Bassin4fun

I can assure you that right now, the fish are up on the banks at Table Rock. Look for stained water with less than 3ft visibility and you will find them right up on the bank out to 10ft. Windy days are fun...like we just had this past weekend. Saturday, I caught 40-50 and had about 10 keepers. Sunday probably 20 with 2 keepers. Sunday, the wind didn't start until later in the morning. So the early bite was a bit off. Probably should have fished deeper out early on. Still had fun and it was a gorgeous day.

I would add a Rock Crawler or Wiggle Wart too. With this warmer weather those fish are gonna be more active. Especially with some wind...

Nice fish! I am thinking of launching there tomorrow in the yak. Wind will be out of the north and colder. Bite may be tough. Shouldn't be as windy as it was today though. I caught 8 today but only 1 keeper. I caught them on jerkbait and Rock Crawler.

Nice cue. You may have better luck posting on Facebook. There are some local groups in there...or on azbilliards.com https://m.facebook.com/groups/865244874367133/?mibextid=HsNCOg&refsrc=deprecated&_rdr https://m.facebook.com/groups/112263408950159/?mibextid=HsNCOg&refsrc=deprecated&_rdr https://m.facebook.com/groups/390913967941/

Thank you! I will have to post some. Here is a pic of me in it. I cobbled everything together after watching hours of YouTube videos. I have a 45lb thrust transom mounted trolling motor. I put together the mount onto the stern and connected stainless steel cables to a mount on the trolling motor that I added which is connected to toe steering on the pedals in the front. This allows for hands-free steering. The trolling motor is connected to a pwm controller and it is powered by a 100ah 12V LiPO4 battery. I have bow lights and a 360 light for low light conditions and a Garmin Echomap UHD 93SV installed that is connected to a 10ah 12V LiPO4 battery. I have a Tracker 175TXW as well but I probably fish out of my kayak as much or more than my boat due to competing in MoYak events. The kayak is an Outlaw 11.5 by Perception Kayaks. As far as kayaks go, it is very stable...especially while seated. I can cover quite a bit of water fishing the banks.

Hi Phil! That was me in the yak. It was a pleasure to meet you as well! 😁

I was out in the kayak today from about 8am until 2pm. The weather was gorgeous. The water visibility was 1-2ft with a nice stain. Water Temps were 42-45°F. The temps did get up into the 47-49°F range by the time I got off the water. A light breeze was intermittently blowing. The bite only lasted from about 800am until 10am. I threw A-rig, 1/4oz jig w/craw trailer, blade bait, and a rock crawler. Only caught fish on the rock crawler. I focused on steep banks that were adjacent to the river channel. Bites seemed to come in that 6-15ft range. I ended up wit h 6 fish. 3 of them were keepers.

We have a kayak tourney on LOZ this Saturday. My kayak dry suit arrives Thursday. So I will finally have that in addition to my PFD and dry bag with change of clothes and change of outerwear. I am going to try and get out today to prefish for it. Won't be throwing the squarebill...but will have some other crankbait options along with some other cold water baits. Wind is supposed to be out of the south on Saturday (9mph with higher gusts). The area where I will launch from should be protected and the stretch of shore I will be fishing will be protected. So wind won't be as much of a factor. I am fishing southern shore line that runs east to west...so impact of wind on me and the water I will be fishing will be minimal. Hopefully, everyone else is doing their research on where to launch and fish. I wouldn't be surprised to see everyone launch and fish where I will be. 😁

I was out there Sunday for tourney. I threw jerkbait, A rig, jig, blade bait, and damiki rigged swimbait...nothing from 7am until maybe 10am. Finally caught one on a jerkbait...at noon, I switched to a rock crawler...caught 7 within 2 hours. All shorts in the 13-14.5" range...but didn't get skunked and had a good time towards the end. My brother in law started throwing the rock crawler and got 2 also in that same 2 hour window.

