Champ188

They had a very bright day without much wind. On TR or any other highland reservoir, that doesn't bode well for the shallow bite. That said, there's a lot of stealth and trickery that goes into catching fish shallow out of these kind of lakes. Sun angles, wind (what little there may be) and just knowing the right spots from years of experience all come into play. There weren't a lot of locals fishing the Toyota deal, so those who tried to power fish in those conditions signed their own death warrants. Bill is dead right in that deep is where the money bite is at right now. OK, that's two death metaphors in one post. Time for me to go.

Congrats, Bo. I bet you catch em again tomorrow.

Felt kinda sorry for the old boys from Alabama who won. They didn't have any jerseys or buffs like the cool kids did. Oh well, guess that $5,000 check was pretty cool.

I have the Fortrex 101 and have loved it since the day I got it. Not a single problem whatsoever. Doubt I'll ever go back to MotorGuide.

If you stayed 8 hours at a catch rate of one fish every 3 minutes, you'd be in the neighborhood of 160 fish. If your thumb can only stand about 30, you'd better not try any extended trips or you might be looking at some skin graft surgery.

Glad you had a good week and got to "enjoy" all kinds of weather. It's all part of the experience. And Denny is right ... you're not gonna beat another guy at his own game very often, so it's best to just take what you know and go do your own thing. There's just no keeping pace with some of these guys around here. They catch em like gangbusters every time out. It's absurd.

Good folks do good deeds. Enjoyed getting to know Pete while fishing Central Pro-Am back in the day.

The wind definitely helps. Congrats on a good day and thanks for the report.

Bunch of beautiful fish. Nice job figuring out the shallow bite. It's been there when it seemingly shouldn't be for most of the summer and into early fall. Glad you and your dad had a big time. And thanks for all the pics.

Glad to be of service, Mike.

Glad to hear it, 176champion. I heard of some patchy frost a week or so ago around here but there wasn't any in my neck of the woods.

You two just keep on slaying them and talking about how absurdly easy it is. You have them figured out, no doubt. Meanwhile, the rest of us dumbo's --- including the best full-time guides on the lake --- will keep hammering out what we can catch and putting up posts titled "Tough Bite for Me Today" and similar names. We are good-hearted folks, too. We just help others by telling them what NOT to do, I suppose. We will learn how to catch them someday. Maybe. Or not.

I'm on the golf course this weekend unless I sneak up that way Sunday, and if I do it'll be on the upper end away from the crowd. Let the derby boys have at it. My favorite days won't start until next month anyway. Haven't even seen a frost yet, at least not in Bella Vista.

It washes out, Mike. Bo and I take all the ones we catch on the lower end back up the river.

I've used some of the push-on skirts with no problem. They don't have quite the perfect action of the tied skirts but they work OK.

Hey, I can't pick on Bo all the time and no one else. No fish pics? Four-pound average is pretty stout. Let's see some of them.

All those boats are from the big Toyota derby this coming weekend. Free entry for qualified Toyota owners. Couple of hundred boats or better, is what I heard. Launching out of Johnny World/Long Creek location.

A very good read, Macsimus. Thanks for sharing!

I'm still of the opinion that line visibility can be an issue when fishing slow-moving finesse lures in ultra-clear water. I see the A-rig as a reaction lure. Kinda like a Plopper or even a spinnerbait. It's chugging thru the water clanging and flashing and vibrating and the fish says, WTH???? Then he attacks the dadgum thing for invading his territory. Conversely, a Ned or shaky head bite is a feeding bite. He sees it, goes over to investigate, may pause a few seconds, and then eats it. I just think there's more chance for line visibility to tip him off that something ain't right. Not that he/she has the mental capacity to know it's fishing line, but I think we all agree that fish often are reluctant to take something that isn't realistic, especially with a slow feeding bite.

Very impressive win, Adam. Congratulations on it but even more on the birth of your son. Hope to meet up with you sometime soon and compare notes on the White River Lures lineup. Some very impressive stuff, as evidenced by your CPAA Championship victory.

With 4-pound line, I use a 1/8-ounce head 70 percent of the time and a 1/16 the rest of the time (for shaky heads). With the Ned, I use a 1/16 nearly all of the time except when the wind forces me to go up to 1/8. I agree, rate of fall comes into play sometimes, especially with suspended fish. But the line diameter issue runs deeper than that. I'm convinced of it.

Looks like the salt in those tubes is doing a number on that bronze-finish hook. That can't be a good thing. Little things mean a lot most of the time.

Neil, I caught them in there real good one of the flood years but they were way up in the green bushes and grass. When they started pulling the lake down, it sucked a lot of the mud out of there and pulled the fish out to the edges of the bushes and I worked on them pretty good a couple of days with a topwater and big Keitech swim bait.

I know our friendship is over () but you might ought to rethink that. We can go shaky head or Ned fishing down on your end of the lake ... me using 4-pound line and you using 8 ... and I will get a LOT more bites and catch a LOT more fish than you. Guaranteed.

Wrench said a mouthful right there. Now I'm not about to say a guy shouldn't attempt to learn as much about his prey as he can, but there comes a time when you gotta go with what your gut is telling you. I remember a Central Pro-Am fall event on Table Rock quite a few years back where I had a decent first day and landed somewhere in the top 10. The second day, the wind died and I figured my best bet was to lay down my blade and go to a jig. I dragged that thing for hours without so much as a bite, and finally just the smallest puff of a breeze started blowing. My gut was screaming get your blade back out, so I did and within 50 minutes (what I had left to fish before having to head back to the weigh-in), I had a small limit and cashed a check. You're just gonna fish better when you believe in what you're doing. If you're going against your gut, it's an uphill climb.