SKMO

Tom - The hot point bite of last week may have petered out significantly. These were classic prespawn fish and they (SM & spots) may have started moving toward their love nests, probably many of them in the serious wood and safe from our efforts. LM are definitely in the trees. Spent some time in there Fri and saw several, probably had six 3-5#ers come up and kiss my fluke but no takers. Caught 4 shorts. I am not real big on fishing this way because it is not easy and I am pretty lazy, and prefer not to have to pack a chainsaw to get to in and out. I am sure guys who want to pack the heavy tackle and poke around in the junk can do well. Points are points and fish are where you find them. Any point especially those with a distinct ridge is in my opinion worth trying. The cool thing is any day now we are going to see some post spawn fish (think topwater) back on these same points. Casting deep to shallow or vice-versa not a big deal in my opinion just try to stay off the top of the fish, whatever depth you determine them at. At per spawning coves in my opinion classic spawning coves are protected from SW and W and NW winds, and have a mix of chunk rock and wood with gravel patches. Diverse would be the word. That said in a normal year you can find beds in just about every nook and cranny, at deptths of 18" to 18'. This year ???? Everything is different. Have a gut feeling a lot of love goin' on around oak trees. I think we are at one of those points where fish can be caught in several different ways and if you fish your strengths you will do consistantly well. I thnk there are pre-spawn, spawning, and post-spawn to be had today. Hundreds (thousands?) of acres of submerged brush and trees is not something we are used to fishing on the Rock and it has changed the playing field significantly. Not changed better or worse, just old stuff done in different locations and the timing is off about 3-4 weeks Rest assured the fish are adapting a lot better than we are. Mayhaps Don H or Babs can steer you in a direction with some more difinite hints. Good Lord I just noticed I am a Gizzard Shad, who comes up with this s**t. I just wanna be and stay a Smallmouth. Tight Lines - SK

Here are a couple you missed: Viola - Can launch off the road on the edge of the parking lot, as well as a couple of the loop roads in the campground and also down toward the marina. Parking along road. As a note Kings has cleared considerably the last week. Still murky, but not mocha, more greenish. Also I think the Corps campground is going to open 5/15, at least that is what they were planning. Big M - Launching about 400' from ramp on road bed. Actually good angle and "road ramp" situation. Parking along campground roads. I talked with Denver the Marina owner today and they were working hard to get their facility open by Memorial Day. Most every road ramp I have seen is decent, problem can be getting rig turned around to back toward the lake. Seems like there are a few numbnuts out there who will still park right in the obvious way where everyone is making the swing to back to the offload area. Can we say numbnuts? I heard numnuts was politically incorrect. Perhaps the B will help. Rule of thumb: don't park in any space your vehicle utilized when making your launch. The SK bridge @ Hwy39 has been a zoo at times because of one rig parked by operator whose cajones were obviously under anesthesia.

Went out today and made the same milk run of spots we caught them on yesterday. Caught them on all the same spots but greatly reduced numbers on every spot. Went from double digits to 2-6 fish per location. Grub bite was tougher but there. Extremely delicate bites which felt like you had picked up a leaf. Did catch 4 topwater fish (I think this is ready to take off) Had a real nice bag actually by about 1 PM when the wind kicked up and we could not keep a grub in the business area. We were about to exit stage left and hooked a nice fish in the middle of nowhere particular on a major gravel point. Switched to a C-rig with a fry and hooked up right and left for the next hour, in a small location. Ended up with another really good day. If I can offer a word of advice it would be keep moving until you find some decent fish, they seem to be bunched up really tight for some reason. I think things are going to change daily as these KYs and SM make there spawning move and the LM come back out of the trees, we'll catch them coming and going.

Not so hard when you are soaked to the bone (and I do mean the bone, working up from the cuffs) and you have already caught a bunch of fish. At some point I started to feel greedy, just wanted to put my junk in some dry shorts and get back to them tomorrow. Which I am planning on.

Depends on what you call the SK area. We never got to Big Creek which is a couple miles downstream from Campbell Point, which itself is maybe 6 miles down from the SK bridge. Generally we were closer to K-City than SK. Thats about all I remember. Nah, thats all I will divulge. Smiley Face. From talking with Babler it was a great bite lakewide today. I will not reveal our numerical estimate in an attempt to preserve my already sullied reputation as one who exaggerates and embellishes the truth. SKMO

