Doug Weston

For the record, it was pretty windy that day, the shallow ones were in the wind. Nothing really of any size size, 2 would've been close to 3 lb class fish, the rest, just average keepers (that were keepers anyway). But when I got one to bite, I could catch 5-10 more in the exact same spot.

The only fish i could get to bite yesterday was shallow, and many were very shallow, like in 6 ft. Classic wiggle wart stuff, but they wouldn't bite the wart, only caught them on the A rig. I posted a report.

I finally got on board after hearing so much about it. Didn't vet started until almost 930 and began to wonder if I had missed the bite. Didnt get bit until a little after 2 but I quickly figured them out. Put in at Shell knob bridge and fished between there ad big creek. Couldnt find fish very deep, deepest todaywas 25 ft with most coming out of 13 or less. Windblown mixed rock(transition) banks found the concentrations of fish. I was ready to quit and finally got a bite, then caught 34 between 2 o'clock and 5. I actually counted. 13 keeps but none very big. Best 5 at 13 lbs. I had to reel extremely slow. I can't remember catching that many, that fast ever before. I tried other baits in the same areas and no takers. I had 3, four inch swimbaits and 2, #2 willow blades on my rig. I think the swimbaits were called Keitech (brand). I don't think I could give you much more without GPS coordinates. Even though they weren't big, this was an amazing day for me.

It's just not legal with more than 3 hooks. You can fish it with the entire lure as long as there kids only three baits with hooks, the rest must be teasers. There may even be some information on the central pro am website. My bass club secretary emailed out a letter from the conservation dept on their "ruling".

8.80 lbs

I fished in a club tournament the same day as the winter series tourney. Most people had a very tough day. I don't know the exact numbers but I think around 7 boats brought in fish. I happend to be a back seater in the winning boat and we brought in 4 fish that went around 11 lbs I think. I only contributed one however. I caught it slow rolling a 1/4 oz scrounger over deep trees inside a cove. My partner caught his first one on a tube, suspended fish vertical fishing in the same area. We made a move and he caught 2 with a jerkbait. The jerkbait fish seemed to be around trees/cedars in areas with large rocks. Again inside a cove. We could not get bit on the main lake. Deep fish were suspended over 40-70 feet and jerkbait fish were in 30ft or less. I think another boat brought in 2 fish but the rest only had one. Tough for everyone. We launched out of aunts creek.

Tackle underground will have the most info on the topic. I own an Iwata eclipse. I recommend a double action airbrush. They are a little harder to learn at first but much more versatile, get the best brush you can afford. What do you mean by "kit"? Which things do you need? Compressor? Paints? Airbrush? All of the above? Tackle underground has an over abundance of info on the topic.

I rode as an observer on the PAA tournament last Thurs,Fri, and Sat. I wanted to Congratulate one of our local pros on his win, Shane Long of Sarcoxie. Kelly Power was not far behind. Good job boys. I rode with the day one leader, Chris Brasher from Texas. He qualified for the FLW tour this year, but didn't have the finances to get it done, so he fished he PAA events to test his mettle against tht "big time" pros. He caught 19.52 lbs with a 7.3 largie toad anchoring the sack. He caught these fish in the Kimberling City area, on a long flat point, with a little wood scattered around on it. Most of the fish were took on a 1/2oz football jig, but the big one, 7.3lbs, was took on a Drop shot and Roboworm. Attached is the picture of his toad. PAA did not have any photographers when he took his fish in. That biggest fish was caught real deep and he did fizz it, but he was worried about it and wanted to release it alive so we went in early. I fished with John Crews the next day. He was on a Drop shot pattern, same type of points with wood on them. He dropped to the standing timber that he seen on his graph and picked up fish that day. He had 13 lbs the first day, but only 1 2.5lb keeper when I was with him. He caught fish all day that just wouldn't bump the line. I learned that I fish the same way as these guys do on table rock. It gave me confidence. I will go out, spend more time on the water, and know I am doing the same things these guys are. I don't know what I was thinking, but I guess I didnt expect them to be doing what I would do. One of our own won the event, so I feel like if you guys pay attention on the water, learn from this forum, and spend time on the water, you can figure out these fish too. I'm off to do that myself. Final day Results. Total weight over 3 days of fishing. There were 74 boats but only 24 fished on cut day. 1. Shane Long – 43.34 2. Aaron Martens -- 36.41 3. Tommy Biffle -- 36.27 4. Kelly Power -- 36.16 5. Brian Snowden -- 35.65 6. Gary Klein -- 33.97 7. Stacey King -- 33.31 8. Mark Rose -- 33.27 9. Dave Lefebre -- 32.83 10. Takahiro Omori -- 31.20 11. James Watson -- 29.94 12. JT Palmore -- 29.36 13. Ronnie Wagner -- 29.35 14. Chris Brasher -- 29.10 15. Rick Clunn -- 28.11 16. Matt Reed -- 27.08 17. Terry Butcher -- 26.10 18. Charles Bebber -- 25.28 19. Edwin Evers -- 24.51 20. Bradley Hallman -- 23.04 21. Tommy Martin -- 21.77 22. Shinichi Fukae -- 21.60 23. Brian Travis -- 20.51 24. Harold Allen -- 18.53

Danny, I am/ have done, the same thing around big M. My grandpa lived there before it was flooded. In fact they sold their land to the corps so they could flood it. He was a boy but I have found lots of interesting things there, including an old bridge or two. Oh, I have kept it to myself about the silt because I figured it was a good way to tell if current is being pulled, so don't tell anyone... Seriously, I have wondered why no one else seemed to wonder what it was, but I wasn't going to bring it up.

