Sam

If you take kids fishing or if (like me) you're just a big kid yourself, there's some good fun to be had right now. Every year at this time, I like to get after the larger black perch (green sunfish) when they come right up against Tablerock's chunk-rock banks that have deep water nearby. In October and early November they come up close to the rock banks even more than usual, to stuff themselves with small crawdads before the water gets cold. Yesterday my partner and I targeted them in the Buttermilk Spring area, using ultra-light spinning rigs and small plastic tubes on 1/16 oz. jig heads. All colors seemed to work equally well, and they mostly bite on the drop around shady spots and any cover. We've got 6 1/2" marks on our rod handles, and if they measure 6 1/2" or better they go in the live well. We brought home 63 black perch and one 4-lb. channel cat - getting that catfish in was quite a deal for my partner on his ultra-light rig! We caught a few black perch that were over 8", and that's big for them. We threw back 3 or 4 short ones for every one we could keep, of course, so we never got bored - we caught fish most every cast ALL day long. Fileting these little fish out is real microsurgery, but it's worth it. There are a couple of good bites on each boneless filet, and the flavor is as good or better than any fish in the lake including crappie and walleye, in my opinion. Good times!

You're right of course, and I do enjoy, remember, and treasure those experiences. Sometimes monster fish get caught on tackle a lot lighter than bass gear, too. Last fall I was crappie fishing with a light spinning rig near Buttermilk Springs, cast to the bank, and got ahold of a fish that had us chasing it with the trolling motor. Luckily it headed for deep water instead of getting in the brush, and about 20 minutes later the fish was finally fought down, exhausted, and laying on its side beside the boat. I reached out with pliers and unhooked my crappie jig from the lip of a carp that my partner and I estimated at over 40" long, and I'll tell ya - that 10 lb. test, 2 lb. diameter PowerPro Braid is GOOD line! At the time, I might have been a little disappointed about not putting flathead catfish steaks in the freezer - but I'll always remember getting that big fish in on such light tackle.

I'd like to catch a flathead like that sometime, and I'm real surprised he was able to get it in. On Tablerock and Bull Shoals, every time I've hooked a "freight train" while bass fishing I've always been disappointed when it turned out to be a giant carp or drum.

This is almost exclusively a bass fishing forum - and that's fine, as that's obviously where most of the interest is. I fish for bass sometimes too (yes, C & R), and I have fun doing it. I'm just asking bass fishermen here to remember that posting your "other species" sightings can be a huge favor to those like myself who prefer to fish for crappie, white bass, goggleyes, black perch, and such. In particular, now is about the time of year for white bass to start tearing into schools of shad on the surface - and I do love "chasing the boils" with light spinning tackle. So if you see anything like that while pursuing the big green and brown fish, I'd be much obliged if you'd post it - that information really helps in planning trips. Thanks!

Anytime I get around Long Creek, and especially when fishing is slow for big green fish - then the crappie pole comes out. I think I'm a slab addict.

Yesterday was Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, and my wife and I were invited by our son-in-law's folks to their big family gathering at a place on Tablerock they bought earlier this summer. They've got a mobile home on a big lot in a community about halfway between Virgin Bluff and the Cape Fair Marina, on the side of the lake across from the Marina, about a block from the water. It's a real nice weekend place, and I don't think they've spent much time at home since they got it. I brought a 6' 6" medium-light spinning outfit along because I've been trying to improve my finesse presentation based on the information I've read here on this forum. For the first time I've got some Z-Man Elaztech grubs to put on 1/16 oz. jigheads rather than using half a Senko, and I spooled that reel with original 6 lb. P-Line co-polymer. Thought I'd make a few casts just to see how that combination throws and feels, especially the line. Down at the water, I observed the Labor Day chaos from the bank. The James River arm is pretty narrow there and it was being churned up by jet skis, wave runners, party boats, pontoons, ski boats, and big rigs capable of sailing to Japan if you could just figure a way to get 'em to salt water. Good golly - my 17-foot aluminum boat would have been swamped in all that, waves were crashing against the shoreline, docks were bouncing around, and all the water within casting distance was the color of chocolate milk. Nevertheless, I cast straight out from the bank as far as I could. That P-Line cast like a dream - it seemed to have little memory and it casts a long way. And, in all that confusion of churning, dirty lake water and revving motors - I caught a 13-inch spot with the first cast! If this rig can catch a fish in those conditions, I take that as a real good sign of things to come.

