Sam

I haven't been winter bass fishing this year - gettin' too old for the cold, I guess. But I've got a tip from a whole bunch of previous years. Around the dam area, including Indian Creek, I've always done well in mid-winter fishing on a 50 ft. bottom with grubs. A 1/4 oz. lead-head weedless jig on about a 2/0 hook and a 3" grub, clear with silver flakes or light green with metallic flakes does the trick. Off gravel banks in the coves in depths of 45 to 55 feet, you'll usually scope big fish on the bottom in winter - just here and there, and only one or two fish on the scope at a time. In my experience, those are big largemouths and smallmouths. You need a day that's not too windy, and a cloudy day is best. Stay on about that 50 ft. depth, watch the scope, and fish straight down. Move the boat very slowly with the trolling motor or just let the wind move it very, very slow. Constantly bump the bottom with that grub, bringing it up a couple inches then dropping back to the bottom. A bass bite will just be a sharp "tap", like a crappie might bite. Give it about one second, then cross their eyes. Bottom bass are sluggish this time of year, but we've caught big bass on many a trip this way in the winter - and the end of the lake near the dam is the place to do it.

Last January I had several real good crappie trips in Long and Cricket Creeks, based on reports from Phil Lilley and others here. I haven't heard anything yet this year - is anybody catching any crappie?

Christiana - I can help there. On Bull Shoals, I catch bass on green pumpkin, watermelon, etc. - but over the years Motor Oil/Red Flake usually works best for me. Whether it's Texas or Carolina-rigged big worms, finesse worms on a dropshot, wacky-rigged finesse worms with no weight around brushpiles, or crawdads on a football jig, nighttime or daytime, it seems like I always go to that color, eventually, on every trip. Motor Oil/Red Flake has put a lot of bass in the live well on Bull Shoals. Good luck in your tournament.

When the water's hot down there and things are tough, I agree that trolling is the way to go. My favorite way to do that, when I don't know WHAT I'm fishing for - put 8 lb. Fireline on a medium spinning outfit. Tie a big 1/4 oz. Roostertail on (the color doesn't matter much as long as the blade is chrome), and about five feet above the Roostertail tie to an in-line barrel swivel. Trolling a Roostertail without a swivel twists the line something awful. Just above the swivel, attach about a 1/2 oz. Rubber-Cor sinker. Let out a lot of line, and at trolling speeds this rig will run at about 12' deep. Troll the banks, the rip-rap, the points, the cove mouths, and even the deep channels. There's no telling what you'll catch with this in the summertime, but you'll probably catch something. The fishing may not be very fast in hot weather, but with this rig I've caught largemouth and spotted bass, white bass, crappie, walleye, big bluegills, and even an occasional channel or flathead catfish, goggleye, gar, or drum. You just never know. This is a real good way to locate white bass (usually in deep water), and if you start catching those you can usually troll back and forth over the same area and get some more. If you locate crappie, stop and work the area with crappie jigs. I hope you have a great vacation.

My partner and I launched out of Yocum Creek and fished all around the area of Bee Creek and Bear Creek from about 6 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Sunday evening. It's tough. Surface water temp is 86 degrees. We scoped what we thought were crappie suspended in 30 ft. water off flooded trees. Got a few light crappie bites on jigs, but couldn't hook any. We never saw any white bass working. We switched over to bass fishing with Texas-rigged plastic worms, and caught 4 or 5 Kentuckies about 13" long. My partner had a 5 or 6 lb. Largemouth up to the boat before it got off. That water sure is hot!

I guess I've got a little different opinion. I'd be the first to turn in a guy who's intentionally doing something illegal that hurts everyone else's fishing. For instance, I saw a Vietnamese guy on Tablerock last spring put well over 100 crappie in an ice chest. I was right beside him, we were both catching a fish every cast - and about 8 out of 10 of mine were under 10" so I know he was keeping short fish too. I yelled at him about it a couple of times, he yelled something back in Vietnamese and finally gave me the finger. I would have written down his boat number and called it in when I got to a phone - but his boat wasn't registered and had no number. Boy, I would have liked to find a game warden that day. On the other hand, I wouldn't turn anyone in for violating laws I consider "revenue-makers". That one about not giving away fish to another fishermen - I'll do it every time the fish are dead when I quit and I didn't catch enough to make a meal. The one about 12" Kentucky Bass being legal to keep on the Arkansas part of Tablerock, but you'll get a ticket if you bring that legal Arkansas fish into Missouri is another. When you're in a boat fishing with your partner, do you keep your fish seperate in the live well? Do you quit fishing as soon as you get your limit while he continues fishing? I don't either - but that's a violation. One that particularly offends me: I have a friend who takes his boat to Grand Lake in Oklahoma every spring to fish the white bass run. A couple of years ago, before Oklahoma lowered the limit to 20, he and two friends were coming back from a two-day trip with a whole bunch of legally-caught white bass iced down in coolers. They got pulled over by a Conservation Agent who routinely parks, during white bass time, on I-44 on the Missouri side and stops and searches eastbound Missouri boats. Those three guys had to pay a $250 fine each, in Joplin. Now, that ain't right. So, I'd snitch to the "guvverment" about some things but not others.

