Fishrman

No pass on the dress code is right. Too much bling in it. Talk about a headache afterward.

Took off after summer school was over and headed for the lake, just knowing I was going to get some on the drop shot. Got to Shell Knob arund 3:00 and headed for the bridge piers and caught a couple, had many bites just couldn't get hooked up. From there spent the next several hours on a couple of deep docks and caught several, too many for me to count. Only had one keeper. The bite was not fast and furious but good enough to keep my attention. Had many lookers at the drop that did not take it, but I figure that is just the way it is. After the docks I headed to a bluffend and maybe only had two lookers no bites, thought it would be a good one, but I figured wrong. From there I went across to a flat and worked the point looking for fish suspended or coming off the bottom, never found them, so it was about 7pm and I started flinging the spook. To make a long story short, I went home early after I had the spook cut out of my ear. Just glad my brother in law happened to be at the lake and he came and cut it out for me. That was one big ear ring I was wearing let me tell you. Thanks for all the reports.

I fished with Bill back in December and remarked about the trip a couple of times. If you go with Bill you will not regret it, he is very personable and professional and knows the lake as well if not better than anyone. I am trying to get another trip with him this month. Hopefully I can make it happen.

By the way, how did you fair in the Tourney on Sunday?

You know, my question is this. I understand the fish are on the bottom and if you are in the right place you will see them come up. How do you know what point will have them? I know with as much experience as you've had it is probably always the same points. But, can you see them on the bottom in certain situations or do you just go and hunt for them until you find them? I know that is asking a lot, but thought I would test the waters.

Yes, that was me in the Ranger. It is very hard to drop shot in that kind of wind. I don't see how you could guide a full day trip in those conditions. I admire you for that. That has to be an exhausting day. Next time I see you, I will come over and introduce myself. What is the deal on that topwater bite and what about my question on the shad? Do you know anything about that? Thanks Eric

Yeah, I thought I was on the points that were flat and led to coves that had gravel and a gentle slope. Fished one point toward the Mouth of the James and sat my boat in 28 feet, left and moved over to the next point and Bill Beck pulled in right where I left, saw him catch two, don't know if they went in the livewell or not. He left, so I went back to see how deep he was sitting compared to me. Big difference, he was in the 40 feet range. Fished on Friday from Little Indian to Point 16, caught 6 with 4 keepers. Spinnerbait and flipping lizard to trees in 3-5 feet of water. So, I guess I will wait a little while before I go back.

Fished today and stunk it up. Never caught a fish. Tried the deep football jig and grub from the mouth of the James to Big Indian. Guess you need to know the right points, I sure don't. Very discouraging. Thanks for the reports Bill, keep them coming. Sorry I had to report this, but thought I would share the bad news.

thanks S&M, as you can see from post above, it is working in the driveway. What you listed is what I downloaded today from the website. Thanks again guys.

Well, just got done with an update to the unit and the antenna. Pulled it out of the shop and it acqired my position in the driveway in Cassville. Hopefully within the next few evenings I can go and see how well it works on the water. Have a two day baseball tournament with the youngest boy in Lamar, so won't be until next week until I can go. Catch a bunch of them when and while you can. Good luck and thanks for all the information you guys gave me.

Ther software version is 1.4.0. And the there is no software displayed when I go to menu twice then NMEA 2000, Bus Setup. From there is just says NMEA 2000, no software. What do I do?

Thanks I will try to gather that information in the next couple of days. I am at work now, so can't do it. I know the antenna is new, or should I say, never been used. I have the antenna mounted up front with the unit, it is mounted on the front of the boat between the trolling motor bracket and the insert for the navigation light. I have seen a few mounted up there, so I assumed it worked. A friend of mine mounted his humminbird antenna there and it worked fine. I will try to get that info. S&M. Thanks guys.

I have a 26c, and cannot get the gps to work very well. It keeps saying position acquired then in no time it says, position lost. To hook up the unit I had to use a T. The back of the unit has a female end to it, the antenna cable coming out also has a female end. Do they make a cable that has male ends on both ends of the cable? I got a cable that is supposed to work from the guy I bought it from, but it has a male that goes to the antenna and a female to the unit. Just won't work. Thanks.

I too called Bill, but not on that day he is speaking of. I called to make sure the lake was fishable and a person could launch. That was the day it was coming up pretty fast. I appreciate Bill and his info. I too try to post what I do, although my results pale in comparison to Bill Babler and Bill Beck and the other guides. I too will not call again, just so as not to get in the way. Thanks again Bill, you are a class act. Eric

Bill You say that not all areas have fish on them right now. How do you go about dissecting an area to find what is holding them. I know some days you are around them and they just don't bite, so you just have to deal with that. I have fished the Baxter area, which I normally don't do, the last several outings, and so much looks good it is hard to decipher. Anyway, thanks for your info.

Well, this was the last day of my long weekend, so I decided to spend it on the Rock. As I reported last Friday, I caught a few, but today was a different story. Caught one fish, a short Kentucky and that was it. Most water temps were 52-55. Found 55 around Baxter, and caught my one short fish there. I tried the places from last Friday, but could not get bit in the coves in Little Indian. Fished down to Pt. 16, nothing, went across from 16, still nothing. From there headed to Shell Knob, fished trees, bushes, and anything that looked like cover. Fished from 2 feet to 20 feet. I had my boat in 20 feet most of the time. Guess I did not slow the spinnerbait down enough. Well, it was better than working. Thanks for your posts Bill, and thanks for taking my phone call the other day. Tried to call today, but remembered you were guiding, and I hung up. Sorry, hope you were too busy to notice. Good luck when you get to go.

Hey Bill I know you will post results when you know them, but will you know and will you be able to tell us, what area of the lake produced the better bags. Thanks

Thanks Bill. Good to hear that, all the fish I caught were slow rolling the blade, sat boat in 18-20 feet and caught them in about 10 suspended, some near brush others out of nowhere. Thanks again Bill.

Bill, were you still able to catch them shallow?

I would say in places they were bigger than 2 1/2, but not over 3ft. My 19'8" Ranger was just fine though, got a little wet, but no way you couldn't.

Sorry about the misinformatin guys. My information came from Bill's Marine in Monett.

Fished today by myself out of H hwy. and sure wish I would have had someone with me, would have made launching and trailering a lot easier, but I got it done anyway. Fished from Little Indian to one of the WolfPens, don't know which one I was in, doesn't matter didn't catch any in there anyway. Did end up catching 7 with 3 keepers, nothing bigger than 3 pounds. Caught everything on a spinnerbait, 1/2 oz. Luck E Strike trickster. What a beating I took when I went to the main lake. Well hope everyone gets a chance to go sometime and hope everyone can catch a few.

I heard from my brother in law today the Heartland was cancelled. I launched at H hwy. today and this morning when I turned at the curve to go to the parking lot the water was not over the road, but when I left at 2:00 it was coming up and was over the road, but not deep.

I throw a zoom green pumpkin chunk jr. or a black blue zoom chunk jr.

Thanks for offering your phone number Bill, but I doubt I use it. I don't like to do that to guides, but Bill Beck's sister teaches for me and that is why I call him from time to time. Went out with him over Xmas break and had a great time. Fishing deep in winter is a ball. Even picked me up a LCX 26c and now only need to figure out how to use it. Really makes fishing deep easier. I do have one more question, in the morning I am assuming you were working that SB slow. Is that correct? Thanks again for replying to my post. Eric