October and November are my best months for white bass fishing on upper Bull Shoals, usually a little ways below K Dock or up the other way around Snapp Holler. That time of year, the white bass feed on schools of shad on the surface - they're getting ready for winter, I guess. Some bass fishermen won't fish for white bass at all, but I think it's a lot of fun. Have a Roostertail spinner tied on a medium or medium/light spinning rig, and just cast and troll it around when there's no surface action going - but always listen for that "WATERFALL" in the distance! Especially from late afternoon until dark at that time of year, bunches of whites will often blow up on the surface, feeding - sometimes they stay up for just a few seconds, and sometimes for quite a few minutes. Then they'll quit and nothing will be seen for a little while, then they'll boil somewhere else. If there's not much wind you can see the spots where they've come up from the floating shad carnage that's left - scales and fish oil. LOL "Chasing the boils" with the main motor wide open, then shutting it down and coasting next to the feeding fish within casting distance is some of the best fun I have fishing around here. Sometimes you catch fish so fast they get thrown in the bottom of the boat - no time to mess with the live well lid. The water level is high, but I hope this will be a good year for fall white bass anyway and if you like that kind of fishing, I hope you get into them too!

A friend used to scuba dive a lot in Tablerock, and he's told me how curious bass are and how they can be called in with a clicking sound. Just for fun, he'd sometimes sit still on a ledge in some fishy-looking spot about 20 or 25 feet down, pick up a couple of small rocks, and start tapping them together. He says more often than not within a few minutes he'd have a bunch of bass around him, staying just out of reach and looking him over - curious to see where that tapping was coming from. I've never used a jig with a rattle, but I guess a rattle might help bring bass in to look at a lure - then they'd have to decide whether it's something they want to bite or not. As has been said though, just a regular jig head, worm sinker, or any bottom-dragging rig that has metal tapping rocks when it's moved probably does the same thing.

Another thought - at the time of those walleye trips we made out of K Dock in January, February, and March, the water was real clear. When we got over in the shallows on a flat by the main channel about halfway down to Mincy we saw loads of ZEBRA MUSSELS attached to the rocks on the bottom. They were so numerous that every little rock the size of a golf ball had 2 or 3 mussels attached, and the shells were striped just like the pictures I've seen. I'm sure that's what they were. I'm hoping, just hoping, that Bull Shoals frequent large fluctuations in water level may mess up those things' life cycle and keep them from ruining the fishery. Obviously anytime the water drops a lot it would leave a bunch of them to dry out and die, up on the bank. Maybe when they get submerged too deep in a rising-water situation that hurts them too, I hope.

Taking my rig out at the K Dock ramp on a nice afternoon this past February before the heavy rains of 2015 started. We caught some good walleyes that day. The ramp is under 34 feet of water now, and I wonder if we'll ever see it again. I hope so because I know upper Bull Shoals so well the way it WAS, and not the way it is now. This area, from Powersite Dam down to around the Arkansas line has been my hidey-hole to get away from the crowds, and I sure miss it.

I'm stuck in the 1980's when it comes to dragging. Big Texas-rigged worm on a 2/0 hook with Stren Florescent mono, 12 lb. for daytime and 17 lb. at night. Under a black light the Stren looks about as big around as a pencil and it's easy to see the slightest tap. Old-fashioned method, but it's fun and it still works.

There's a similar small hole in the tall bluff that forms the outside of McCord Bend - the hairpin curve in the James River arm of Tablerock several miles above Bridgeport. That one is visible from the water but higher up than the one pictured above, and I think it would take climbing gear and ropes to reach it. Like the one in the photo there's a ledge, and from a boat it looks like there's a path where animals go in and out - foxes or bobcats maybe. It seems 'way too civilized around there for a bear or mountain lion, but I'm not gonna be the one who finds out!

We took a California vacation earlier this summer, and I took this picture off the stern of the 3/4-day fishing boat Malihini out of San Diego. I think this photo turned out real well, especially considering that it was taken with my cell phone. That seagull on the left was a bully - he didn't want any other seagulls sitting on the rail and he kept trying to run them off. I didn't notice until after the trip that there's one pelican in the picture too, flying 'way out there. My son-in-law and I caught some big yellowtails that day and had a good time - I hadn't fished salt water for over 20 years.

I'd like to say a big "Thank You!" to Tablerock dock owners in general because I've trespassed under dock roofs on occasion when I get caught by a thunderstorm. I know I've got no right to do that, but I've never had a dock owner yet object to my pulling into an empty stall for awhile to take shelter from lightning. I'm not talking about just getting wet, I've got rain suits for that - but when lightning's nearly knocking gravel into the boat and I can't get back to my truck, well ..... you know what that's like. I've talked with several dock owners while taking shelter, even some marina operators - and they've all been real nice about it. I think it's obvious to them that I respect their property, as I'd never get out onto their dock, touch anything that's not mine, disregard a "no wake" buoy, or anything like that. If I ever meet a dock owner in the future who runs me off, I'll just thank him and leave because he's got a perfect right to do that. I sure appreciate those who have been good to me, though - and I'd never do anything careless to damage anyone's dock.

Besides the photos being yellowed and pre-digital, the Ozark Mountain Ducks ballcap in the center picture tipped me off right away. I believe the Ducks played from 1998 through 2004, then folded when the Springfield Cardinals came to town. So unless the guy kept that hat in real good condition for 11 to 17 years, the bass he's holding comes from many generations back.

