SKMO

Had both a grub and a tube rigged and actually caught one on a grub and missed one. Truth was it was too windy to get down quick and stay vertical as the wind was blowing right up the stretch I was in to the point it was whitecapping. There was a ton of bait and I was seeing plenty of fish on the edges and above the shad and treetops and they were on the bite, and I think in these conditions they would have bitten about anything you could get down there in front of them. My opinion is I would rather dangle plastic if the fish are neutral or kind of uncooperative and you have to beg and work around slow and get down in the wood very far. I like bulky tubes when the water gets really cold. Not sure why this works well then. Grubs are always good and one of my fishing buddies always rigs a sassy shad on a dropshot and I have been handed my hat more than once by him with this rig. When they are numerous and agressive a spoon gets down there quicker and maybe gets more attention quicker. Anyway the spoon yesterday was strictly wind induced. I only had grub heads up to 3/8 oz but have heard of guys using 1/2 - 3/4 oz heads that will get down there quick and plan to get some of those aboard for future trips. Need to locate some nice big heads with weedguards for getting tubes and grubs down in the trees. As far as "technique" I am far removed from the boys who really know how to spoon but I definitely try to keep my spoon in the cone and "video fish". I was dropping down 45-60 feet and getting the spoon in the top of the shad schools and sweeping it up and down about 3'. If I saw fish above the shad I like to get it at or just above that level and tone down the action. If I saw multiple fish at the 25' level I'd crank up to them quick and got more than one bite that way. My biggest problem with a spoon that deep is I seem to notice the bite 2/3 of the way through the upstroke and end up with rod held overhead standing on tiptoes cranking like heck trying to get some tension in the line for a hookset and lose a lot of bites. Am thinking of trying some superline with a 6' leader of floro to get rid of some stretch and increase sensitivity.

It was fairly clear by the time you got to the Basin/Mill Creek, and completely clear just beyond that as you rounded the corner before campbell point. I never noticed another boat other than a guy fishing under the bridge when I took off the water at 3:30. I was in a red & white Skeeter, maybe you saw me come down the lake as I left?

Launched about 1030 at SK and headed downstream wanting to get out of the dingy water. Tried a variety of things that did not work much at all. Caught 3 shorts in the shallows on crankbait in the semi-dingy water. Ran back in some medium & smallish coves looking for shad but no go. I know good and well there are fish shallow that should bite, and guys that can catch them but I give up shallow pretty easy this time of year as I also know there is a deep bite if I can locate it. Was getting pretty disgruntled, (with only a couple gruntles left in the boat) when I finally found some cooperative fish about 1:30 in a classic early winter pattern: Major cove mouth, 95' of clear water, submerged timber topping out 50' down and the motherlode of shad down in the treetops, pretty much a solid mass of shad that tricked my Lowrance a few times into thinking we were in 40' of water. A couple dozen gulls cruising the cove as well, which is always a good sign. Anyway between 1:30 and 4:00 caught 15-18 bass with about half of them legals, just real nice solid KY's with pot bellies and they were spewing threadfin in the boat and pooping the grey stuff so they had life figured out. Probably had had 6 or so pull off as I was cranking them in. Did not have to do any begging, they hit the spoon pretty hard. I saw several of them on the depthfinder around 25' down, well above the trees and shad, and if I cranked up to them they just bit it. About my only suggestion is to look for shad. It took me 3 hours to find a nice bunch and it turned my day around 180.

Poked around a few places from Campbell Point to Viola and I did not notice any problems from drift/debris. Main lake channels are clear just a bunch of light stuff blown into pockets. Did not see any logs or boat stoppers around, although there must be a few out there. Kings muddy, bridge dingy, Campbell point clear. Ramps at the bridge, Campbell Point and Viola all looked OK. Water temps 50-52.

Where are you at and what are your "local" lakes. Impossible to answer otherwise.

Overall I would say that there has been almost no heavy stuff in the channel. I think the light winds have put it against the shore for the most part. Lots of light crap blown into the pockets. I doubt but cannot verify that this rise has caused debris problems around most docks.

