Champ188

Dave, we fished Sunday from Old 86 over to Jake's Branch. Hardly anything floating. Come on down and enjoy your trip.

Happens just about every year. It goes away when the water warms.

Sam, thanks for the report and congrats on catching those big brown fish. They are a handful on just about any tackle, much less what you'd use for goggle-eye. And thanks for letting them go!

Clubhouse leader for understatement of 2015.

Ned will outfish anything going right now. Topwater could be good early or under cloudy skies. I like a Pop-R or Spook Jr. this time of year. You might also throw a green pumpkin or similar-colored tube around gravel areas. Watch out for idiots in ski rigs and bass boats. No, all drivers aren't idiots, but there are plenty out there who are. If they can darn near run over my 19-10 Ranger, I'd be sure and keep my eyes peeled in a canoe.

A good friend and retired pro angler had a similar experience with a guy on Lake Ouachita near Hot Springs, AR in the old Red Man series (prior to it becoming BFL). The guy brought only a couple of rods and on one he had a white Arkie jig on which he proceeded to hang a red pork frog. When my friend questioned him about his color choice, he said it was because he was an Arkansas Razorbacks fan. Mind you, they were fishing in the 3 Sisters area, where the water was clear enough to see the bottom at 20 feet. Within the first hour that morning, this fellow landed four bass that totaled well over 20 pounds, including one over 8 and finished in the top 10 of the tournament. My friend, who never missed a check on Ouachita, was so spun out by 8 a.m. that he didn't even place.

I know I was being vague, but there's some added species diversity at Beaver and Norfork.

Couldn't agree more with this. My personal belief is that a fish left with a hook anywhere along its digestive tract --- from its throat to the far other end --- is pretty much a dead soldier. Not a biologist by any means --- just going by what I've heard and read.

Ham, there are more differences in Beaver, Norfork and Table Rock than one hatchery pond could hold. OK, everyone sing along now ... and-a-1, and-a-2, and-a-3 ... "One of these things is not like the others ... "

The colossal difference in that trout park and the bass in Table Rock is that the bass get no assistance from man in replenishing the ones that die. Those trout are a 100% put-and-take fishery.

Oh no, not the gravel bite. PLEASE not the gravel bite. Don't make me fish the gravel bite!

Hey, and some tournaments out there allow multiple baits on a drop-shot rig but disallow the A-rig. Go chew on that one for awhile.

Gotta love Table Rock and its diversity. Nowhere on earth like it. Congrats on a great day and thanks for the report and pics.

Old Plug is on the mark here. If you feel a mushy tension when fishing a Ned rig, set the hook. If you wait too long to decide if it's a fish, you run a big risk of deep-hooking it. Setting the hook doesn't cost a thing other than possibly losing a lure in a tree. Better to lose a $1 lure than kill a fish.

I tried fluorocarbon this week on my spinning reels and I'm sold. My eyes just can't adjust to seeing braid standing out like a tree trunk underwater and wondering if my leader is long enough or if there's any way to get your leader long enough that the fish don't see that stuff. Just my opinion. Obviously, the braid-leader setup works for some.

My BFL co-angler from Saturday will be ordering soon, if he hasn't already.

Donna and I have had some very good days on Truman. Invariably, the bite was current-related and they shut the water off on Friday afternoon/evening, leaving me scratching my head on derby day while the local talent plundered their brushpiles for a 20-pound bag.

Great pics and was a true pleasure to meet you guys and spend an evening dining/visiting while watching our host commit a criminal act against a defenseless Harter House steak. LOL Come back very soon!

I might have lost my nice-guy card at that point. Undoubtedly some yay-hoos with misplaced mindsets fishing the Cops for Kids derby.

Gotta do something to pass the time at Truman.

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. For the record, Alex didn't bed fish either and his co-angler was appropriately grateful. Dave (dtrs5kprs) hit the nail on the head when he said he'd be hard pressed to put the Ned rig down on a tough day like that. I found a spinnerbait bite in practice that would have let me cover a lot of water in the late morning/afternoon and given me a good chance to cull up, but I needed at least a 10 mph wind for it to work. The weatherman had said 10-15 mph Saturday but it just didn't happen, so I was pretty much stuck with what I'd managed to catch that morning. Besides, the varmint will catch big fish, too. We've all seen proof of that. There will be other derbies. This ol' dawg still has a hunt or two left in him.

He's a good man, that Dave.

Not a lot to share worth repeating but here are the highlights ... of my five keepers (10-6), two came on a War Eagle spinnerbait (blue shad) and one each on a Red Fin, Ned rig and a War Eagle 3/8-ounce finesse jig in pond scum perch. Yup, five keepers on four baits. Talked to fellow OAF member Alex Heitman and he too had a 10-pound sack. I'll let him tell how he caught them if he chooses. I will say this ... he's a class act and anyone reading this should pay attention when he posts. He knows his stuff. Only thing I might have done to upgrade was go bed fishing in hopes of finding some bigger fish to cull the 2-pounders I had on board. I had my five at 9:30 a.m. But my co-angler was a young police officer from STL who is fishing the entire Ozark Division circuit and needed points to help him qualify for the regional. Had I stuck the nose of the boat on the bank and my foot on the trolling motor pedal looking for bedders, he wouldn't have had a chance. I ended up fixing him up some Ned rigs, loaning him a spinning rod to fish them on and making a friend. He learned a lot about clear-water fishing, he managed two keepers and I slept a lot better Saturday night knowing I helped him get the points he needed to stay on course to fish the regional at the end of the year. I saw a lot of co-anglers that day sitting on the back deck doing nothing while their boaters spent hours targeting spawning fish. I just have a hard time doing that to someone.

Yes, I was amazed that of the 25 fish you caught in that area, all 25 were keepers. You've figured something out that none of the rest of us have. Congratulations.

Jtram, try to mentally trace the route the fish made into their spawning areas in reverse. Topwaters are an excellent choice in low-light hours; otherwise, hard to beat the Ned or shaky head. When all else fails, start running main-lake points and bluff ends --- especially those outside of spawning areas. Hope this helps.