We can forget about being saved by warm water temps. I don't doubt that Zebra Mussels have some die-offs in hot conditions - but after reading this thread I checked something out on the 'net. The Black and Caspian Seas (where they originate) have seasonal variations in surface water temperatures from about 46 degrees to about 86 degrees. Just about like here.

crappiefisherman - I'm glad you found some crappies at K Dock. That's the one thing I didn't try last week, brush in 4 feet of water. Skipping church to go fishing is one thing, but watching bikinis while you're doing it just ain't right! My trip this week will be to Tablerock. I think I know where I can find a bunch of big goggleyes about now - and if anything tastes as good as crappies and walleyes, that's got to be it.

Naw, Forsythian and I are just telling the way it was on Wednesday - and that's the way it was. Every day is different though, and you might do great on crappie this Sunday. I keep notes on my fishing trips, and this same week last year my partner and I caught 80+ crappie out of K Dock to get our limits of 15 each. They were in little bunches all along some rocky post-spawn banks in 15-20 feet of water and we slow-trolled jigs to catch them. It wasn't that way last Wed., there wasn't anything up by the banks at all and they were scoping suspended in deep water. But that can change and they could come up to the banks any time. I didn't see any floating stuff that would be dangerous to hit. There were places where there was a lot of floating trash on the water that made it hard to troll. I hope you get to go, and that you find a BUNCH of crappies. Try fishing where that dumb Indian swam across the lake. Give us a report.

Well, they simply named the lake after the community where the dam was built, Bull Shoals, Arkansas, in Marion County. The settlement of Bull Shoals dates from sometime before the Civil War. The town's website says "The settlement was named in the early days for the shallow crossing places, or shoals, where it was located on the White River". From there on I'm just guessing, but I bet some early settler kept a bull in a field by that shallow area or "shoals". Makes sense to me.

Mo - I think you're right. It probably was a big carp. I've got a 40 lb. trolling motor on my light aluminum Tracker boat, and on high speed it'll move the boat about 7 to 8 mph - enough to make a bow wave. That fish moved even faster, still spooling out line while I chased it. Also, I've had big catfish take line, but I've never had one run me 150 yards in a straight line. It didn't have the distinctive "jerk jerk jerk" fight of a catfish either, and I can usually tell by that. I've always thought of carp as a "junk fish" that we'd be better off without, but I can see what you mean about the tremendous fight they put up. That was kinda like being hooked to the back bumper of someone's pickup truck - while it lasted.

Last time I tried that presentation with nightcrawlers, I was out of Bridgeport with my two daughters. Just a short ways down the lake to the left from the launch ramp, a big power line crosses the lake. In that area you'll scope a "hump" going across the lake, and there's the remains of a concrete bridge support on the west bank. I think it's an old roadbed that crossed the James River before the lake was built. Fishing nightcrawlers that way on the bottom, with the boat drifting, we got a bunch of big bluegills. We also got three limits of channel cats about 14" long, good eating size.

Forsythian - I'm in the Bass Tracker TX-17/Dark Blue Chevy truck. I think I saw you guys loading up and driving out, just as I was coming into the launch ramp about 5 p.m. I got a 17-lb. flathead out of Mincy Cove a few years ago, so I've now decided that's what broke me off yesterday. That's a lot better than if I'd actually caught or seen the fish and it turned out to be a carp or a drum.

