SKMO

Thanx for the report, much appreciated.

Denjac - Well I guess you don't mince words as "suck" was certainly on the top of my list for descriptives of Little George hooking systems. Kinda crude catfish hooks with a galvinazation like an old refridgerator shelf. Olebasser - Just how "Ole" a basser are you?? Please relate your chatterbait experiences. Seriously. It looks to my like this is something for dingy water but would like to hear some of your Table Rock sucess stories in this bait. SKMO

Denjac - I guess the Little George is kind of a variation of a spoon presentation. (Chunk of shiney metal beneath the boat, but with better vibration) I have used LG's in the past for casting to schooling for fish and my problems were they spun around on the line, and the hook was pretty rough, in my opinion. Do you replace the original LG hook with a better grade? I Have used Silver Buddies or similar blade baits as well as LG's for jigging beneath the boat in Winter with limited sucess. Usually hanging up a lot and donating metal to the bottom of the lake. Any tips? Assume you are fishing the LG around scouted schools of threadfin? Thanks - SKMO

I was told this week by a prominent SK crappie fisher-person that the "critical" water temp was 55 degrees. According to him it gets good and better as the water temp falls below that. Today the temp at SK is 59 or so but will surely be dropping. There have been some bona-fide nice catches of very large crappie (up to 16") on and off until now but nothing consistant. Most people fishing deep trees in the mouth of coves with minnows. Spoke w/a Crappie guy last evening at the SK Ramp who had been in the upper Kings last afternoon and he did nothing. Turmover as I understand it will not start until water temp 47-49, then only minimal mixing, most turnover occurs closer to upper 30's.

Well Dwiebenga- I am afraid you have a Whole Lot more to learn about Marriage than Fishing on TR!. Gary hinted at it but I will be blunt. You need to be asking your future spouse the question: "My Dearest, when might I be able to take a fishing trip to Table Rock"? Until She gives you your Marching Orders it is all a moot point, for She may determine that a Spring Fishing Trip is not in the works for you. Speaking from experience... the Honeymoon may or may not be over by next Spring and you may be surprised at the various "factors to consider" when planning this trip. They can be enormous and confounding and you don't want to sell your life-soul for a measly fishing trip. Just be very careful because this first post-Honeymoon trip might have deep implications and repercussions for several years. Wives I have known have an astounding memory for incriminating details that I thought were long forgotten, but were simply back-shelfed for future use against honest fishing ventures. (Fishing is Great around the Basin, late March and April are hard to beat) All this offered in fun, of course. There is no truth whatsoever in any of my ramblings. Oh yeah... Toilet Seat DOWN Good Luck - SKMO

Well if we told you they wouldn't be "secrets" would they? In winter I am not sure if I like the warm days because the fish might bite, or because it's when I can stand to be out there. I can take wind, and cold, but not both at once. Anyway my favorite winter patterns include: 1) I like Southwest facing 45 degree chunk banks in cuts and coves, and gravel pockets in the afternoons, when they have had a few hours sun exposure and can warm up 2-3 degrees. Dependng on the water temp and color I like stickbaits, grubs, cranks and even spinnerbaits. You can catch bass on cranks and spinnerbaits well at times especially in off-colored water if you run them slow and the water is still in the low 40's at least. Suspending Fat Free shad in Citrus Shad has put some nice fish in my mt boat. 2) Fishing schools of shad in the coves. This all depends on being able to find some shad. Sometimes easier said than done, but there are enough really good days mixed in with the duds to keep my interest up. Favorite presentations include dropshot, tubes, spoons, swimming grub deep through and below the shad balls. Have had some real memorable trips and caught 30+ fish for the boat doing this, usually all Ky's and most often some real pigs. Also lots of trips not-so-memorable where I fished the shad and had nothing to show for it but a frozen arse. 3) Fishing bluff timber and timber on deeper banks. Stickbait, tube, or weeedless grub. Overall my favorites would have to be the stickbait in the trees, weedless tube in the trees, and dropshot around shad in the coves. Guys who know when and where to fish a jig and pig or Eakins type jig can do tremendous in the winter I have just never figured it out.

