Champ188

Bo, you've adequately explained how much trouble it is to take a pic, so I've let it go. Besides, you'd blow your phone up if you tried to take a pic of all the fish you catch.

Seems a reasonable notion not to disturb the spawning process. That's all Tanderson was suggesting. As he pointed out, many northern states have closed seasons during this time of year.

Love it!

Awesome job, Alex. You may be the Ozarks' answer to David Fritts with that crank bait. Keep chunking and winding. Macsimus, don't slit your wrists just yet. Donna and I fished the same water all day and also struggled. We did have six total and three good keeps including a 5-pound LM but nothing like Alex.

Who's on first?

Good to see you got a little something going. You should be able to build on that the next couple of days. That swinger is a fish-catching deal.

I hope fish care/CPR are foremost on everyone's mind right now. These big fish are vulnerable this time of year and need to have our utmost care and respect. They give us a lot of joy.

Now that's a hoot.

Bo, makes no difference to me if you post pics or not. I don't make the rules around here anyway nor do I want to. And far be it from me to interfere with a man who is consistently amidst multitudes of keeper bass. Me, I usually have to take them where I can find them and rarely are they bunched up, so I have more time for taking pics.

We'll be in a white Ranger with silver/gunmetal stripes.

Very good day. Bite certainly picked up for me also in the afternoon but TM batteries were giving out. Ended up quitting around 2:30 and going to get new ones. Had 7 with 4 solid keepers. I flat missed the gravel bite. I wouldn't worry about that crank bait showing. Not many people have them or can get them anymore. If I'm not mistaken, the red eyes mean that one is really old.

Perish the thought!

I'll take a windy day over a calm one anytime on Table Rock.

I'll get with you at some point, as I plan to be on the water at least a couple of those days.

I will brave it tomorrow. I have a lot of faith in my Ranger.

Welcome to the forum, Dave, and glad you got to enjoy some time on The Rock. Macsimus is a good fellow.

Nice bunch of fillets there.

Don't apologize for the long report ... lots of good info in there. Sorry about the boat troubles. At least neither issue was greatly expensive.

No sir, Big Creek is about normal clarity from back to front. Sorry, but don't know about Campbell Point although I expect it's pretty much the same. Not crystal clear but nothing more than a light stain would be my guess. Others please correct me if I'm wrong.

Hang in there, Randy. Things will get better.

Got that right. More curves than a Las Vegas chorus line.

I'd be perfectly happy to sit in one spot and catch them all day but Table Rock doesn't often offer that luxury. That goes double after a major spring cold front that pushed water temps back down by 5 degrees in some areas. Going to Big Creek was a mistake. But like Ham accurately said, I realized it quickly and adjusted.

Oh, there are plenty there. Enough to scare all of us, I'm sure. Was just saying I don't believe there were any published reports of 9 pounders last year.

That's a beast. I don't believe the lake coughed up any 9's last year.

Donna and I floated the Ranger at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at SK bridge and after rigging some tackle made our first casts around 10:00. Had four with two keepers at 10:30 on the Rock Crawler and RC STX stick bait. Had six an hour later when some big fat guy got the bright idea that we needed to be downlake at Big Creek. Considering the cold and raw conditions, it made more sense to load up and trailer down there, which we did. Upon arriving, we discovered the water temp to be 48. Fished about 15 minutes, said to heck with this and loaded it back on the trailer. Next stop, Viola. Splashed the boat AGAIN around 1:30 and proceeded to catch a dozen more fish in the next few hours with a good ratio of keepers. By 5 p.m. we had 16 total fish with 8 keeps. Best 5 would go around 14 pounds. Water temps ranged from 48 to 57. Fish were caught on Rock Crawler, RC STX, single Keitech swimmer, War Eagle spinnerbait, jig and Wiggle Wart.