Champ188

Good job and good reports, guys. I think this very well tells the tale that we're at the time of year on TR where bass anglers have two choices. You either locate the thermocline and fish for suspended fish as rps did, or you go far enough upriver to find the cooler and less-stratified water that allows the fish to roam around wherever they wish.

So we should be on the lookout for floating bodies in Aunt's Creek?

Hey Jason, if you want to know just how hot it was Saturday during the day and how bad the boat traffic was, give me a call. You might need an hour or two, though. Donna and I fished a derby out of Baxter. Took off at 5:45 a.m. and weighed in at 4 p.m. Yeah, 4 p.m. What a marathon. There was not a breath of wind all day and we roasted. Caught two decent keepers and lost several more. Won't go into details as they aren't caught until they're in the boat and they don't weigh a darn thing at the scales. But we literally invented new ways to lose fish. Ended up taking 11 pounds and change to win and 7 pounds for second. Dock bite that was decent the Saturday before died on the vine for us. Caught one keeper on a Fin early and drop-shotted the other one about 2 p.m. Otherwise, we did stick some decent fish on football jigs and one on a deep crank bait. Most were in 12-18 feet of water early on, moving out to 30 feet by afternoon. Sloping secondary points just inside the deeper creeks and cuts were best. Very few bites on bluff ends. For gosh sakes, bring on fall!

Roger & Craig, ya'll picked the right guide for an instructional trip. Bill isn't all about just taking folks out to catch a bunch of fish off a hotspot or two — he really enjoys teaching his clients about the FISH themselves so they can take home some knowledge and hopefully repeat their success on their own. Some clients just want to be entertained, but others like you guys want to learn something they can take and apply later. Bill can certainly provide either one. Now, about this river fish stuff ... for starters, I think Denny's river license needs to be revoked entirely — at least suspended for the remainder of the year — after that "girly man river fish" comment. I'd suggest that his new boundaries end at the White/James River split. Or we might just draw a simpler line at the KC bridge. Maybe we could enlist the water patrol to help us enforce it since they like to post up at the bridge and mess with derby fishermen coming out of Ahoy's in early mornings anyway. Donna and I are fishing a small derby Saturday out of Baxter. The plan is to fish a "special little area" located somewhere between Baxter and Campbell Point early with the Fin and Spook, then spend the rest of the day pitching jigs and shaky heads as far back into dock slips as we can. I may be wrong but I believe we can beat out 5 decent ones by weigh-in on the dock deal. Guess we'll see.

Nice one, indeed. One like that makes even a short worthwhile.

Hard not to throw that Fin — a few times anyway, isn't it?

Just wanted to put in my 2 cents worth on Bill's point about trailers. I wouldn't call myself cheap, as I buy and use whatever works best. But I'm no big fan of Yamamoto stuff these days. Their trailers are often packaged haphazardly and the tails are so thin that after they sit crumpled in the package for a while, they're ruined. There is also the issue of the tails sticking together during the retrieve. For my purposes, the Yum doubletail is as good as it gets. And cheaper too. Also, for a smaller profile jig, I've had good success with Zoom's Creepy Crawler. I first discovered these when looking for a the best trailer to use on a jig for swimming around docks in the fall. It's great for that but also does a bang-up job on "dragging jigs" in finesse sizes (3/8ths or less). I've even had success with it when pitching a 5/16ths ballhead jig around docks.

Sam, good stuff about the distance and dams breaking the wakes. I keep thinking that Babler lives in a perfect location — right on TR but not far from Bull either. Donna and I may have to find us a place close to there when our working days are over. Don't worry Bill, we won't exterminate your copperhead friends. Thanks for the prayers and well wishes, too, Sam and others. Look forward to having this behind me and pressing on.

As usual, Bill is right on the money, especially about the deep bite being nonexistent up the White. Everywhere Donna and I went the other day after 8 a.m., both the bait and the bass were concentrated from 18-28 feet. Any deeper or any shallower and the graph would go blank. From daylight to 8 a.m., there were some keeper LM's up shallower. If I had a derby to fish right now, I'd leave the topwater in the rod box and start out with a 3/8 jig up shallow (10-20 ft) and gradually work my way out as the day went on.

