Champ188

It was not Bill's comments as much as the other that "the only time you see them fish" is when the fish are bedding. Larry Herndon spends his own gas money to drive all over our region, wherever Central Pro-Am is fishing, and gets out of bed in the wee hours to give a Sunday morning devotional before tournament takeoff. He does not even fish the tournaments but never misses an opportunity to share his faith on Sunday mornings, regardless of the tournament location. To me, that speaks volumes about the man.

Not a bed fisherman myself except to play around with the fish on a fun trip once or twice a year, and those fish are immediately released back onto their nests. But as long as bed fishing is legal and money is on the line, people are gonna do it. Seems we're insinuating here that the guys who won OMTT did something wrong. I don't see it that way.

Indeed, Randy was a fine man and will be greatly missed. The good news was that he had a strong relationship with the Lord and was quite outspoken about it after a recent illness. Still, his family needs all the prayers and support we can give them.

2004 Champion 188, white/silver/black hull w/red pins and 200 Merc Optimax.

I must say that the obscenely obese K in that last picture particularly compliments Bill's new "leaner and meaner" figure. A fine trip and great report, boys.

I'm fishing a BFL on Saturday out of Ahoy's. Yeehaw, sounds like lots of company out there.

Sorry for the correction, but number to Hook, Line & Sinker is 479-631-8118.

twosets, Just finished four days at LOZ for the Central Pro-Am bass tournament and fished Thursday-Sunday. During practice Thursday and Friday in the Big Niangua area, I kept a spinning rod with a crappie jig and bobber handy. When I would come across a visible brushtop in 4-8 feet of water, I'd pitch the jig and bobber to it with the jig set 2-4 feet deep, depending on the depth of the water around the brush. Caught lots of crappie this way and even commented to my wife that there is no tellling how many crappie a guy could catch in a day's time doing that. Was using a Shineee Hineee jig (yes, that is the correct name and correct spelling) made by Arkie Lures. You should be able to Google it and see what I'm talking about. Best jig color in the stained (but not muddy) water was white. Good luck on your trip.

I'm with ya on the Senko stuff Bill. Shoot, I'd rather MOW grass than fish that silly thing. But in answer to edyer's original question, yes, the Flick Shake worm and heads are available just down the road in Arkansas at Hook, Line & Sinker tackle stores in Bella Vista and Rogers. Green pumpkin and watermelon candy are local favorite colors as well.

Wily, Glad you enjoyed the tournament and hope you'll consider fishing some more of them. We need nonboaters. Present company possibly excluded, there are some very fine pros fishing CPA and you stand the chance to learn a lot from your partner, not to mention perhaps making a little prize money while you're at it. Again, glad you enjoyed the event.

Whack'em, I use a 7-foot Shimano Clarus in medium heavy/fast action for this application. Works great, and with the fast action the tip has enough "give" that you won't jerk the bait away from the fish. This is their IM7 model and costs only around $79. Sometimes you want high-tech, sometimes you want low-tech. Good thing about this rod is its over-the-counter exchange lifetime warranty.

CollegeFish86, Fished Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to dark. Had bluebird skies and absolutely no wind until about 3 p.m., when a little cloud bank passed over and brought a decent breeze for about two hours. During that time, caught five that would total about 14 pounds on a chartreuse-shad jerk bait. All came inside Prairie Creek on 45-degree banks with chunk rock and the wind blowing in on them. Best fish was a 4.5 LM. Also had a 3.5 SM. Hope this helps.

Considered a trip Sunday to Eagle Rock myself but my partner wimped out. No names since the aforementioned partner is a member and frequent visitor to this forum with whom I happen to share a bed. Doesn't sound like we missed much. Better luck next time Fishrman.

The last two CPA tournaments last year (championship at LOZ and fall tournament at TR), we were "privileged" to share the lake with the Stren Series guys. Time for the Heartland guys to have some fun.

For Pete's sake Ealy, get rid of those helicopter lures. Two words for ya pal: Banjo Minnow. They're irresistible and have universal appeal to every species that swims. I even had a follow from a blue marlin once while casting for peacocks near Hurricane Deck. I used Flying Lures for years but donated them all to charity. Last I heard, the Ethiopians were catching so many fish on them that obesity has replaced famine as their biggest health problem.

You're dead wrong about Shell Knob, Techo. Worst area on the lake. I strongly recommend anything from the dam all the way to the back of Cricket and Long creeks. I hear Beardsley has so many fish that you can rig up a drop shot with five hooks and catch a tournament limit on one drop.

Just saw a big announcement on the BASS homepage that they've cut three events out of the 2009 Elite Series schedule and are reducing their payouts by about $200,000 per tournament. The winner still gets $100,000 per event but there have been some significant cuts from second place down. Most significant, perhaps, is that places 26-50, which used to be guaranteed $10,000 for making the third-day cut, now will get only $5,000. The whole idea when the Elite Series was born was a guy could finish in the top 50 and still cover expenses for the event. May be some guys staying home now.

