kentucky bass when conditions are right (which they probably aren't now). If I wanted a smallmouth trip, I'd go to the Tablerock dam area - the islands and points around State Park, Indian Point, and Powerline Cove.

I think the new law is a heckuva good idea. I might know every inch of the water I'm fishing, but I'd have no idea how an ambulance could get there by road if I had to call 911. If the nearest address is posted on docks, that'd be a real help in an emergency. So far as GPS coordinates, I could give 'em that from anywhere I called from anyway - but I bet the agencies wouldn't know what to do with it. And I don't think having the 911 address on docks makes theft any more likely. It seems like thieves could get to, and get away from, docks a lot easier by water than by land without having to use a dead-end road or someone's driveway, and that wouldn't change.

I don't fish tournaments. In fact it's often a bad experience when one of those glitter-boat, wrap-around sunglassed, patches-on-the jacket yahoos comes near me on the lake because of their actions and attitude. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure 9 out of 10 tournament pros are nice guys and respect others on the lake. But a minority of them aren't, and you know it. I wouldn't fish the amateur side of a pro-am tournament because I wouldn't take a chance on having to spend all day in a boat with one of them. Some of the stories here about the way guys were treated bear out what I'm saying.

OK, I wonder if that'll pack down and make a hard surface eventually. Hope so. With my light boat and 4wd, I don't think I'd have a problem with it - but a lot of rigs sure would. I guess I'll always have a good parking place when I go out of there.

Wow, 674 with an influx of cold, muddy water. That's tough. I think my fishing is done for awhile, I'm tuning up for deer hunting now. Maybe later on we'll find the elusive Bull Shoals crappie in brush at the edges of flats in 20 feet like last winter - I hope so. Come to think of it, 20 ft. right now would be the edge of the land bushes at the normal shoreline. They'll have so much brush to hide in it'll be hard to find a crappie. If naru was at Yocum Creek, that must be one of the little docks just to the right that they've pulled over onto the road for some reason. Bummer - the way that road makes the last narrow bend through the woods down to the beach, a dock in the way would keep you from launching at all in high water. Forsythian, why don't you try that new launch ramp at the end of MM instead of K Dock? The way it looked from the lake, high water wouldn't be any problem there. The new one just won't work in low water, 'cause at 653 it's only 3 feet deep all around it.

Jeremy - I ran into you a couple of years ago at Cricket Creek, and we talked fishing. Also, I've always enjoyed your posts here. Congratulations, and good luck!

Last couple of years: Bull Shoals = slabs; Stockton, Pomme de Terre = good keepers; Tablerock = dinks. That'll change around in time, it's a cycle. Oh, and about the bamboo - if you can find a construction site and get free scraps, PVC is a lot better. Hooks won't hang on it at all, it lasts forever, it doesn't show up on most scopes, and bases are on the market for building "crappie trees" out of it. There's been some discussion here about the legality of dropping stuff in the lake to make crappie holes, so that's something to keep in mind.

I understand why you want to try making your own hooks - good for you! You might want to start out by figuring out how to re-temper the hooks that you've heated to bend. After all, if you get to making hooks you'll have to figure out the tempering process to finish them. Tempering and quenching soft steel re-aligns the carbon molecules in the outer layer and gives it the correct hardness. Heating the hooks to bend them then letting them air-cool probably made the hooks hard and brittle all the way through. That can be un-done with a correct application of heat and quenching, and I'm sure the information's available to do that.

That part's no problem. I pour my own crappie jigheads every winter, thanks to a lifetime supply of free wheel weights from a cousin who owns a tire shop. Mostly, I pour crappie jigheads on Eagle Claw Aberdeen hooks, the #575 series. Molds are available for all weights and shapes of jigheads and sinkers. Bass Pro has a good selection, as do many other dealers. Those hooks cost about 7 cents each, as I buy them by the 100. Personally, I'd rather spend my time pouring jigheads and tying jigs on hooks that I buy. Making hooks sounds like a lot of time and trouble invested for not much return, and I'm pretty sure I couldn't make hooks that are as good as the ones I can buy.

