Champ188

I used to partake heavily of intoxicants but gave that up going on 6 years ago.

Nice report; good day. Thanks!

Thanks clf989s. Keep saying I'm gonna try deep cranking some of the clearer water but not sure where to start with colors. The new DT16 colors were obviously created with clearer water in mind.

I wish you well, JB.

Jackpots and $200 entry fees don't mix. Say what you will, but a series of tournaments all on the same lake is a jackpot series regardless of the entry fee.

http://www.millcreekteamnighttournaments.com/

Glad you were able to catch some and have a good time. That's what it's all about. If I can ask, what color was that DT16?

It was the same around Baxter ... hardly another boat anywhere. One other truck/trailer at H ramp when we got there and only one or two when we left.

Denny, my dad always taught me not to borrow trouble. Gotta get em on before you can worry about gettin' em in the boat. It's the ultimate "we'll cross that bridge when we get there" situation.

LOL, hey Duck, I'm jealous. I'm normally the spinnerbait/Fin guru and I couldn't get either of those going down where we were. That's what I like about the Kings arm ... nearly always a blade bite somewhere, somehow. I did cast a longing look at it going and coming when we crossed it on 86.

Kyle, Boy, not sure I'm the guy you want drop-shotting advice from. I do know a thing or two about dock fishing though, so I'll give it a quick try. Not every dock holds fish. For my money, the best ones are the bigger docks with 10-20 slips on each side that have 50-60 feet of water under the deep end. If they sit on a point or in a creek channel swing, all the better. If you catch fish on a dock one time, chances are they'll be there again. If you fish one a couple of times and don't catch anything, I'd write that one off. For the most part, I pitch a finesse jig or shaky head worm into the shallower slips ... the ones from 8 to 25 feet. I catch 75 percent of my dock fish in the slips that have 15-25 feet of water in them. In the really hot summer, that depth range may change to 20-30 feet. When I get out to about 25 feet, I go to a drop shot and really watch my front graph for balls of bait and/or hooks representing bass. You don't need a really expensive graph for this ... just one that will show bait and fish. Also, don't be afraid to pitch that drop shot way back into the slips. You don't have to fish it straight up and down. Pitch it back as close to the walkway as you can and let it fall with the bail on your spinning reel open. When you see your line go slack meaning it's on the bottom, pick it up carefully and check for a fish. Lots of times they'll be on there immediately. I might also add that whether you're pitching a jig, shaky head or drop shot into these slips, you can't be afraid to lose your junk. If there's a lift in a slip with a boat on it and enough of a crack for me to pitch my bait in, I'm going in. That's not to advocate harming anyone's property. Practice your pitching technique so that you don't bang your bait off people's boats. That's just not nice. But the tighter the places you get into, the better your chances of catching fish. The twofold reason for that is (1) bass and especially big bass seek out the darkest, shadiest places they can find to hang out and (2) not many people even attempt to get a bait into these places. Hope this helps. You might also want to search for old posts on here about drop-shotting and see what turns up. Should be some really good stuff from folks who are far more proficient at it than me.

Donna and I got to the "H" ramp at Baxter around 7:30. A bit later than we'd have liked but had to doctor sick cats before leaving. Nothing like a 4 a.m. cat rodeo to start the day. At any rate, it was cloudy with a light breeze for most of the morning, putting me in a major topwater frame of mind. It was not to be. I threw a Fin for nearly two hours while Donna followed with a Spook and neither of us ever got so much as a single bite. Fished some prime places, they just weren't feeding "up" on this day. So, to borrow a favorite phrase of workplace consulting firms, we "redeployed" and visited a favorite dock, where a dropshot in 25 feet of water produced a 3.5-pound LM. Lost another apparent keeper, then moved around the corner to another good-sized dock, where we found a school of keeper K's and scored three or four of them and lost a couple more on the same green pumpkin drop-shot worm. Next stop was a main-lake chunk-rock point that gave up a couple of easily keeper LM's on a football jig and hula grub, and the pattern was set. From then til 6 p.m., we visited about two dozen more chunk-rock points and bluff ends, along with a few choice docks, and were in fish all day. In fact, I commented to Donna near the end of the day that nothing is quite as rewarding for the "guide" as catching fish off every place you visit. We ended the day with around 35 fish total, of which 18 were keepers. Best five would go about 17 pounds and included the darn fine smallmouth pictured below that Donna wrangled on a football jig. On the windy areas, the fish were 8-15 feet. In calmer water and when the sun busted through in the afternoon, they were 15-25. Best football jig color was PB&J with a green pumpkin double-tail trailer. Best hula grub color was green pumpkin/purple and it was fished on the new 5/8-ounce Yum Pumpkin Ed stand-up head. Gotta say I really like that head ... doesn't hang bad in the rocks and has a helluva hook in it. Dock jig was a 5/16ths Bass-X in Beaver Craw Purple (see bassxlures.com) dressed with a green pumpkin Lil Critter Craw. Have fun out there.