I just picked up some damiki rig jigs. Hoping to try them out soon. Thanks for the report and pics!

LoL

Yeah, that is the same launch area where some guys flipped during a tournament in November. Kayak tourneys typically allow you to launch from any public access point...so this tool is a must. Windy.com

I have yet to find 'em like that using my graphbon Table Rock. I have found them like that on Stockton but did not try to catch them...I was focused on beating the bank. Thank you for the report and shot of how they look on the graph.

I take a dry bag packed with a change of clothes including socks and thermals. I also have a packable fleece jacket, beanie, and gloves in there and a lighter and other tools to start a fire and to find my way if my phone is no longer working. I am using a phone that has GPS on and it is tethered to my pfd and I always have my pfd on while in my yak (regardless of the temps). I don't stand up in my yak once on the water when it is colder than 70F in the water. There is definitely risk involved. I try to mitigate that risk and I also pray to God for my safety before every trip out. I let my wife know wher I am launching and at what time I will be home. I text her when I get on the water and when I get off the water. I do this when I take my boat as well. My yak has her contact info on it on a very visible sticker if it is ever found without me in it. I may eventually get a drysuit. I do have a handheld marine radio...although, I haven't taken that with me on the yak. I will start doing that too. During tourneys, we have to check in/out using the app on our phone which also tracks your location via GPS...or you are supposed to text tourney director. I appreciate the concern. It is a valid point to be made.

We tried cranking on Sunday. Man...that nice weather had the fish shut down...at least for us🤣. We caught one bass on a.red crankbait. Had one on a jig that came off. The warmer temps, no wind, and Bluebird skies must have had them deep. We threw everything at the bank...jerkbaits, crankbaits, and jigs. Must have been a Ned rig kinda day or 70ft plus jigging or drop shot.

Yesterday was the 2nd stop on the 2022 Winter Series. I had been prefishing Stockton for the past week. Weather past several days was rough High winds and cold. Yesterday, winds were 14mph+ out of West and Northwest. Temps were below freezing and got into the 30's. Water temp stayed 42-43°F. I had figured out that rocky banks were best and those adjacent to deep water or the channel were even better. All week, I caught them on craw pattern Rock Crawler...but water temps had been higher...47-48°F. Wind made it impossible to fish where I initially planned. I had to find some areas more protected. I still ended up fishing 3 main lake points and secondary points. I was in the mix...it was like being on the ocean in my Perception Outlaw 11.5 kayak. After nothing for about 30 min on the Rock Crawler, I switched to a jerkbait. I ended up having a good day...probably boated 20 fish and had 7 or 8 keepers. I took 1st place and big bass.

So yesterday, I decided to do some exploring to a section of Table Rock/White River that I had never been. I put in at Houseman's Access first...quickly realized this was too far upstream for bass right now. It was beautiful though. I ran into a guide that said he was taking a client upstream while I had intended on going downstream from there. I fished for about 20 minutes and decided to move. Water Temps there were about 47°F. Water was crystal clear and had a decent current. Thankfully, I have a trolling motor and didn't have to paddle in that. I was intending to go up to Holiday Island to launch but stopped and put in at Beaver after checking out the water there. The water temps were 48-49°F. I fished from there downstream about 2 miles. I ended up with four in the boat after fishing it for about 3-4hrs. I took out at about 145pm. It was a little chilly. When I put in it was about 27-28°F outside and there was some wind. I don't think it ever got above freezing. I threw Rock Crawler, Squarebill, and a Jerkbait. Fish were not real aggressive and were cold.

