SKMO

Now that is a bona-fide TOAD Table Rock Spot. Congrats, you now have a new bar to jump over.

When they are really agressive on the spinnerbait it can be hard to ride the back seat and bat clean-up. Been there, done that and it's a tough seat to ride.

Had a notion to try the mid-lake bass yesterday (Friday) afternoon and called Babler to see if he was interested in a quickie on the mid-lake to see if they would bite. He had to check with his Supervisor, and I with mine, as to this point it was all a hypothetical trip. Fortunately both the spouses gave us the thumbs up within a couple hours, so off we went. (I am not sure about Bill’s status today, but I am paying dearly for going off the spousal clock on a Friday afternoon. The HoneyDo list is mind-boggling). Anyway we hit the water about 3 PM and went to some recently proven spots. Long story short… nothing for 2 hours. A couple nips, maybe, but we were beginning to wonder if maybe the afternoon would have been better spent on other endeavors which would have not put us “in the hole” on the home front if you know what I mean. Anyway we were tossing sticks and spinnerbaits in the wind and about 5 they seemed to wake up and we got bit better and better as the afternoon wore on. Final tally was 19 fish saw the inside of the boat. We missed a bunch of skirt pullers on the spinnerbait. Never caught a fish on the stick, but they probably would have bit it, we kind of put them down when the SpinnerBite started. Of the 19 had 6 legal SM and one spot that should have measured. Some real nice solid TR smallies as well, 4 were in the 17-18” range and two about 16”. Took the boat off the water a little after 8. I’ll take fish like these any day, any lake. Not genuine toads, but a heck of a lot of fun to get on the end of the line. Please remember to practice CPR (Catch, Photograph, Release) with these TR bass. They are way too valuable, and way too much fun, to end up in the fry pan.

No effect.

Another fine day on The Rock with Jeff from MN and we hit a new benchmark for me personally as we boated a legal fish of all 4 TR bass species: LM, SM, Spot, and Meanmouth. For those of you wondering a meanmouth is a SM/Spot hybrid and is recognized as a species in MO fish recordkeeping. The big fish are a 19 SM, a 19 LM a 18.25 SM. The meanmouth is on the deck. Before you say "hey the spot and meanmouth are short fish" cover the pigs with your hand and put it in proportion. Actually caught a couple larger spots later but I wanted the fish back swimming around after this photo op. Days tally 7 legals and again in upper teens for total fish. Still a lot of dead water. It seems to me that best bite is mid-day. All these fish were caught on stick and spinnerbaits, we were movin' on hard and trying to cover as much water as possible looking for active fish, not begging them for bites with plastic. This works well (sometimes) in a nice wind like we had today. Depth we were fishing was 4-20' on 45 degree gravel banks with chunk.

Man I'm tired. Hit it hard, all day long. Fished with my Neices' husband Jeff from Rochester MN, a diehard bassin guy who came down for some Spring Fever relief from the northern climes. It was an interesting day. Caught fish several different ways. Lots of dead time including late morning when the absolute flat water around K-City caused me to reload the boat and re-launch at Viola on the Kings to get in some color. Chased crappie for a few hours and got discouraged with that so went back to bass on the upper Kings. Final tally for the day was not huge but in the upper teens for numbers. I've sure done worse. One of these pigs was caught in 54' of water, the other in 3' of water. So there's your pattern. Not much of one. Sticks, grubs, pitchin jigs and topwater to further confuse the issue. Our experience today is proof to me that this is a big bass/big bite time of year and if you can stay awake at the wheel long enough and fish smart, the fish of the year is just a cast away. All in all, pretty good for the day after a cold front with no wind and bluebird skies. Just looking forward to the next few days with maybe some clouds and wind. As far as I am concerned any day with two fish of this caliber on The Rock is one to remember.

I have not yet but will be in there this week after bass. I'll try to remember to put something up in a report. You might PM me Thurs or Fri and remind me. It's a real good spot for both.