I think It's good to be able to see your drop-shot rig (or spoon) for a few reasons: I'll often dropshot in 80-90' of water trying to keep the rig just above treetops that may be 30-40' below the surface. If you can't see your bait it's pretty hard to stay in the sweet spot and pretty easy to get hung up constantly. I also fish the rig right on the bottom in 30-50' of water. It's pretty common to go over a couple suspended fish that may be 10-15' above the bottom. When you notice this you can raise your rod or give your reel a couple cranks and get your bait on the same general level as the fish or slightly above them. With the way a bass's eyes are positioned I think fish see what's above them a lot better than what's below them. It is surprising how far above them they are looking and will respond. Many times when I am watching my rig drop to the bottom a fish will shoot up from the bottom and intercept it on the way down, often coming up 15' or more. Sometimes they eat it, sometimes they follow it back to the bottom and eat it, more often than not they do nothing but sniff it and leave it alone. Anyway it's pretty cool to watch, makes you realize how many fish see and inspect your offering with no bite. i.e. they are watching, they are simply not cooperating. Another one of my Grande Theories relates to competition. If I am seeing a single fish here, and a single fish there there, it is probably a mediocre bite and I'll have to do some serious "begging". If I am seeing 2-4 bass-type returns on the screen at once and get my bait in proximity chances are they will rush it and one will suck it in pronto. It's just like feeding my two dogs. If we are in the food bowl area I can throw down a sock soaked in kerosene and if they are both nearby, they will fight over it assuming it just might be prime rib, they can always spit it out. If only one of them is there they always approach the offering as if it WAS a kerosene soaked sock. One thing for sure is that a transducer with a wide cone angle is a lot easier for me to "video fish" with than one with a narrow cone angle. My last depthfinder had a narrow (17 degree I think) cone angle and although it was a real quality unit (X-15) it was almost impossible to keep my bait in the zone of coverage in deeper water. The boat had to be pretty much stationary. My current depthfinder has a 30 or 35 degree cone angle and it is a night and day difference in how much easier it is to keep my rig in sight. That said, keep in mind that just because your display shows your rig and a fish or two in proximity on your display, they (fish and rig) may actually be 10-15 or 20' apart horizontally, depending again on the cone angle and depth of the water. Your display will show everything at once that is within the cone and the processor does some averaging to give you the display picture. In any case when you see a display return that looks like bass it's a pretty encouraging thing, since the most important factor in deep fishing to receive a tug on the end of the line is fishing where fish are at. Sounds like a trite smart-arse remark but it was not meant to be that, after some time you will know if you are fishing around fish. I think most mid-priced or better depthfinders have the capability to see your bait so if I was shopping for one I'd for sure be taking into consideration the cone angle of the transducer. Some units have more than one transducer angle available also. I think getting the highest quality depthfinder you can afford and spending the time to learn how to use it and INTERPRET what you are seeing is a really important part of making the most out of the deep fishing thing. With a good unit and some experience you can get a pretty good picture of what's down there and be able to tell what you are looking at. Hardwood trees, cedar trees, brush piles, logs/stumps, boulders, underwater bluffs, shad schools, broken up (harassed) shad schools, and different species of fish all have a unique "signiture" you can learn to interpret not with 100% certainty but with some degree of confidence. I'm sure some will roll their eyes when I suggest you can tell species but I am certain when I am over something that might be bass. They have a distinct concise thickness to the line that they give on my screen. Not to say that it might not be another species but I know what bass look like. Just as importantly I know what they do not look like. Big thick arches never bite and I would assume they are carp, gar, paddlefish, catfish...whatever. Smaller numerous arches and a blotchy return are usually panfish. (I know this because I chase bluegill on occasion). A nice solid black line just off the bottom, preferably 2 or 3 at once going up and down, those are usually active bass and when I see that I go on point for the bite. So to answer your question "Are my electronics good enough for dropshotting ?" it looks to me like your Eagle Fishmark 480 is a real good quality Lowrance/Eagle unit with plenty of capability to pick up on your rig at any depth. So the ball is in your court on learning how to fine tune the settings and interpret what you are seeing on the display. Getting a good depthfinder is not the solution or answer to all the questions of what's beneath the boat, but it is the visual display of where all your questions begin. There will still be plenty of times you see something wierd and say "what the heck was THAT" ? but over time you will say that less often.

