top_dollar

I have never felt the need. By and large I think I am the monster that other creatures should be worried about. I am large, hairy and make horrific sounds both awake and asleep. I tend to be tangled in a mass of treble hooks or winging them around dangerously. Like a skunk I also have the ability to generate an incredibly fowl odor when frightened.

It wasn't really much of an "attack". 1 of the 5000 bears in Arkansas smelled their hot dogs and checked it out. They scared it away, it came back a few hours later, and they scared it away again. It would be scary for the campers, but hardly an attack. Now they have a cool story to tell.

I have also caught bass suspended at the kimberling city bridge that were spitting up craws. Unless crawdads suspend at the bridge those bass must swim quite a ways to get them. I also have routinely caught crawdads in our traps out to 30 FOW. Seems like the biggest ones are usually deeper than 20FOW.

I fished this past weekend around Terre du Lac. I just put in and paddled up a mile or so to a few spots I like to target. The water is low and slow with a few feet of visibility. Leaves on the surface are getting to be a problem. I didn't bother to count, but I caught a bunch throwing a size 75 berkely choppo. I caught a few on a jig, including a largemouth about 19 inches, and a few on a small plastic craw. With the leaves on the surface I think a normal buzzbait would have worked better, but I didn't have one. Mostly smallmouth and largemouth in the 10-14 inch range. No spotted bass.

Correct, and it was fun!

I got down to fish a few days last week. WT in the mid 80's and clarity about 5 or 6 feet. It seemed dingier than normal. I have always stayed at Kimberling City, but this year we were at Indian Point. I think the creek was called Jakes Creek. Sunday and Monday we went out and trolled crankbaits, pulled spinner rigs, and used live crawlers. That creek is full of trees and the bottom bouncers kept getting hung up. Trolling crankbaits worked pretty well, but we did hang up several in tree tops. We also caught some on live crawlers about 20-30 feet down. A few off the ends of the marina docks in the morning, but most on lake point just off the bottom. I did lose a smallmouth in the 17inch range at the boat on a Keitech scrubbing the bottom in about 20FOW. Monday afternoon, as I was backing my boat out of the slip, the trolling motor head caught the dock post and broke it, so that messed up fishing the rest of the week. I still wanted to fish so I called around and found a guide willing to take me out last minute. His name was Ed Phillips. I was thinking we may go do something that I hadn't done before on a part of the lake I hadn't been before, but of course, he said his best deal was hanging crawlers at Kimberling city. So I met him at Port of Kimberling at 6am and away we went to do the same thing I have done, in the same places I had done it, for 30 years. I caught about 15 bass or so that morning, but missed quite a few bites. We used the livescope, and I was not used to seeing the fish on the screen. I got jumpy and didn't let them eat it fully, which resulted in quite a few missed bites, but I got the hang of it pretty quick. He was also using much heavier equipment then I was used to using. He had 8# line, to a 6#, with a med or med/heavy rod, a 1/0 drop shot hook and a 3/8 oz weight. I use 4# line, med light power rods and 1/8oz weights. Other than the equipment, it was pretty typical. Fish the deep docks until about 8am, when they quit biting at the docks we went to fish deep trees. I personally always go to the bridge when the sun comes up, but he didn't like the bridge he said because so many people fish it. He also had a bunch of trees that he had as waypoints, so we just went right to them. My electronics are not good enough to locate the trees he had marked. The best was a giant tree with huge branches all by itself in the middle of cove in 60FOW. It had several fish on it, and there is no way I would have ever found it on my own. The livescope did show me quite a few things I never really realized. First, I had always assumed that the bass came out from under the docks in the morning, and went back under the dock shade when the sun got up. In reality, the bass were under the dock the whole time, they just were willing to swim out from under it early, but as the sun came up they wouldn't leave. Another thing I realized was how many fish ignore a live crawler. I had always assumed that when they stopped biting the crawler they had left, but in reality, they were still there, just ignoring it. This was the first time I have ever hired a guide, and I think it was worth it just to fish out of his 90K bass boat, but I was also able to ask a million questions that I had wondered about for the last several years, and I sure felt like I learned quite a bit so I would say it was money well spent.