Could not contain myself and just had so show of this C-10 Babler Scale 'lash. Thought it was a shame all could not see it and then realized... well heck it's still in the boat so why not take a pic and share. Thankfully the wife is in the middle of her Sun PM nap otherwise I could not get away with such an endeavor. Spinnerbait in corner is a War Eagle Blue Herring double willow. Very good TR bait in case anyone is interested.

Hey I can get those Chronarchs up and running, I have some Zebco 303's with serious problems, I will trade you even. What Bill related, i.e. "they will bite anything right now" seems to be true. Nothing really stands out to me as "best" but there are a lot of fish 25' or less and a lot of ways to fish this depth. Seems like they will hit anything but a chunk of Oscar Meyer under a red and white bobber. Hey, that might work. Wonder if we got some wienies in the fridge....???

Well, just cannot shake this mid-lake bass jones and had to go back for at least a couple this AM. Broke new ground for the season as I caught my first topwater fish and my first spinnerbait fish all on one trip. Topwater fish I saw breaking about 7:15 (New Time) around some timber near a point I was on at my first stop. Had barely glided to the point when I started seeing some swirls that looked "a little different" next to some poletimber in the cove off the point. Carp? My 2nd cast of the Pointer I had two KY's bump it all the way back to the boat where I coud see them and I made a leap rear-ward for the topwater box and my favorite Sammy. When it was over I had caught 2 shorts KY's, and two 16" LMB. I was Very Happy. Only lasted 20 minutes... but you gotta start somewhere! Also in between rises I threw the Pointer and caught a 13" crappie. Gutsy little fellow. Fished a couple other spots and it was flat calm and scratched up two shorts on a french fry. Then the wind it did blow, suddenly and hard. Threw the stickbait on some good spots and missed maybe 3 fish. Then moved to a perfect transition bank/bluff end that the wind was crashing into and threw the stick on one fast blow by and missed what felt like a good fish. I had a spinnerbait tied on when the wind picked up, as Babler had given me a heads up on this possibility, so went back through there with that. Long story short - 3 runs on a 150 yard stretch of bank and 3 fish on the spinnerbait: 1 13" KY, one 16.5" porker KY, and the SM whose pic I have attached, a solid 19". Not a lot of weight on this fish, a male I would think, but he was a lean and mean dude with an attitude, not a couch slug. 2nd cast on pass 4 I got a Class Ten Backlash (using the Babler scale with 10 being the worst where buildings are taken down to their foundation), the kind you know will require a pair of scissors to correct, one of those just "crank it on in and fix it at home" type of backlashes you don't consider for even a moment trying to get out. I should have taken a picture it it, it was an Awesome backlash. Anyway... I decided Someone was giving me a hint I needed to get on back to the homestead so was off the water after about 3.5 hours.

I few possibilities might be 1) It was only noon and the fish were biting and we had to leave as soon as we snapped the pic 2) The weight of the fish were causing him to strain 3) I caught the biggest smallie of the day 4) He really did not want to pose for a picture but I told him he had to or he was swimming back to the ramp. I would guess #1 as neither of us really was ready to hang it up.

Had the Great Pleasure of fishin this AM with one of the Rock's finest fisherman, Bill Anderson who for many years, and until last fall was the MDC Fisheries Biologist for the The Rock. He's still with MDC but has moved on up to supervise the warmwater hatcheries statewide. There are biologists, and there are fisherman, but when you put both in the same equation the fish really have something to worry about. Anyway following is a brief report and some musings. Again, staying in the K-City to Shell Knob zone. Fishing open gravel points with roll-offs to deeper water we caught 5 honest to goodness "don't-have-to-measure 'em" TR keepers and maybe 8 shorts from 0630 to 1145, when we had to get off the H2O to keep spousal comittments. Had a few come unbuttened next to the boat and some thumpin hits we missed so the bite was on. Also the shorts were not "dinks", just a little short, all OK fish. Sounds "decent" but you need to know we did not get a SINGLE tap until maybe 0930 when we finally got a breath of wind and started to connect with the clearwater fish, so caught all these in short order once they went on the feed bag. So it went from as bad as it can get (nothing) to real good, real quick. Bites were on sticks, swimmin' grubs, and finesse plastic, 10-25' water depth. The fish are there for sure, and they are heading toward their honeymoon love nests. All I can say if you are not geting bit on places like this, or other locations you have confidence in, hang in there. The fish are nearby and they are not agressive all day long, so expect some serious down time to chat with your partner between the sweet spots. All in all a great morning on the water. It would have been a great day on the water with a dear friend withOUT the fish, but they finally woke up and cooperated and it was almost unbearable the fun we had. Gotta keep reminding myself, it's not all about the fish, just the excuse we use.