Have been on the Rock quite a few times the last couple weeks and thought I’d put up a report. Been fishing on the White from mouth of James to Big M. Water temp Tuesday was 61-62. Overall kind of tough but if I hang in there and keep trying different locations and presentations I am usually ending up with a few nice fish. Long periods of nothing mixed in with some biting fish and stumble across something that works enough to keep me interested almost every trip. Not catching as many as a month ago but size has improved. Seems like the fish are scattered in a lot of different type locations. One thing working is fishing trees in the mouth of coves and pockets on the gravel flats. In other words, coves with trees on the gravel flat side of the lake and fishing the very edge of the trees toward the lake side. Deep water close by seems to be important and I try to target smaller patches of trees. Use electronics to find where the trees start, often quite a distance from where they actually are visible. Catching some nice SM and smallish LM doing this in 15-20’ of water using ½ ounce Eakin’s type jigs with twin trailers in green pumpkin and PB&J colors. Pretty common to catch a couple SM together, they seem kind of bunched up when you find them. Actually caught 3 keeper SM and one short in one small area doing this a couple days ago. Same areas but on the deeper cove side of the trees I go vertical with a ¼ weedless jighead with a finesse worm. Fishing that in the trees on the bottom in 30-40’ or in the tree tops if the water gets deeper. Similar presentation as a drop-shot rig but fewer hang-ups. Am finding fish on timbered bluff ends with channel swings also, especially if the bluff trees stop and it transitions to a gravel point. Another thing still working is drop-shotting the usual deep water roll-offs and brush piles. Mostly KY’s doing this. Mid 30’s seems to be a good depth to start looking, on out to 45-50’. The big open gradual gravel flats and humps have not been working for me at all unless I can find a steep roll-off where the depth changes quickly. My best spots are gravel flats where a cove cut or creek/river channel takes the bottom from 30 to 45 feet in a couple boat lengths. These are good KY spots, it seems to me they relate to this “vertical edge” like they do bluffs or bridge pilings. Brush piles or logs in 30-40’ of water are always worth dropping a shot rig into and I have caught a few nice ones that way but usually only one fish per spot. I have also caught some on the Eakin’s type jigs on deeper gravel and chunk points hopping it along the bottom almost beneath the boat in 30-40’ of water. If you can find some loose concentrations of shad in deeper water and see larger fish down there drop a spoon and hold on. I had this work really well twice recently but it is hard to find this condition to begin with, and even harder to stay with them as they will be moving fast and deep, bigger fish were down at least 20 and more like 30’ under the shad. I have drug a c-rig for great distances with not much luck. Seems like I can only catch dinks. Right now to me it’s just a way to pretend I’m fishing while I scout for new brushpiles or breaks that might be holding some fish. I cannot get bit on a spinnerbait except at daybreak for a few minutes, maybe. I have been out in perfect conditions with clouds and big wind and spent some time with it hoping for one good fish, but I cannot get it to happen. Not sure why I keep throwing it except I remember when it used to work really well this time of yea. I have not seen any significant surface activity on this part of the lake for at least 3 weeks. I think it will get better in a couple weeks as some shad start to move into some of the wintering coves. That’s my theory anyway and I’m sticking with it. The hope of a better bite “tomorrow” is what keeps me going on this lake most of the time anyway. Also heard from a reliable source that some nice crappie are being caught in the Kings. One guy had nine legals and two were pushing 16” fishing minnows in trees.

Here are the results posted this afternoon: RESULTS 1 Same results in slightly different format here: RESULTS 2 Looks like most folks found the bite pretty tough to say the least. Other than the winner Dodson, these are some really low weights.

It is called "cutaneous fibroma" and it is not uncommon for deer to have a small one or two.

This is probably the best site for tournament listings: Just pick the lake and month and you will get a list of all organized tourneys that have permits with MSWP. http://www.mswp.dps.mo.gov/Regattas/RegSearch.asp

Started around Baxter about 0615 in the dark and wind and spitting rain. About 10th cast boated the largest LM I have caught all year at #5.8, on black spinnerbait (what else). No pic of it as it was dark and windy and spitting rain and I did not want to mess with camera, should have thrown it in the live well for a pic later. Anyway as it got light I caught a nice KY on spinnerbait, then the SM fell for a redfin, some more shorts and a final keeper KY. About 1045 I realized I had not seen a fish for an hour in the shallow stuff so went to try some drop shot spots. I found some fish in an area I had checked several times previous but never did any good. Over the next 2.5 hours I caught 8 more drop-shot KYs including a couple piggies. Ended up with 18 fish and 7 keepers, 6 of which kept me company in the boat till I had enough for a nice group picture, then released. I'll take this bunch of fish anyday, it was nicest size KY's I had met all summer/fall. Have had too many days recently w/20-30 fish and maybe one squaker who I figure must have been the babysitter cause the rest were 8-12" adolescent-types. Drop-shot fish were n bottom in 34-40 feet of water. I have been fishing a shakey head jig on the end of the line instead of a drop-shot weight, then fishng another hook above it on a double rig. Every one of the DS fish picked up the jig off the bottom, never boated a fish from the suspended hook. Am trying it again this AM and am curious what effect if any the cooler weather might have had.

