merc1997 Bo

fished the derby out of old 86 saturday night. have not been fishing in that area of the lake at all, and we struggled to catch our 5 bass limit. ended up with 10 lbs. something. however first place had 19 something, a really nice bunch of bass. we caught all of what we got on a 1/2 oz. NuJig. went back monday night, and changed up areas, and figured them out. we changed to a 3/8 oz. Nujig with a 5/16 slip sinker added to the line. used a super chunk style trailer and just wore them out. we caught largemouth up in long creek and then moved down to the dam and up to indian point. from the dam to indian point it was all brownies and kentuckies. got to fish with my buddie mike sowders again monday. we found most of our fish further back off the main lake again. noticed a thermocline beginning to form again at around 20 ft. deep. most of our fish came in the range of 15 to 20 ft. deep. we ended up catching around 30 keepers, but not anything much over 3 lb.. it sure was fun though. quit around 3:30am. bo

it might be visible, but you can not tell direction of the boat. that is why there is a bow light and stern light. if you have opposite colors to an oncoming boat, you are on a crossing course, and need to make according corrections. bo

i happen to know a few particulars of why the question was brought up about the 50ft. rule. a boat was within 50 ft. of the bank fishing. he heard a boat approaching from behind him, turned around to look, and the water patrol was right on top of him heading right at him. he happened to be wearing a light on his cap and went to flashing it off and on because it was faster than finding the light switch. the water patrol gave this guy a ticket for not displaying his lights. some common sense needed to prevail here. those patrol boats when the wind is right can be very close before you can hear them. next, why was the patrol boat running that close to the bank that it could have collided with a boat within 50ft. of the bank???? sounds as though the patrol did not know where it was driving. i know the exact spot and area of the lake, and the patrol should have way to his left to be safe. that patrol boat driving that close to a boat to start with will put water over in your boat. office hukle did that to me a while back. he passed close by to wave, and i did not pay any attention to his wake after he went by, and his wake came over the side of my pantera and filled the floor full of water. i really was not very happy. why is it that the patrol boats are throwing such a wall of water that it will swamp a sitting boat?? i think that on a narrow lake such as table rock there needs to be at some point some thought put into how big of a wake can come off of a boat and still be safe to others either sitting or moving. just some of my thoughts. bo

awesome job on the rescue. glad you were there and willing to help. bo

i have always been one that uses enough equipment to drive a hook through the head of the bass. back before braid, we always fished with 20lb. florescent stren on a 7'6" heavy action flipping rod. now with the advanced technology of braid, i use 50lb. test florescent stren sonic braid. and, yes, i do use the same line even during the day. as for the rod i now use, is a 7"mh action. as for those that are afraid of the amount of float in braid, that is why they make different weights of jigs and sinkers. need a faster fall rate?? add some weight. i know there are many that tout the need to have a stealthy line, but in reality, the a-rig really disproves that theory with heavy wires all over the place. my opinion and experience is you gain much more being able to see your line than you lose by the fish not being able to see it. what little i have used floro, it is quite wirey and like fishing with a spring. it is still stretchy and to me, not that big of an advantage in hook setting. floro does not take a buggy whip type hook set well at all either. it breaks too often. reminds a lot of a line stren had on the market long ago called prime. it had all the same properties as floro claims, supposedly. it still boils down to what makes you happy and you have confidence in, and better fits your style of fishing. my style of fishing has been "rip their heads off" . bo

remember quillback whacked them the other day on a secondary point that the breeze had been blowing on. plus, he had some fog that day. so, lower light levels. the last evening i was out was monday and we did not see any evidence of a thermocline on the electronics. just about all of the better bass came 10 to 20ft. if fishing during the day, you might put the bottom limit at around 25ft. unless targeting kentuckies. if chasing walleye, there are some river channel breaks above the eagle rock bridge that might work. i know in the past, we caught quite a few up that way on spoons, but have not been out to do any daytime fishing. the boat traffic will just wear you out anymore. this weekend should be a bit of the end to all the summer traffic. bo

if you live in the cassville area, sportsmans corner has them. on line, they can be purchased from monster fishing tackle, land big fish, and tackle warehouse handles the hand tied don iovino NuJig. bo

