merc1997 Bo

i understand just moving on and letting it go, but on the other hand, that is exactly why this country is in the shape it is in. at some point "political correctness" needs to go away. i imagine that i would have asked this person if he did not see us fishing there, and most people would be not quite as rude and give an angler more room. after his telling me that he can fish where he wants to, i would imagine that a few casts would clang off his boat. my explanation would be that is why it is the best way to give an angler room. it is for safety purposes. oh well, guess we will always have idiots to put up with. just another reason that i try to go when everyone else is in bed. bo

what can i say. we are just two old farts that still love to fish. bo

my old fishing buddy dale and i got out for a short trip. it seems that most of my fishing anymore is short trips. wonder if that has to do with age?? anyway, the bite was really slow. in fact, i even put on some plastic to see if that made any difference and caught two shorts right off, and then dale caught a good one on the jig. i put up the plastic and picked the jig back up and decided to just stick with it and hopefully if i got bit, it would be better ones. we ended up with 6 keeps and that was nearly all the bites. besides the two biggest pictured, three were 3+ to 4, and one 17 inch. we were back on the trailer at 12:30. the bites are still out deeper, but we did slide in and plied the bank every now and then, but not one touch. water temp was 67, but i do not sense that many bass are going to spawn for a while. some, but not the majority. bo

the 3/8 Elites brown and blue are on the website. i am using 50# stren fluorescent braid. last night i used a #25 blue uncle josh crawfrog for a trailer. most of the time until after spawn a gentle lift and let the jig coast is all that is needed. twitching and hopping as many seem to like to do does not often work this time of the year. yes, i use a black light. it is a led light made by lunar extreme, and it is by far better than any tube light, including the two bulb ones, and it costs about the same as a two bulb. one thing that i might mention is that mike sowders that was fishing with me was using 20lb. mono and the same jig and did not get a bite all night until i made him try a 1/2 oz., and he then caught a couple before we quit around 1. so, it was evident, that the 3/8 was falling too slow on the 20lb. mono. so, if you use 20 mono, you might need to be throwing a 1/2. most people do not realize how important having the right speed is to triggering strikes. your line size and type makes a difference on what your fall rate is. that is why so many think that when they caught more bass by going to floro, all they did was change the speed of what they were using, and got the speed correct to trigger bites. use whatever line you are comfortable with, but you need to change weights on falling baits until you get your speed correct. last night was a prime example. i suggested to mike that the 20 mono had more drag than the braid i was using and his jig was going too slow. bingo, he immediately got bit. bo

got to revise, and i do not know why it ended up posting three times. i kept getting an error message. but, it is supposed to read 5 bass that are three pound plus or over 3 . three of them were 5 lb. plus. so, best 5 would have been in the 23 lb. range. bo

got out to enjoy the gorgeous moon, and got to catch a few in the process. still doing better on bluff, but did catch two in a bigger cove. bites are still 6 to 12 feet, and still caught everything on the same 3/8 brown and blue Elite that i have used for about two months. i think i am on the 5th skirt. ended up with 10 keepers with 5 of them above 3 lbs. i must be fishing the wrong areas. never saw or heard another boat. bo

i will live it with this. when you build a pond to fish does it ever get full of fish without stocking?? basically what the mdc did with table rock after the fish kill is to build a pond, put a male and female bass in it, and allow fishing, and you can see the result, it has taken 20 years to build something you could call a decent bass population again. the mdc spends plenty of money for trout, but trout fisherman, and nothing against them at all, do not generate as many tax dollars as what is spent on bass fishing. but, the mdc is always crying they don' t have enough money. pretty easy to figure out the solution to that , and that is to build better fisheries and draw people here to fish instead of texas. i do remember when table rock was the top rated bass lake in the country and people from all over came hear to fish. table rock is not even in the top 100 lakes. that is a pretty sad fact. bo

that slot limit does not pertain to all texas lakes, and texas has great fishing in all of their lakes because of the stocking programs. texas only took about 4 years to have bass back in their lakes after the lmb virus kill that they also experienced. table rock is just now begging to have a decent bass population. still not the best in the world, but compared to what we have suffered through since the kill back in the late 90's, it is better. i can tell you that for many years after the fish kill, boat ramps were pretty much empty. how many tax dollars to you suppose were not generated in all those years of empty boat ramps???? way more that the cost of stocking bass. it could be that a slot limit might help with increasing spawning success. but, we still have people that can not tell the difference in a kentucky and a largemouth. so, a slot limit presents a problem. bo

dandy brownies. i do have to giggle just a bit when viewing the tackle store full of rods. why have all that out when you know all you are going to be doing is to throw the little guy? i guess you have to get them out once in a while to knock off the moth ball smell, right? glad you two had a very good day of catching. bo