Out of curiousity went to the neighborhood dock and took the water temp this afternoon and it was 50.5 in the muddy water of the Kings. Down about 7 from what it had warmed back up to prior to the cold snap. Water clarity was maybe 12". There is no free floating debris in the channel as the N winds have it pushed into the pockets, and the ones I could see were clogged with up to 150' drifts of debris. Wanted to take temp at bridge in clear water but was afraid to venture into the launch as it looked pretty intimidating to me in a 2WD pickup. Not too intimidating however for one rig that looked like liked they launched a mid-sized flat bottom and gave it a go. My hats are off to them for their "darn the torpedos" attitude, wish I was out there with them. Just hope they get un-launched as easily as they got launched on the ice glazed ramp. Looks like mud never made it into the White River Channel, from the road on Green Shores bluff it looked liked it was mixing in the big hole at crawdad rock. A weekend shot for fishing, but I'll recover and look forward to getting afloat one afternoon this week. Hoping to find some of my old Winter bass haunts infested with shad-starved Micropterus, but as usual I will settle for whaterever the TR bass gods offer up.

So you must be in the Arrow Point/Sweetwater/Royal Point area on the Kings. Seems like EVERYBODY from Wichita is around where I am! Really muddy today but still clear under the SK bridge, doubt if will do much in the main channel.

On the Kings 2.5 upstream of the Kings/White confluence, or about 1.5 miles downstream of Viola Dock.

Had a little over a 2' rise on the lake since noon Wed and was surprised to see some serious mud already in the lower Kings. This is a pic of the mudline as it went behind my house which is about 2.5 miles from where the Kings dumps into the White at the island. Pic shows the mudline well, it was really muddy from the line toward the camera, and clear as gin past the line. Lots of rain in AR in the Kings watershed.

I takes pictures of fishes if 'n when I can catch 'em. Always too busy stopping bleeding on myself to grab the camera when I have damaged myself. The saw incident was pretty memorable. I had snapped 1" off the tip off on the sawzall so it was pretty squared off and jagged. I was holding it alongside my leg (not running) and it slipped from my sweaty hand, entering my leg at the lower calf just above and behind the ankle bone thing that sticks out and traveling downward till it met resistance at the concrete. 9 stitches. Blood galore. Pain ... you betcha. Probably took 2 months to heal as it kept splitting open on my ankle bone. This all done I might add carving a cedar log for Babler's sign at his B&B. Good-by profit, hello insurance deductable.

Here is what I found on the TX fish reg site about crappie: "During the months of December, January and February, there is no minimum length limit on crappie. Daily bag is 25 in any combination of black and white crappie, and all crappie caught must be retained (culling is not permitted.). In other months, crappie are subject to a 10-inch minimum length limit and a daily bag of 25."

Sorry but the farthest thing from my mind at the time was a photo-op to document my clumsiness and amuse you all. I had a tetanus shot about 18 mo ago when I dropped a reciprocating saw into my leg... how long are they good for ? It was interesting catching crappie at that depth, too bad it seems to kill them. I have read about crappie fishing at Lake Fork in the winter and they catch them real deep along some bridge pilings. If I remember right after a cetain date all fish boated had to be kept and counted toward a limit as the trip up from the depths was more or less fatal and C&R pretty much impossible.

Took off Tues afternoon to fish the wind & the the approaching front thinking they would bite the spinnerbait like trained dogs. It was OK, had 6 fish and 3 keepers, a LM and a Spot that "would measure" but barely and a 19" SM so that was some fun. What was "unusual" was that I stopped to spoon on a couple hardwood trees I just discovered last trip. Middle of the lake on the channel edge, 95' of water (drops to 115 in the channel) and they top out 40 foot down. Found them a couple trips ago and marked them on GPS so thought it was worth a drop as I caught a keeper LM on them my discovery trip. Anyhow it was pretty windy but I got down there and got bit and reeled in my fish to find a really healthy specimen of a crappie attached to the 3/4 oz jigging spoon. It was a 14+ crappie, hooked 50 foot deep in 90' of water. A first for me so I had to take a pic which is attached. Once I landed it and tossed it back overboard (as I was not in a consumptive or fish cleaning mood) I discovered crappie do not like this ride up the water column as it was already belly up. Retrieved it and tossed it in the livewell to deal with later. Long story short I caught 2 more identical crappie off this tree on a spoon in the next 15 min and all were stiff kitties once I got them to the surface. I was fighting a pretty stiff wind and had killed 3 fish so I thought I had had enough and would return in calmer conditions. I went to a wind blown bluff point and this is where it got "exciting". I have bragged that I have fished for almost 50 years without getting the barb of a hook underneath my skin. As I cut the motor and glided toward the bluff, I reached for my trusty baitcasting staff laying against my left leg. I am not sure what happened except that the War Eagle 6/0 spinnerbait hook ended up in my finger. Actually both in and out of my left index finger as it went completely through missing my bone and fingernail entirely. I remember thinking "this is actually a good thing" (that it went on through), and just grabbed my pliers and cut the exposed point and barb off and slid the whole thing off my finger. A normal person would probably have headed toward the ramp but I had a nice clean piece of brown paper bag I got from Table Rock Tackle that was soaking up the blood pretty well with a rubber band to hold it on and it didn't hurt too bad to keep fishing and I was sure they were going to turn around on the spinnerbait. Self-medication was an appealing option had I had something handy. Anyway I ended up the day with 3 keeper bass and 3 trophy crappie. I met a guy at the ramp who had 2 crappie from up the Kings and he appreciated the 3 I gave him, plus he helped me get my rig out of the water and helped me wipe the blood from everything. All in all.... a Great Trip!