Had the best day, hands down, without a doubt, I have ever had on TR, after fishing it since 1989. Not the biggest pound bag of fish but the most fish boated and the most legal fish ever boated in one day.... for me.. I fished with a great TR fisherman who has forgotten more about this lake than most of us will ever know, though he now lives 150 miles away and gets here infrequently. We fished from K-City to Big Creek. To cut to the chase we caught a Lot Of Fish.... 2/3 Spots and 1/3 SM and not a LM all day. At least 80% of the fish we caught were legal. We fished points (probably 20 of them) and caught fish on only 4 of them. Lots of dead water but when you found them they were there and cooperative. Boat in 20' -25' of water and fish in 12-20', though one spot we found a pod in 8'. We did two rotations through these 4 spots. The fish were still bunched up to the max and neither one of us could figure out why. But they were and it was obvious, the screen tell the tale when we got in the right spots. There seemed to be some loose scattered balls of shad on these spots as well. All fish caught on a grub, Milky S&P Berkley Power Grub 4". Do not ask if the Power Grub scent was a factor cause I do not know. I have never believed scent was a huge factor but after today I will rethink this. I can tell you my bud threw some other similar common stuff in almost identical colors and I was putting it to him really bad before he started stealing grubs out of my bag. They would hit the thing continually until they hooked themselves. Lots of good fish boated started with off with little taps and they would stay with it forever. Most good fish were caught on or near the bottom, scrubbing the scum off the rocks. Pretty much every fish that jumped on us threw the hook. We hooked, saw, and lost more fish than I see on an excellent day of fishing. We caught nothing huge but would have had 17-18 for five. We got Really Wet, drenched, but it was worth it. I am not putting up our fish numbers because y'all would say "Bull Sugar". I know that is what I would think anyway. Hope I have given someone enough factoids to find similar results. I doubt if this will hold up long because the fish we were on all looked pre-spawn and they got to get some lovin' going on soon. It was a fine day.

Fishrman - I have a 25C up front and have the antenna mounted in almost the same spot as you do (on the deck between the trolling motor bracket and the TM foot control). I think the instructions said the antenna and the unit should be separated farther than that but since I vertical fish a lot over small pieces of structure I wanted the antenna as close as possible to the "fishing position". I had read on some other boards that the proximity does not always cause problems (but sometimes can) so went ahead an put it there. I noticed right off that on the initial start up I would get the message "unable to acquire satellites" or something like that. It always happens. However if I leave the unit on and disconnect, then reconnect the antenna from the back of the unit it always immediately acquires the signal. Also, if I am patient and just leave it on it will eventually acquire the signal but may take 10-30 minutes. I unmounted the antenna and tested it farther away but got same results. I decided this was not a major problem and just deal with it by disconnecting and reconnecting the antenna upon start up. As S&M suggested I guess I need to see what my software version is. If you can't figure out what is going on with yours you might try moving your antenna farther away as a trial, maybe it would help.

I was in that exact area yesterday, the water is very muddy and 56-58 degrees in the afternoon. Even the larger side coves were muddy clear to the back. I went upstream looking for a little clearer water and went as far as cedar creek and it too was muddy the whole distance.

Whoa... wait a minute Bill. Don't throw me in the same group with you guide guys who are all accomplished liars and prone to exaggerate. I have never done that. And I definitely do not "Live in My Boat".... yet another lie and exaggeration. FYI This Spring Brenda had the stove and fridge removed from the Skeeter and put back into the house. An inconvenience to me but gives me more room for the backswing on my bush-flipping move so I am looking on the bright side. Last I noticed she did leave the cot and sleeping bag onboard and was filling the live wells with canned goods so I think I have things worked out nicely. She said she would talk to me "later" about all the details.... by which I assume she means we will talk post-spawn when we are both less busy. SKMO

Time of day..... earlier did seem to be better and like Bill said by 1000 hrs it was getting tougher, but we did scratch a couple after that. I have not been in late afternoon but on sunny days I think the potential for it to get better as the water warms is absolutely there. Regarding jigs I imagine you could catch some good fish doing that but to me the name of the game is covering as much water as possible looking for the occasional agressive fish, which tend to be good ones. SB's are perfect for this. Topwater... I have been thinking about that, but all the blade fish I have run across are fairly deep over the bushes, plus not seeing any shad near the surface to speak of. I think if you ran a topwater in the real shallow stuff as the water warmed you might have some results but the "easy" shallow stuff is getting pounded by a lot of boats. There are obviously a lot of fish holed up in the jungles in the 1-5' deep water where at least I have no desire, nor the skillls/equipment to try to mess with them. Like Bill said there's going to be some new things going on in the near future as the water clears, warms and drops and post-spawn fish are more numerous.