Roy, Yes, same crank bait colors that work on TR and BS also work on Beaver. Of course, ol' Wiggly (Wiggle Wart) is the bait of choice this time of year. Personal favorite colors include the darker shades of green or brown on sunny days and watermelon seed early in the day or on cloudy days. There can also be a decent Wiggle Wart bite up the river and my favorites up are the watermelon seed or brown back, chartreuse side with orange belly. I believe the color number for the later is V45. Beaver's stick bait bite can be very good at times ... Pointers in chartreuse shad or Aurora Black work well. So do Rogues in clown, chrome/blue back, purple back/white and sometimes Table Rock Shad (purple back/chartreuse side/white belly). I also caught quite a few fish last winter/early spring on an X-Rap in size 10 in their ghost shad color (it's basically solid white). For the most part, the best areas seem to be chunk rock banks with scattered boulders and a 45-degree incline. Doesn't seem to matter much whether these banks are on the main lake or in major creeks. But once you catch some fish in an area, remember it. To me, Beaver is more of a "spot fishing" lake than a pattern lake. There are places on it that look good but never seem to hold fish. Likewise, there are others that may not look as good that always have fish on them. If you're looking for a specific place to start, I'd take a hard look at Big Ventris in the mid-lake area. Also, Shaddox Hollow and Ford's Creek are very good. Hope this helps and good luck to you.

Crappie5, Was up there Saturday as far as Sweetwater and it wasn't muddy a bit. Also, we got kind of a late start and when we drove over the Kings on 86 it wasn't at all muddy.

I'm with Babler and the rest of you guys, it did suck. I want to go through the TV screen and throttle that sawed-off Charlie Evans every time he says, "Got one hooked up here!" Or "great hookset!" But here's my real sticking point with this TR broadcast ... the guy who owns Hook, Line & Sinker tackle shop down here in Rogers is friends with the Texas guy (David Curtis, I believe) who won the tournament. In fact, he furnished him the Bass-X jigs for the tournament and even picked his wife up at the airport in NW Arkansas and drove her to Branson for the final day weigh-in. According to him, the guy won the tournament fishing a ledge somewhere above the 86 bridge at Eagle Rock. Donna and I were on the lake fishing in the SK bridge area and saw the dude — he was in a Coppertone wrap boat — and his "chase boat" headed back down the lake around 1:30 p.m. I clearly recall telling her, "There goes the leader in the Stren tournament headed back to Branson." But did you notice on the piece of crap show that they showed a graphic of his fishing location being that round point just above KC bridge on the north side? What the heck? Maybe the guy hit that KC point on his way in, but my understanding is that his primary area was above Eagle Rock.

KC, Ledge rock consists of big, flat slabs of rock that are stacked, forming a pretty steep, vertical drop along a bank. The edges aren't even, creating little shelves for the fish to hide in and ambush prey. With the lake at its present level, this kind of rock extends above the waterline right now in lots of areas, so keep an eye out next time you're out and you'll see some of it. When fishing this type of bank, it's important to cast parallel down the bank and keep your bait (Wiggle Wart or suspending jerk bait at present) as close as possible to the rock all the way back to the boat. The fish will dart out and grab it as it comes by, unless it' a day like Saturday, in which they'll just lay there and look at it. Good luck to you.

LarryC, Didn't do so hot in the Polar Bear. Partner and I caught four that would weigh about 11 pounds and opted not to stand in the weigh-in line. In fact, we "stocked" them into a little honey hole down the lake that I'm hoping will produce some good fish for me in the Central Pro-Am tournament the first weekend of March. Those fish probably won't stay there that long but better than letting them go in Prairie Creek, where half the fish in the lake end up anyway because of tournament releases.

Glad to hear you guys struggled, too. Just kidding, of course. Donna and I put in at SK bridge at 8:30 a.m. and fished til dark. Covered some awfully good spots — went down as far as the little deep cuts just below Big Creek and up as far as Sweetwater in the Kings. Stayed on the windy side all day, hitting bluff ends, chunk rock and ledge rock banks and even some pea gravel points. Ended up with two nice keeper largemouths — one about 2.5 on a jerk bait and the other 3.5 on a crank bait — and one short on the jerk bait. Drug a fb jig a lot and to my knowledge, I never got bit on it. Donna missed a couple. Never caught a KY or brown fish all day. All in all, a humbling experience.

skeeterp and BlueWave, Now that the Polar Bear is over, here's some better advice on the stripers. They are definitely in Prairie Creek but even thicker in the back of Coose Hollow. And when I say the back, I mean all the way back to the last docks on the left. The shad are so thick in there that I was snagging one literally every cast yesterday with a jerk bait. The water temp is also 2-3 degrees warmer there than anywhere else on the lake. The shad are this year's hatch ... about 1.5 inches long, and they are swarming just under the surface. Stripers are boiling in them throughout the day. I can't catch any LM or spots back there and I figure the stripers are the reason. I haven't been in Big Ventris but would bet the same is true back there — usually is concerning stripers. We've had a lot of days lately with strong south winds, which blow directly into Coose and Ventris. Saturday is supposed to be the same and overcast to boot. Should be a heckuva good day for the big silver fish. skeeterp — we haven't been over to lomond since the drawdown but if a guy could get in there with a flatbottom or little Bass Buster two-man boat, there's no telling what he could catch. i'd definitely throw a clown-coloring suspending Rogue, but not the great big one. I caught a bunch of fish over there last year on the smaller model. For some reason, a Pointer didn't work very well over there last year. That ol' cheap Rogue was the ticket. Seems like a caught quite a few on a No. 10 X-Rap, too. That's a pretty darn good suspending jerk bait, especially for the price. Let me know if you go over there and whack em.

Was prefishing for a bass tournament Tuesday (12-30-08) and ran across schools of stripers in Prairie Creek and Coose. A few were coming to the top in the afternoon and swirling on shad. Go get 'em, boys.