This is 5 years old and originally cost 600-700. Works great, comes with puck transducer to mount on trolling motor, or in bottom of boat. Extremely sensitive and great for deep fishing those dropshot and spoon fish. Has temp guage, mounting bracket, and power cable, everything you need to use as is. Does not have the GPS antenna but that can be added for around $200. Product specs are here: http://www.lowrance.com/Manuals/Files/LCX-15MT_0133-49.pdf X-15MT is a Discontinued model but these still are on ebay for 450-500, This model was replaced by the LCX 17M which sells for $700 without GPS. I am selling this used one in good condition for $240. Located in Shell Knob on TR lake

Tie a small (#8 or #10) high quality barrel swivel about 15" above your hook. Swivel on the weight won't do anything to reduce twist.

Just got in from helping at the weigh-in of Homer Sloan Tournament out of Campbell Point and here are unofficial results: 61 boats entered. Not sure how many boats weighed in fish but I would guess maybe a couple dozen at most. 1st - Fann & Fann 13.52 2nd - Ward & Holmden 12.43 3rd - Hammond & Hammond - 11.87 These were the only 3 limits weighed. Big bass was 6.03 and was not part of any of the top 3 weights. I did not get a chance to talk to a lot of people, but from talking with some of the guys I know there was a bit of a shallow bite early but it fizzled real quick. Most fish caught deep, and several people said they had over 20-30 fish with no keepers or just one or two. All in all no surprises... fishing continues to be pretty tough overall with the occasional good day (or half day) when the stars line up just right. Water on this end back up to 72-73 on main channel, about 5 degrees less way up the Kings.

Capt DJ - Humps will show as circles, and actually the hump on 16 does show up. See the number 20 right next to the H? It is halfway covering the circle which represents a hump, very small. The H is covering the "saddle" which makes this a hump and not just an extension of the 20' line you see running out as a ridge. Most humps are actually more or less in the middle of these ridges. Think of them as underwater islands. Now think of all the actual islands and real shallow shoals and humps that you see sitting way off the points with a hazard bouy on them, but yet it may be deep enough through the "saddle" to run a boat. The reason you can't see a lot of them is this: The current maps have 20' contours, therefore there needs to be a 20' elevation difference for them to be mapped. For example in the middle of the ridge just south of the H which the map shows as 20', there could theoretically be humps up to 19' "tall" that are not going to get mapped. On most of these ridges (or points, same thing) there will be numerous little humps maybe only a few feet tall that will never show on a 20' interval map. It doesn't take much of a hump size-wise to hold fish, sometimes. There are guys who make their own rockpiles as structure and they are obviously not going to be very tall. For every hump you can pick out on the map there are many many more that are not going to show up. Find them on your own, mark them with GPS, and you will probably have something more productive than these big humps that anyone with $8 for a hotspots map is fishing.

Quoted --------------- "A BASS official notified BassFan on Saturday night that Florida's Shaw Grigsby (tied for 11th) will not be allowed to fish on day 4 due to a violation of Rule 3 (ii). The official said Grigsby violated the portion of the rule that prohibits pros from receiving information from non-boaters or observers. Since the infraction occurred after day 3 competition had concluded, Grigsby was allowed to keep his 27-08 total and Top 12 finish. The lost opportunity to move up could be costly for him in terms of Bassmaster Classic qualification – he was 47th in the points when the tournament began, and the Top 37 after tomorrow receive Classic bids." -------------------- Whatever happened emphasizes in my mind how much the 6-figure payout has made the whole bunch goosy and gun-shy. There is no way SG was trying an end run. Not sure what happened or what was said but I feel badly for this guy.