I have a 997. I have figured out that it is silt coming off the bottom when there is current being pulled. It don't always do it and if its what I think it looks like, I'm pretty sure its silt. I have been playing around with mine for over a year now. I have tried to correlate it to when they are generating or not. Although I can't tell for sure, It seems to be the most reasonable explanation. If you will notice the terrain and features where you see this, it will make sense. Hope this helps...

SKMO, for me its not so much the twisting as it is the memory. Flourocarbon or mono will develop memory and be coiled up when coming off the spool causing problems when casting. Braid has no memory. Like I said before, I have some spooled on for at least a year and the most I have to do is change the leader before a trip. When not using a swivel(usually for shaky head) I use a back To back uni knot to attach the leader. I can tie on a longer leader and I have no problems with the knot sliding through the guides when casting.

I do use a braid then swivel to floro at the business end. I like it. The braid doesn't get all curly q'd up and it saves me lots of money. The braid lasts a looooong time. I've had some tied on for a year now and no problems so far. It can be a pain tying the leader because you have to keep a spool handy, but after a little practice and keeping a small spool conveniently located somewhere, it don't take much longer than using straight flouro. I advise using as long a leader that you can get away with but I can't get away with much more than 5 feet. Otherwise your swivel gets in your rod guides. I find you have much more sensitivity but no stretch. This means if you are using a stiff rod you should probably go down to a medium light action to compensate for the loss of stretch.

I'm far from expert on many aspects of fishing, but I am pretty salty when it comes to electronics. I have a 997si and 757(non si) at the bow. They are networked. I wish I had another 997 or the equilivalent non si unit up front as the 2d sonar is much better and IMO more important up front. As far as the networking issue, I personally recommend it. I feel you aren't using the full capabilities of the side imaging unless you. Do. I'll explain. When you mark a waypoint with a traditional 2d unit, you are marking a coordinate that corresponds to the location of your gps antenna. Unless your antenna is directly over the spot you are marking, you are only getting close. You have a certain amount of error built in to the system, plus we usually mark a location based on something we seen on the sonar. Your transducer is usually some distance away from your antenna. The farther the distance the bigger the error. So you see a brushpile with your transducer and mark the spot with your gps antenna. With me so far? In my case my transducers/antennae are within 3 feet of each other to minimize that error. With the SI unit you can scan out to the side(duh) and the computer computes the location if you mark a waypoint that is out to the side of your boat. It uses the antenna as described above, but in my case my rear antenna is approximately 19 feet from the front antenna. If I see a rockpile on a point 200 feet to the side of my boat, I can mark it with my rear (si) unit, put the troller down and go right over it with my front unit. The alternative is saving it to a card and moving it to the front unit. If you minimize the position error by grouping your transducer/gps antenna close together, you can find what you marked the first time and not just be within 20 feet of it. As far as you bite the bullet question, I asked myself the same thing, but I have not regretted my decision in the least. I honestly think it has helped me to become a much better fisherman.

It maybe too expensive but the KVD net made by frabil i think, is really neat. I bought 1 last year. It is about 4 feet long but it expands out to 8 like you described. It comes with a case, and the net part folds in half. It fits nicely in the case and in most rod lockers when folded. It has a tangle free net but not the rubber kind. I've had one for about a year now and i think that it is as handy as a pocket on a shirt. The only drawback is that they cost about 70 dollars. Although i'm not positive but i think it may only be sold at bass pro shops.

Went out for 3 hours today. Took my cousin from KC, KA out. Babler you may remember him from last summer. He is a good kid, but a little disabled. I only say this because I have been reading the posts here from babs where he describes how to fish a fin. I rigged a spincast reel with 10# big game. Its one of those zebco reels that are like 50 bucks but the spool oscillates like a spinning reel so you don't have all the normal problems a spincast dishes out. Tied on a fin and gave him a little class on how to fish it. He caught 4 spots on it by himself! I'm really proud to have been able to get him on some fish. Thanks to all that have chimed in about the fin lately. I see why it is a choice guide bait. Kyle was able to watch and see what he was doing and I think that helped him learn how to fish it. I threw a spook and nabbed 3 keeper spots with it. I don't really want to say where till after tomorrow, but I hope this little pattern will hold up through tomorrow. I will say though that I was in the eagle rock area and the current was going backwards! The normal patterns seems to be working still but I couldn't find keeper size on the flat gravel places I fished. Our small club will fish out of the shell knob bridge tomorrow and I will try to give a better report then.