top_dollar

I fished a few days this week out of kimberling city. It's a family vacation we do every year. W.T. was about 88 most mornings. I could see bottom in about 5 or 6ft of water. I always fish the same couple of areas. The points at the mouth of schooner creek, the steep side of point 7 and the bridge. This year I didn't fish point 7 at all because I caught them well enough in schooner. Early in the mornings I ran to the point at the mouth of schooner creek. That but typically slows by about 9, at which point I go fish the bridge. I use jigging spoons and nightcrawlers mostly. I caught a few fish on a spoon, a keitech swimbait and a few on a plastic worm but most were on live bait. Mostly caught kentuckies with a few smallies and lm mixed in. I only caught 1 catfish, 0 walleye and a handful of bluegills. Normally I can find a big school of bluegill around the point, but not this year. Everything I graphed was 25 to 35 feet deep on the bottom or suspended over the channel in 50+ fow. The bridge bite was as good as ive seen it. Generally the best bite for me has been midday through the afternoon. Often times you can catch as many spotted bass as you have worms. This year was no different. There seemed to be quite a few shallow fish around the pilings. I generally toss the crawler out about 20 or 30 feet, it often would sink just 5 or 10 feet then one would grab it. We also like to hang crawdad traps around the dock slips using cut bluegills as bait. Our most productive traps were in probably 15 or 20 fow. Shallower traps produced small crawl, and we only had about 20 to 30 feet of length on our ropes so we couldn't go too deep. Way back when the kimberling inn docks had a fish cleaning station a feller used to hang traps, but nobody does it anymore. The folks around the docks are always one part amazed and one part disgusted at the sight of them lol.

I won't be killing any bass, but I hope to hit on one of those mega schools when im down this week. I'm not likely to catch tons though cuz I'm still using paper maps and a 5 inch 2d graph lol. My top of the line fishfinders are trolled crankbaits and live bait. 🤣

A few friends and I floated this stretch yesterday. I have never been on the Huzzah, but had the day off and I am trying to check off different rivers in Missouri as I generally just the fish same stretch of the big. It was OK. I am not sure how it normally is, but it was low and clear. I could basically see the bottom everywhere, even in the deeper holes. Despite all of the floaters I still caught about 15 bass, mostly smallmouth, which is good by my standards. I was throwing my normal stuff, but one of the guys I was with caught more than me, but also significantly bigger ones (15-17 inches) flipping a 4 inch dinger texas rigged into the lay downs. Most of mine came on a 4 inch purple worm, a 3 inch swimming minnow, and a top dollar.

Back in the late 70's my uncle and grandad hired a guide (it may have been Stacey King). He taught them to use split shot rigs and crawlers for deep suspended spots around kimberling city, and we have done that every summer ever since. I still catch them great (by my standards...not 300 bass) using basically the same technique.

Agreed. I probably only use mine 15-20 times per year, but my brother and I only have about 5K invested in it. Living in St. Louis county, there are a few pretty nice bass boats in my area that I have never seen out of the driveway.

My personal boat philosophy that has kept my crappy boats running is: 1.) Get new batteries every year, or at the very least every other year. They are relatively cheap compared to the boat, and dead ones will ruin your day 2.) Don't use gas that has been sitting around any longer than it normally would in your car. About 2 or 3 weeks. 3.) If you have to finance a boat for more than 3 years you cant afford it.

I had a 98 40HP Mariner that was oil injected. I never had any issues with it, and I didn't have to premix the gas which was convenient. I got rid of that boat a few years ago because the deck was rotting out, and it needed lots of electrical work done, but the motor ran great when I sold it. In fact, it gave me less trouble than the 2002 Evinrude I currently have. One thing I noticed was, if it sat for any length of time, it always started up really rich/smoky. I think, even when I ran the gas out of it for storage, that some oil was dripping into the carbs, or maybe there was some residual oil in the tube that fed the carbs.

That would be censor not sensor. I guess you slept through civics class and English. 🤣

Not me.

It seems a bit ironic that they clear all the trees from a hillside, turn it into a resort overlooking a dock lined man made reservoir and then call it "wilderness mountain".

What are you even talking about? Are you on the wrong thread? Maybe you should lay off the MaryJane...

That was my knee jerk reaction as well, but hopefully he cleans up some of the trash and takes care of the property. Unfortunately for him, I just don't think that stretch of the river is very attractive to the public. I enjoy it and its convenient, but its a lot of slow pools with lots of paddling, and ankle deep riffles you have to get out at. You cant run a jetboat, the scenery isn't anything special, and even with my limited skillset I have to assume the fishing there is marginal compared to other Ozark streams. Best of luck to him though.

