Sam

Thanks, fellers - I'm learning all kinds of good stuff here. I've always been innovative about catching fish. Back when we were first married (wow, 1965) my new wife would sometimes get upset at me when she was doing the laundry. She'd find a good white T-shirt with a strip cut off the hem. That meant I'd been fishing with whatever tackle I could carry in my shirt pocket, and I'd unexpectedly come across crappie. I'd cut a strip of white cloth to fish on a bare hook below a split-shot sinker, and I'd bring some crappie home. Sometimes I wonder how I used to fish just fine with what I could carry in a shirt pocket, and now I need a whole boat-load of stuff. Figuring out things that catch fish is a lot of the fun, though, and you gave me some good ideas.

Yes, I've done that too at times. As you say though, it takes a big plug like a Hellbender to make it work. With anything smaller (that 11" white bass would bite), the pull of a Roostertail on the rear hook-eye keeps the plug from wobbling - then the diving lip causes the plug to spin around. If I was fishing where a big plug would get anywhere near the bottom, I'd use a "poor man's planer" in hopes of a walleye. But the fish are in 40-45 feet of water, and there's not much but white bass and some Kentuckies suspended halfway-down out there.

I've been playing with small to medium size white bass in the K Dock area for several weeks now. They're surfacing some, but when they're not on top they're biting pretty slow. One of the problems is that they're biting best on a white Roostertail, and it's hard to get that down deep. When they're not surfacing the fish are 15'-20' down, they're moving around a lot, and they're not concentrated enough to cast to. That means it's best to troll and cover a lot of water while watching for boils to chase - and a Roostertail will only run about 3' deep when trolled. Mostly, they won't come up that far to hit it. Casting an unweighted Roostertail into a boil works fine of course, but the boils aren't happening that often. I've tried trolling heavier spoons, a Rattletrap, a Bandit, a Little George, and a Swimmin' Minnow with a heavy jighead to go deeper - but they like the Roostertail best. For a couple of trips I put a Texas-rig slip sinker above a swivel tied 18" above the Roostertail, and that worked better. I think that rig trolls about 7' deep. Yesterday I came across the answer. I tied on a 1/2 oz. Little George with a white 1/6 oz. Roostertail 18" below it, tied onto the tail of the Little George. I used 10-lb. Stren monofilament between the two lures, as there's no swivel and the heavier leader resists being twisted by the Roostertail. That works great! This rig trolls deep, and it doesn't tangle when casting. Just before it hits the water I pinch the line a little so the Roostertail lands furthest away from the boat and the rig stays straight. Using a medium-heavy 6 1/2' spinning rod and a sidearm cast, I don't know how far I can throw this - but it's a long, long ways and that helps when fish are surfacing. This rig gets lots of doubles, too. White bass are competitive, and having two in-line spinners chasing seems to get more strikes. Then when one white bass is hooked, the others try to take it away from him and lots of times this gets two fish on at once. The only downside is the chaos that ensues when I'm trying to get TWO flopping fish off of treble hooks in the boat - but that's part of the fun. This is a real productive way to rig for white bass, and I thought I oughta share. BTW, I like Bass Pro's "Uncle Buck" knockoff a lot better than the original Roostertail - the hook and blade are bigger and they spin a lot easier.

Bass fishing's been pretty good there. The few times I've tried a Texas-rigged worm I've come up with lots of 14-inchers, as you say. Also a few 17" - I even caught some big ones deep-trolling a plug for walleyes a week or two ago. I wish there was some way to get rid of those gar or at least cut down on them. My idea is that an acre of water has the capacity to support a certain weight of living things in it - whether it's shad, game fish, gar, or mud turtles. Seems like when there's a ton of gar in every acre, that has to reduce the lake's capacity to support the species we want to fish for. Biologists might not agree with me, I dunno - but that makes sense to me.

We need those secret OzarkAnglers recognition signals. You hold up two fingers, I'll hold up three, then we both turn our ballcaps around backwards ...........

A Tracker TX-17, aluminum, with a 4-stroke Suzuki 50 horse. The Tracker/Suzuki combination is something you won't see very often - I replaced the original Johnson motor a couple of years ago. Dark blue Chevy pickup with a chrome toolbox in the parking lot. How about you? I wouldn't know you if I saw you, and we probably cross paths on Upper B.S. I think I'm going to K Dock again Monday.

Good luck keeping your jug lines away from the gar. I was up around Snapp the other day and I've never seen gar so thick. They were even rolling out in the main channel.

Nope, this is a high-class outfit, here. I ain't settling for second best. None of my brushpiles are really secrets, they all get fished. Lots of guys know that lake better than I do, and I've seen crappie fishermen on all those spots at one time or another. It's helpful for me to have the coordinates, though, so I can go right to 'em without searching. Every trip I 'scope around some and try to find some more, too. Sooner or later we'll have a real low-water year, and when that happens I'll spend a lot of time with the boat and a 4-wheeler marking everything I can find on the bottom for future reference.