To look at precip estimates here is a way to do it: go to http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crh/ click on the SW Mo area on the map Click on the image for the SW MO Radar (enhanced) Then in the left column click "rainfall storm total" Looks like 2-3" over most of the MO portion of the watershed and more in AR

Fished quite a bit in the AM's Fri, Sat & Sun with teh following results: Fri found shad and big fish in 35-50' of water on a big flat not far up the Kings. Proceeded to catch about 15 nice white bass between 0645 and 0830. My buddy kept 8 2#'ers for a fry and we let some smaller and larger ones go. Also two short Ky's on this spot. When they turned off we went bassing and caught 3 shorts on jigs but pretty ho-hum. Sat went back to the same spot with another buddy I had bragged it up to and the WB and shad were gone. Got fogged in on a bluff and spooned up a keeper LM and a short while we waited for the fog to lift. Once it lifted we went spooning in other spots and caught 10 more shorts in a variety of locations all at least 35' deep. Sun had some better luck. Probably the best trip I have had in about last dozen or more. Caught 6 keepers and 4 shorts. Fishing deep trees in the mouth of coves. i.e. 45-60' of water with trees below the surface. Caught a 2.8 LM that pushed some shad to the top near enough for me to reach with a spoon. Rest of the fish were LM and KY caught on a grey tube on deep submerged trees in cove mouths. Water temp was on the way up and about 57 yesterday.. had been closer to 55.

I talked with Tom today and he said that anyone interested in the book can contact him by email at the address Martin listed above. (tkoob (at) centurytel.net) He will tell you where it might be available over the counter near you, or he will mail you one himself.

In addition to Sawtooth they are sold at the Chamber of Commerce in SK, and the gas station at the SK Bridge. probably other places as well. Martin's link is a good one and you can email Tom from that. It is his correct email address. This is just a really good read for anyone with a leaning interest in local history.

I'll talk w/him later today and ask.

A friend of mine from Shell Knob (Tom Koob) just published a book called "Buried By Table Rock Lake" that has a ton of information about local history. It is basically a book about all the stuff now underwater and goes into detail about the people and farms that were displaced, the old fords, bridges, communities, ferries, fishing camps, indian sites, etc. Lots of interviews with people who related first hand stories about what the river was like before the lake, the building process, and how lives were changed. Tom also published "History of Fishing on Table Rock Lake" a couple years ago. As far as names the book has scores of specific instances on the naming of places. One example of something local I did not know was the nameing of "needle eye" near Shell Knob. I always thought it was named for the long oblong peninsula, now called needle Needle Eye peninsula. Instead it was named for a pinnacle rock that used to stand near the old Shell Knob bridge near Lost Hill (now the island). Anway the pinnacle was tall and skinny with a hole in the top hence the "needle eye rock" name. Now the rock and the old bridge are both "buried". If you are interested in this sort history it is well worth the $12 price of admission. Has several old photos as well. I could not put it down. If anyone is interested in gettnig a copy, I know it is for sale at a couple places at Branson Landing (not BPS) plus Tom will mail it to anyone wanting to purchase it.

Cajun - Welcome to one of the hardest bass lakes in the country to fish. Sounds like you gave it the old college try but anyone who fishes this lake at all has had a lot worse days than you just reported. It can be tough with a steep learning curve but once you get some confidence in some techniques and spots you will be over the hump. Certified bass fishermen from out of the area have been known to trade their bass rig for a good set of golf clubs golf after one season... so be careful. One suggestion is not to pin your hopes on smallies in the upper James. There are no doubt some up there. But SM country is generally aropund the deep, clear, main lake channel. From the Dam area and up the main stem of the White to the Campell Point area is more traditional SM water. Seems like you got to have some deep clear water in the proximity. They like gravel and chunk rock banks. Not so much bluffs or very far back in the larger coves, in my experience. If you learn to fish 30-60' deep you will have made great strides toward having something to fall back on when the shallow fish won't cooperate. Anyone including myself probably prefers to play with the 20' and shallower fish, but when the shallow guys won't bite you can fall back on the fact that there is SOME kind of a deep pattern going on 24/7/365.

