Champ188

Hey mojo, what happened with the experimental introduction of vegetation at Bull Shoals? Did it ever "take" or was the climate/lake bottom just not suitable?

I feel your pain, rps. Sitting in the office right now looking outside (all of our exterior walls are glass). Ready for tomorrow and then I'll just be cussing the jet skis, wakeboats and ocean liners on Grand.

Few things could benefit our lakes more than hydrilla. I grew up fishing Ouachita and DeGray in west-central Arkansas and I know firsthand how good those lakes were when they had it and how they have suffered since it was eradicated.

The problem with the Ned rig is that it's too easy to catch fish with and the meat hogs are eating the fish they catch on it.

They eat about as good as crappie too.

Oh, J-Doc, I quit being grumpy the day I quit fishing Beaver, except for the rare tournament or the fall bite. You guys enjoy those big bruisers. I'll come help thin out those little spots when it cools off and I can catch em on a blade.

LOL, nope. I have one. Might buy a couple more the next week or two but not in any hurry. Donna and I are actually gonna fish Saturday instead of play golf but I think we're going to Grand. I have a little bite going on over there that's pretty fun.

They only have them in Rogers. None at the Bella Vista store so don't go up there trying to buy them all out. I wouldn't lie to you. I promise.

Thanks, Jeremy. It's really great that you participate here on the forum. You guys have a tough row to hoe when it comes to funding, manpower, etc., and we are all aware that like any of us, you take orders from above regarding what you can do and to what extent you can do it. We appreciate you. BTW, cool personal website.

I agree with both of you guys ... PD, adaptation has certainly been key for me and Donna in being able to find fish and catch them consistently in the White River arm, where we do most of our fishing. FA, I do know from my years as an outdoors writer that until 2010, Texas Parks and Wildlife had a legendary fisheries chief named Phil Durocher who got some amazing things done for their lakes. He fought tooth and nail with state government for funds and won often enough that they have some hellacious good lakes down there.

If nothing else, summer emphatically illustrates one thing ... Table Rock Lake has an incredibly diverse user group. In addition to the well-known differences between the pleasure crowd and the fishermen, even the anglers themselves have greatly differing interests. Powerdive gets tired of catching bass on his walleye rigs. I'm not crazy about catching other species while bass fishing -- and although I certainly make an exception for a good eating-size walleye or two, I promise to release the big ones (anything over 5 pounds). I'm in the camp of those who believe that all aging lakes tend to see a decline of bass populations in the river arms and a change of living/feeding habits by the fish. My opinion is that siltation takes away spawning grounds and wood cover rots away. Without this visible cover, the fish begin to spend more and more time in open water, following the shad schools. That's not to say they don't come in shallow to feed at times, especially on crawfish, but without the plentiful shoreline cover of the lake's younger days, most bass don't stay in the shallows around the clock like they once did. I think the A-rig has tapped a small portion of these offshore fish. But in general, it's a tough task to catch suspended fish that are zoned in on schools of shad. It's just hard to offer them anything more appealing than the millions of baitfish they are living below. I believe one other factor is water fertility. The mountainous, rocky land surrounding Table Rock doesn't offer a lot in the way of nutrient runoff. Yes, there are some cattle farms, but largely our rainfall runoff isn't carrying a lot of nutrients. By contrast, the consistently productive lakes of east Texas --- Fork, Rayburn, Lake O'the Pines, Ray Roberts, Richland-Chambers --- are largely surrounded by farmland and built upon nutrient-rich soil. Consider this ---- Lake of the Ozarks and Grand Lake are two of our area's most consistent producers of big bass and big tournament bags. What do they have in common? Both are surrounded by lakefront development and a big portion of that is older homes with aging septic systems. Up to a point, that septic seepage into the lake water is a good thing because of the nutrients it adds. It helps support the lower end of the food chain, which is never a bad thing. And don't believe that there's no seepage. I'm no biologist or scientist, so everything I've said could be wrong. But I've spent nearly all of my 54 years fishing and learning a thing or two here and there, so I doubt that I'm completely off-base.

Maybe they got their backs broke by "pros" deploying their Power Poles.

Chris Johnson, manager of the fishing department at Cabela's, must not have been present for this weigh-in because he would have recognized that fish didn't weigh 54 pounds. On a positive note, there are two less mature stripers in the lake.

Only a lawyer could assemble a list that long ... Seriously, that's a lot of factors, but every one is legitimate and worthy of consideration. Little things become big things when you're trying to consistently catch fish from clear waters like ours. Stay vigilant.

Or he was mistakenly thinking "free marker buoy."

Hope your procedures go well and your recovery is swift. Could be a good fall bite.

Glad to hear that about the spy bait. Guess I'm gonna have to break mine out.

Might have been the same dumbazz that was towing a kid on a tube in Big Creek back last spring when the water temp was 55. Little fellow couldn't have weighed more than 60 pounds. Can't imagine how fast he could have (or did) become hypothermic in water that cold.

I'm convinced there isn't a better theater for mind-numbing stupidity than your nearest navigable body of water. I used to fish two days a week straight thru the summer. These days, the golf sticks get worked a lot harder than the Ranger from June to September. Of course, there's a whole nuther tribe of idiots on the golf course.

Hopefully the gentleman will go home and chew on that for awhile and learn something ... most importantly, listen to the guide you hired to take you to the fish and help you catch them. The average fisherman has no concept of the critical importance of the little bitty details when it comes to catching fish from highland reservoirs like Table Rock. I'm continually amazed at how much there is to learn, even after a lifetime of reasonably successful fishing for both pay and fun. Congrats on a fine day, Bill. Glad to hear you finally found some of those big K's. I'm starting to really believe that these fish ... and some of our bigger LM, too ... are becoming more open water-oriented as the years go by.

Will do, Thumbs. Sounds fun.

Strange year everywhere.

Thanks for the update, Bill. Glad you fell on the grenade and reeled in that "jaw" -- hope your wrist wasn't badly injured in the fray. Can't be going into football seaon a wrist injury on your primary remote arm.

Who knows what this weather is going to do in August but I went to Grand earlier this week and caught fish on a swim jig around boat docks ... a bite that normally doesn't start (for me, anyway) until mid-September or later. Water temp was 81.

Way to get those boys hooked up. That's the good stuff.