Hard to say anything about this but AWESOME. What a great day for you guys on the water. Should the Lord bless me to be fishing at that age I would be eternally grateful, which I already am. Just awesome.

Dave - what part of the lake will you be on? i.e. where are your haunts? Sounds like you have a good plan of attack. I'm sure you could catch drop shot fish but thats probably not necessary unless you really like fishing that way. There are fish deep and shallow, bear in mind. at least in my opinion, anything 25' or less is "shallow" on this lake, so depends on your definition of shallow. Phil has a crappie thread pinned that has a lot of info. If you want to catch crappie on the Kings, launch at Viola, follow the rest of the boats that look like crappie fisherpeople, when you get to an area with a lot of boats throwing little jigs pull over and start casting. I think if you will read the last couple weeks posts for TR you will get a lot of questions answered and I'm sure there will be more info put up before you leave.

Campbell point is about 6 miles east of Shell Knob up the White River, I think that would be about 17 miles from K-City bridge, Not sure where, or if they catch WB this time of year around K-City but you should be able to find some crappie. They are certainly there and you might do surprisingly well. I'd start looking in decent sized, shallow basin coves with some shallow flats in the ends. Check out the flats in 10' of water or less around trees. If you can see bottom at all you are too shallow probably, Colored water would be good if you can find some. If they are not there, fish in the trees along the creek channels 15-20' deep (or more) in 25 feet of water or more. Later in the day I'd sure check back on the flats if was sunny and the water warming. Water temps should be low 50's in channel and a little warmer back in some shallower coves in the afternoon.

You will be fine doing that. They have a nice new ramp and still let the public launch for $2. I have a 20' bass boat w/225 and motored up to there and past, to Dollar Hole a couple weeks ago, before the lake came up 1.5' so I'm sure you will be fine. Just be aware there's a lot of trees to hit and drive accordingly, even in the channel in that area there are a few deadheads that can cause problems. Make sure you let us know how you do.....good luck.

I can confirm Kings very good now for both WB & Crappie. WB - Trollers doing well from Sweetwater to Brake Allen (Big Dog) Bluff. Casters working edge of channel and mud flats from Brake Allen the rest of the way up, about 4 miles farther to slightly past Dollar Hole is all the farther you can go in a boat. Crappie - Usual spots, there are crappie being caught about everywhere. For size I would stick in the deeper trees along the bluffs and channels but last couple days they have been catching some on the spawning banks, especially in the dingier water in the afternoons. Not sure but I believe there are some crappie initiating spawning activities and this can pick up momentum real quick. With the weather forecast for the next several days I think both species are going to do nothing but improve and there should be a consistant bite for both.

Am back online but did not have anything else to offer, there seems to me to be plenty of up-to-date bass information. Starting Sat will be out 6 of the next 7 days and will have many hours on the water after our finny friends. It looks to me that there's lot of possibilities right now. From my experiences and from those posted by Bill, Don and others we've heard about bites on stickbaits, crankbaits, grubs, spinnerbaits, jigs, c-rigs and finesse rigs. I think all these methods will work in the right place and at the right time just a matter of doin' a little head scratching and giving it your best shot and trying to put some patterns together. No magic bullet ever exists. Fishin smart with some type of plan, fishin something you have confidence in, a little luck, and just getting out there and playing with it it and STAYING wth it are what will put the tug on the end of the line.

