merc1997 Bo

has been perfect weather to chunk and wind, but i don't see any posts from those that should have been out. bo

got out thursday and took linda fishing today. did pretty good both days, but did have to do quite a bit of hunting around to figure out what is going on. pretty darn had to imaginge catching bass 50 ft. deep already, and i was not fishing the dam area either. end of points with 50 feet of water seems to be key. best lure has been the 3/4 ZincSpoon. we have been fishing it on 15 and 20 lb. braid. we did catch a few of them on a 3/4 GrassJig with a 4" swimmer behind the head. the GrassJig setup is really nice when there are tree present. it still seems to be key to cast to these bass and get over the top of them. catching fishing vertical has still not been too successful. maybe the bass are telling us it is going to be a bad winter. who knows. goes to show to not assume the bass have to be anywhere and go looking. bo

had to go last night (11-2). warm temps and the moon almost full. bite was not too bad until that front seemed to arrive and then it was hard to come across a willing one. dragged mike sowders back out and we always have a great time on the water whether the bass are willing or not. we ended up with 10 keeps. 7 of the brown variety, 1 k, and 2 lmgs and one of them was in the 4 1/2 range. the k was a 17" and all the brown ones were 16-17". we caught everyone on of them including shorts on a 1/2 GrassJig with a bluegill skirt and a solid blue trailer. depth still 10 to 15' for the most part. bluffs still was about the only place we could find a bite. we fished a lot of flatter areas that were full of bait, but could not find a bite in those areas. water temp was 64. still some decent night fishing to be had, but you do have to hand pick the right night to go. still waiting to see if tonight will work to go because of the rain prediction. bo

we were down in your neck of the wood actually. nice to see some green and not all brown, right? i can tell you that it takes a whole lot of looking right now, but there are a few of them wadded up if you spend enough time searching. i am going to be trying out those brown bass friday night. it is supposed to be decent temp wise and it is the full moon. bo

got to fish downstream or upstream from any area that is bubbling. bo

as i have stated, there are fish bunched, but not just every where. we caught 15 to 25 ft. over 35 to 40 feet of water on 3/4 Zinc Spoons and 1/2 GrassJig with a 4" swimmer on it. we turned these loose after pic. we caught 14 of 15 keepers and several shorts. the GrassJig and swimmer caught more of the better ones. we were casting it and pumping in through the trees and they were whacking the heck out it. did a fair amount of chunking and winding without much to show for that effort. that is my long time buddy mike sowders hefting the bass. did anyone notice the nice crappie in the first pic? tasted pretty darn good. bo

i can see that all of our efforts to bring those brownies from the dam and turn them loose at eagle rock is paying off. i've even caught a couple of 13 inchers, which would have been spawned by some of the first ones we brought to eagle rock 3 or for years ago. glad you got to catch some of them and thanks for the pics. bo

they are just still scattered, and lots of areas are going through turnover. there will be a big difference in two weeks. this cold spell will get most of the lake over with turnover, and water temps will be down closer to mid 60's. not for sure if the best bite will be deep or shallow, but the bite should be a lot better. i went way above the ark. line in the kings the other day. water temp up there was 60 and very little bait fish. had to get closer to hickory hollow (aching back for us natives) to find the food, but it was one of those days that everything was out in the channel and not up on the flats. did manage 3 bites on a lipless, but were all shorts. bo

west and southwest banks have a shade layer staring mid-day this time of the year, and i believe that shade layer that is created has more to do with any fishing being there than the wind. just my opinion, but it is proven fact that shade provides cover for ambush. bo

get a bottle of the liquid and you can open and reclose the lid. to apply, use a toothpick. this method has worked for me for a long time. bo

those big ol' drum are still fun to catch, and yes, grand this time of the year, the bass are very flat oriented. golf ball size rock can be a real plus. a lot of the time this time of the year on grand, you have to wade through a bunch of whites on the way to collecting a nice bag of largemouths. glad you got to get out and catch a few. bo

supposed to be windy everyday too. champ, you had better be out there. just your kind of days. chunk and winding at its best. i might have to give the old lipless a workout myself. bo

hybrids and whites both have different codes of lengths and limits. kind of one of those things where you are supposed to know the difference just like the difference in a kentucky or a largemouth. bo

well, there may be some surprised and happy campers when they get to catching a few brownies in the area. we are into our 4th year of bring them from the lower end and letting the off at eagle rock on the way home. this has been a stellar year because the bass never went deep all summer, and that has allowed us to bring the back all summer. this year we have let loose around 300 of those brown critters and i have heard from several about catching a keeper brownie or two at eagle rock. i have even caught a couple of 13"ers', which would have been spawned from some of the first ones we brought up this way, and i caught a couple of keepers right across from the ramp. that means some of them have taken up residence really close. there is still a lot if night time fall brownie catching to be had on the lower end. linda and i brought back another 9 on them last night and 5 of therm were of the 17' variety. we are still catching them on steep stuff down there. does not seem to be anything going on flatter terrain. bo

when they get off, they can be as big as you want to make them. i actually know a guy that can measure the weight of a bass by the bite. bo

i think 80 is a great score. the way my body is i could not even shoot double bogey. so, i don't even think of taking golf back up at all. better fishing is almost here. i think in the next week or so, you will begin to find some up on the flats. as i have stated before, it really helps to cherry pick the right days to go, especially when you are wanting to catch them doing certain things. but, i really think both deep and shallow fishing is really close to being here. bo

you are right about the abundance of shad, but that is the best reason that i know of to do some stocking and really get our bass population back to where it was before the fish kill. bo

night fishing is not suffering. we caught 10 keepers from dark to midnight monday night in the dam area. i did fish the toyota tourney with a guy from nc, and we had 0 keeps for the day. however, before the tournament on friday and sat., we did find some really good lng's grouped up in the 25 to 35 ft. zone, but the front and storm just blew them apart and scattered them for sunday. so, we got even with them monday night. better daytime fishing is not far off though. the ones that are gathered up right now, and catchable, are not just everywhere and really takes a lot of time and traveling to find a group of them. bo

tournament is on sunday. bo

the name zona comes to mind when speaking of hauling bass around for no reason. bo

gee, you must not read that all the experts say that you need to use an invisible line. no telling what you might be able to catch if you started using an invisible line. bo

as you gain experience, you will find out that table rock can fish really small this time of the year, and the weather is making it even worse. bo

the homer sloan tournament was same weight to win, 15 ls., and 11 lb. was 5th. big bass was a bit over 5. bo

it would be my guess you might be fishing the toyota owners tournament. good luck and hope you find how to catch them. table rock is fishing is on the difficult side during the day right now. if you are just down here to catch some fish, i would consider going at night. smallmouth fishing at night has been very good. bo

exactly why i quit quite some time ago. bo