Champ188

Second place/big bass in your first tournament is pretty darn good. Glad it was a positive experience. You guys may have started something you can't finish. LOL Tournament fishing and golf are both known to get in a guy's (or gal's) blood and never let go.

That's a nice walleye trip. Not often a guy catches 5 in one day from Table Rock. The keeper spots are trained not to bite anytime they see a measuring board.

Nice day! Did you guys win?

I read a book by I believe a retired fisheries biologist in Texas who has spent most of his life chasing and catching giants. He believes that 80% of trophy bass only come shallow to spawn and otherwise spend their entire lives cruising the offshore depths. If they do come shallow, it's usually at night and only for a brief time to feed. That leaves a small percentage of big bass in the shallows, but it explains why a guy like me who makes his hay fishing skinny water catches a lot of fish and plenty of keepers but not so many really big fish. My big ones tend to come in the winter when I'm fishing jerk baits off bluff ends and along 45-degree banks with immediate deep-water access.

I think we all tend to over-react a bit when the LM seem to disappear. With all the high water we had this year and then the hot weather, it only stands to reason that they were gonna be hard to come by. When TR gets that high, the LM will just flat hide way back in the bushes where they can't be reached. Of course, when it gets hot, they get inactive. Good to see the cool weather has them showing up a bit more.

Pretty brown fish. Hope you enjoyed the great weather, although some more clouds would've helped your fishing action.

Shazam! There are some LM left in Table Rock, and in the midlake area no less!

It makes no difference who you are, what you're fishing from, what derby you may or may not be fishing, what the heck your silly jersey has on it or how many Power Poles you might have on your rig --- if you get to a spot and someone else is fishing there, in a kayak or a 40-foot cabin cruiser, you wave and move on to your next spot. We have people on the lake these days --- and elsewhere in public places --- that need to be placed on house arrest until they learn some dang manners.

There's bait where the stripers aren't and no bait where the stripers are. A connection perhaps?

I doubt it was a high school tournament if the kid was fishing from the back. I believe they usually run the trolling motor while the chaperone drives the boat.

Took 23.40 (six fish) to win the Table Rock winter series yesterday with a 6.65 big bass. Fifth place was 16 pounds and change. Different world than Beaver.

Brent, anytime you have rapidly falling water, the fish are gonna pull off the shallow banks. The security of having deeper water nearby becomes more important than usual. Because it's fall, you'll still find them in the creeks, but look for them in channel swings and near secondary points or transition areas where the creek channel swings in or away from the bank. Moving baits like spinnerbaits and squarebill or mid-range crank baits are personal favorites because they allow me to cover a lot of water while allowing the fish I catch to tell me if I should be focusing on wood or rocks, the degree of bank slope that is holding the most fish, etc. Also, as Wrench suggested, they will sometimes suspend out over the channel and herd baitfish to the top. Another thing to always keep in mind in falling water is the front corners of boat docks. I don't care if the water is 100 feet deep beneath it, you're liable to catch a thumper spot (Kentucky bass) by running a topwater, spinnerbait or crank bait beneath those dock corners. Accurate casts are critical. You gotta run that bait right against the dock, or even under it where possible.

It's called loyalty, wrench. If you didn't have customers who are loyal to you, you'd be out of business.

Heck, no wonder you didn't catch any big uns. How can you go fishing and not throw a Whopper Plopper? That's like going to a steakhouse and ordering chicken.

No, silly. The jersey goes over the TOP of everything, including your bibs and coat! And yes, that includes if it is raining. LOL

This would have been a great day (with the wind) to mix in a War Eagle spinnerbait with that Spook. Windblown bluff walls and 45-degree chunk rock banks can be pretty good in the river arms this time of year.

Well said, Notropis. I failed to mention the smaller lakes myself. Another to be aware of is Eucha, just south of Jay, OK. It's only an hour's drive from Fayetteville and holds very good populations of black and spotted bass, along with crappie. And speaking of crappie, Beaver offers some pretty darn good winter fishing for them in the War Eagle and White River arms.

Just remember, I kicked your butt in the BFL last spring. By 2 ounces, I believe. And by gosh I'll do it again.

Right on, Chunk Rock. I've found a half-ounce sinker is critical in these Ozarks lakes. It was the same at Ouachita. Anything bigger and you're constantly yanking it free from the rocks or trying to figure out if the resistance you're feeling is a fish or another rock.

Actually, it is hump day, so the camel reference is appropriate. Glad to see you back on the water.

Hammer, I used to fish a C-rig centipede a LOT during the fall down on Ouachita and caught a ton of fish on it. Not sure why I got away from it but was telling Donna the other day that I'm gonna get back to throwing it this fall, especially on some of those points and channel swings up in the Kings.

Us Arkies mostly like our bass big, mean and green.

My tip is to remember that Grand Lake is 1.5 hours to your west, Table Rock is 2 hours north and Dardanelle is less than 2 hours south. Some would rather fish than drive, and I understand that. Beaver is certainly handy. I just prefer fishing somewhere where a 40-fish day or a 15-pound limit is more the norm than the exception.

Darn crafters are already piling into Bella Vista. Driving 25 mph on the highways, gawking and pointing every which direction, slamming on their brakes and turning with no signal, etc. Guess I'm not much of a welcome wagon sort of guy when it comes to tourists. LOL

Hammer, I had a decent bunch of blacks 2 weeks ago in a creek off the upper White. I'd rather not say specifically where because it's one of my go-to tournament spots. Other than that, I haven't seen many at all myself. I'm pretty well convinced that the brown fish are now the dominant species on the lower half of the lake, and that's great. Love 'em. But I hope they don't choke out the blacks in the long run by out-competing them for food. That's good news about the BASS boys catching a lot of blacks. I think they'll start showing up in better numbers once we get a frost or two.