Champ188

Edwin, Not surprised at all by those topwater bites. With the water temp still in the mid to upper 50s (at least it was Friday although it is now snowing to beat the band outside my window on Sunday morning), I was tempted to put on a buzz bait Friday but never did. Glad you got in a daylight-to-dark trip. Amazing how short a day can actually be when you're on the water.

Made a little run up the road Friday. Donna G and I got to SK bridge around 9 a.m. and fished til dark. Not as much action as I expected on the ol' spinnerbait but did get this one green one on it (pictured). Donna caught some funny-lookin' brownish-colored yankee fish (also pictured) that is rumored to be legal at weigh-ins. If that's the case our best five weighed around 19 lbs, best six around 22. FB jig outproduced spinnerbait and Wart by far. Despite pretty solid cloud cover all day, just not quite enough wind for the latter two. Oh well, git-r-done however you have to. Caught 25-30 total with 15 keepers. Sure be nice to catch em like this when it counts for once, like next Saturday in the CPA team tournament out of Ahoy's.

Whack'em, Sorry we missed you Sunday. Launched at H Hwy ramp (Baxter) and fished from there up to Sweetwater in the Kings. Made it a point to fish all new water and glad we did. Considering the bluebird conditions, had a pretty good day. Caught around 25 fish including 15 keepers doing the same as you — chunk-rock banks directly in the wind, both main lake and creeks — but threw a spinnerbait all day. Wart probably would've worked, too, just didn't try it much. Best five around 15 lbs, helped by a 4-pound SM that Donna caught early off a dock inside Baxter. Also had a KY close to 4 pounds that also came off a dock later in the day on a spinnerbait. The eagle that lives near the mouth of Big Creek was sailing around when we came back through on the way in. Pretty sight and a nice end to a not-too-bad day. Heck, it was a great day. They all are when you're on the water.

My blasted Mac crashin' in and out probably contributed, too.

Donna G and I will be out there today and Sunday as well. Going to launch at SK bridge today and fish down as far as Campbell Point and up into the Kings some, too. Staying at Schooner Creek tonight. Not sure where we'll fish Sunday. White/silver Champion with red/black trim and a Merc.

This is all great info from some very good fishermen and I hope I'm not repeating anyone here, but I would add two things ... (1) As Eric pointed out, it's important to keep your bait in the strike long for the longest amount of time possible. The longer your cast, the longer the bait will remain at its maximum depth. So get yourself a quality rod and reel and hurl that dude out of sight. (2) Line size also plays a huge role in crank baits reaching their maximum depth. Personally, I find that just about any crank bait will perform very well on 10-pound-test monofilament. My personal choice is either Trilene Big Game or P-Line mono. The P-Line is a little pricier but seems to be a bit tougher.

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, WhackEm and Capt. D. All in all, we had a good weekend. JEV is a good guy, Capt. D. He and I were fishing the same general area most of the weekend. Good to see him back fishing Central Pro-Am.

dtrs, Launched at H highway ramp Sunday and yes, the courtesy dock is there.

I suspect the drum population in Table Rock is relatively low. I think it's the only lake in a four-state area where my wife hasn't captured one of those majestic creatures — usually during a team tournament, resulting in considerable hystronics and net-wielding until the piece of crap reveals himself at boatside.

Guys, Here's a link to the Central Pro-Am web site: www.centralpro-am.com

Techo, Yes, the CPA team tournaments are put on by Central Pro-Am. Entry fee is $100. Pretty good deal as we see it. There are two left in the winter series ... Nov. 8 and Dec. 6. All are one-day events out of Ahoy's. No season points are kept on the winter series so you haven't missed anything should you decide to fish the last two. Be happy to have you and anyone else who posts here.

Did ya try the cedar pattern Bill or did you have clients?

Fishrman, The answer is (d) all of the above. Seriously, there are suspended and bottom fish both around the docks although seems like the better ones are on the bottom.

Dave, If you're looking for more action than bigguns, there's a pretty good dock bite going on. Shaky head worms and finesse (Eakins-type) jigs are working really well. Concentrate on the portions of the docks that are in 12-25 feet of water and try to pitch your jig or worm as far back in the slips as you can. Green pumpkin candy is my favorite color but anything similar will work. Also, keep an eye on your graph out on the ends of the docks and have a drop-shot rig ready to drop to any schools of fish you might see. You can also drag a football jig around the dock ends and catch some better fish. Have fun!