"maybe a piece of nylon ski rope would have worked a bit better" ------------------------------ My grandpa taught me that trick for catching gar, so long ago that Tablerock Dam wasn't built yet and our rope was cotton, not nylon. And all this time I thought I knew something nobody else did. Guess not. LOL

I'll go with the frustrated heron theory, back when that bass was real small. As regards C & R, I generally target crappie / walleye / white bass and I don't care about eating bass. When I accidentally catch a keeper bass out of Tablerock it'll often have about 8 hook-holes in its' lips, so catch and release is working pretty well. I suspect you guys know all those bass and have them named, though. "Hey, I caught George again this morning over by Point 5. He said to say hi, but he thinks somebody ate Betty!" LOL Now if we could just get a program to catch on where everybody except me releases slab crappie and keeper walleyes - for the fishery, of course.

"There are some better lakes south of the border but I'm not going back down there. It was a scary place when I went and is much worse now." ----------------------------------------- My dad and I camped for a week on a sandbar of the river that runs out of Lake Vincente Guerrero. straight south of McAllen, TX, back in the 1970's. That was some of the best fishing I've ever had in my life - we were catching 8 lb. bass from the lake and 1 lb. Rio Grande Perch from the river. It's a great memory, but camping there now would probably get a gringo killed.

If they had 71 bass and a crappie in one bucket, they were getting bait - probably for catfish juglines. I think that would be legal if they had licenses and were netting shad instead. From the names of those arrested, I'm guessing they never used to pay much attention to just what species of minnows they caught and used in Mexico. Maybe this will be a learning experience for them.

That's hilarious! It's even better than the "Fish-Call Whistle" my partner got me, and mine's the New Improved Version - I no longer have to stick my head in the lake to blow it. LOL

Bull Shoals is at 690' as of last night's news, with more high water coming down the rivers, into Tablerock and Taneycomo, and eventually into Bull Shoals. Does anybody here know how high they can let it go? I'd say the lake is getting pretty close to full capacity - Forsythian, you mentioned 695'? I know the new "normal" level is supposed to be 6 or 7 feet higher than it was, but I've always figured "normal" for Bull Shoals to be 653". So at 690', it's 37 FEET above the "normal" level at which I know the lake best. Fish like cover, and can you imagine all the insects that were on all that newly-flooded land? Heavy cover and lots of food - the fish (crappie anyway) are out in the woods, likely to stay there for the rest of season, and I've never had much luck casting into 30' tall, fully leaved-out oak and hickory trees!

I think the dip where the lower road to the K Dock ramp now goes into the water makes a better ramp than the regular one! There's room to park quite a few rigs, too. Soon as I launch I bear left and follow the cove out to the lake rather than stay on top of the submerged road. No problems.

Don't expect I'll ever catch a big striper because I don't fish with tackle heavy enough to land, or even turn, one. I think I had ahold of a striper about this time last year at the Pothole. I was casting a Roostertail for white bass when I hooked onto something that felt like my lure had snagged the back bumper of a pickup truck that was driving away at about 20 mph! In short order, my reel was empty of line and the 6 lb. test mono broke off where it was tied to the spool. That was a real exciting 15 seconds or so, anyway. You know how hard a 3-lb. white bass fights? I bet that stays in proportion and a 60-lb. striped bass would be 20 times as strong!

Since your granddaughter is only 2 1/2 it'll be easy to keep her entertained and get her started right fishing. We've got three grown daughters and six grandkids, and they were all that age once and learning to fish! When they were that little I'd start them out with a cane pole, mono line 2' less than the length of the pole, and about a #1 light-wire, straight Eagle Claw gold hook, no sinker. (The light long-shank hook is for easier unhooking of panfish.) Cover the hook with a piece of nightcrawler and teach the kid to just swing it out and drop the bait along chunk-rock banks, brush, docks, etc. Lower the tip of the pole and let slack line float on the water so the bait falls naturally. Watch that floating mono line - when it twitches, then starts getting pulled down, raise the pole straight up to set the hook. They'll get a fish most EVERY time that way, mostly little sun perch or black perch but once in awhile something that'll give 'em a tussle like a keeper bluegill, black perch, or even a good catfish. In my experience, as long as something is constantly going on and they're catching fish, kids stay entertained and enthusiastic and they don't get bored. Come to think of it, I'm kinda the same way.

I don't fish much for bass but we always try to get in some goggleye (rock bass) trips on Tablerock in May. My partner and I have been doing that, but this year the big brown fish won't let us concentrate - about one out of every three fish we catch is a smallmouth! Not complaining you understand, but bringing in 17-inchers like this one on a swimmin' minnow and light spinning tackle is a real experience and fun! It's obvious the smallie population in this part of the lake has really increased, as this hasn't happened to us much in previous years. Don't worry, they're all back in the lake - but the goggleye filets are in the freezer.