abbfish

This is torturous, reading all of these great fishing reports, but having to work all week when it been 60+ degrees outside.

Where can I find MDC structure waypoints?

Where is the thermocline now?

oops, I should have posted my question in Lower Bull Shoals. I spend most of my time in the Theodosia arm.

I need to get the hang of using a drop shot and hope to this weekend. Could you please recommend which soft plastic baits work best for this? Thanks

I've lost too many lures to the brush, so I tried to catch bass either on top or just underneath the surface. I caught several on a red fin (mainlike points), especially when the clouds would move in and had a few shorts on spinnerbaits in the wind. I did try pitching a jig for a little bit. I had a nice largemouth grab the jig as I was reeling it in to match another pitch. Unfortunately I could not get a good hookset on it and it came shooting out of the water right by the boat and spit the jig. A few pitches later I had another one bite the jig as I was reeling it in too, but it did not hook up at all. I know the bass were trying to tell me something, but I'm not quite sure what it was. Should I have tried swimming a jig? Is there a good way to battle a bass when you know you didn't get a good hookset?

It was not bad at all. There's not a lot of parking around the ramps where you can put in, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I did manage a couple keeper largemouth each morning in the 2-2.5 pound range (topwater), so I was grateful for that. The only baits that I could manage NOT to lose in the brush were topwaters, spinnerbaits, and a texas-rigged weedless tube. Is there a better way to fish the bottom in all of this brush?

How do you fish the tube? Is is Texas rigged or are you using a lead-head??? Thanks

Oh that was too funny, made me LOL.

Congrats! I wasn't in the tournament, but did fish on Sunday until about 1:30. I must have been fishing too shallow, because most of the fish I caught were shorts, with very few keepers. I've always wanted to take a week of vacation in the spring and fish for bass and I finally got to last week. I fished from 4/9-4/17 and I thought it would be a good week, since it led up to a full moon. It was windy 8 out of 9 days. I had 2 good days (4/10 and 4/15), both before a storm front blew later in the evening. The rest of the time I was catching shorts. I thought I could fish shallow if I was hitting the wind blown banks, plus it's springtime. I used grubs, hula grubs, and jerkbaits in the wind and a split shot rig in calmer water. The biggest bass was a 17 inch smallmouth on Tuesday morning on a hula grub. I also had 3 big crappy during that time frame and 1 keeper walleye. I release everything I catch. I spent more time down in the clearer cooler water in AR, maybe I should have stayed up by TMR in MO.

Thanks for your advice. The temptation to get one was great, due to the $50 rebate, plus if I charged it on my Bass Pro card, I would have gotten a $100 gift card, plus I have $150 saved up in rewards on my card, but even with all that I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. The salesman said that the trolling motor moves around too much, which I though was a good point (especially mine, it's a wireless unit and I have a heck of a time controlling it sometimes). I think it's more for cruising around looking for potential spots and with my setup, I don't have the HDS5 on the console. The ideal set up would be to have a HDS unit on the console and the trolling motor, but I can't afford that right now. Thanks again!

I have a Lowrance HDS-5 that I use with my trolling motor. I'm thinking about going to Bass Pro on the way home and get the LSS-1 side imaging and structure scan. I guess it will go on the back of the boat, so it's gonna be tough to see the HDS-5 from the front of the boat due to the small screen size and my aging eyesite. I can't afford anything else at this time or the foreseeable future. Just curious what you guys think. Is it worth it for my setup? I have a 20ft Princecraft fish/deck boat. Thanks!

I came down Saturday for a 4 day trip. Finally got on the water about 1pm in the Theodosia arm. It was windy, so I didn't think I could hold my boat still long enough to throw a jerkbait, so I mainly fished a grub. In 4.5 hours I only managed 1 short bass. Next day I went to Pontiac to get gas, then my motor started having issues, so that was it for the trip. Some nice people helped me out and I was able to get my boat trailored and dropped off for service. Disappointed I drove back to STL Sunday evening. Hopefully they'll get the bugs out and I can enjoy the upcoming spring season. Please keeps the posts coming, they are very helpful for a novice like me, thanks!

Thanks for the info. I hope to get back down there in February. I got skunked the last time I went in the winter.

Fished for bass for a few hours on Friday and again on Saturday with only one short bass per day. Mainly fished mainlake areas. Got out early on Sunday and caught 15 on a crankbait within a couple hours way back up the creek. Seems like if I get lucky and figure something out, then it's time to head back to STL. The weather was awesome and I really haven't ever used a crankbait much, so I don't have a lot of confidence in how to use them correctly. I only lost bait one to the brush. It'll probably be early spring before I can get back down there:(

Sorry for a dumb question, but how do you know where the pea gravel is? Are you looking at the bank and assuming it goes out a ways under the water or are you using your electronics?

I caught a couple spots around some bridge pilings using the drop shot. I ended up using a split shot rig most of the time on some mainlake points. I caught more than I thought I would considering the heat, but they were all short. I did have a drop shot rig hanging over the side of the boat while fishing the points and ended up catching 2 keeper spots that way.

You are correct about there being tons of info about it on the internet. I had assumed it was fished off of the bottom and had not thought about it being fished out in the open water with 30 plus feet of water under it. I'm going to give it a try now that the summer heat is here. Thanks guys!

I saw at least a half dozen when I was snorkeling around a cove 2 weeks ago.

I know how to rig a drop shot, but I'm curious to what size hook to use and which type plastic baits to use. Also, can it be used out in open water? If so, any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks

Thanks, I appreciate the advice. I'll give that a try next time I get down there. Hopefully that'll be mid March.

Check out Pontiac's website http://www.pontiaccove.blogspot.com/, they have a pic of guy who caught a nice yellow perch.