merc1997 Bo

very nice fish by everyone, especially when that is a 4 fish limit. sure seems to be a decent bite on the lower end. thanks for posting the results jason. bo

you are right that the corp needs to go back to old practices of dropping lakes levels adequately during the winter. table rock used to always be down to 900 or slightly lower by the time spring got here and bull shoals was at least 15 ft. below pool. the problem with the corp is they are no longer about flood control first, they are about having lakes as full as they can get them for generation. this would all be cool, if they want to rebuild ramps and parking lots since anything usable in this day and age seems to be underwater and not usable most of the time anymore. but, table rock dam is really not constructed to deal with much higher water than we have right now. there in lies a real big issue. there will come a time, that with the continual higher water levels being kept, we will get that right set of rains that will put water over the dam and anything in the taneycomo drain will be under water. it has happened at least once already, and that is not the worst it could be. bo

curtis you will have to use moonshine or cow creek. old 86 is pretty flat and is most likely still unusable. to answer slowbait, caught some on main lake and coves both. most of the lmg came from coves. bo

put the boat in the water at 8 pm and loaded up at 1am. 13 keepers total, but the bite was not what you would call great. pretty much 1 or two to a spot. best bait was definitely a 1/2 jig without rattles. depth 15 to 20 feet. 5 lmg keeps, 1 spot, and the rest brownies. size went like this 1 4lb. lmg, and 2 3lb. lmg. 1 4lb. brownie, and 3 in the 3lb. range. really surprised at the amount of quality fish when it was 1 or 2 per spot. did not catch many shorts at all. bites were of a variety. some just knocked the fire out of it, and some were just something happened different. that is another reason that i said the bite was not what i would call great. just started piecing together spots with similarities and there seemed to be a catchable bass on each one. wish the bite back up this way was better, but i think the dead shad are telling what is wrong with the bite and it boils down to low O2 levels. bo

nice job! bo

wayne, don't feel bad. we have been going some up here, but with just about the same results that you had. the bass in the upper end have to eat just the same as the they do on the lower end. there is something in the equation that we are missing. very frustrating to say the least. champ, i hear ya' for sure. one thing that the lower end offers is the great small mouth population, and they are just plain fun to catch! however, i know that there at least some bass in the upper end and i sure am scratching my head why i can not figure out where and when they are feeding. i have seen lots of some type of fish on the electronics, at night, suspended 25 to 30ft. deep, in some areas. they never connect up with any type of structure and are sure enough deeper than where the thermocline is indicated on the electronics. maybe some day i will discover the key and not have to drive so far to catch bass. what can i say when you can fish twice as much for the same amount of money staying closer to the house. . bo

i am still puzzled as to why i can not figure out a bite on the upper end, or there is just not one to be had. nothing like a 100 mile round trip to catch bass when there is water 15 miles from the house. go figure. bo

that explains it! scared them to death bo

a friend of mine in the big m area was walking the band and noticed several dead gizzard shad, several dead crawdads, and a couple of bass. he was on the south side of the lake across from carter creek. he was telling me that just this morning wondering if i thought that might be why fishing up this way is not too good. bo

got out friday night on the upper end and fishing was great, but the catching was lacking. had three keepers and three or four shorts. one nice 3 1/2 lb. largemouth. went sunday evening on the lower end and it was lights out catching. fished until 1:30. started around 8. ended up with 15 keepers. of those, there was a lmg around 6 lb., another 4 lb. then in the brownie department was a 5 lb. range and some 3's. had some keeper k's also. most productive depth 15 to 20 feet. the two best baits were a 1/2 Blitz football jig with a bluegill skirt and a green pumpkin trailer and rattles added. the other producer was a naked 3/8 NuJig with a beaver type bait. i fished some very similar terrain on the upper end without any success. really do not know why the lower end seems to have such a better bite. anyway, the bass were just not anywhere. we talked to three other boats that had been out at the same time and none of them did any good. so, there is a bite going on, but on very specific areas and perhaps lure choice and speed are pretty critical. bo

nice largies, but they look kind of skinny for this time of the year. wonder why with all the food? bo

blade baits this time of year can be deadly on schooling bass. the smaller gay blades used to be a summer staple in this area and still work. it is just no one except me still has any. sonars and silver buddies are most often hard to find in the small sizes. the smaller size works better this time of the year because it matches the smaller shad in size. bo

got to bleed them, skin them, take off all the red meat. cube the white meat. boil in shrimp mix and have at it. very good. however, you want to eat them while hot. they get rubbery after they get cool. bo

very nice! bo

well, bill that is the exact pattern that i have experienced at night what few times i have been out, the trolling motor pattern. the bass seem to be scattered everywhere. since you mentioned the thermocline, at night, what i call the crap line, bottoms out at 15 feet, the last couple of times out. most of my bites have been in that range. i do not know about daytime, but at night time, the bites are most definitely more consistent on steeper terrain. with falling water levels most often suspend worse, and those that do move in on something will tend to do so on a steeper structure. i always figured that with falling water levels bass will suspend most of the time because of their natural survival instinct, and that being to not get trapped somewhere. that is why they tend to keep water underneath and above them. no scientific proof of that, but just from what i have observed over the years and adding some country boy logic. the great thing about fishing is that you can fish a lifetime and still not have them figured out. if it was easy, we would all get bored and take up something else, right? bo

if they never figured it out, they will have one whale of a fishing story to tell. bo

area of the lake is probably making differences in level of the shad, and time of day as well. bo

by the way, are you marking many bait ball that deep?? i went for a bit last night and before dark, i did not see any shad deeper than 10 ft. bo

very interesting of some fish being that deep given the amount of water going through the lake. could be that the O2 level is good enough at any depth. therefore, fish and forage can be at whatever level they are wanting to be just as they do in the winter. bo

i hear ya wrench. however, newer electronics and mapping have given a whole lot of people the ability to find in a short time what it took me years to locate. those that will actually take the time to learn what the unit is telling them, and then know how to apply that knowledge can benefit. but, as you alluded to, how many actually will and know how to do that?? many fisherman can benefit more on the catching side by understanding seasonal patterns and the food chain. next, by understanding that our fishing lures are nothing more than tools, and they each have a place and time. finally, better understanding fishing at the correct depth at the correct speed to trigger bites.

i was looking at the pics, and the top pic sure looks like a mean mouth, but the bottom looks more like a brownie. great fish either way, and i am sure a very exciting young man. bo

really great job! i have been suspecting that a great river bite might be had after all the water we have had. kind of nice to not have all the barge traffic and could fish. bo

jason, about an hour before dark is when we started fishing, and looking at the corps' chart, that is just about when they shut down the flow, and then started up while we were catching them late. this is good info for us to put back in the memory banks. of course, tournament hours are what they are and you just have to adjust to the conditions. bo

not when all the bass came after tourney hours. we did not catch one bass until after 1 am. really do not know if we just finally figured out where they were, but i am suspecting that it was more to do with the lake finally calming down. one other thing interesting is the current was running while we were catching them, and when the bite quit, so had the current. champ, i rarely take pics. i am antiquated and do not own a cell phone. my wife does, and when she goes, she takes a few pics. which by the way, our last trip she had some really nice pics of bass we had caught, but they are now in the bottom of the lake still intact on her cell phone. i was impressed by those that caught bass in the derby. i have not been down that way for quite some time, and decided to fish down that way because the cow creek ramp is still in good shape even with the water up, and the parking lot is not affected. bo

really nice job. bo