merc1997 Bo

most of the time that we are fishing, the bass are in a neutral mood. when they are actively feeding, your speed is not such a factor, but when in a neutral mood, speed and depth must be right on to trigger strikes. even when it takes dead sticking your bait, that is still a speed factor of zero. speed of course can be either horizontal or vertical. of those two directions, you have to figure out which of the two the bass are preferring. a lot of the times in the early spring, bass seem to prefer something in the horizontal motion. you need to keep this in mind, even when fishing something such as a jig. a coast type retrieve will do better most of the time during this period as opposed to letting your jig drop with a belly in your line and let it drop straight to the bottom after picking it up. right now, a more vertical drop will work better. you should always try different retrieves and speed with any lure until you discover the right combination. another example of perceived speed would be say an 8" straight tail worm, and an 8" snake tail worm fished with the same weight. bass will perceive those as two different speeds, even though they might actually fall very close in speed. top water baits also require different speeds on different days to gather strikes. i have seen days that i had to work a spook at the speed of light, nearly, to draw strikes, and the next day a very slow cadence was needed. fish the right depth at the right speed. bo

fall rate still factors in, even dragging the bottom. when your lure pops up over something, it is the speed that it falls back that often is the strike triggering factor. the amount of weight you have on also factors in as to how fast you can drag and keep the lure on bottom if needed. so, line size and amount of weight really need to be joggled to find the exact combination to trigger strikes. bo

i would say that you have been doing quite well. top water bites are always fun too. bo

contrary to popular believe, i do fish in the daytime, when i have to, and more so in the fall and winter. sink rate in the daytime is still crucial to triggering strikes, just as when crank bait fishing, tuning in on the right retrieve speed. you would not fish a crank bait or spinner bait one speed all the time would you?? the answer to that is NO. speed is just as a critical factor when fishing falling type lures, or dragging the bottom with them. here is another example that it is more about the correct speed. as an experiment, my buddy and i were catching fish on a split shot rig, during the day, on 6lb. mono. just to see if there was any difference in bites between using heavier line versus light line, we each rigged up a rig with 12lb, and one with 6lb. on the 12lb. we tried different weights until we had the exact same fall rate as the 6lb rig, which we had already been catching bass on, but has several freight train break offs. one of us fished the light line while the other fished the heavier line, and we would switch off. there was not one bit of difference in the amount of bites light line versus heavy line, but there was a major difference in bass landed. the heavier line won hands down. it put more bass in the boat, and most important, the big bass bites. we have since done this same experiment with light line versus heavier line, and as long as we get the sink rates the same, there is very little if any difference in the amount of bites. but, there is always a big difference in bass put over the side of the boat, particularly when dealing with bigger bass anywhere near cover. kelly williamson and i have tried the same experiment using drop shots. we were not doodling vertical, but casting and dragging back across the bottom. very little difference in bites, but big difference in favor of heavier line in the landing department. there is not a right or wrong here, but just different methods of catching the same bass. one other important factor is to fish with what you have confidence in. bo

your line size and type equates to sink rate. you probably would have caught the same fish if you had taken the time to match your buddy's sink rate. here is an easy example. i was using 14lb. line, a 5/16 weight and an 8 inch worm. i was catching one after the other. my buddy asked what size sinker i had on, and i told him. he was using 20lb though. i kept catching them, and he finally noticed my smaller line, and put on a 3/8 sinker and immediately went to catching them. most of the time, getting the sink rate correct is more important than an exact size of line. bo

it was almost a night of the trolling motor pattern. caught 6 keepers and 3 shorts. two spots produced two keepers each. those were hot holes for sure. the other two keepers came on two other spots. of the 6 keeps, three were lm, 1 kentucky, and two brownies. did not have any bites deeper than 20ft. best lures were senkos and beaver type baits. did have some nice size to the keepers. shortest one was 16 inches. nothing over 3 1/2 though. tried some steep stuff, but not one bite. everyone bite we had was way out on very flat stuff. i still say we do not have a great amount of bass in the lake. better than what it was for a long time?? sure. but, not anywhere near the amount of bass we had before the fish kill. if we did have, you would catch more than one or two off of a spot. bo

i fished the dam area last night. we ended up with 7 keepers. of those, two were lm, and one kentucky. also two goggle eyes, a 15 lb. flat head, and an 8lb. gar! the gar bit in 15 ft. of water. everything else we caught was 30 to 35 ft. deep on a 3/4oz. Blitz football jig. weird that everything we caught was deep as i did find area that had shallow bait fish showing on the graph, and there was wind blowing. i noticed the mill creek tournament results still indicated that most are struggling to catch fish. you did not say what area that you might be fishing. bo

here is link to an article from the mdc magazine discussing trot lines. if you read, it clearly states open water lines have to be marked with a buoy on at least one end besides being clearly marked with your id and license number. so, you you have a bank line that just dead ends on the bottom, you would not need a float to identify the line. lines that start off the bank and end off the bank are required to have a marker float on at least on end. it is very easy to spot a line that is tied up on the bank, and easy to avoid. lines that originate off the bank and are set at or below the water level are not easily seen and can not be avoided. they are also a danger to anyone that might be in the water. http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2005/03/watch-those-lines?page=0,1 bo

not only are trotlines supposed to be tagged, but also marked. if trotlines were marked as they are supposed to be, others fishing would not be hung up in them and consequently cut them. i did see a couple of lines the other day that were clearly marked, and just quickly passed them by. there is nothing more frustrating to hang up in an unmarked trot line, and especially one that has obviously been there for quite some time unattended. bo

we are on the back side of the full moon now. i just think i have just been flat missing where the fish have been. 90% of catching bass is to throwing in front of them. as heitman stated, he has been catching them very close to where they spawned. those darn green critters are just hard to figure out sometimes. our best bait we caught them on was a beaver type bait rigged on a 3/16 NuJig with a 3/16 bullet weight added to the line. did catch a few on a skirted jig also. bo

