top_dollar

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.

This is great. It is so important to keep moving!!

My brother, son and I fished Stockton this past weekend. We fished all over the lake. Water temp was in the mid 60s about everywhere. Orleans Trail, Crabtree Cove, Hawker cove, and Masters all were all clear down to about 10 FOW. For some reason Mutton Creek had some stain and was clear about 4 or 5 feet. We did our best walleye fishing out of mutton creek, pulling spinner rigs in 20-30 FOW. We caught lots of shorts, but had plenty of keepers to bring home. We pulled spinner rigs at the other launches mentioned, but it was sporadic at best. Green and Gold was far and away the best color spinners. Also, yellow/clown type color worked. We are all in on those northland baitfish spinners, they are great. We caught a few walleye also with a jig and chunk of worm. We caught crappie and walleye trolling crankbaits, and "strolling"/swimming crappie jigs and small swimbaits. My son caught a smallmouth and a white bass at the same time on the a double rig. Generally we were using a 1/8th oz jig on the bottom, and about a foot above a 1/16-1/32 oz jig, or 2 1/16oz jigs at about 0.5-1.0 MPH. Most of the crappie came suspended in the middle of coves, and walleye when we would drift shallower and the jigs were closer to the bottom.

Some friends and I had planned on floating the Big Piney last weekend, but with the 6 inches or so of rain they got we quickly made back up plans. We ended up just fishing the banks around the lakes at Terre Du Lac. When all this rain comes in, the little lakes and ponds in the area get really hot, especially just above the spillway where the water is leaving the lake, and in any creek that is coming in that is not chocolate milk. It is usually a dink fest, but this weekend we caught some really nice ones. I got 1 that was 22" long, and 2 that were 18" along with dozens of dinks. A buddy of mine also caught one that was 22+" long. Mostly right in front of the spillways throwing crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Some of the clearer lakes jerkbaits and swimbaits worked better.

Hopefully the BPS in St louis has some this weekend.

I think its a great idea. I know that bass and other fish swallow plastics. I've cleaned bass before with swollen worms in their guts, and I've seem them with soft plastics coming out of their rear. Ill try a few packs and see if they work. Looks like they are 5.99 a pack which is fairly cheap.

Since I do fish table rock does that mean Im allowed to opine? I didn't realize those were the rules. By your metrics, you and all the C&R folks shouldn't get an opinion because you don't keep any bass. I do fish table rock, and I do keep the bass, so technically Mr Bush and MDC should regard my opinion the most. Anecdotes dont equal evidence. The article very clearly states that the spotted bass population has increased yet the size of 15-inch fish has decreased. As i already mentioned there are too many c&r anglers anymore for it to make much difference, but there is no denying that removing smaller bass will result in a higher % of larger fish. Its just basic math. Bass fisherman just love bass too much to bring themselves to harvest one, but it is against their best interest in most cases. If they did limit the length to 12 I'd keep more of the 12-14 inches and throw back the 15+, but the current regs force me to keep the bigs that I'd rather toss back.

I think the following quote is a direct result of more C&R fishing and less folks keeping spotted bass to eat. “We have extensive data going back to the 1980’s that clearly shows the decline in the number of 15-inch spotted bass in Table Rock Lake,” said MDC Fisheries Biologist Shane Bush. “This data also shows a steady increase in the spotted bass population since that time, and it’s increasing every year.” I think the length limit should depend on the management goal of the fishery. If the goal is as many spotted bass as possible, keep the 15 inch limit, however, If the goal is trying to make the spotted bass in table rock larger on average, there is no doubt removing more smaller fish will accomplish that. There is only so much forage to go around, so if you remove smaller fish, there will be more forage per fish, which = bigger fish at that age class. Personally I don't think enough people keep and eat the bass for it to make much difference at this point. There is such a cultural aversion to eating a bass anymore that if you do and tell someone about it, they will certainly let you know how offended they are. The general consensus seems to be that bass are for sport, and other species are for food. I personally don't feel that way, but I am certainly in the minority there.

For the better part of a decade I talked about hiring Buster Loving to teach me how to catch walleye on upper bull. Now that he is gone, I really regret talking about it for so long and never actually doing it. Now, when I want to do something, I am just going to do it and not be all talk. I really regret not going with him just once, and I don't know of any other guides who fish that way. Anyway, I finally pulled the trigger and came down. Its the first time I had ever been on bull shoals. My brother and I stayed in Forsyth and fished out of K Dock Saturday and Sunday. The water temp was 38-39 on Saturday, and 38 warming to 42 on Sunday. I could see the bottom in probably 6 FOW. We threw jerkbaits and swimbaits up on the mud flats. Saturday between the 2 of us we caught 5 bass and 1 walleye all on a jerkbait. My brother did better than me throwing his jerkbait on a spinning rod with 6# while I was using casting gear with 10# line. Sunday we did the same thing and didn't get a bite all day long. We never left sight of K dock ramp, but the flats we found dropped off into the channel at about 10-15 FOW, so I think the spinning rod was getting that bait a bit deeper. Buster's seminar said to target 6FOW dropping into 35, but we never found it, so we just made due with what we could find. Saturday there was only other boat out all day, but Sunday there were multiple rigs in the lot. A few guys were out on the drop offs, but most seemed to be way out in the channel fishing for deep stuff. I'm sure they all had way better electronics and know how to locate and catch those fish better. I just found the creek channels with a 5 inch 2D sonar, a paper hot spot map and marker buoys. I put 1 buoy in 10FOW, and the other in 25-35 FOW and casted from one to the other. I'm sure there are way more efficient ways to catch them with better electronics, but unfortunately for us we fish like its 1980. We graphed lots of stuff in the channel, and I tried to drop a spoon on them, but couldn't get any bites. I cant tell the difference between species and such though on the graph, but nothing rose up to even look at my spoon, so maybe they weren't game fish. It was tough fishing for 2 days, but I wasn't expecting much so I kind of feel like the trip was a success. I'm already planning for next winter, and will get better each time I go. We also fished a bit on Taney for trout, @Big Keene posted about what we did there.

Yeah that figures. I'm coming down to fish upper bull the end of next week, so murphy's law dictates it will be record cold. Hopefully its a bit warmer by the weekend.

Coldwater to Sam Baker is good for an overnight, maybe 10 miles or so. Sam baker to HWY 34 bridge is short and good for a day float. I don't consider it to be too slow, but I fish the big river mostly, which doesn't have much current.

I doubt you'd get any trouble from anyone for launching a pond prowler.

I fished the Coldwater access down to Sam Baker back in the end of November. This report is a bit late. Bass were biting really well. I caught fish near winter areas, but they were surprisingly up in spots with more current. I didn't bother crappie fishing, I just threw jerkbaits, jigs, and swimbaits for bass. With the exception of a 24 inch walleye, and an 18 inch largemouth it was all smallies and spots less than 15 inches. I released the walleye so maybe it will grow to be a real giant!