After working all week on some seemingly good fishing days and staying off the water the holiday weekend before, just had to get out Saturday and give it a go. Donna and I launched a bit after daylight at Big M and found some limited topwater action. Shad and bass boat seemed concentrated in creek mouths on flatter secondary points. An occasional school would come up, but for the most part it was single breakers but a bunch of em in the same areas. Mixed LM and K's. Told Donna it reminded me of that computer game where you try to bonk the mole on the head with a hammer. You stand there on the front deck and wait for one to poke his head up, then fire your topwater at him before he disappears. We caught six or eight that way but no keepers before the sun hit the water and they disappeared. There also seems to be a fair dock bite developing. Drop-shot and shaky head produced two keeper LM's and another keeper K, all in the 3-pound range. Then came the wave makers in all shapes, forms, varieties, etc. By 10:00 they were out in magnum force all the way from Owl Creek to SK bridge, making it pretty darn impossible to fish any kind of main-lake structure. Felt like there was reason to pursue that dock bite on the deeper docks but nearly every promising dock had a bunch of swimmers/divers on it. Got so bad by 1 p.m. that we said to heck with it and went home. Bring on fall. Ready to feel that refresing blast of northwest wind off the season's first cold front.

Thanks to all of you. I'm keeping my chin up and hoping for a brief down time.

Hey SoreThumbs, yes that Kinami Natural Shad is a killer on pretty much any of these Ozarks lakes. I've even caught em on Beaver on it, which is always the acid test for any bait. LOL. Yes, look us up at Stockton. Would enjoy visiting. I found out a few weeks ago that, like Donna less than 2 years ago, I have kidney cancer. Good thing is it's Stage 1 and cure rate is above 95%. Originally looked like the surgery plan was gonna knock me out of the last CPA derby on Table Rock but I'm now scheduled for the knife on Aug. 25 so will get to fish all the qualifiers and should be back in some semblance of fighting form for the championship on Grand. Might even get to fish the team championship on Norfork in September but not sure about that. Again, look us up at Stockton. See you there.

Very interesting report, Sam. Thanks for that.

Good stuff, rps. When it comes to fishing and particularly things like color choices in lures, perception=reality.

Those Grand Lake whites are a blast this time of year.

Like others, this is just my opinion along with advice from a darn good fisherman who I'm lucky to call a buddy: Topwater color matters little as long as the belly is white. Might be oversimplifying a bit there, but I think the theory is solid.

Aunt's Creek is full of big gills. No bass, though.

I guess I should be immune to it by now but I'm still amazed by some of the things I see and hear on holiday weekends. Congrats on perservering long enough to capture two keeper Walters.

Put me down for another $10.

Sam, Not saying Greeson is a world-class bass fishery by any means. And like anywhere, the crappie tend to by cyclic ... good years and bad. Wish you'd had a better crappie trip. Growing up in Hot Springs and even into the late 1980s, I can remember a lot of great winter/early spring bass trips down there where we would be disappointed to catch less than 50 fish in a day. But I imagine the catch-and-keep mentality combined with the stripers keeping the shad gobbled up have taken their toll. If you decide to take another crappie down there in the future, PM me ahead of time and I'll check with some old contacts and try to find out some info for you.

Denny, in my opinion, pictures like the one that started this whole mess are the result of testosterone poisoning and the need for affirmation. "Me big bad man. Look what I done went and kilt."

Sounds like a hoot, Eric. I had a guy show me something similar using a 1/16th-ounce (hard to find but they exist) shaky head and a finesse worm on the bridge pilings at Greers Ferry a few years back. Was a good way to catch spots down there and I can see where your rig could work even better. Thanks for sharing.

Very good fish. Congrats on a fine evening.

May the wakes of a thousand jet skis, wake boats and Branson Battleships rock your Ranger this weekend.

Great report, Bill. Thanks for all the detail. Won't be bucking the waves myself this wkd but patterns like that should hold for a good while.