Kings is really muddy, actualy probably the source of most muddy water going down the main stem of the upper White. There have been some nice fish taken in the Kings the last couple days, I believe it is sun dependant. When the sun beats down the shallow mud spots can turn on. Depending on how agressively you want to hit the bushes I would say 15# is a minimum. Thats what I am throwing anyway. You could throw heavier mono or braid, but end up taking it off later as the water clears. I have not broke off a fish or a bait with 15, just watch for abrasion and retie as needed... my opinion.

Pour Dennis and I hit it for about 5 hrs this morning and all I can say is same ol' same ol', caught some nice fish on.... a spinnerbait of all things! Pic attached of a couple nice keepers either side of 5# One thing noteworthy is the larger fish was expelling eggs with a loose belly so at least some of the fish have spawned. We caught 9, maybe 10, all legal fish I believe but a couple K's were squeekers. Water temps 54-58 degrees, main lake channel bad muddy but larger side coves a bit clearer. Also caught a 14+ crappie on the blade, and had a 40" gar pull off after about 10 seconds of mutual excitement. Bite seemed to peter out later in the morning and I was getting goosey as my cranker was getting weak so we split early. Happy ending to the battery story as Battery Warehouse authorized a local switch out under full replacement. So bagged some nice basses and a new cranker and I must say I have had worse days... Days when no fish seemed to be in my zip code. Days when real expensive stuff got broke. Days when someone in the boat was bleeding enough to drip on the carpet. So as far as fishing days go it was a keeper.

On the west end you can launch at Eagle Rock, Big M, Shell Knob and H Highway south of SK (Big Indian/Baxter). You will be launching off parking lots or roadbeds but I know all these places are usable as I looked at them today. Shell Knob had a bit of a logjam problem but it comes and goes depending on the winds and there were at least 3 full sized rigs launched from there today.

Here is the Corps website that gives 3 day predictions - http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/WCDS/Repo...ily/lakfcst.txt

Went out with Pour Dennis about 1030 after the rains blew through and fished about 4 hours. Stayed with the spinnerbait in the bushes (is there any other way to fish this mud?) and had fair results considering the passing front. We had about 10 fish with 5 for sure keepers. Pic attached of a LM I would guess at 3.75 and a measured 18" meanmouth that would be about 4#. The meanmouth looked like it had swallowed a grapefruit. Probably full of both eggs and dinner. Caught a couple shallow but best bite seemed to be 8-12' deep willows toward the back of a sizable cove. Saw water temps of 57-58.8 And yes, it was muddy.

Dave - I think it is pretty much a reaction bite with the water this muddy and any bright colors should work. Blades were willow in gold, and skirts white and chart or some combo therabouts, weight 3/8 to 1/2. I would imagine any style of blade that moved some big water and about any color skirt would have worked equally well. Once we found some takers I do not think they were bring very choosy about colors. Actual bait was probably several notches down the list as compared to finding the fish themselves. Probably any type of hardware you could work in 1-4' of water would have gotten the same results but the blade is quick and clean as far as hang ups go. Any brand, any style, any size and most any colors would have caught the same fish, what is tied on the end of your line is probably a pretty minor part of the equation under these circumstances.... in my opinion.

We were in muddy water. The main stem of the White is real muddy from all the mud coming down the Kings. The larger side coves are a little clearer, but still quite muddy... you could see a bright bait maybe 8" down.

Babler and I went out today after the upper White fish and eventually figured a few of them out. Ended up with 18 fish w/16 keepers by Bill's tally, and best 5 would have been 20 or thereabouts. I thing both shorts were LM, and of the remaining 16 I would guess 12 were KY variety. One short on a jig, all the rest of the fish were spinnerbladed to the boat. 3 solid keepers early out of deeper bushes, but then we kind of struggled. After 0900 some nips and tugs and misses. About noon went to some shallow water (which is hard to find) and hit paydirt right off. Fish were in 1-4' of water and were hot to trot. Opened the show with a double on toad Kys and from noon to 3 did right well when we could find the right water: shallow sloping banks (think lawns) wind blowing in and south facing to collect the sun. Water was 52 early but we saw 58 in the afternoon in the water I just described. Had a bit of a battery problem as the cranker decided to go out and we headed in earlier than we anticipated but ended the day on a high note. Bill did lose a Real Nice Fish which ran to the boat and blew up in our face throwing the spinnerbait. It was a LM like you only see a couple of every year and there is no question it was #7 plus. I called it at 8 initially but Billl had the watery eyed look of a little boy who just found coal in his Christmas stocking and I was real close to having a crying Guide on my hands so we just agreed it was "over 7" and narrowly avoided an emotional scene that would have been uncomfortable for both of us. Pretty exciting and we both got a good look at it, the type of fish that keeps us going as fishermen when times are tough. Pics attached of six of of our new acquaintances. SKMO