I went out of K Dock today, 5/17, and there's not much happening there. The water is back up to normal, but it's stained and dingy. Surface temp is 64. I couldn't find a crappie no matter how hard I tried, and I know a bunch of post-spawn banks from previous years. There are fish scoping in bunches straight out from those banks, but they're at 30+ feet down in 40+ feet of water. It was kind of windy, and I couldn't reach that deep with crappie gear. I did some trolling and slow-trolling for walleyes on the drop-offs at the edges of flats, but they're not up there yet. Again, there are fish showing in very deep water off those flats, and I imagine that's where the walleyes are. All I caught was one big white bass, 5 or 6 largemouths, and a smallmouth. The bass were all about 13", fun to catch (and release) on light tackle. There was some excitement, though - this is "the one that got away" story. I pulled up in Mincy Cove to eat lunch, and before I started eating I tied a gold minnow hook on my crappie pole, put a big gob of nightcrawlers on it, and threw it in the middle of a little side cove in about 10' of water. I figured I might pick up a big bluegill or maybe a catfish while I was eating. Boy, I got a fish on. I don't know what it was, but it was strong, heavy, and fast - and it stayed deep. I couldn't turn it, so I chased it out into the main cove with my trolling motor on high speed while it was still spooling out line. After two big runs that almost spooled me, I got the line back and I had the fish straight under the boat in 25 feet of water with no brush around. By this time, I was about 150 yards from where I hooked it. I knew if I was careful and kept constant pressure on it, the fish would eventually have to tire and come up. Of course, I was thinking about how it was my light crappie rod with 6-lb. monofilament that hadn't been changed for several trips. So sure enough, after being hooked on for about 10 minutes, the line broke at the knot and I never saw the fish. The next thing I did was bait up my heavy spinning rig (which has Fireline on it) and throw back in the same little side cove. Naturally, I then caught several little perch and little-bitty bass on that. Whatever I had ahold of had to weigh 20 lbs. or so. Could'a been a drum, could'a been a carp, could'a been a big catfish. It took the nightcrawler on the drop, but I think it was too fast for a walleye, and there's not a bass in the lake that would feel like that. Even though I didn't catch much today, that's the kind of thing that makes fishing fun for me. But I'll be going back to Tablerock until those Bull Shoals walleyes get up on the flats, which, hopefully, they'll do in June.

I'd guess bluegills aren't fished for much on Tablerock. Sometimes for fun I'll go along a chunk-rock bank throwing a little Roostertail in front of the boat. You'll get bites on every cast, and sometimes catch some bluegills or black perch (green sunfish) big enough to keep. I put an 8" mark on the butt of my light rod, and if they measure 8" they go in the skillet. GOOD little filets. But the big bluegills usually hang out in deep water, and they're hard to find. Sometimes you'll see them surfacing out there and can catch a few, but that's rare. They ought to be on the beds back in coves about now, though - so that's a possibility for your trip.

I've caught several big crappies and a couple of white bass this year on the Long Creek arm with the same kind of wound (lesion?) on their side. That makes me think those marks on the bass aren't from treble-hook lures or from being caught before. Crappies usually wouldn't be biting on those kind of lures, and big crappies don't often get "caught and released" anyway. Whatever it is, in cleaning the fish I've found the mark goes about 1/2" into the meat. It makes a dark-red inflamed area that I've been careful to cut out of the filet. I haven't seen a worm or anything in those places. I sure hope this isn't from disease, parasites, or pollution.

I found a more complete press release on this project. Here's the link: http://www.nfwf.org/press/press_060320_basspro.cfm It's still so vague it doesn't give you much idea of what they're going to DO. The part that gets closest to that says: --------------------- By national standards, Table Rock Lake historically supported some of the highest bass densities and for many years was one of the top ten bass lakes in the nation. While it remains one of the country’s most popular fishing destinations, improved conservation measures will support largemouth and small mouth bass, America’s number one game fish. With Bass Pro Shop’s support, a variety of fish habitat enhancements will be considered, such as restoring vegetation to shorelines and constructing natural structures for fish to find cover and food. Improvements will benefit recreational fishing and water quality at Table Rock as well as downstream to and within Lake Taneycomo. --------------------- (1) I don't know how you can "restore" vegetation to shorelines where the water level rises and falls so much. (2) "Constructing natural structures for fish to find cover and food" just sounds like more of the Christmas-tree, cedar-tree project that's been done in the past. Brush piles are nice, but I don't think Tablerock is especially hurting for cover. Look at all those flooded trees, including standing cedars! Now, if they really wanted to help fishing, they'd simply keep the water lever high every spring regardless of rainfall.