Bill Babs has done such excellent reports on the current Rock fishing situation and the BASS tourney that ended today that I hesitate to add anything, except for the fact that I talked to him earlier today and he was Out of Pocket for the weigh-in. So with that in mind I’ll try to fill in a bit with some info I garnered at the Final weigh-in. For your edification I am just going to put up some bullet statements as I heard the guys say as they crossed the stage. Any of my comments will be in (brackets). I’ll put them up in the order they came across. Don’t gig me if I misspell some names and stuff. (First off there is going to be some hoopla on Grigsby’s disqualification but from what I saw Trip Weldon addressed it at the onset of the weigh-in very diplomatically and he explained it well. I think it is to SG’s credit that he bellied up to the bar and admitted a mistake.) It was a real neat atmosphere at the weigh-in. Rainy as you know and the guys and gals that were there were pretty subdued. Hard to explain but it was not the typical big dog and pony show in my opinion. Very well done. No reason to give weights and numbers here as they are all available on the ESPN/BASS website. Anyhoo here’s what I heard and saw: 1 - Ish Monroe– They showed some A+ videos of his graph as he fished, i.e. baitfish and his rig. Lowrance 332. He was very complementary of the Rock. No specifics as to location or technique. (Pretty cool dude) 2 – Murray – Spooned, caught “walleye and other assorted species today” Zero information otherwise. 3 – Reese – Had a nice fish what looked to be a 4ish largemouth. Claimed his success was Lucky Craft BDS3. Fished “big baits” all week. 4 – Biffle – “Shallow in Creeks” and also said “When sunny they were shallow but today went deeper” . (Man does this seem backwards to me but who is to say as I am not a pro bass pounder). “90% of fish on the Sweet Beaver”. (I think I remember him saying 10’ was “deep”.....Holy cow does this guy not know the definition of “Table Rock Shallow”, i.e. 20’ is where the mid-range depths begin, and "Deep" does not start til the 30’s). Anyway I digress… 5 – Snowden – “Fished spinnerbait until 1100 in shallow water”. (Big Yawn. I guess he was the guy with the most to lose if he gave up a tidbit of info). 6 – Lowen – Had a video of him close to a little rip-rap bank on a roadbed catching a nice fish. Caught them “18” (INCHES) to 3’ deep all week.” (seems ridiculously shallow to me but I guess they are there. Every big tourney someone with the patience does this) 7 – Bill Smith – Lost “Big Ones” all week on this miserable 6# line we all use. He wants to figure out to do his dropshot on braid and then he will be a contender. Whatever. 8 – Bondy – “Beautiful day in the Ozarks” was his opening statement. (Sure brought the local crowd to his corner. Only a local fisherman could appreciate what he meant, i.e. we love getting some clouds and rain if nothing else except for the heat relief, maybe the fish will bite). Said he had 4 by 10 AM. Said he was fishing “a cast away from 120’ of water”. Classy dude. 9 – Short – Held up a nice SM. Said he had to fish new water all day (for whatever reason). His screen shot looked like he was dropshotting. 10 - Evers – Caught fish “30-42’ on brushpiles and rockpiles”. Said he had to hold it still on the dropshot presentation. 11- Faircloth – Got real emotional on stage. Understandably, I do not say this in a negative way. He done good… reeeaal good. Said he caught them on 5” Slim Senkos. Not sure of the presentation but I think dropshotting was assumed. Said when it was cloudy he used Green Pumpkin, when clear he used Watermelon Purple. Also said he had an easy practice…. That is when he did the same (dropping in on the fish) he got bit real hard, but it got tougher for him through the week Hope this info is useful or at least interesting to some.

Sam - My curiousity got the best of me. Please explain how killing every legal Ky bass you catch helps the fishery.

Sorry I was slow in replying. The TR Redfin bite is kind of an elusive and legandary thing. It either works great or it does not work worth a hoot. When it works hang on cause it is definitely a big fish bite. My #1 most memorable day on the Rock was on the Redfin. Here is a link to the redfin, I guess BPS does not carry them: http://www.lurenet.com/catalog.aspx?catid=CJ9JointedRedFin When TR fishermen talk about a redfin bite they are always referring to the jointed model run right on top, making a "wake". There is no lure I modify as much as a jointed redfin. You gotta make it float more. Replace both factory hooks with lighter and sharper Gammy hooks. I put a dab of lead putty on the rear of the front section to hold it down, and I put a piece of foam tape on the front of the front section, right behind the bill to add bouancy to the front end. You want the thing to be trying to crawl up OUT of the water during the retrieve, and make a wake across the top of the water. I'm not sure if color is very important but I have a smokey joe color and a blue over bone that both work well. Base color is usually some shade of off-white. It's hard to get one running just right. Hold rod tip high and reel kind of fast initially, or let it float up till it comes to the top, then just swim it on the surface. You want your line more or less completely out of the water. Sometimes it works in shallows, I usually do best around deeper submerged trees.