Many years ago I worked at a steel mill for six years. I worked at an oxygen furnace, actually making molten steel from iron ore, scrap metal, and other additions like chromium and vanadium. My job was to test the molten steel for carbon and sulfur content, to see if it was "done". I know this much, there are thousands of different grades of steel for various purposes. Carbon content of steel determines its hardness and ability to hold an edge, but too much carbon makes it brittle - there has to be a balance for each specific purpose. The wire that fishhooks are made from would be a very specific grade of steel - hard enough to hold a sharp point but soft enough not to break. I'm sure that after the fishhooks are formed they have to temper and quench them at specific temperatures, probably several times. Tempering with heat then quenching puts a coating of high-carbon steel on the outside of a piece, allowing it to hold an edge while remaining malleable inside. If you could get the right grade and size of steel wire, you should be able to make fishhooks by hand. I don't think the bends or the point and barb would be too hard to make, but forming the eye might be a real problem. I wouldn't know how to do that.

A couple of miles toward Forsyth from K Highway, on 76, there's a big convenience store on the corner. That's MM. Turn toward the lake there and follow it to the end to the new ramp. I don't know if it's open yet. I've only seen it from the water, and they were still working on it a couple of weeks ago. The ramp is on the first bend of the lake below and across from Snapp Holler.

In late October in past years I've often had some good walleye trips on upper B.S. I haven't tried it yet this year, as it seems like every day I've planned to go it's been cold and raining. I like to fish that straight stretch from Barker Hole down to the corner below it. There are boulders on the bottom and the deepest channel in there is only about 17' deep, or a little more right now. I put my trolling motor on "2" (less than 2 mph) and slow troll a Roadrunner tipped with half a nightcrawler, near the bottom. Walleyes 'scope real well in there. The scope will show a couple of big fish on the bottom here and there, usually beside a boulder - then when the lure gets there you'll get that good ol' mushy walleye strike and have one on. Fun. I don't know why some walleyes come back up to Barker in the fall, but they do. That's where they'll be spawning about February, and I guess instinct brings them up early sometimes. Most of the ones I've caught there in the fall are a little undersize, but about 1/3 have been keepers.

I've been messing around with my quick-and-easy but effective crappie jigs a little more, and I think I'm making progress. I found some 8mm chrome-plated brass beads for 5 cents each, and I'm experimenting with using those instead of cast lead-heads. I already had some colored plastic beads from WalMart, and I think the combination of the two looks good. I'm looking for small glass beads in various colors to replace the plastic ones, as I think that'll look even better and add a little more weight to the body of the hook. The nylon tail material is great, as it has good action in the water and soaks up water like a mop. This gives good weight for casting even to a lightweight jig, and of course the weight of the water in the tail has no further effect once the jig hits the lake. I'll need to squeeze the water out before I put one of these I've been fishing with back in a tackle box - it's surprising how much water they hold and how heavy they are when wet. What I'm trying to do is make lighter weight jigs that cast well but sink slower than a lead-head. Also, by moving the weight back toward the middle of the hook they should sink in a more natural "minnow" presentation when the retrieve is paused, instead of dropping fast nose-down like a lead head. I want a jig I can work very slowly over and around brush. These are real easy to make. I cut a piece of nylon Mason's Twine and double it over, then run the loop through the plastic bead and the brass bead. Then I run the point of a bare Eagle Claw #575 jig hook through both beads, and move the beads onto the shaft of the hook. Then I hook the loop of string over the front of the jig hook, pull it up tight, and move both beads tight to the front. Put a drop of superglue on the string at the front of the hook, and another drop between the beads. Then, trim the two pieces of string off about 1/2" past the end of the hook, and frizz out the fibers with a comb. The tail material can then be colored with lure dye, if a color other than white is wanted. I weighed these on a powder scale, and they're 1/25th oz. They'll be a little heavier if I can replace the small plastic beads with glass. These are almost as fast to make as just tying on a hook - and I do believe they'll catch a crappie!

