Champ188

Gorgeous fish, Becky. Congrats. Gotta love the blade bite and it's starting. Only been able to catch bucks on it so far myself but you have encouraged me. Kazoo, I'll give you a pass this time since you're from the land up yonder, but there is only one kind of spinnerbait. WAR EAGLE!

I've not seen one yet, kazoo, but have heard good preliminary reports.Bet they'll catch em.

On rare occasion, SM and LM will cross-breed naturally. I caught one about 3.5 pounds several years back. Took a bunch of photos and sent them to MDC and they confirmed it was a SM/LM cross and thanked me profusely for sending the pics. I was impressed by their gratitude since it was me wanting the fish ID confirmed.

Joseph, it would be very nice to know how you are doing every day and I hope you'll let us know. But please be very judicious in telling how/where you are fishing until your derby is over. You aren't the only collegiate angler who is fishing that tournament reading this forum. I can promise you that.

Kazoo, don't get your head so full of stuff (or your rental boat) that you can't fish. I have a lot of experience on clear, highland reservoirs and I can tell you that at the time you'll be here, nothing will get you more bites than the Ned rig (green pumpkin or PBJ) and a watermelon candy finesse worm on a 1/8 or 3/16 shaky head. You might want to throw a Pop-R or Yellow Magic topwater around early in the mornings or if it's dark cloudy. If you are accomplished at walking a Spook, by all means throw a Spook. A lot of the stuff you're hearing here is not bad advice, but there's a crapload of inside knowledge you need to know to make it work. For instance, the Redfin topwaters we throw are highly modified. First thing I do when I buy one is take off all the hooks and split rings and throw them away. Then I work on the body to finish what the factory didn't get right. This is one thing I know my stuff about ... Donna and I won nearly $5,000 on a Redfin bite in 2 months a few years ago. My whole point here is to fish to your strengths, your skill set and your limited knowledge of the lake. You didn't try to play offensive tackle in college when your team was on offense. You rested until it was time to go back out and do what you did best ... play linebacker. Don't try to do everything to the point that you end up doing nothing long enough or correctly. You've named some good fishing spots. Go fish them and keep it simple. Again, that Ned and shaky head should be your bread and butter.

There's nothing quite like the days when my rod box is packed and my front deck is practically barren.

Good lord, balsabee. Those just might be the best-looking Warts I've ever seen.

Yes, do not listen to dock talk. All of this cockamamy nonsense about Redfins is just that ... nonsense. A bunch of hooey. Rise above and resist. If you must throw a topwater, the bass on Table Rock just LOVE a Spook but rarely will give a Redfin a second look.

Dang, Bo, you sure have a knack for putting the boat in the water and going straight to the right spot(s). I haven't caught a dozen 17-18 inch keepers in the last five trips combined and you do it in three hours. Way to whack 'em!

That's a g-g-g-g-g-g-GIANT male! A freak of nature! Please tell me I didn't just do that. Seriously, Sprint21, that's a feat to catch one that big.

What are these "shoes" of which you speak? I have brake shoes on my truck.

Good to know, gunner. That will help clear up a lot of confusion out on the lake.

I was considering getting a Varmint wrap on my boat and matching jersey, and maybe even PBJ-colored Power Poles when they come with the 100-foot Table Rock models, but I'm beginning to see Dave for the self-serving scoundrel that he really is. In the span of just a few days, he has: 1. Poo-pooed my flooded bushes blade bite. 2. Is actively trying to call in a cold front to preserve the shallow bite for Phase 1 of his upcoming annual pilgrimage. 3. Shamelessly made derogatory comments about river fishing to the point of comparing the upper reaches of our forum's namesake lake to Truman, i.e. the Beaver Lake of Missouri. I'm keeping a suspicious eye on him.

You might fix up an A-rig with a Wart (pre-Rap, of course), Spook and Redfin as the three "live" baits. You can only have one treble on each of them, though, so better use the Daichi Death Trap or something similar. Teaser options would include the Varmint in various colors and sizes ranging from 3/4 ounce down to 1/1,000 ounce, grubs, Fish Doctors, Centipedes, Flukes, Brush Hogs, etc.

No, current is very rarely a factor on Table Rock or any of the White River chain of lakes. These are flood control lakes first and power supply lakes second, and there's rarely reason to run enough water thru the dams to create any appreciable current. I would suggest Big Cow and Little Cow creeks as starting points for your practice. There's enough variety in those two creeks for you to figure out what's going on, and then if you choose to, you can try to take what you know from there and apply it elsewhere on the lake. I would be probably be thinking more in terms of chunk rock-to-gravel transitions than bluff ends considering you're still 10 days out from starting practice. Some good sacks can be caught dragging a wobblehead with a creature bait, a football jig, a Carolina rig (green pumpkin lizard) or throwing a shaky head on mixed rock/gravel or straight gravel areas. Just remember, this is clear water and fluorocarbon and/or light tackle is a must.

Indeed and they are aptly named. They seem to be inherently PO'd about life in general.

If we had normal wives instead of fishing partners, we'd only need to ask them how many. LOL. Coz I guarantee you I have friends whose wives can tell you exactly how many rods, reels, boxes, baits, etc., they have. Well, maybe not exactly. But pretty darn close. I count myself lucky every day to have married my best fishin' and golfing buddy.

Thought it looked familiar. Haven't been thru there in quite some time.

Which derby are you fishing? Regardless, the best quality fish right now are coming from the clear water from Baxter down to the dam. And from what I'm hearing, they're still out on the main-lake points and bluff ends ... or just inside the creeks. However, with many more 80-degree days like we had today, things are going to change a lot.

Are the pics above from the road that runs from 62 to Beavertown and Holiday Island?

Good job, okie. Gotta keep moving right now. A flurry here and a flurry there and best not linger too long where there's no action.

The catch-all is that if you break a state law, you've broken tournament rules by default since every tournament worth fishing has a rule that requires you to follow all state and local laws. So, catching and keeping a 12-inch fish on the Missouri side of Bull Shoals would be no different than setting out a 20-pound basket of bass, retrieving them and weighing them in. Either way, you've broken tournament rules. Yes, cheaters are going to cheat and you're going to have some try to get by with it in tournaments. We can only hope that self-policing and polygraphs will deter most of it.

Joseph, I overlooked the "next 10 days" part of your question. There's definitely still a prespawn A-rig bite on the main-lake points and bluff ends and should be for at least 2-3 more weeks. In fact, I was unable just this past weekend to find ANY females in the creeks. Fling away with the octopus rig. BTW, and you probably know this, but you can only have three hooks on your A-rig.Teasers/hookless baits are unlimited, but only three "real" hooks. Enjoy your trip and let us know how you do.

The last time I fished a Central Pro-Am on Bull Shoals, which has been several years ago, spots were 12 inches except for the Missouri portion of the lake, where they had to be 15 inches. So if you caught sub-15 inch spots early in the day, you couldn't take them into Missouri without being in violation of state law.

Yes, it tends to fade away as the water warms and the fish move shallow for the spawn.