if i can ever get our photo guy here, we will have a better quality pic for the website. there are several additions to the website we are trying to get loaded. bo

my buddy tracy floyd fished that also and was second place. he wanted me to fish it, but i had promised mike that i would take him fishing. tracy caught 12 keepers total, and guess what he caught them on? yep, 1/2 oz. NuJig in bluegill. he was fishing the same type of areas that he and i have been fishing for quite some time. these bass just have not went deep because of water conditions. that does not mean that they might eventually move deeper. bo

i did catch one 4lb. flathead monday night. bo

some of the problems with catching bass up this way during the day is the lack of timber on any of the flats anymore. up above eagle rock many of the river channel breaks are too deep for where the bass want to be. plus, i really do not think there is anything like a decent bass population up that way anymore. that is not to say that on ocasion that some decent bass can be caught up there. our other problem is with the lack of cover and fishing pressure, we have forced bass to become open water feeders. there are plenty of shad out in the lake and a bass does not ever have to go to the bank or bottom. if we still have trees for them to suspend in, then there would be some hold up in trees while resting. then, they would be easier to locate and catch. a bass suspended in open water is a bit hard to catch. if can catch them actively feeding on a shad ball, then you have something going. or, if you can even track them following a shad ball around, there is hope. right now when dealing with the ones out with the shad, you have to keep in mind, the shad are quite small. an 1/8 oz. maribou jig might be a very good bait to put out there because it is similar in size to what they are eating. now when dealing with the bass at night, here is why i have been wearing them out on a 1/2oz. NuJig. the key is to find areas that the bass have been working on the shad during the day. lots of remains go to the bottom, and that is a smorgass board for the crawdads. catching on now?? the bass that feed at night are finding those areas that are loading up on crawdads and are eating lots of them. now, with that said, be prepared to have to find a different area from one night to another because a big pack of bass can eliminate a whole truck load of crawdads. there is my two cents worth about the current fishing conditions. bo

bill so, you know mike also, mike and i go way, way back. back in the day when we could fish together all the time, we won a lot of tournaments together. mike was also a great student. he was a great shallow water fisherman, and i had a knack of figuring them out when they went deep. that made a great combination. we used to play a lot of basketball together and just always have the best time fishing together. as i stated, it was truly just like we just picked up where we left off. we caught fish all night long, and we were laughing and carrying on all night. fishing with mike is something that i really missed over the years. hopefully, somewhere in the future, we just might get back into a bit of tournament fishing. i know mike is really wanting to get back to guiding. i just do not know how anyone could not have a great time fishing with him. i think sometimes his second calling should have been a comedian. thanks bo

well, mr. essary i can send you phone numbers of the people that have been fishing with me and confirm our catches, and exactly what we caught them on. for sure, you could catch them on another bait. and another thing, i really do not have to offer any info about how and where i am catching fish. but, some people like to have some information as how to catch some. and, as you just stated, a whole lot of people are struggling right now. bo

nutechlures.com we have been doing the best lately on the 1/2 oz. size. for a trailer, we are using something similar to the bigger size zoom super chunk. i have been throwing a new color we call bluegill. it is green pumpkin with blue and a darker orange strands. several bass the other night chucked up big crawdads in the floor that looked very similar in color to that skirt. probably other colors will work also. i think it is just the bass are looking for a bigger looking bait right now. we fished around shell knob monday night, and ended up catching 9 keepers with one around 5 1/2lb. still on the same bait, in fact, i have fished for the last two weeks with the same jig. i have had to replace the skirt a couple of times because it was just completely ate off. the bass, especially the largemouth are still where you would be fishing for them in june, 10 to 20ft. some of this warmer weather might finally start pushing them out a bit further, but there is still not much clarity in the water. bo

times two. they will have just what you need. i have done business with them for years. always the best service bar none. bo

