top_dollar

Wow....forgot to mention....main lake gravel points, 15 to 20 feet down in 15 to 45 fow very close to 100+fow.

Got out this morning from 6 til 830. Water temp 89, clear down about 6 or 8 foot I'd say. Fishing was very good. Two of us fishing caught 2 keeper spots as well as about 30 shorts and 6 giant bluegil. Best bait was a whole nightcrawler with a 16th Oz split shot and a #4 bait holder hook. Also caught an 6 or 8 # flat head catfish. Caught nothing on a jig, and 6 or 7 on a spoon. Spoon bite is best with a 2 to 3 foot aggressive hop. Lots of fish spitting up 2 inch shad. Both keepers came on the live bait today. No walleye.

I was in the Kimberling area yesterday and found spots thick 15-20 feet down over 25 to 200 fow. Gravel points on the main lake. Fished 9am til noon and 7pm til 9. Three of us got 6 keepers and several shorts, a few smallies and bluegills mixed. We used night crawlers mostly, struck out with jigs and spoons. Also did a trolling pass with no luck. Odd cuz spoons and trolling ought to be the ticket. My boat is out of commission for now so we've been bank fishing and using a rental pontoon boat. Water temp was 89-91 degrees....insane.

I don't think the fish are smarter...I just think the fisherman overthink things. I know I have a tendency to make it more complicated.

I've never hired a guide on table rock, but I totally agree with the mentality that when your on the water with a professional you ask lots of questions and absorb information like a sponge. Who cares if the fish are biting, that's day to day anyway, but it Def behooves a fisherman to learn exactly why the guide is doing what he is doing. I hired Bob Bennet on Stockton and in 8 hours he taught me how to fish for crappie walleye and bass all year long. Fishing was kinda slow that day, but the information he gave me that day has kept me on fish for years now. Honestly...I wish I would have brought a notebook to jot down notes. It's like fishing class. Shout out to Bob Bennett. ...great guy and true master of his craft, as I'm sure most fishing guides are when your fishing 300+ days a year. This time of year on table rock is easy IMO though at least for good numbers of decent sized bass and huge bluegill no fishing guide needed. Find gravel points on the main lake, and drop a 1/16-1/8 oz split shot rig with a whole crawler (half if the gills are ankle biting). Put the boat in 15-35 fow and drift around with the crawler vertical. If no bites in 20 min move to the next point, fish are either there or they are not don't waste too much time. This is great for kids (and everyone really). Put 6 people on a pontoon and hang a wall of crawlers. On another note....I have never seen a school of nightcrawlers swimming around in open water, yet fish tear em up, they are dumb animals.

Man you catch some big ole bass from table rock. Nice going!! I only target the deep suspended bass which tend to be smaller spots and smallies. Occasionally I'll get a 4+ # fish but it's pretty rare. Great catching.

Not mentioned yet is the heddon spittn image. Those are spotted bass killers on table rock.

Light and humidity are line killers. Good advice above. If it was kept inside it's probably just fine.

This is probably the most reasonable advice, get one you think looks awesome and stick with it. (as i have 4 stutter steps on the way...)

Bill Norman Top Dollar....discontinued so they are tough to find. I may have bought them all. The hardware sucks, they need new hooks, and i custom paint (stock colors are ok though) and put my own feather on the rear treble....that said there is no other lure on the market that I am aware of with the same shape/profile/and action. It just has given me more consistent results than any other top water lure.

Cool video!! Stockton is just simply my favorite missouri lake, and its not even close. Nice work with the jigging spoon. Its nice to see some folks using it as i feel with all the new lures the spoon is overlooked...yet its one of my big producers of all species. They are def one of my best tools on the southern missouri lakes. I noticed though that you mentioned casting them? Are you counting it down and yo yoing it back to the boat? I have a jigging spoon tied on 100% of the time but i rarely catch them during a retrieve. My most effective method is a 1-2foot short hop, or 1-3 inch wiggle on a vertical drop. I would love to learn your casting/retrieving technique?

Great thanks for the info.

Were you longlining? What type of crank? If you dont mind me asking. Ill be down next week. Last year i caught em decent in the kimberling area on flicker shads 19ft down in a small ditch out over a gravel flat. Tried flicker minnows, reef runners, and hot n tots to no avail....dropped spoons on em...nothing....but they would eat that flicker shad.