I’m no expert either but I used to chase them pretty seriously until about 5 years ago until I got sidetracked by the bass and crappie. So many fish, so little time. Why do all these things happen at once? Couldn’t something spawn in July or August? Anyway most of my experience is in the Kings River, but I usually make a couple trips up the White near Holiday Island as well. Everything Phil said applies to these waters plus I could make a couple more observations. Phil mentioned the tough bite on clear days in the spawning areas. Very true. A couple years ago a friend and I boated into AR on the Kings when lake was at a higher level. Got there in afternoon and it was real slow, only boated a couple small ones. We stayed til dark and as soon as the sun set it was a whole new ball game, we caught several large fish on 2 different occasions doing this. Although there are a lot of fish way up in the lake headwaters and in the river, I always catch much larger fish downlake a few miles trolling in the Sweetwater to Jakie area, even at the peak of the spawn..Usually troll with shad raps. I have a good friend who has lived in Eagle Rock his whole life show me how to catch them this way, and he is deadly at it. A fisheries biologist told me that he thought that a lot of the larger fish spawned on steeper gravel banks on the lake, especially banks that got a lot of wind, so maybe they don’t all run up the river. I know another guy from Jenkins who tears them up trolling as well, but he uses a Hellbender plug with a 3-way swivel and a Vibrax spinner. This thing goes really deep but sometimes that’s where they are. They actually make a version of this plug without hooks for using as a “downrigger” like this, and this setup will work all summer out in the big water as well. I have heard they sell these Hellbenders at one of the tackle stores in K-City, they are actually fairly hard to find, even the ones with hooks. Another way I have caught some real big whites is to fish the last few deep holes in the Kings (Dollar Hole, Blue Hole, Blake Allen). They will pile up in these 25-30’ holes during the day, and I found an effective way to catch them was to cast and let a rattle trap sink clear to the bottom then rip it up and down off the bottom back to the boat. Finally here’s something interesting that happened a few years ago in late April. There were four of us fishing for whites and the other boat caught a couple kind of deep, and we were pretty sure we were marking lots of fish down there. It was one of those steeper gravel banks I mentioned above that the biologist thought they might spawn on. Anyway long story short we threw everything at them to no avail. One of the guys told us to all tie on poppers (Pop-R, Chug Bug type). We all 4 tied one on, cast in same general spot in unison and the results were amazing, apparently making enough commotion to trigger them to bite. I have done this same thing since with schooling bass post-spawn on the main lake more than once. When you know you are over fish sometimes this will work to call them up, and sometimes not

I posted picture and instructions under the Tips & Tricks forum.

I mentioned this on Phil's new crappie thread and thought some of you might be interested in this idea. We used them 30 years ago where I grew up fishing and it's not my invention but everyone who has seen it around here thinks it's a pretty slick idea. It's a great way to tie up to standing timber when you are deep fishing for crappie against the wood. Advantages include it's fast, you can glide in and tie up without bumping into the treetop and spooking fish, it will hold your boat a few feet away where you can easily fish all around the tree, you can tie to underwater trees and it's cheap, maybe 5$ if you have to buy everything. 1) Cut a length of 3/4" PVC to whatever length you want. This one is 6 1/2 feet but anything over 4 will work. I'd cut it to whatever length you think you can easily stow in rod box or on deck of your boat. 2) Drill holes in 2 end caps foer the rope to slide through. Make the rope fit snug. 3) Drill hole in PVC an inch where one end cap will end up. 4) Insert a piece of rope twice as long as the pole into hole you drilled in the hole and thread it out the near end. You might tie a knot in the rope to keep it from slipping back out but with the rope I use the knot ends up too big. Instead melt the end of the rope into a fat blob and flatten it out a bit. Once it hardens ot will not pull back through if you have drilled a snug hole. Make sure you use a sinking rope if you want to lash on to underwater trees. The rope I use is the colored stuff like rock-climbers use. 5) Thread the other end of the rope through the top of one end cap, down the length of the tube, and through the other end cap. 6) Glue the end caps on. 7) Tie a knot on the end of the rope. 8) In the picture you will notice a pink girl's hair tie on the business end of the pole. You can tuck the knot of the tag end of the rope under this to secure it when not in use. To use it just pull out a noose on the end, snag the tree or a branch of the tree you want to tie up to, cinch it up tight, and tie off the loose end of the rope to your boat. I just make some turns around the top of my trolling motor which works fine. I am sure it took longer to type this than it does to make one and you might find it a handy addition to your fishing gear.