BlueWave, Here's an idea if the striper bite doesn't seem to be on ... try them at night. Get yourself a Super Spook and a big Rat-L-Trap (3/4 or 1-ounce) and fish the flats where the stripers are hanging out. They'll come up on these flats and feed at night. A good friend introduced me to this a couple of years ago and it's a BLAST. The flats and points off the islands out in front of Rocky Branch are excellent places but I'm sure there are equally good ones farther down the lake around Indian Creek. Tip on the Rat-L-Trap ... take a chrome one and scrape it down to a bone color. Oh yeah, and don't jerk prematurely when you hear an explosion on your Spook. You don't want that big contraption flying back atcha in the dark.

BlueWave, Yes indeed this pattern will work on Beaver but likely not as long as the lake remains high. There's simply too much shoreline cover available right now. One of these days when they finally start drawing it down and the shoreline cover becomes more sparse, the bass will pull out into the cedars. Good areas to look are Ford's Creek, Rambo/Van Hollow and Indian Creek.

By gosh, Bill is right. I'm a Champion owner myself and fished the tournament. On Sunday morning, I had two guys who were WAY old enough to know better pull up and start fishing the same blasted boat dock that my wife and I were fishing. The SAME DOCK! I'd hate to think how bad it might've been if we'd actually been fishing for a boat instead of $5,000 cash. Bill's thread did not personally attack Champion boat owners as a whole. He simply pointed out the truth about some of the boneheads who happened to be fishing out of Champs this weekend. They'd be the same if fishing from a Ranger, Triton, Stratos or anything else. Sad that common courtesy seems to go out the window so fast these days when a few dollars are dangled in front of folks. Bill's also right about the cedar tree pattern. My wife and I had enough fish on Sunday to finish much higher than we did and possibly win the tournament. We simply didn't put them in the boat.

The only early November pro tournament that I know of is Central Pro-Am, which will be Nov. 1-2. In all likelihood, probably won't be more than 60 boats in it. Shouldn't crowd the lake at all.

Thanks so much guys for all the thoughts and prayers. God has already been very good to us in seeing that this was discovered at an early stage. We're confident that He will see us through. We'll be at Table Rock this weekend for the Champion owners tournament. Hope to see some of you there. If you see a white/silver/red/black 188 Elite with a Merc 200 Opti, please stop by and say hi. We'll likely be somewhere between KC and the Kings.

Snakem, sounds like a very good day on the water. My wife is my best fishin' buddy and fishes team tournaments with me. She was recently diagnosed with kidney cancer and the prognosis for full recovery is very, very good ... 95% or better. Still, she's facing surgery and quite a while off the water afterward. I think she's more worried about missing out on winter crappie fishin than the darn cancer. Thanks for the report.

I agree on the first cast. It's my only superstition in the world. I always make a little 10-foot cast before actually starting fishing.

kcangler, i've been doing well for months now on the football jig. i'm using a half-ounce jig (green pumpkin candy, green pumpkin Zoom Creepy Crawler trailer) and not fishing it too deep. 6-15 feet seems to be the key range and it works best on points (both main-lake and secondary) with wood or brushy cover. sometimes they grab it and haul tail, other times they nibble for awhile before taking it. don't assume the nibblers are small ones. caught a 3-pound-plus smallmouth sunday that just nibbled and pecked at it for several seconds. wait til the line tightens up and let em have it. hope this helps.

Any of you guys know how to adjust the foot pedal on a MotorGuide Tour 82? Had the lower unit replaced on mine last week and apparently the tech didn't get the new foot put on in the same position as the old one. I'd like the pedal to be flat when I'm moving straight ahead as it used to be but right now my foot is cocked heel-back and it's killin my lower back. Thanks in advance for any help.

Congrats on the new 198. You will love it. My 188 is a 2004 and I'm at the point right now where I'm considering selling it and getting a new one. I hate to let it go, though. Dang it's been a good one.

My nearly new MotorGuide Tour Edition went gonzo the other day, pretty much refusing to run at anything but high speed. If I turned the speed-control knob down anywhere near mid-range or below, the motor ran constantly. I could turn it all the way up or close to it and the motor would operate semi-normally except you didn't know when it might decide to come on all by itself, which is a little disconcerting to a guy who doesn't swim and would prefer not to be tossed off the front deck. Took it to Waymack Marine in Springdale, AR, where they found water in the foot. Seems this a common enough problem that MotorGuide has issued a service bulletin on it. The units are leaking around the built-in transducer. The good news is that MotorGuide honored their warranty not only by replacing the entire foot (i.e. the motor itself) with a new and improved model, but also bumped up my warranty by a year, giving me a new warranty for 3 years. I'd call that stand-up service in today's age of customer service. And speaking of service, Mitch at Waymack happened to have a foot in stock, so my turnaround time was less than 24 hours. They are one of only two MotorGuide warranty service centers in NW Arkansas. I know we all have our preferences and I have nothing bad to say about Minn Kota, but I'm a MotorGuide guy and after this experience, I'll continue to be one.