quill, i think the earlier bites say something about the bite being better then or during dark hours. i went last night and finally figured out where the bite is or most likely where it has been for the last month. i fished out on some really nothing flat stuff about 20 ft. or slightly less, and we really caught them. had at least 10 keepers. three were good 3lbers. i just decided to fish something completely different. what we had been doing sure was not working. we repeated the same thing on several other areas with the same setup, and caught fish off of all of them. now guess i will see how long this situation will last or if it was just a freak deal. bo

the marina ramp does not reach very far out, and when the lake is lower is unusable. bo

i have a few other feelers out. will see what i hear back. bo

I know this is not about Table Rock, but I got an invite from the Corp to attend a meeting to revise the Bull Shoals Lake Master Plan. Did anyone else get one, and does anyone know just what it is the Corp is wanting to do?? Bo

i do not how many times i have someone in, but i have been in the same situation myself, and have been blessed by the help of another. it is nice to see others that will help. thanks for posting!! bo

we had them rigged on a 1/4 NuJig and a 1/4 bullet weight on the line. this is a better set up than t-rigging. much more snag proof, and much better hook ups. bo

from my perspective, the growing up needs to start with the idiots and whoever raised them. good etiquette, morals, common sense, ect. all start in the home. so, it is obvious by now, that we have several age groups, that did not get the proper upbringing. if they had, we would not have all the issues. as someone stated earlier, if common sense prevailed, we would not need all the rules, regulations, and the size of government we have. bo

they not only do it for the florida strain, but also to increase the numbers of bass in the lakes. falcon has been struggling from pressure, low water, and alligator gar. right after the lmb virus wiped out their lakes, they were right in there immediately restocking everything. they had good fishing again in less than 3 years. as for above eagle rock, in "yesteryear" there was a tremendous fishery in that area of the lake. lots of numbers and size. that is including crappie also. once beaver went in, and especially when they stocked trout down below the dam, the upper end fishery has been on a downhill decline. table rock as a whole has and is still struggling not only number wise, but size wise. sure you are pointing out some spring numbers, but lets look at it from a different view point. if we take it back to 70's and 80's electronics, would those same fisherman even catch anything??? and especially after spawn and the bass move deeper. no. i wish i had saved all of my paper from the graph from back when we did have a lot of fish in the lake. what you are seeing on your electronics looks like the desert by comparison. sure, after 15 years, we have some bass back in the lake, but not even close to what we did have before the kill. texas has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt how effective stocking programs are. our mdc needs to do more than raise a few trout. crappie fisherman out spend the trouters by a long ways. bo

jay, it is just unbelievable at how ignorant people are. it makes me wonder if they operate their car in the same unsafe manner. just because it is wet does not make it safe to be running in. here is a clue for those that do not know the water, stay on idle, or at least stay out in the main channel, not the arms. bo

well, i bet the wakers will think twice before doing as they were. i would guess the guy did not see them coming by, just as the wakers did not see him sitting there fishing, right??? bo

does that still make it ok for the huge wakes to tear eveything up, and wash water over into other boats on the water????? just wondering where you were on that fact. bo

quill you might have run into one of my retired buddies that live in emerald beach. i am thinking it might have been knickmeyer. older champ with 150 yammie. he had mentioned he might get out this morning. i did get out monday night, but put in at cow creek, and found fishing to be a bit better down there. wish we had all those brownies up here. we ended up with 6 keeps. four being brownies, and two largemouth. one of the lmg was around 3, and the biggest brownie was an easy 3 1/2. best depth?? good guess. we caught bass from 15 to 30 ft. best lures were senko type and jigs. bo

thanks mojo. those will be good places to start. here is another interesting fact about stocking numbers. in falcon lake alone, the texas fish and game stocked 1.7 million florida stain fingerlings this year alone. kind of makes those 70,000 look like a spit in the bucket. i know it is not you, but since you put out the numbers it is a good time for everyone to see that in other states, they do a much better job of making better fishing. here in mo. the mdc gets 1/8 of a cent in sales taxes, but it is never spent on improving fishing. case in point was when we had the big fish kill several years back. that has been close to 15 years that we have suffered along with below average fishing because no stocking programs. texas got busy right off the bat, and restocked their lakes. the mdc really does nothing to really promote not just bass fishing, but crappie and catfish as well. texas has proved stocking works. thanks again for the info. bo

if these walleye are truly released back, then why is it that the number of walleye coming up the kings, for example, never seem to show up. i know several walleye chasers that really target that early spring time run, and they all complain there are just not anywhere near the numbers there used to be. i also have heard the same story from a few that ply white river up close to beaver dam. these people are night fisherman that in feb. and march when the spawning run is taking place. now, if table rock is truly stocked as fervently as beaver and bull shoals, it sure seems that there is a difference in survival rate. could it be that there just are not as many chasing walleye on table rock than on bull and beaver?? i am not sure if that is the case or not. but, it does seem that more walleye accidently end up on ones line at beaver or bull than occurs at table rock. i think walleye are a great sport fish, and i am glad there are some stocking programs to help them really boom in our ozark lakes, but i do wish, that arkansas and missouri both would consider some stocking programs for bass. bo

they do not all get released as i have witnessed the arkansas fish and game shock up in kings river, and below beaver dam, and remove the walleye, and put them in containers. true, they use these for their eggs, but it really is not fair to the state of missouri that stocked the walleye to begin with. there was a time that lots of big walleye could be caught up the kings in the spring, but not anymore since so many of them have been removed. why do you not release them back into the lake they came out of?? just asking since i have watched with my own eyes different. bo