Shooting docks is a ball - I've had a great time doing that over in Tennessee. I've got a little 5' 6" fast-taper Shimano rod just for that, and I've never stuck myself doing it. Just remember to pinch the curve of the jig hook BEHIND the point! Unfortunately, that's another thing that's different about our local lakes - no shooting docks. All our docks are floaters, not on pilings, so there's no space underneath them. We've got so much brush and timber for cover, crappie don't hang around the docks much either - mostly you'll find bluegills and bass there. A lot of dock owners sink brushpiles within casting distance of their docks though, and those are worth checking for crappie. I think the lowest surface water temp I've seen here in Feb. is about 36. Normally, we get ice in the coves that a boat can break through and the open lake stays ice-free - but the water gets crystal clear and that can make fishing tough.

Thanks for the attaboy, Martin, I appreciate it. That's almost as good as those morels you've given me. Oh, I forgot one other big advantage of using frayed-out nylon twine for tail material. Unlike maribou, it holds water like a wet mop. You can cast even a 1/32 oz. jig real well. Then once it hits the water it becomes weightless again.

I guess you can catch 'em with high-tech or low-tech. When I was in my early 20's and newly married, my wife would sometimes get mad at me when she did the laundry. Back then, I'd go fishing with just what tackle I could carry in a shirt pocket (don't know why it takes a whole boat-load of stuff now), and sometimes I'd encounter crappie and not have any lures for them. So - I'd cut a little strip of cloth off the tail of my white t-shirt and move that slowly on a bare hook about a foot below a split shot sinker. It works, and I guess that sort of thing is still my philosophy now. My camera won't take clear close-ups, so this picture is fuzzy but you get the idea. This is the sort of homemade, ugly thing I often catch crappie on - and it's NOT for catching fishermen, 'cause nobody would buy it. I take a piece of nylon mason's twine and double it over, then run that through a cheap plastic WalMart bead (I've got those in all colors). Run a jig hook through the bead, put a drop of super glue on the back of the lead head, run the string and bead up to the jighead and let the glue dry. Then I frizz out the nylon twine with a comb. The cost is: Hook, 6 cents; Jighead, free - I've got 100 lbs of free wheel weights in my shop; Bead, too cheap to figure; Twine, too cheap to figure. Assembly time: Very little. I've even put these together in the boat when I need a color I don't have. The advantages are: Wide hook gap because there's no lure body, super-live action and durability from the nylon fuzz, and it's quick and easy to make in any color or combination of colors, using lure dye. The disadvantage: Anybody but a crappie would think it's ugly. Here's a 1/8 oz. one on a 1/0 hook in off-white with a blue bead. Again, sorry for the fuzzy picture.

Here's a theory. The times I've been able to see crappies take a lure or minnow, it's been one of two ways. Rarely, I've seen a crappie come up from below at full speed, slam a lure from any direction, and go right back down - just like a bass. I've only seen that a few times. Mostly, while sight fishing I've seen 'em bite as I described above. They follow a lure from a little behind and below it, then speed up and suck it in from behind, then turn to go back down. I think that's nearly always the way crappies bite. That means they're not in position to even see the line or the jighead, they're looking at the tail of the lure or minnow from behind and a little below it. That may be why line visibility and whether a jighead is painted doesn't matter much.

I always tie the line directly to the jig. It's just my opinion, but I don't think crappies care if they see the line or not - and this line is only 3 lb. mono diameter, I can hardly see it. Lots of crappie fishermen use bright yellow Mr. Crappie line, and that seems to work OK. I even saw a video where they were catching crappie between pilings of a dock by reeling the jig clear up to the rod tip and sticking the rod underwater. Crappie were biting the jig even when it was attached to the end of a rod. So, unlike with trout and some other species, I don't think line visibility matters much.

You know, I used to. They sure look prettier when I paint them. But I think we're back to the "lures are manufactured to catch fishermen, not fish" thing. I finally decided that it didn't make a bit of difference to the fish whether I painted the jig heads or not - so I leave them unpainted now. I kinda wish the fish did like 'em better that way, because I was making some real pretty jigheads with attractive colors, little painted eyeballs, etc. They were nice to show off to other fishermen, but I just couldn't find a crappie that cared.