Well, that article is vague enough. It leaves you with no idea what they're doing that costs $10. million. I'm no expert, but I have an idea of the best thing they could do every year, to help the fish. It's simple. If they'd keep the lake level very high, regardless of rainfall, from March 1 through June 30 every year - that would make a big difference. We're enjoying the benefits right now of those high-water springs 4 and 5 years ago, when the fish got to nest in the land weeds and brush and lots of little ones hatched out and survived. Maybe that's the plan? And maybe the $10 million is to compensate for electricity not generated during those months so they can keep the lake level high? Of course, it seems to me that if they'd do that every spring - the extra water wouldn't be wasted. They could use it to generate lots of electricity while drawing the lake down to power pool in July and August - when air conditioners are running and it's really needed. Just my .02 worth.

Not many, in my experience. I've probably spent a few hundred thousand dollars on fishing in my lifetime. If I looked at that as "cost per pound" on fish caught, I'd be in trouble. I think it works out to about $100 per fish, but boy, I had a lot of fun doing it.

CaptainJoe - I agree. We lived in Southern California for years, and I fished Castaic, Casitas, Isabella, Henshaw, Vail, Matthews, etc. before there were so many people and so much fishing pressure. I've caught a bunch of Florida bass, including some over 9 lbs. I've caught Floridas in deep water as well as shallow water. They're a great fish - I wish we could have them here, but we can't. From what I read about the failed Oklahoma stocking, they can't tolerate water temps of less than 55 degrees. So, in our country that limits them to Florida and the deep South, Southern California, and maybe southern Texas. I don't know what Oklahoma was thinking of in trying to stock them - I guess they figured it was worth a try. Those who know SoCal will get a chuckle when I say I've fished Lake Matthews. That's a big reservoir that's part of the L.A. water system, and it's completely closed to the public. There are guards, patrols, and heavy fines for those who get caught sneaking in. The L.A. politicians, including some past mayors, use it for their private fishing preserve. I can tell you this from my mis-spent younger days - a fishing trip to Matthews had to be planned like you were sneaking into North Vietnam, but the fishing was GREAT.

Phil - The times I've seen it, it's been after local "bass club" type tournaments, for sure. I'm not a tournament fisherman, and I'm not meaning to step on any toes here. I know tournament fishermen go to great lengths to keep fish alive, and they get penalized for weighing dead fish. The big sanctioned tournaments are very good at keeping fish alive and returning them properly, I'm sure. I hope I'm not making anyone mad - I don't know any individuals involved, at all. For years there was a local summer tournament every Wednesday night out of K Dock (Bull Shoals). It would be about a dozen boats and I've heard, but don't know, that they were a club out of the Chadwick area. They'd weigh in at midnight then go home. I also don't know if that tournament is still going on, as I didn't do any night fishing out of there last year. Several times when it happened to be a Wednesday, I've quit fishing and come into K Dock about 2 a.m. I've seen 100+ pounds of dead bass floating for 200 yards down the lake - including a few 5-pounders and an occasional 6-pounder! It made me sick to see all those good fish killed in Upper Bull Shoals, where big bass have been so scarce in recent years. And I'll confess - a couple of those times I netted some of the smaller ones whose gills were still barely moving, to fill out my bass limit. That's illegal I know, but I was coming home with crappie and catfish filets anyway - and we got some good out of it, as opposed to the mud turtles getting them. A local tackle shop that I won't name was also running a weekly night tournament, usually out of Cape Fair or Aunt's Creek, and I've seen the same results after those - in the summertime and around the weigh-in locations. That shop has changed ownership and I heard that club broke up, and they're not having tournaments any more. But every time I've seen that, it's been "local" tournaments. The guys doing it, in my experience, are the same ones that will run at 60 mph with their glitter boats, after dark. They'll also almost sink a crappie fisherman with their wakes, running so close - or they'll flat run over you with their big Ford trucks on the way to and from the lake. So, I think it's the mentality of the people involved. And, in fairness, all the nights when I've seen dead tournament bass floating have been in the summer with the surface water temp about 82. On those same nights I've been absolutely unable to keep crappie alive in my live well, and often couldn't even keep the catfish alive - so I don't know how anyone could expect to keep bass alive in those conditions. But maybe they shouldn't have tournaments when it's like that? I have nothing but admiration for the folks who run good tournaments and run them right. I just think it's a shame when a lot of good fish are wasted by the few people who don't do it that way.