This is a very informative thread, i have tried with bottom bouncers before but do so much better with a half a crawler on a jig head. With this advice i think i might just give it another shot.

I have not been to stockton in over a month (although jigs n crawlers worked then too...trolled cranks were slower)...but last year in mid july the walleye fishing down there was stupid good just tossing jigs and crawlers around from 15-35 feet. It was main lake points, starting shallow than working deeper. It was a bit peculiar....if i dropped the bait straight down to the depth they were biting id rarely get bit...but if i pitched the bait up shallow and worked it back slowly id often get bit when the bait was underneath me and vertical jigged. Almost as if the fish were shallow to begin with, then would follow the bait out and eat it deep.

Ill be down next week outta kimberling and will have a real time detailed report of the specifics. Will be trolling and spooning for walleye, as well as probing deep haunts for bass and bluegill. IDK where the thermocline is setting up, but this time of year ill be looking for large schools of suspended spotted bass around the thermocline depths. Mostly around main lake points, deep docks, and bridge pilings.....look at a contour map of point 7...go fish point 7...then go find other areas on the map that look like that point. Long gently sloping gravel on 1 side and plummeting into the abyss on the other side. Go try it!! It works!!

Just trying to help with the techniques i know best, jiggin spoons and top water lures are about my two most effective. Ive gleaned my fair share of information from here!

Good tip.....This problem is caused by the free slack mostly, I am a jigging spoon fanatic. If you use short and steady 2-3 inch pulses, it will rarely happen. The problem comes, as was mentioned, when the fish want a hard fast 1-2 foot hop. Controlled slack is the absolute key here. I almost exclusively use braided fishing line, however, another thing that will help with the spoon on the treble hook, is to use a short leader of 17# FC line. Its so stiff and springy that it keeps itself away from the hook pretty well.

Not many crappie reports come from table rock this time of year. Nice catching.

Soooo....a soft plastic stick bait? Truly innovative.

This must be the main event.....FIGHTING!! out of the red corner.....jet boat guys with no regard for anything around them, flying up and down small rivers with unseen bends at incredibly unsafe speeds quickly eroding the banks and muddying up the river. ANNNNDDDD out of the blue corner...the heavy beer drinking, awful country music blaring, urban cowboy types floating en masse like a raft of otters huddled together.

caught a few last summer around the kimberling area using jigging spoons and trolling crankbaits, youll be fighting off bass the whole time though. If your really interested at some quality walleye fishing stockton lake is your best bet. Good numbers of quality eaters. This time of year main lake points with jigs and crawlers and trolled crankbaits on stockton, on table rock, bass and bluegill will steal ur worms too often...use spoons. Concentrate on areas where the shallow flat areas drop down into the main river channel..all the better if that drop is near the thermocline depths with some junk to get snagged on. If you pick one up on a trolled crank, mark that spot and go drop a jigging spoon down there...there will usually be more than one hanging out. I know that walleye are known to suspend...but in my experience if your not within a few feet of the bottom...your out on walleye and will be bass fishing. I start with very small 2-3 inch hops with the spoon, to make it look like a rubber pencil. If no strikes ill use 1-2 foot short fast jerks and let the spoon flutter...this works but often will hang the line on the treble hook. Lastly ill do a very long and steady pull by putting my rod tip at the water and steadily raising the tip well over my head, this moves the bait 8-10 feet through the water column. Then letting it fall back on controlled slack...90% of bites or more will come on the fall...hence the controlled slack. The spoon will either stop sinking, or your line will "flinch" youll need to set the hook immediately and keep steady constant pressure, as a heavy jigging spoon is essentially a lure retriever as well...its very easy for fish to sling the dense bait. (more tips...bang the spoon off the rocks on the bottom to get attention, then work the lure normally. Cast the spoon parallel to the bank, count it down, then "yo yo" it back through the strike zone.) My 2 cents.

When can folks buy some of these?

I dont color them. Grey and fox squirrel tails both mimic missouri craws pretty well. Grey squirrel tails also mimic many baitfish. I love to tie up squirrel jigs, they really worked well for me this past year.

anything shad colored or white....table rock bass are shad and crawfish eaters almost exclusively. Obviously they are opportunistic and will eat what they can...but they target large schools of shad. At any given time on table rock i think you only need 3 rods....a shad imitation, a craw imitation, and a worm.