Pour Dennis and I fished in the Baxter area about 6 hours yeserday. Back in the coves around Baxter and then went downstream to within a mile and a half of the James. We launched at the end of H Hwy South of Shell Knob (not the H that leads to Baxter Marina) and had no problems with that. Dock is well positioned and although you launch from the parking lot is has a good slope and there is plenty of parking space. We saw few if any large floaters so boating was not problem. The leaves, sticks and debris had all moved into the flooded shoreline trees so fishing was not a problem. Catching was a problem and we did none of that. It's quite muddy back in the coves at Baxter, water was a little clearer on the main lake near Baxter but still muddy, and when we got in the Goat Island / Wolfpen area we hit serious mud backing upstream from the mouth of the James. Never saw water clarity more than about 12-15" anywhere and the real muddy stuff was half that. Water temps had not changed much, still 48-50. We threw mostly jigs into the trees and bushes, also slow rolled blades through the bushes and a little bit of crankbait. Pretty much all water 14' deep or less is flooded trees and bushes unless you hit a stretch of mowed lawn. We also drug some stuff around in the 15-20' water on gravel points outside the bushes. Dennis had one for sure bite on a jig and that was it for the day. We did not see another boat the entire day which was amazing to me. I would have thought there was at least one other optimist out there who thought he could catch a fish in high, muddy, cold water under a north wind. I guess others are not as optimistic, or were smart enough to have stayed home.

Attached are some pis I took today on the west end: 1st - Sunrise pic of debris jam on Kings River dock about 2 miles upstream of Lost Hill Island. (Green Shores). It is hard to get perspective with the fog and angle but I used to shoot competitive centefire rifle and I would put the pin at 350 yards to hit the last log. 2nd - Big M Marina, just a strip left to park on 3rd - Shell Knob Bridge 4th - Another dock on Kings between Viola and SK 5th - Viola ramp at Kigs River Marina, parking lot completely underwater 6th - Bridgeport on the James. As I took the shot I was also watching a boat motor to the landing with a couple big P-Fish trailing beside. Thought you all who are not witness to the high water might be interested. SKMO

Flipping the backs of coves was my plan yesterday but the "backs" of the coves were way up in the woods inaccessible by boat. It was hard to get in less than 10' of water.

Skeeter - Was in the Baxter area yesterday and everything looked normal to me dock-wise. Caught a keeper LM over the top of a cedar tree grove and short LM on a jig and that was it. This was out on the main lake. Back in the coves at Baxter it took me two hours to remember all the reasons why I do not like to fish the bushes when the lake gets this high. I can do OK when the bushes are in 2-4' of water but most were already long submerged and not visable. Even on the main lake where the water was relatively clear there was a lot of floating leaves and stuff that made throwing anything with a treble hook pretty much out of the question.

Crossed the Kings River on 86 Hwy about 11 AM and here are some pics. Most of the watershed for Kings got 10" plus rain. Extreme mud and debris headed to The Rock for your enjoyment. Had crossed at Eagle Rock earlier and it looked pretty good but I doubt if that will last long as mud works down from the side drainages of the White. Poked my head into Viola ramp and there is a big log jam at the ramp, so will probably head back to H Hwy this PM. I would guess that in another 24 hrs we will be fishing mud from the Baxter area upstream, With the James on a rampage and Long creek running muddy it might be hard to find any water with clarity anywhere on the lake in a few days.

The mud never left from the last rain event in late March. I live about 2 miles up the Kings from the island and it has been bad muddy all month. Just took some pics and will post on new thread.

I don't actually launch at Baxter, I put in at the old Big Indian campground across the cove just south of the swim beach (at the end of H Hwy off 39 south of SK). One of the better ramps on the lake in my opinon, never too busy, good pitch to the ramp no matter what level, and great dock. So I don't know condition of Baxter dock. Rain started warm but is turning cold. I am going to hit it tomorrow in the Kings on two patterns: fish runoff water big and small, and fish leeward side of points. I have had some relly great trips this time of year when the lake jumps up. They will congregate in the runoff in the backs of coves, cuts and notches and gobble food washing in. This works better if the runoff was a bit warmer but there should be a few around. I have also done well on the leeward side of points.... my theory is they (95% LM) prefer not to fight any current and hug the eddies behind the points and wait for stuff to wash by. I expect water to be extremely muddy with a noticible current down the channel, and I'll throw cranks, colorado blades, and jigs. From past experience it will be really good or really bad. Don't expect a lot of bites but the possibility of quality fish is there. Thats the game plan anyway, I'll lt you know what shakes out. SKMO