Hey Skeeter - Wind was howling so I was throwing a spinnerbait. War Eagle "Screaming Eagle" in a Mouse(grey) with green. Also full size War Eagle double willow in my favorite TR color: Blue Herring. Both did well. Guy with me was tossing a grub with no luck. They were hard on the bank/bluff/rocks and after we got off HE deceided he should have been throwing a squarebill which should probably got some action. He doesn't like to fish a spinnerbait behind me, calls me "Electrolux". As hard as I try seems like I can't leave much uncovered when I'm in the spinnerbait thing. So ashamed. Anyway a shad colored crank would probably work as well. If the wind was medium or low I'd also toss a grey or white tube, and a white hair jig with a trailer and drop it deeper along the bluff faces. In my opinion those Ky's just get set up on the bluffs during a lot of conditions and this is one of them. Also possible to catch a big LM doing this as the water gets a bit cooler. Best bites were bluff ends and little pockets in bluff but when it's blowing good and the water cooling you can stick a good one about anywhere so I have a lot of fun just covering the water with the eternal hope that the next cast is "the one" cause is can be.

You know it's slow when you reply to your own post. Anyway SKMO, I fished very upper Kings to down around the Basin this PM. Wasted a couple hours looking upon some deep spots to spoon or dropshot. Following a hot lead found a wide area of nice looking shad and associated larger fish in 45' of water in upper Kings but they would not cooperate. This looked so good on the screen I am sure we missed the feeding binge and all basses had eaten their fill and were sitting around digesting. Just like you will be after Thanksgiving dinner, not wanting to be bothered even at halftime bu offers of easy leftovers. I will catch them here later but I would guess they are feasting on the Sunrise Special rather than the After-Church Buffet. In any case a place like this will be Red Hot for an hour or so if you are at the right time of day when they got the feed bag on, so I'll be watching it closely. After that went to some somewhat windy gravel stuff toward C-point and caught a legal husky Ky and a couple short SM real quick and then shagged water for an hour. Switched gears to bluffs that the wind was raging on and the last 90 minutes made up for the first part of the day. Caught em real consistant with 2 more porker KY's and 7 shorts (but nice shorts) to finish out the day with a flourish and we were off the water at 1630. Bluff bite was ongoing but we both had to get home to household honeydos elsewise we could forgo any hope of... the bite tomorrow! All in all a pretty good day.

Wiggle warts are good in my opinion. I like them in crawdad colors and the phantom smoke and green. About only downside I have noticed is some are tricky to get to tune, and some of the others I will mention run a couple feet deeper if you are wanting to pound the mud. I really also like Bill Norman N-series last couple years. Good hooks and good price and they seem to run well. Bomber Fat Free Shad is pretty sweet. (Citrus Shad!) Can get these models in suspending as well. Bomber Model A's have probably caught me as many as the rest combined, but thats all I used for a few years. My best day crankin on TR was throwing a Model A in Apple Red during rising muddy water. Overall there are a lot of really good ones to choose from. Rules of thumb might be: natural dark & craw colors, slow, fat and wide wobble for muddy and colder water, vs. faster thin vibrators in baitfish hues in the warmer clear stuff. But like any rules of thumb the fish have not read them and often as not do not adhere to the rules. Throw cranks that make you happy, i.e. ones you can throw well on your equipment, ones that you can afford to lose so you will cast them into rank cover, ones that imitate a crawdad or shad depending on the circumstances, throw them agressively bouncing them off rocks and hard cover and you'll get some attention from the fish, assuming the Crank Bait Stars are somewhere near alignment.

Put in at C-Point and fished from Pt 19 to almost Shell Knob. My experience was really tough. 8 Fish in 5 hours with only me in the boat. No keepers. Deep fish were gone from my late Summer/Fall spots. They had not moved to Winter spots I guess, as I could not spot them (or any shad) in typical winter spots. Water temps were 56-58. There was a definite brown tinge to the water, I would assume some type of algae bloom. Very noticible. Can't wait for them to get back in ther coves as I'll put the Howdy-Doodie on them at that point. Whatever, thats my plan for this Winter!