Now there's a good idea. Those times I mentioned when I've seen lots of dead bass floating after a tournament weigh-in really bother me. I hate that kind of waste. With the way digital cameras are now, it shouldn't be too hard to create a system in which tournament fishermen can document their catches and return the fish unharmed, back to where they were caught. Some tackle company could start making a combination digital scale, ruler, and digital clock (showing the date and time). Fix those so they can't be tinkered with by the fishermen, and the "weigh-in" could simply be everyone submitting digital photos of their day's catches - with the fish's length, weight, and the date and time showing in the photos. Yeah, I know. How would you keep someone from taking a picture of the same 5-lb. bass at three different times? I don't have that figured out, but I wish someone would - and that tournaments could somehow go to immediate catch-and-release back to the locations where the fish are caught. That would do a world of good for the bass fishery, in my opinion.

Well, yeah. You've got me figured out. I fished the White and James Rivers before the lake was there, and I watched them build the dam. I've camped on sandbars that are 60 feet underwater now - and boy, the fish we could catch back then with primitive equipment. So many people have moved into the Ozarks, and it's so different now. After reading your post, all I can say is that you seem to know a lot more about the biology of the fish in the lake than I do. I don't think there's really any disagreement between us at all, and now that I know better I'll quit agitating about "eating bass". Now that I think about it, the last Tablerock bass I actually ate was last fall - about 30 fishing trips ago. And it was a 16-inch Largemouth that was gill-hooked and bleeding so bad it floated upside down after I released it, so I figured we might as well eat it. 90% of the time, I'm a crappie fisherman. I think you'll agree they belong next to the fried 'taters. The rest of the time, it's walleye, white bass, big perch, etc. I'm not bothering the glitter-boat bass-fishing crowd much. The old-timers hobbies were all ACQUISITIVE, I guess - they felt if they were going to spend time on something they needed to gain something. I'm that way. I raise a big vegetable garden and we pretty well live off it. I put a deer in the freezer every year, and we eat every ounce of it. I have a permanent fish-cleaning table with lights, electricity, and running water built in my back yard, and there's nothing casual or wasteful about my bringing filets home. When I used to play golf, the only thing I really liked about it was when I'd find extra golf balls and bring them home! When that happened I felt like I wasn't just wasting my time walking around a pasture. So, you're never going to find me catching legal crappie, taking pictures of them, and throwing them back in the lake. I don't look at fishing as a "game" - maybe you do? But I pretty much leave the bass alone, and I am interested in keeping fishing good for everyone in the future. So, we pretty much agree about all this - I think.

SKMO - Well, Kentucky (Spotted), Largemouth, and Smallmouth Bass are all top-of-the-food-chain predators. They compete for the same resources within the lake - and the lake is capable of supporting a certain number of pounds of black BASS, no matter how that capacity is divided between the species. In short, if 100 pounds of Kentucky bass are removed from the lake, 100 pounds of Largemouth or Smallmouth bass will replace them and occupy the same environmental "niche". Kentucky (Spotted) bass are slower-growing and smaller than the other two species. Conservation Dept. statistics show that the majority of Kentucky bass never reach that 15" length limit at all. They die of natural causes first, and become food for the turtles instead of for people. I've been in favor of a 12" minimum length limit on Kentuckys at Tablerock for years. That would cut back on their competition with the other species for food and habitat and should result in more and bigger Largemouths and Smallmouths. Someone here pointed out that some people are opposed to that because casual fishermen can't tell the difference between a Kentucky and a Largemouth - and such a rule change would cause many undersize Largemouths to be kept and killed. I'm afraid that's right. It's a good point, and I don't have an answer for it. But I still think it's good for fishermen who can tell the difference to remove legal Kentuckies from the lake. It encourages the growth and numbers of Largemouths and Smallmouths that have the capacity to become 6 or 7 pound "hawgs" - something Kentuckies can never be.

I was running down upper Bull Shoals once, a couple of days after a heavy rain. I know that area real well, and I was in the middle of the channel running wide open. I missed, by just a few feet, running over a spot in the water that looked funny - so I circled around to see what it was. It was a big ROUND BALE OF HAY, floating with just the top of it at the surface of the water. There's no way anyone could have seen that, and my missing it was just luck. If I'd run over it, the boat would have jumped clear out of the water and I probably would have been thrown out - so I got lucky. Even in deep water you know well and where you can't see anything floating, be careful. You can't be sure what's out there.