Hey now, I did see it and next time I am going to demand the "Full Monte". I definitely you want to tie on my plugs since you know that secret lucky knot, it really works. Here's the deal, you teach me that knot and I'll show you how to check your oil level in your reservoir and fill it when it gets low! And by the way I did notice that bad split lip. I was not going to mention it because I had a sneaking suspicion it was the result of you informing the missus you were spending your "day off" fishing when you had just spent a week on the water. Personally I would have suffered much more than a split lip, but I guess my wife has a wicked right hook. Plus you probably have developed some pretty good defensive moves over the years whereas I still forget to duck most of the time. By the way I really like the picture of your avatar or whatever it is called that appears on your posts. Did you ever get your client's fish wrestled away from him so you could have your picture taken with it? Looks like he has a white knuckle death grip on his trout but you seem to be holding your own, always wondered who won this tug of war. Isn't that kind of hard on the fish?

Brett - I don't know anything recent about the Beardley area but Don's reply sounds like a great game plan to start with. I honestly think we are about at the point where you can catch some fish on about anything you try, but a "hot bite" is going to be elusive, it's more a matter of getting out there and doing a lot of different things and hopefully getting into something good at the moment, realizing you might not do it again tomorrow. Kind of vague I know. Jigs, both the smaller hula/grub spider jigs and larger Jewell type jigs with trailers are always worth trying just about any time of the year on TR, they can be fished shallow out to 25-30' depending on the size. Shades of brown and green are good. Real good SM bait in the clear water areas of the lake. As Don said finess rigs with french fries or fish Dr's or other small plastics are good. Crankbaits might work for you, have heard good things about them recently in the upper White but have not fished them myself recently. I am going to start throwing some plastic and cranks immediately because this stickbait thing is elusive and might be fizzling fast. As far as the stickbaits, suspending rogues or Pointer 100's, are my choice but many others work well. Colors include natural shad colors as well as plugs with chartruse, purples, clown pattern, gold and silver foil, and many others. Rule of thumb is the colder the water the longer you let it sit still. I don't think I ever fish it slow enough, right now 5 seconds would be a long pause for me, I tend to work it at a crawl with very short twitches and some pauses mixed in. Hope this helps - SKMO