Boobie, you are exactly right. Best just to move on and I'm only repeating my previous message here, but it's so darn hard not to give these jerks a piece of your mind sometimes. As I said earlier, ignorance is one thing. I can overlook that. It's the "screw you, I want to fish there and you're in my way" attitude that makes me want to throttle people. But again, you're exactly right. It will accomplish nothing because no amount of reason will work on unreasonable people.

I like the Mikey myself but nothing quite like a good Redfin that's been worked over with all of the right modifications.

I've had smallmouth change color drastically in my livewell in less than an hour. Seems like if you catch a light-colored one and put it in the livewell, it will turn darker. Really nice fish, Phil, but how'd you get Babler to fish a bank? Last I heard from him, the only purpose that Table Rock's banks serve is to hold the water in.

Have a safe and happy trip, friend. Donna and I are gonna go check out the topwater bite at first light in the moring.

Hey rps, what's the water temp running up there?

That's some ridiculous behavior alright, bluebasser86. Kudos to you for (1) taking your wife fishing and getting her on some fish and (2) not coming unglued on those so-called "adults" in front of the girls. Had to be hard to hold back, though. A little extra light on the Jonathan Van Dam vs. Denny Brauer deal ... Denny is a 30-year veteran of BASS with a Classic win, an AOY title and 17 career wins. He's 60-something years old and has earned the right to have a young buck like JVD give him room, especially given that this incident happened on the last day of a four-day derby when Brauer was leading and had established that particular spot as his water. Just my opinion, but there's little evidence so far that JVD is cut from the same championship cloth as his uncle.

You should contact the folks at Cape Fair Marina. They keep good track of what's going on with all species and will be glad to help. Outdoor Girl posts the marina's fishing report here on a regular basis.

Thanks for the tip. Being one who prefers to fish shallow whenever I can, I pray for clouds and chase the wind.

Thanks, MOBass. Sounds like you had a fun day. May try to get up there one day this week before all the shenanigans get under way this weekend.

Good report, MOBass. Main lake or creeks?

If I had proposed to Donna there, she woulda dumped me on the spot. Then again, I would've had to have gotten her there to start with.

This topic comes up from time to time and I can recall saying this and having several folks agree with me a couple of years back. Not sure if it bears repeating or not but I feel like saying it again, so here goes. There are some who just don't know any better than to pull in too close or commit other transgressions, and for the most part, you can tell who those are. As Babler said a couple of years ago, might be best to gently let them know they've crossed the line. As for 99 percent of the others, it pretty much comes down to the fact that they just don't give a rat's azz. Whether they are a top-ranked touring pro or a weekend perch jerker in a flatbottom, you are on the spot they want to fish and by gosh they are gonna root you off of it. Ain't happenin here. As we discussed a couple of years ago, we've been way too nice for way too long with these yay-hoo's and where has it gotten us? Things are worse now than ever. It's the old give em an inch and they'll take a mile syndrome. As anyone who knows me will testify, and just as most of you have always done, I give folks way more leeway than is common these days. I'm with dtrs5kprs ... if someone is on "my" spot, I can find another. It's a big lake. Been doing that since I was a teenager and won't stop til I die. But I am done letting others cut me off or crowd me. Unless it's obvious that they are uninformed of how to behave on the water, I am going to let them know how I feel about their rudeness and that I won't sit still for it. I doubt that I am going to single-handedly modify the behavior of any appreciable population of these morons, but at least I'll sleep better knowing I didn't let them have their way with me. This rant is complete. We now return you to our regular programming.

Sounds like a blast, rps. I have a lot of favorite areas on Table Rock and that Holiday Island-Eagle Rock stretch is definitely among them. Started to take Donna over there yesterday but we opted to play (bad) golf instead. Really wish we'd have gone fishin now.