merc1997 Bo

that is sure not a bad evening of fishing. lots of fun with a smallie tugging on the line. bo

chief and moguy, neither one of you never order anything on-line?? and, i guess that cabela's and bps warehouses have no automation. what about how cars are produced, processed food is made, how banking is done, ect. facets of automation is a fact of modernization. how do you think, most fishing lures are produced for the most part? we are conversing right now in a form of automation. just sayin'. bo

and less glitzy places do not also provide jobs? also, on-line stores also have employees. not really any right or wrong answer. guess it is just how you perceive it. bo

all very interesting. just from my perspective about jm, and that is, he is not the most honest person to have any dealings with. i speak from things i know that have happened to other people i know that have dealt with bps, and from my own experience. i might have more congratulations for bps if all they have done was in a more honest manner. i think someone else mentioned this observation, and if bps does take over cabela's, it might really increase tackle warehouse's business. they just moved into a bigger warehouse. not only do they have great inventory, but competitive prices because they do not have all the overhead of glitzy stores. bo

water that cold somewhat difficult to find active fish in. did you stay in that water temp? fluctuating water temps is part of the difficulty of consistently catching fish way up the white. it was a gorgeous day. tha tis always a plus even when the fish are not cooperating. bo

with bass fishing, certainly nothing is ever written in stone. i too would have figured the shallow bite would be on. pretty good example of not being too set in our ways to change to whatever method is necessary to catch them. bo

it has always been my opinion that you can catch fish out of a bath tub. i started out in my early years in a next to nothing boat with a flasher. join in, kick butt and take names. bo

that is not bad for a chunk and wind day. great average weight too. i can remember those day, especially back in the 12v trolling motor days, that we would burn up two sets of batteries in a day of fishing. i guess that i am just too old and cranky to love doing that all day anymore. but, if i were casting for cash and it came down to it, i would do it. with the water cooling down, and on the right nasty day, there will be some lights out shallow fishing. that is why table rock is a fun lake to fish, especially when the wake makers go home, you can almost always fish a shallow or deep pattern. bo

champ we fished the dam area monday night, and did not do much. only had two keepers. my buddy that fished big m at the same time just killed them and had 6 really quality bass. i am sure that these bass out deeper on the flats are the same ones that are coming up really shallow at night on the right nights. those right nights will be fewer and further between now with colder nights. the bass are shad eating machines right now, and it will get better both shallow fishing or deep as we go along now. there will be those really nasty cloudy rainy days, just like we are going to have, that deep fishing will not be worth a hoot, and one will have to switch gears and go to the bank. i don't mind the cold, wind, and clouds, but i am just not on fishing out in the rain anymore. the cold is hard enough to deal with, with ra, but is worse with the rain thrown in. i am just really excited about seeing all on the really small bass that are in the lake. now, if the better bass do not go home with the a-riggers, we actually might start seeing more numbers of 4-6 lb. bass showing up. if you and donna get out during these next rainy days, i am betting there will be a really good shallow bite, and i am thinking more on flatter bank than the steeper ones. there are lots of shallow bass in the kings, aching back and above. the water there has more color, and i have watched the bass whacking the shad, but have not figured out what will trigger them into biting. that area for fishing should do nothing but get better until the water gets too cold, and those shad and bass migrate back down stream. bo

quill, saw your rig in the parking lot, but we did not cross paths. the bass are really healthy looking right now. bo

this will be night and daytime fishing. actually wanted to tell of the night fishing trip one of my buddies had monday night on spinjig. his best 6 weighed around 23 lbs. that is some really quality bass. we went wednesday night and i caught a 5 b. 4 oz. right off the bat and had 3 other keepers with one of them a solid 3. the front shut them down fairly quick. went this afternoon and just killed them. best 6 was an easy 18 lbs. depth was between 20 to 25 ft. caught mostly largemouth, but had some nice keeper kentuckies in the mix. these fish are roaming the flats and you have to cover some water to find them, but when you do they are in a wad. really nice to see some quality largemouth coming on, and there really is a great amount of small ones. hope in a couple more years, there will really be a number of nice keepers. water temp is around 67. did see jeff's truck in parking lot, but never did see him on the lake. bo

out of the ones that i have caught, it seems the cross between the lmg always tends to be bigger. nothing like getting bigger smallmouth out of the deal.size of a lmg with the fight of a smallmouth. bo