champ you are certainly right in that the food bass of table rock will support many more bass than it has. not just bass, but crappie and whites as well. think about how fishing pressure would be taken off of bass if whites were busting shad all over the lake during the summer, as they used to be. there used to be many times back in the old days that we would go chase the whites all evening instead of largemouth. plus, whites as well as crappie are great to eat. stocking bass does work. how does the mdc think lake fork keeps producing bass the way it does? that is right, from stocking programs. there are many more fisherman on the lake than back in the 60's and 70's, and just like roaring river state park, there are many more bass taken from the lake each day. take a look at how many more tax dollars are generated by have the lake full of fisherman, but that will end when there is not much there to catch. a prime example is how many of the bassers around beaver lake come to table rock because the bass fishing is better. that generates tax dollars here. while i am on my box about the mdc, i can tell that this years white spawn could very well be very diminished. the mdc was up in ark. in the kings shocking for walleye. the whites were up there attempting to spawn, and the shocking turned the water white with the males sperm. whites are a very fragile fish, and i would doubt that very many of them survived the shocking much less spawned successfully. bo

i have harped on this subject for eons with the mdc. since they refuse to ever think about stocking bass, i have suggested that they could divide the lake into three sections and have a closed cove policy, or designate a certain time period to be catch and release only for bass. i know that does not ring well for the tournament fisherman, but even two or three years would yield a big increase in the lake wide population. i know there are many that live for catching bass off of beds (sight fishing) every year. but, i have never seen how that is helping with spawning success. i have always had better success to hunt for pre-spawn bass, and follow that pattern out to the main lake, and by the time it is over on the main lake go to areas that bass spawned first, and those bass are usually ready to begin eating again. but, as long as anyone is within the mdc regulations, they are entitled to fish as they wish, and i am happy for the bass they catch and many happy days on the water they get to enjoy. you know, this discussion would not ever come up if the mdc would take a look at the success stocking has in the state of texas and other places, and start doing some stocking programs in table rock. just my opinion. bo

what a difference a day makes. got again for a bit last night and there was not a thing going on that i could find. should have just kept at it all night while they were active. really goes to show how much weather can throw a kink into things, and how, when you can, can increase the catching by picking the times when conditions are right. i had a great suspicion before leaving the house yesterday evening that the weather was not going to be in favor of a good bite. however, a bad fishing trip still beats working. bo

takes ben. great info. bo

unfortunately, i have to work. lots of orders to get out. it definitely was one of those nights that they were biting all night. bo

pretty good short trip. put in at 7:45, and back on the trailer at 12:30. had 20 plus keepers. most bites were still from 8 to 15 ft. deep. all were caught on a 3/8 Elite with brown and blue skirt and big blue flapper for a trailer. bluff banks are still accounting for the majority of bass, but did catch a few in coves, but they were still relating to the channel banks. bo

very nice bass and very healthy looking. bo

i think some can be attributed to fishing pressure, and the other thing is that because of lack of cover, many crappie have become open water shad eaters as the bass have done. bo

pretty much what i found friday night when i took linda out. put in at 7:30 back on the trailer at 11:30. six keeps with a 4 lb. in the mix. those six were practically all the bites we had. i think between all the boats and the weather, they were shut down. one other thing in the area we fished, is there is an enormous amount of shad, and they are off shore, and i think many bass are with them, even at night. bo

well bill, what a great day of fishing. lots of laughing both ways, and good memories for each of you. that is just as fun as watching kids catch fish! bo

fished three hours monday night 8-11. caught 5 keeper kentuckies and all of them came on a 1/4 hair jig depth was 10 to 15 feet. water temp was around 57, everything came off main lake bluff. tried a few coves but could not come up with a bite in any of them. fished last night from 7:30 to 12. had 15 keepers and nothing better than 2 3/4. did catch 4 of the keepers in a cove, but that one cove was the only one i got a bite in. the rest of the keepers came off a blufff. bites last night had scooted up and were mostly 6 to 12 feet deep. 5 keepers came on a 1/4 hair jig, and the rest all on a 3/8 skirted jig. water temp was 60. so, water temp can make a difference in the bite. the friday nighters and wednesday nighters brought in some really nice bass. good to see those 5' and 6's showing up again. there was lots of busting activity out in the lake both nights, and that is a good indication that many bass are off shore. bo

sounds like a very good day to me. i have to laugh at having the proverbial traveling tackle store, especially to throw one bait all day. i can remember when i basically did the same. but, maybe dave is carrying all the extras in case he runs across someone that needs to borrow something. great learning day and thanks for sharing. bo

nice one bill!!! nothing like catching the big un's. bo

great job, and it interesting that there was not a bite to be had on the main lake. that would be an indication to me that there is a lot of cold water coming down out of beaver, and when that happens, it will most definitely move the fish. bo

i hear you bill. daytime fishing sure seems to be very hit and miss right now. we have one front after another and the water temps are up and down also. even for dummies like me that have to go at night to find some of the dumb bass, they are hard to find and most definitely are not up on the bank. i think you did a good job of catching anything with the wind at hurricane level. with those conditions, you just chunk and wind and take what you can get. bo

i think you were on the right track in concentrating on other lures than a crankbait. seems as though that bite is over with until after spawn. could be wrong, but has always been the norm over the years. bo