Champ188

Obviously the ol' White River summer pattern is on ... sum-r-here, sum-r-there. Run bluff ends all day and hope you come up with five decent fish. Sounds like the better bite is down the lake from KC to the dam.

Nice report, rps. Glad you had a good day and came home with some meat.

Nice Walter indeed.

To answer for QB, that's a Zoom Ol' Monster in the Candy Bug color.

Sounds like a great idea, J-Doc. Look forward to checking it out.

Hey gitnby, we had just gotten home from the dealer with it the day before, thus the ArmorAll on the tires, although not a bad idea for future reference. : Good thing that porta-potty isn't actually IN the boat coz Donna would never catch anything.

Donna and I are up that way quite a bit, too.

Glad we bought our new one in December. We were actually able to extend our Mercury coverage out to 7 years. Since we tend to hang onto a boat for a good while, it was the way to go for us.

If you have to worry about your fellow competitors ignoring this rule, then you have much bigger problems. A cheater is a cheater. He doesn't discriminate... not for long, anyway ... when it comes to breaking rules. He'll break every one of them if he believes he can get by with it.

Glad it's not that darned easy for me most of the time. I'd probably get bored if I caught them at will like some folks.

Goes to show you that docks are always a good option come hot weather on the Rock.

Also, since all night tournaments are team derbies and with a four-fish limit, neither angler is likely to reach the point of "limiting out" individually and going into catch-and-release-only mode.

This thread is worth saving for anyone who fishes TR from daily to once a year. Bill and rps know from whence they speak, and for them to open their minds like this for free is pretty darn generous. Better rathole this info in a handy place. It will stand the test of time, i.e. you can come back to it 20 years from now and every word will still be true. I will try to remember to toss out some nuggets of what I've learned over the years about the shallow bite in the fall ... topwater, flipping shallow cover and of course throwing a blade ... once that time gets here.

LOL at Bill's comment and agree. Always enjoy getting some of the younger one's (I'll leave his name out of it) money when he shows up for a derby, especially at Grand. But he looks the part with the pretty blue wrapped truck and boat.

Throw a finesse jig, shaky head or drop shot around boat docks, including inside the slips and as far back to the walkways as you can get. Concentrate on 18-25 feet of water. You will get bit.

"A spoon is not a lure, it's a weapon." ... Mark Davis, circa 1985 (when he was still a young fishing guide, before the onset of his glory days as a Bassmasters Classic champion and three-time BASS Angler of the Year)

That can sure shut them off, QB.

I'm with Jason. Not sold yet.

Good report, Josh. Thanks for sharing.

As abkeenan said, very good-hearted of you to try and find the rightful owner. Not cheap is right. I went to Cabela's last night and bought a spool of fluorocarbon and four jigs. Cost $39. You're good people, Josh. But we already knew that. You're a fisherman!

Good info, Quill. Been a lot of end-of-June days we'd have all sold out for a 20-fish morning.

That just sucks, abkeenan. Common sense is not only uncommon these days, it's darn near extinct.

Watch out for the morons. There are nocturnal ones, too, especially on holiday weekends.

Hard to beat a finesse jig or shaky head this time of year. Here's the thing about dock fishing. Once you determine the depth the fish are holding, which in summer will likely be right above the thermocline, don't fish every boat slip in the dock. Fish only those where the bottom is within 4-5 feet of your target depth and move on. Yes, it's work, but it will greatly increase your success. Another thing is to learn how to pitch accurately and get your lure way back in the shade ... preferably all the way to the walkway. Where there's a boat on a lift, get between the boat and the dock. Your line will probably be draped over the lift. So be it. Yes, you'll lose some fish. And jigs. And shaky heads. But by gosh you can't catch one if you can't get bit and some days, you just have to go deep into the jungle to find the tiger.

Thanks, guys. None better than Nicky at deep crankin, among other things. The guy can flat catch em.