sorry this posted twice. was having problems with it loading. bo

night fishing is still pretty darn good once you get them figured out. bass are still pretty much in what i would call a june type pattern. many good blacks can be found in the back of smaller pockects, secondary type points, and on certain main lake secondary banks. i got to fish with my long time buddy mike sowders saturday night. it had been many years since we were lucky enough to sit in the same boat together. it was really like old times. we laughed and giggled all night. we stopped counting at somewhere around 25 keepers. of our better bass, there was a 6 + largemouth, and 4 brownies over 3. the 1/2 NuJig with a bluegill skirt was by far the most productive. mike caught a few on a big worm, but they were all shorts. most bites came in the 10 to 20 ft. range. all of the better bass came off the main lake. you daytime bassers might need to do a bit more snooping off the main lake. although, there is no guaruntee these bass off the main lake will bite or feed during the day. my bet is they are just backed off a ways and can still be caught with the right presentation. bo

night fishing is still pretty darn good once you get them figured out. bass are still pretty much in what i would call a june type pattern. many good blacks can be found in the back of smaller pockects, secondary type points, and on certain main lake secondary banks. i got to fish with my long time buddy mike sowders saturday night. it had been many years since we were lucky enough to sit in the same boat together. it was really like old times. we laughed and giggled all night. we stopped counting at somewhere around 25 keepers. of our better bass, there was a 6 + largemouth, and 4 brownies over 3. the 1/2 NuJig with a bluegill skirt was by far the most productive. mike caught a few on a big worm, but they were all shorts. most bites came in the 10 to 20 ft. range. all of the better bass came off the main lake. you daytime bassers might need to do a bit more snooping off the main lake. although, there is no guaruntee these bass off the main lake will bite or feed during the day. my bet is they are just backed off a ways and can still be caught with the right presentation. bo

i do not know about your daytime fishing but night fishing is pretty darn good. the last three trips has produced12 to 15 keepers each trip and a couple over 7. all are coming on a 1/2oz NuJig in a bluegill color. most blacks are 10 to 20. some kentuckies will bite a bit deeper. bo

as far as cleaners, several products on the market will do the job. the trick is getting all the dirt out of the grain in vinyl. go to a auto parts store and buy an ultra fine scotch brite pad. combined with your cleaner and you vinyl will look like new. bo

we tried the bushes for a bit last night also with no success. backed off and caught most of them 10 to 15 ft. bo

well actually the night bite is not too bad even with the high water. we fished from dark until 12:30 tonight and once we figured out where and what the bass wanted, we caught several bass. we ended up with 6 keepers with a couple of those over 3. the best bait ended up being a 1/2 NuJig with a big chunk trailer. the bass where we were were relating to points. the main channel side of them seemed to produce a lot better. most bites were around 10 feet deep. got some a bit deeper than than and some shallower. bo

over the years, there has been more good fishing holes ruined on table rock lake because of putting in a dock. not too long back a new dock was installed in big indian, and there were over 300 trees taken out. it is getting to the point that throwing a crank bait or spinner bait down a bank is not possible because they are cover up with docks. dock owners do not want you making a ripple around their dock. but, on the flip side, the ones that have the great big boats, do not think a think about their 6' swell from their boat washing in over the side of your boat while trying to fish. if the law was applied as it should be, you are responsible for your wake. even the wake off of the water patrol boats will come over the side of a 19' bass boat. that is just totally uncalled for when the water patrol are a safety hazard. there are bodies of water that are wide enough to accomodate larger vessels, but the narrow margins of table rock is not one of them. somewhere we need to use some common sense. it would be fine with me to have nothing but marinas in a few selected areas. what is wrong with keeping your boat at home, and bring it with you?? i have for years. bo

the high water is primarily the enemy to night fishing right now. high water and night fishing usually do not mix. that is not to say that you can not catch some bass sometimes at night during high water. if the bass stay deeper, than there really is not a problem of catching them, but when they move in mass to the bushes, they are a lot harder to come by at night. much of this is due to being able to pinpoint your cast. it is hard enough during the day, let alone at night. if they bass are shallow in the bushes, concentrate on isolated bushes, and peoples flooded yards at night. another option is to stick to a bluff. there are always a few home residents that never leave a bluff. hope this might help some. bo

about the only thing you will find is the old road bed going out to the bridge. just like the bridges at eagle rock, big m, and shell knob, they were taken down, as far as i know. the old road at shell knob is rarely shallow enough to be a factor in catching fish other than winter. bo