I've been talking about white bass and walleyes here and keeping quiet about the crappie, but yeah. I've been onto big Bull Shoals crappie off-and-on since January. Best of all, I've got 18 new brushpile locations there marked on my GPS this year. I've even copied those coordinates down in case my GPS conks out and I have to buy a new one - that's information too valuable to lose. And no, I'm not sharing - unless you're Shania Twain carrying a whole keg of Sam Adams Oktoberfest.

Wow, sorry about your shoulder. Hate to tell you, but I fell down an icy hill and dislocated my shoulder when I was 19 - and it's still sore and I've had to sleep in a certain position because of it for 44 years now. That's probably gonna bother you some for life. I've fished the Russian River - it's a beautiful place and the cutthroat trout there like a little silver Colorado Spinner, as I recall. Hey, I borrowed your "pretty pool" picture (where the accident happened) to use as a background on my computer monitor for awhile. Thanks, and it's your picture so I won't pass it on to anyone else. That sure is purty.

Around here, the cows have mostly been laying down since that storm front passed a few days ago. I always remember what my grandpa (born in 1890) used to tell me - "When the cows are laying down, the fish aren't biting". When I was a kid, I wondered how the heck the fish got the word to the cows about that. But now I know it means high pressure - bluebird days. There's some showers and storms predicted later this week, it'll pass.

Yesterday and today were "bluebird days" after that storm front passed. Those are always tough fishing for me. It doesn't seem fair that the nicest days to be out on the lake - low humidity, no rain or storms, reasonable temps, a little breeze to keep things comfortable - are often the poorest for catching fish. That's the way it seems to work, though.

No knock-down drag-outs here, just my $.02 worth and no criticism of anybody. I'm a meat fisherman, and I like to bring home supper. In my opinion, walleyes, crappie, bluegills, black perch, goggleyes, and some catfish are the best eating. Small white bass are OK too, but I don't keep the big ones. Keeper size black bass aren't NEAR as good to eat as all those others. As happens once in awhile, though I try not to, I killed a 17" largemouth the other day on Bull Shoals. I was trolling and he swallowed a Bandit II plug with two treble hooks on it, way down deep. There was no way to save that fish. At supper we had a plate full of small white bass filets along with the big filets from that bass, cut into four pieces. There was a real big difference in flavor and though we ate it, the bass wasn't near as good as the white bass - and I think all those other fish listed above are better than white bass! I wouldn't criticize anyone for what fish they keep, as long as it's legal. But it seems to me that having big bass in the lakes, caught and released a bunch of times during their life, is real good for everybody. Those bass, more than other species, support guide services, tournaments, tackle shops, restaurants, resorts, and guys who enjoy catching them so much that they spend 30 grand on a bass boat. They're why people drive here from Cheney, KS and have a great time - and that's a real good thing! So me, personally, I'll have a good time bass fishing and release what I catch. Then I'll go along a rocky bank with a little-bitty jig and an ultralight pole and fill the livewell with 7" black perch and bluegill - and I'll have fun doing it. Or, I'll go find some crappie or small white bass. Either way, the filets I bring home will taste real fine along with the fried 'taters and onions.

That's fishing - sorry you had a tough day. At K Dock today I was looking for whites and walleyes. I couldn't find the white bass this time, and every time I thought I had a good walleye on it turned out to be a largemouth. I could have kept a limit of legal bass, and I wasn't even fishing for them! Those fish just don't do what we expect 'em to, sometimes.

I just got back from K Dock. The whites have moved away from that stretch just past the first bend below K Dock where we've been catching them for a couple of weeks. I didn't catch any, see any boils, or see any on the scope - and they were real thick in there on previous trips. Thought I ought to get back to walleyes - so I spent my time trolling a deep-running plug in 20-25 feet of water along the edges of flats in that same area. I caught one short walleye and a whole bunch of bass - including three largemouths over 17"! I threw 'em all back - and the next time you bass guys catch them, please tell 'em to leave a feller alone when he's trying to catch supper. Back at the ramp, I was talking with a guy who'd just been out joy-riding with his wife. He said they saw white bass boiling in an area the size of a football field, up where the power line crosses the lake above Snapp Holler. Said he and his wife kept hearing "waterfalls" for a long time and they were trying to figure out what they were hearing, before they saw the fish. That figures - I went down the lake when I shoulda gone up the lake. Next time.

I've made 5 trips out of K Dock in the last two weeks, and they started out as walleye trips. The first couple of times we did some trolling on the edges of Mincy and Hogan flats. We didn't do any good. Then the trips got hijacked by those surfacing white bass. It's hard for me to fish for something I can't find when other fish are boiling all over the place. So lately we've been getting on the water about 6 p.m. and chasing white bass boils 'til dark. Walleyes are more-or-less mythical fish for me, with rare exceptions.

We just got back from fishing the area just below K Dock, my 5th trip there in two weeks. We fished from 6 p.m. until dark, then came home. Total, for two guys, was 18 white bass, 4 big perch, and 5 largemouths (four undersize and one 17"). We were white bass fishing with Roostertails in the main channel and on the edge of flats. We're scoping white bass and 1" shad real thick for a half mile in there. What I can't figure is why the white bass won't bite unless they're boiling on top. We threw into about 10 good surface boils, and that's how we caught all the whites. In between, though we can scope them, they just won't bite. I don't understand that.