that one was crossed with a lmg. you can tell because of the brown eyes. a cross with a kentucky will have red eyes. bo

nice job bo

i will have to tell that linda caught 10 of the 15 keepers we had on friday. luckily, i caught all the bigger ones. my fishing help is going to be drying up with her, as i hate getting beat. once she gets the casting part down, she will be able to catch fish with anyone. she definitely had the right "pull" friday. there is a very good lesson to be learned here, and it is the fact that most of the time, you have to be fishing the right speed at the right depth to trigger a strike. don't keep fishing your cast the same way each time unless you are catching them. change your speed of retrieve, fall rate, drag or hop it ect. until you start catching them, then remember exactly what you did that got the strike. bo

right now, that area is wall to wall shad. many feeding bass will be on flats or pockets where the wind is helping blow the shad onto or into. the next issue is to figure out how to trigger bites. you just have to keep trying different lures and presentations to figure out what will trigger bites. i also believe that when there are just so many shad in an area that many bass stay out in the middle suspended. they can eat just as well out there as they can on or near the bank. but, they will still tend to use terrain changes to trap the shad. you can find shad without bass, but you will not find bass without shad. deep trying, there are plenty of bass in the bridgeport area. wind can be your aid when fishing water with color and plenty of shad. bo

the lmg population got totally wiped out back when we had the virus that did so much damage. the smallmouth and the kentucky population really came on, but there just were not enough lmgs to get a start to repopulate. those better ones that you are catching is because of all the tournaments on the lower end that go to the james or up the white and bring them back to weigh-in. this is exactly why the tournament scene needs to have the take off points from different areas of the lake and not the same place everytime. when you start moving a sand pile from one place and empty in it in the same place each trip soon you have the same sand pile in the new spot and the old spot is empty. just the way it is. bo

fished three days. spent thursday cover a good portion of the lake scouting. ended up with 12 keepers. took linda fishing friday and saturday afternoon. friday, we had 15 keepers and saturday 9 keepers. bulk of them came from 15 to 20 ft. deep. upper lake best areas. attached are a few pics from friday. bo

when it is literally solid shad above cape fair, I would imagine that there are plenty of blacks suspended just about anywhere with plenty of food within inches of their mouth. just my guess of where all the black in that area are. bo

did a little fishing monday afternoon. went over to cape fair to look for new areas that the bass are gathering in. only found one place with what i was looking for, and it did not seem to have many keepers. upstream from cape fair, there were shad any and everywhere. so many that it is easy to see why catching anything is difficult. a bass could merely swim around with its mouth open anywhere and be full in about two seconds. i also could tell that these warmer days has moved the bass once again. like i have stated before, fall fishing is somewhat like april fishing. the bass are constantly on the move and can change from day to day. it is a new hunting trip everytime out. as water temps drop, there will be a bit more consistent pattern and movement will become easier to predict. warm as it is going to be for a few days, i am thinking about getting back out at night. bo

nothing like fall colors!! thanks for the pics. bo

got out a couple of hours yesterday afternoon with linda. not the best day with the wind and clouds for what we wanted, but did manage to catch a few. had 4 keepers with one nice one and some shorts. not bad for the conditions and short amount of time. notice the new crappie head. works great for the half of a senko. bo

that is a really nice in this day and age on table rock! bo

really nice lmg. i just never seem to ever get on a good topwater bite. there is nothing like the bite on a topwater either. you've had a great two days of fishing (catching)!! bo

been out a couple of times, one night trip and one day trip. that's right, i do fish in the daytime also. bass will be in another one of those constant transitions until winter fishing gets here. why? because of falling water temps and what ever turnover we might have. you have three options is dealing with tunrover. 1. fish where it is not turning. 2. fish where it has already turned. 3. fish moving water as there will not be a turnover. the night trip resulted in 9 keepers, with a really nice 4lb. meanmouth and a couple of other 3's. all were caught from bank line to 10 ft., mostly on a 1/2 oz. spingjig. daytime trip was a killer. at least 20 keepers, with quite a few really nice ones. best 6 was an easy 21 lbs. best depth was scattered from 6 to 20 ft. both trips were on the upper end. mike sowders and i always called this time of the year, the time you always have your sp's in the boat. that would be for day fishing. if going at night this time of the year, better have some j's also. keep up with the bait, and there will, most times, be bass with them. bo