How deep were you fishing for them? Granted my only experience comes from 3 specific places in kimberling city, but my experience is that they like to sit right on the bottom in about 25 to 35 fow in mid summer. I think they also like a whole nightcrawler more than a chunk of one. I've tested that out multiple times. My best places have been in dock stalls in the afternoon with about 30fow under them on the bottom. Little ones suspend around the floats but eaters are on the bottom. They also suspend at the bridge pilings with the spotted bass in the afternoon, but its more bass than bluegills mostly. Since I'll be at Indian point this year and am not likely to run my POS boat to schooner creek, ill post my favorite summer time spot. The eastern most point at the mouth of schooner creek is shaped like a thumb. The whole point is good, but there is a spot where the schooner creek channel swings in close to the run out, and for the last 20 years that spot has been 100% for me. As you are idling in. You'll be in 90+ fow, the it will abruptly come up to 25fow and your graph will go crazy. Everything will be there, but there is usually a big school of bluegills there, you just have to graph around a bit. They are pretty distinctive on the graph right off the bottom. I use a drop shot or split shot rig with about an 1/8 and a size 4 hook with a whole crawler.

I've been on the river the last few weekends. I wanted to go to Stockton last weekend, but my truck was having trouble and I didn't wanna endure the heat at the lake. The river is finally down to its normal summer flow. You can see bottom in about 3-4 FOW. Saturday it was clear in the morning, but it stormed around lunchtime and started to get a little dingier throughout the day. The tree that was blocking the river is now gone. Fishing has been pretty typical. Catching mostly smallmouth, with an occasional largemouth up to about 17 inches. No spotted bass. Best baits have been a worm, a jig and a crankbait. Anything will probably work though. Usually a jerkbait works well, but the crankbait has been better so far this year. I threw a top water for a while with no luck so I stopped. The bluegill and longears are very aggressive right now as well. You can catch quite a few on a small jig under a float.

This is just the type of boat I want in the next few years, maybe a bit bigger. I keep wanting an upgrade, but my current boat seems to be pretty bulletproof and easy to work on. I am scared to get something more complicated. I can certainly speak for the longevity and durability of Crestliners. I have a 02 Crestliner Canadian with an Evinrude. No wood, No carpet, just jagged metal edges. Because of that, everything is super accessible and easy to work on. I generally try to just replace rubber/plastic components every few years, and keep fresh gas/batteries for it.

I'm gonna buy some snap weights. Do you mind divulging some info? Do you just use your bottom bouncing rods? How much weight and how much line out? I want to get a flicker shad/shad rap 4 or 5 down about 15-20 foot.

Crappie will probably be difficult unless you're way better at it then me. I've fished around Kimberling city in the summer for about 25 years and in that time I've seen more trout caught then crappie (2 to 1 if I'm keeping score). You will be right by point 7. If I were you Id run over there and fish it using split shot/drop shot rigs with live night crawlers. It might be early for that yet, but there will probably be fish on the steep side in about 20 or 30 feet down. The points at schooner creek, and the bridge pilings are also good. You'll catch a variety of species, and sometimes stumble on a school of big bluegills, but unlikely you will find crappie.

I fished Mounts to TDL Saturday. I live in Saint Louis and lost power with the storms. Fortunately, I didn't have any damage from the tornado that ripped through. Hopefully nobody on the forum had any damage. Anyway, I headed to the camper, which has power for the weekend. The river was up about a foot and half and had a lot of current which made for easy floating. Fortunately, the water was still clear down about 3 feet, but it was FREEZING. That stretch has changed quite a bit since last year with the flooding, and there are some new obstacles and quite a few new large trees down. A few miles down from mounts there is a large tree that completely covers the river from bank to bank, and the sides are steep making for a challenge. I tried, unsuccessfully, to weave through the branches at the top of the tree. I eventually had to get out of the boat, stand on the trunk, and slide the boat over. The fishing was pretty good. I was with the girlfriend, and didn't really even fish too much, but still caught about 15 - 20 bass and she caught several panfish on a plastic bug under a bobber. The best bait was a jig with a Deps cover scat as a trailer. I was having trouble keeping the jig down with flapper craw, so I put one of those on the back and it sank like a missile and worked great. I also caught a few on a crankbait and a swimbait. The worm and jerkbait weren't working, I had trouble keeping them down in the current.

No worries on the wind. We catch almost all of our crappies in big coves where the wind is no factor. Mutton Creek, Googer Creek, Hawker cove, Hartley are all good. I'm pretty sure every cove in the lake will have them scattered and suspended. At Mutton creek, and Hartley you can just start trolling right outside the bouys. We don't even start the big motor. There is quite often 1 or more boats trolling circles around mutton creek cove and they catch em pretty good.

It is working. Generally trolling the middle of large coves about half way down will produce. Go about 1.5-2.0 mph. Usually 10-20 feet down over about 30-40 FOW. I think the clearer the water the deeper we tend to find them, but a good rule is about half way down the water column. Bandits, Flicker Shads, and other deep diving small crankbaits will work. Usually natural colors work best. We have our best luck with 3XD's in green and blue gizzard shad.

I also have this book. It is a fascinating read for anyone who is interested in the history of the area.