This coming Saturday is the first of four events held by MoYak for the Winter Series. We will be fishing Table Rock, Stockton, Lake of the Ozarks, and Taneycomo. Roadrunner start, launch from any public access point with Army Corps of Engineers boundaries. More info here: https://tourneyx.com/leaderboard/standings/22-23-moyak-winter-series-hash-1-table-rock I was out this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The bite was good all three days in 3 different places on the lake. I will post details about those days and the tourney on Sunday evening or Monday. Saturday and Sunday, I had a limit of keepers. Sunday, my largest was 20.5" and may have weighed 5lbs.. Definitely over 4lbs. I had another 20" that was well over 3lbs. Caught over 20 fish both days Sat and Sun. Fri I caught 10-15 and my buddy caught over 30 with a limit of keepers. I had one keeper that was 19" on Fri morning. Sunday, I am fishing the boat tourney out of Cape Fair Marina put on by Catch 'em All Bait Shop. https://www.facebook.com/Cape-Fair-Sunday-Bass-Tournament-240949526278211/ My brother-in-law and I will be competing in that event running same pattern. Should be a lot of fun. Here are some pics from this weekend.

So Saturday was the inaugural Big Bass 250 sponsored by Eco Fishing Shop in Camdenton. The entry was $250 and limited to the first 250 anglers to register. We ended up with 96 anglers from all over...at least half a dozen states were represented by kayak anglers in the event. This was a roadrunner start with first launch at 7am and lines in at 730am. Lines out was 330pm and your photos for catches had to be submitted by 5pm. A third-party judge reviewed photos and winners would be polygraphed. Eco Fishing guaranteed $10k to the biggest bass in the event. They were paying out the top ten anglers based on total inchesbof your best five black bass submissions. The weather was treach to say the least. High winds of 15-20mph blew consistently out of the SW. Gusts were 30-40mph and there was intermittent rain as well as windchill in the 30's. It was Grey and overcast until noon. Myself and four other anglers launched out of Linn Creek access. This was a great location...Creek had water running through it so there was current in this arm and there were baitfish galore. The arm was protected on one side of it and the wind was bad but not so much you couldn't run the pattern I had decided to run. I was power fishing. 1.5 squarebill (chartreuse and black) and a War Eagle double willow (gold and silver blades) in chartreuse with a double tail grun trailer were my two baits. I also threw a Savage glide bait some and a football jig....both in areas that were not as impacted by wind and I could fish slower. I caught everything on the squarebill and spinnerbait. I focused on the bank along the Creek channel and also worked the docks in this area. The banks that produced the most fish were those with chunky rock...2-6 ft of water seemed to be the strike zone. I ran that squarebill out in front of docks and on the sides and backs. I caught mostly 13-15" spots off the docks but a few largemouth including the 19" one that was my largest catch of the day. All in all I caught 12-16 bass as I did not photograph anything that didn't cull. Lots of dinks. Water temp was 59-61F in this area. Threadfin shad were on the surface early in the AM at the back of the arm. I ended up with 79.25 inches for my best five fish which was good enough for 8th place. Another angler who launched in this same area took 3rd place. He fished basically the same types of area but primarily spinnerbait and flipped a jig. He had spotlock in a 136 Autopilot kayak by Old Town if I am not mistaken. I have a Perception Outlaw 11.5 with a stern mounted trolling motor and foot steering installed...no spotlock. It was a lot of fun. After noon, the sun came out and for me the bite seemed to slow down...A LOT. I did run out to the main lake and didn't fish that much as I didn't get any bites with 30-40 min and the water was really rough with that wind. I had the wind at my back heading east once I got out of the creek arm. Going back it was at my face and the waves were about 2 foot with white caps and spaced so that they kept crashing over my bow. Thankfully those scupper holes work as intended! Four people flipped their yaks and others steppes in to help them. Not sure where that occurred but wasn't in our area. I always check weather forecast and use windy.com to plan where I am launching and fishing the night before and again in the morning. It was a great event and I am looking forward to future events by this group. They have an awesome little shop for fishing kayaks and gear there in Camdenton too. Here is a link to the leaderboard from the event: https://tourneyx.com/leaderboard/standings/2022-big-bass-250-lake-of-the-ozarks

Wow! Those are some nice smallies!!!