Launched on mid-white about 0730 and immediately found some Sammy topwater fish on some favorite spots. Had several fish and some OK keeper spots in first 90 minutes, then called Babler to report in as I knew he was on a bass trip and we had agreed to compare notes after an initial foray. He was doing well on another type bite but asked me if the topwater was a spook-type or a redfin. After hanging up the cell he had put the bug in my ear about the redfin and I wondered "why didn't I think of that"? I put a lot of trust in ol' Sammy and forget to branch out in the topwater arena. To settle the issue and answer the question I tied one on and... it turned out to be the best phone call I have made in a LONG time. Long story short it seemed like every bass in the neighborhood had a bone to pick with the redfin, they could not leave it alone. Immediately started catching larger fish. By the time I left at 3PM I was well into double digits on legal fish and if I guestimated the number of total fish landed, plus swings and misses/follows on the redfin you would call me a lier so I will leave that number to myself. It was a nice big number. For much of the day I imagined myself fishing in Bill Dance's private pond, not Table Rock Lake. Pics are of a 21" LM (out of 25' water) with a stub of a tail that literally bled allover the boat. Plus a personal best 20" meanmouth. Fluke was just laid there for scale, caught on Redfin. Doubt if I will ever beat this for a Meanmouth but I'll keep trying. Pattern was the ends of tree lines on the lake end of spawning coves. Caught several Sammy fish but redfin fish were more agressive and better quality. Thanks Bill, would never have turned out this way without your input.

Her's a little info on the Osprey in MO: http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/birds/osprey/ I saw one this weekend around Shell Knob. I actually see them regularly in Fall, Winter and Spring. Not sure if I have seen one in Summer which would indicate it was a local breeder. It is real common to see them crash into the water after a fish, that's what they do! Way cool birds, they make their flight calls often and it's a neat sound.

A couple people PM'd me wanting info and wondering about the "spinnerbait" bite in the dark. Guess I should have been more explicit. Baits I thow are "short arm" spinnerbaits. The brand I throw is either Strike King "Midnight Special" or HogJaw shortarms. They are completly different than "after sunrise" spinnerbaits. They have one big thumper colorado blade, black or hammered copper, skirt is mostly black, also put on a twin tail plastic trailer to slow it down and give a bigger profile. Key is that the wire arm for the blade is very short, in case they hit the blade they also get the jig/hook. I never use a trailer hook. First off it's a hassle in the dark with something else to tangle up. More importantly there is no reason to use one because they do not nibble the spinnerbait. They engulf it and whenever you feel you have hooked a tree just set the hook and be prepared to do business up close and personal and quick, in the dark. Run boat parallel to bank on some chunky banks and just cast it out as shallow as you can stand and hold on, you can meet up with some great fish in 1-6' of water this time of year. If I were to analyze my results of the BIG fish I have caught per hour of fishing nothing would hold a candle to the last couple hours of dark before sunrise this time of year. Hands down it can be (but not always) awesome and will make you wonder where the big LMB go rest of year. Same goes for Fall and late Fall, an awesome time to be throwing the black spinerbait pre-dawn. I have fished a lot from sunset to midnight and sure had my lucky streaks but pre-dawn is hands down my favorite.

After a great day yesterday AM my son and I went out for about 3 hours from about 5-8PM. Eleven fish zero keepers. Told him wait till the AM (It would be Great)but that did not work too well either. Launched in a diferent spot I thought we could catch some SM. Final tally 5AM-9AM was another 11, with 2 barely keeper SM and a real nice LM about 17. Could not come up with the topwater/redfin bite Bill mentioned but we tried. Pretty breezy and we caught the few we caught on a spinnerbait. Plastics would have probaby been better but it was pretty breezy and we were trying to cover some water.

Put on the upper White about 5AM and fished about 2.5 hours. Before it got light big fish bit well, had 7 keepers and one short, all LMB. Attached are pics of 3 largest 18.5', 20" and 21.75", 3 other legals were 16-17". Had a really big one jump me over a log in the semi-dark and pulled loose. Got a decent look at it and am pretty certain it was the largest LMB I have ever had a hook in on TR. Best action was on spinnerbait in the dark, although the 21+ was caught about 0730 right before I came in, on a crankbait. Might have to set the alarm tomorrow and get out earlier for some more of these pre-sunrise toads.