That's what I've been thinking. I go through Forsyth and my last couple of afternoon trips to K Dock there's been quite a few rigs parked at River Run and no boats visible from the bridge. I bet they're up at the pothole catching white bass.

I've never had any wish to follow a guide around - I'd be embarrassed for a guide to see ME fish. Years ago when we lived out in SoCal and my Dad was alive, though, we figured something out. Out there, you'll see some Japanese-American families fishing at the lakes. They'll rent a big wooden motorboat and take their whole family, from grandparents to little kids. It's good to see families doing that together, and ya know what - they sure can fish. Dad and I found if we could figure out how a Japanese family was fishing and do the same, we'd catch a bunch of fish too. They're good. Does anybody know a Japanese-American guide on Tablerock? I'll follow HIM around.

We were on Bull Shoals yesterday evening also, out of K Dock. We didn't go far, just around the first bend down toward Mincy. The white bass didn't boil on top - except for ONE enormous boil about 7:15 p.m. It was at the edge of the main channel where it comes up to a flat - 32 foot depth. The boil was as big as a house and they stayed up for a good 3 minutes - I've never seen anything like it, there were thousands of 'em in that one boil. We caught 14 real quick, then that was it. When they weren't boiling we could scope bait and white bass all over the place, but couldn't get 'em to bite. At dark we switched over to bass fishing - nothing fancy, just pounding steep rocky banks with a Texas-rigged worm, 1978-style. I thought we did pretty good between dark and midnight, we caught 11 largemouths including 5 that would have been keepers. Big fish was 18 1/2", and we had two 17". We went home at midnight, and a good time was had by all. It sure was a pretty night once the heat and the bugs went away. That big full moon was so bright I could tie on a hook without a light - it was real nice to be out there.

Yep. I've been there twice this week and we're going again tomorrow. On the days when they're doing it good (and that isn't every day) the whites really start bustin' on top about 6:45 p.m. and that continues until dark. We've been leaving Ozark at 5 p.m. and getting on the water about 6 - and that seems about right. These 90 degree sunny days, it's pretty hot out on the lake earlier and there's not much going on at that time anyway. Tomorrow we're going to put up with the Saturday water skiiers and pester the whites until dark - then we'll bass fish until about midnight. I love that kind of summertime fishing.

Seems to me that some guys have let this get 'way too serious, and they've forgotten that fishing is supposed to be FUN. A couple of years ago I fished in a crappie tournament at Watts Bar lake in eastern TN. Yes, there are crappie tournaments - and unlike bass tournaments the weigh-ins are followed by a big FISH FRY, enjoyed by all. The two-day tourney was at a resort on the lake where we all rented cabins and left our boats in the dock overnight. My partner and I found a honey hole the first day, and boy we caught some slabs. At the end of the first day weigh-in we were ahead in total weight and we had the big fish. It was real funny that evening after the fish fry watching other fishermen kinda casually walk down to that dock. They'd stroll stroll along the dock looking at the lake and the sky, and just kinda, sorta glance in our boat to see what lures we had tied on our poles. Just for fun, I'd brought along a couple of albacore jigs I used to use in the Pacific Ocean, and we'd both tied those on our crappie rods and left them in the boat that way - highly visible. These lures are about 10" long in wild, bright colors and they weigh about half a pound! We got a big kick out of our competitors snooping and seeing those things tied on. But c'mon, that's what fishing's all about - having fun. It's not about snooping on somebody else's methods and fishing spots.

We had a tough time there too, in the late afternoon before dark. On Sunday, there were white bass boiling up everywhere and we got easy limits. It didn't happen today - we ended up with only 4 white bass and 1 perch. I thought I really had something going there on white bass, then things change for no apparent reason. That's fishing, and it may be good again next time.

I'm not even a tournament fisherman, or much of a bass fisherman either - but you guys are right. The most fun I get from fishing comes from figuring something out for myself and having it work, and that applies to bass, crappie, walleyes, or any other fish. But with that said, if I was gonna snoop on a guide's fishing holes I wouldn't follow Bill around. I couldn't keep up with his boat anyway. Naw, I'd go high-tech and hide my hand-held GPS somewhere in his boat he wouldn't find it - for retrieval later. There's that feature where it'll record a track of everywhere it's been all day, with coordinates. Bill, you may have to start doing an electronic sweep of your boat before every trip. LOL

Ya know, lighting buoys on water hazards could be done real cheap and easy - but that's not the government way. A couple of years ago I bought a set of solar-powered LED yard lights at Lowe's. They cost $50-something and there were a dozen lights in the box. I put those along the sidewalk in our front yard, and they've been out year-round in all weather ever since. They turn on when it gets dark and they're all still working fine. I've never even had to replace one of the little rechargeable batteries yet. It doesn't take much light to mark a water hazard at night, and these yard lights are actually pretty bright. I can't see any reason they couldn't be attached to the top of buoys and work just fine for that purpose - at a cost of less than $5. each. But naw, they won't do that. It's too easy, too cheap, and it makes too much sense.