Excellent synopsis, I agree 100% with all your comments. A few of my own observations would include: I think the water color has a lot to do with the depth they will nest in. I read some time ago that a study by an MDC biologist sevaral years ago on TR showed that crappie TEND to nest at of a depth of "secci plus 18". In other words if a white object underwater disappears at 20" in full sunlight they will tend to nest around 38" (20+18). Point being that the depth of nesting in ultra-clear water will most probably be a lot deeper than dingier water. Same study also said that if they lake suitable bottom substrate they will often spawn on tree limbs or other objects at the secci plus 18 depth. Not sure if I have ever really put this tidbit of info to good use. When they are "on the bank" if you are catching lots of smallish fish, you might be fishing out of the wrong side of the boat. There is a good chance to hook up with some larger fish out in the immediate deeper water, especially if there is some underwater brush or poletimber nearby. Seems like I can always catch some nicer fish out of the deeper water, even when I am doing OK on the bank. Also I think the best spawning banks tend to be those more protected from prevailing S & W winds, especially in water where they are spawning shallow. Laydowns, brush, or chunk rock are all spots they will tend to congregate or nest. Prespawn fish can be found surprisingly shallow any time after the first of the year when we have a few unusually warm winter days. Nothing to do with spawning, but I think they like to get up on shallow mud and sand flats in dingy water and soak up the warmth and chase some minnows, especially mid-day and afternoons when the water has come up a couple degrees. With the prespawn fish in deeper water that Phil mentioned, I have found the hotspot tends to be the poletimber right along the creek channel, next to the deepest water in the cove, 25-45' deep. Like Phil said they will often suspend surprisingly shallow, and they will tend to hang real tight to the trees, especially if it is sunny. My favorite method to catch these is similar to Phils fly rod, but I use a 12' jigpole, with a bobber and a 1/16 oz jig suspended 18-48" below the float. Flip it beyond the stickup just like you would flippin a bass jig in brush, then pull the float back right against the tree. If there is any wave action let is sit there that will work the jig, otherwise you might have to give it a few pops. It is deadly on both pre-spawn and spawn fish that are suspended relatively close to the surface. If they are in the deeper poletimber and not on the surface where I can fish under a float, I cast for them, maybe going up to a 1/8 jig if it is windy. If they are really deep 15-20', I have better luck vertical jigging next to the trees. This can be kind of challenging especially if there is a wind. To help with this I often tie off to the treetop so I can remain stationary and stay off the trolling motor. A really handy item to have in the boat in this instance is a "stand-off pole". Not a fishing pole but a 5-6' length of 3/4" PVC with a rope running through it and a loop on one end. Pretty much like the things dog-catchers use. It's handy because you can tie off quick, the PVC holds your boat a few feet away from the tree and you don't bump and spook fish, and you can actually tie off to underwater trees if you use rope that sinks. If anyone is interested I'll post a pic of mine and better instructions. Best $4 investment I have made for the deep crappie in the trees. Post-Spawn - I have heard they are in the same locations as pre-spawn, i.e. close to the spawning banks but back in deeper water. But by this time haven't we all had enough of the crappie and aren't the bass red hot? In my boat the answer is YES and we leave the little guys alone! Tight Lines...

Here’s some upper lake bassin’ stories you can read firsthand and maybe put to good use. I fished mid-lake yesterday (Sat) and had a pretty good trip by myself. Concentrated on secondary points between K-City and Campbell Point and got into double digits on some respectable TR spotted bass. It was a good outing , consistent bite on stickbait in 6-12’ of water on gravel points. All females I think, and all nice fish. Went back today with Babler, hoping to improve on the action as I thought it would just get better with a south breeze but once again the fish had a different game plan. Nothing like Bragging up a bite to make it go Sour, that’s Table Rock! It was a good day nonetheless, we scratched up some good spots, a nice LM, and some Real Nice SM on the point I tore the spots on yesterday. Attached you will find a couple pics of the SM we found. Only hint I can offer from my last couple days is throw to classic stickbait spots and if you get bit hang around and keep throwing. There seems to be a lot of dead water in between the sweet spots. For those of you considering a guided bass trip on The Rock I cannot help but recommend Mr. Bill Babler who is both a personal friend and an awesome fisherman. He can hammer the trout at Tany, yet on his “day off” climbs back in the Stratos to fun-fish for the warmwater critters. This says a lot about his passion and says even more about his Wife’s tolerance for his vices. We should all be blessed with such women. If you get the opportunity to fish with Bill on the big water it is well worth the price of admission to see his Hook Set. I think he charges almost $4 per hour which seems steep at first, but once you get out there with him you will probably think it is almost worth it, maybe. Anyway, I thought I knew how to put the hook to a fish but Babler puts me to absolute shame. If you ever saw Hank Aaron swing for the fence in a clutch situation it is puny compared to Bill’s Hook Set! Seriously, even with only 20’ of line out he does not just “cross their eyes” but sets those optical units back against their kidneys (assuming fish have kidneys). I need to relate that sometimes with this Hook Set, all you see is a confetti cloud of fish lips drifting down from above and a sound similar to a .243 going off as the line parts, but I guess this is a closely held Guiding Secret that I probably should not share. Man we had some fun as we tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together as to what the fish were doing, but came to no concensus other than The Rock is a tough piece of water! All in all a really fun day and one that reminded me of the ties that bind us together as fishermen, and fisherwomen.