I went again with a few friends on Sunday. The river is about as low as I've seen it, but still doable, just gotta do a bit of riffle dragging. Some feller bought the property at mounts down to hwy 8, he seems like a nice guy. He said he is going to turn it into a campground and charge a 5 dollar day use fee. No fee if you're not leaving a car there though. I always thought that was a public access, but apparently the property has always been private. The fishing was about the same, smallmouth and largemouth up to about 15 inches. One guy I was with caught a 17inch smallie. I tried some new lures/techniques outside of what I normally do. Generally I catch most of my fish on an xrap 8, 1/16th oz jig I pour with 4inch chompers worm, and a top dollar. Sometimes Ill use a wacky worm, or swim a small swimbait. This time I tried to put that stuff away and use new lures. 1st was a megabass flap slap. I thought it was like a jerkbait, but its really buoyant and more like a crankbait. I caught a few on it fishing it more like a crankbait with twitches. Its nice, but I wasn't too blown away. 2nd was an elaztech turd craw with the belly weighted hook. That thing worked! No surprise there, its weedless so you can throw it in the heavy stuff, its durable cuz its elaztech, and its a pretty realistic looking craw. I think they still bite the worm better though, but maybe that is more of a confidence thing. 3rd was a small arkie crankbait. I put bigger hooks on it (#6), cuz the ones it comes with seemed small. This is something ill probably throw more often. I caught several on it, and it was a lot of fun on a little spinning rod. 4th was a tiny little whopper plopper. The bluegill were all over it and every retrieve there was a small school of panfish slapping at. I caught a few small bass on it and several sunfish. It is a fun little bait, but I like the size 90 better because the panfish leave it alone more. The last new lure I used was a willow leaf chatter bait that zman makes. I used a bass assassin baby shad as a trailer. When reeled super fast it is really erratic and darts all over the place. I didn't fish it much and didn't catch anything on it. It would probably be good on chasing/schooling fish, but on this little creek I don't see myself using it much.

Great job!! Table rock has some giant crawdads!

lol this wont last long

Yup that's the one, and no not really. The last few years I like to hang to the right, although you're correct about debris, and the slough to the left. Eventually it does spit you out a small creek a bit before the bridge. In either situation you're likely to have to get out and drag your boat over some ankle deep areas, or under/over some trees and weeds.

So far I've only done 8 to leadwood twice this year, once in early may, and once this past weekend. It is fishing about the same as it always does for me in the summer. You can see the bottom in about 3-5 feet of water, not much current in most places, and most of the fish I caught were in it. I caught fish on my usual assortment of topwater plugs, jerkbaits, and plastic worms. Mostly smallmouth, with the occasional largemouth and several panfish mixed in. I caught more the last time than this past weekend, but I caught maybe 20 or 25 bass each trip, mostly between 10 and 15 inches. The biggest was a 17 inch largemouth on a popper and a 16inch smallie on a worm.

This just made my day!

Well....bye

Lol ok. 🤣

Does Steve know this? Maybe a moderator needs to make a note before every post letting everyone know not to post a picture or allude to the fact that one may be killing a bass. Agreed. Meat fisherman have to hang trotlines for catfish, but catch and release anglers get to bass fish? Catfish are gross. Maybe the catch and release anglers should target other species too instead of bass. This has been litigated for years now...table Rock does not need supplemental stocking of bass anymore than it needs stocking of bluegill and crawdads. They are ubiquitous. Tradition, friendship, commeradery. They are legal, tasty, abundant, and easy to catch. You don't have to understand it. You're not involved and you're feelings on the matter are irrelevant. Trotlines are super boring. Bass are probably easier to catch and more abundant on rod and reel. You could say target bluegill though instead of bass for a fry. If this is the case, it should to be clearly outlined on the table rock forum that there are special rules regarding posting. If you look at any other forum on Ozark anglers you'll see people with stringers of fish and nobody gets upset. (Except river smallmouth...but the same rule should apply in those forums)

Yeah I learned my lesson about keeping bass and telling people about it on table rock. Id never received so much anger over a legal limit of bass. It is a shame that it discourages the sharing of information, but this is the internet, and folks are quick to get offended and can and will voice their opinions. I still give away all of my information when I fish, but unless the fish are a "politically correct" species i wont post any dead ones. Im glad you all had such a good time.

As advertised, we were able to fish Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. We stayed at Southwinds. We always try to stay there if we can, they are absolutely great. Like has been mentioned already, the lake was 10 feet high with lots of mud and debris in the upper ends. The water just outside the bushes right now is about 10-15 feet deep. Friday evening we put in at Mutton creek and trolled crankbaits all over the cove. Mostly flicker shad 7s and bandit 300s. Fish were biting well but scattered. Some were right up on the bank, and others were in the middle of the cove. I forgot the net! DOH! We caught 6 keeper crappie, and had a few others come off at the boat. We also caught a short walleye and a few bass. WT was 61 around mutton and few foot of visibility. There was quite a bit of brown water in the main lake. Saturday was high skies and mostly calm winds. Put in at mutton again. It was a grind, but we caught 5 keeper crappies and a keeper walleye with some largemouth and white bass mixed in. We trolled crankbaits, pulled bottom bouncers and threw soft baits in the bushes most of the day. No real consistent pattern, just one here and one there, some shallow some deep. Most of the keepers came on crankbaits though. Sunday we put in at Orleans trail. The wind was blowing like crazy so we stayed 3/4 the way back in the cove most of the time. WT again about 60, but visibility was great. I could see the bottom in 8 or 10 feet of water probably. Trolling only produced 1 keeper crappie and 1 keeper walleye, but we were able to catch 2 keeper walleye jigging worms as well. Later in the afternoon we started pulling bottom bouncers around some good marks in 25-35 FOW and immediately started catching walleye. We ended up with 13 keeper walleye, a few shorts, a few white bass, and 1 smallmouth, and despite not having a net, lost very few at the boat. Something absolutely CRUSHED my spinner rig, but after 2 or 3 hard pulls bent the hook completely out. After that, I took that slow death hook off and put on a heavier gauge hook. I have never had consistent luck pulling spinner rigs before, so it was really fun catching them so well on a technique I had little confidence in. I love Stockton Lake so much.