ozarksfishin

I told Pete we needed a meanmouth...a 5lber would have been nice

Myself and Pete Leonard had 12.10 and was good enough for 3rd place. We caught em in 36-40ft on football jigs. The bite was light and as Babler would say "you better have good junk" to haul them in from that deep. We lost one fish and culled twice. It was pretty tough but it usually is this time of year. Great tournament as always put on by Toyota!

Lots of shad suspended just off the gravel points, and the smallmouth are really stacked up in 24-28ft until late morning. Zero surface activity, I think the shad are just too deep. All the smallmouth we caught today were very healthy and fought like it was late Spring! Should be a fun bite for a while.

Thank you Babler for the kind words...and don't be jealous of my shoes. 😁😁😁

Thank you guys for all the kind words, especially Babler. You are truly one of the great ones! The fish are on the move big time right now, that was apparent Saturday. All we need is a week of nice weather and things will bust loose! Thank you all for the kind words!

Thanks guys, I'm excited for sure! I have checked out Bablers boats enough in the past, it was an easy decision. And Greg Wood has been awesome in helping me out!

I would wait as late as possible that you can for your trip to allow the lake to get to somewhat normal level. Should start to see some schooling action in early October. Give me a call if you are interested in a guide trip, we got into some striper, white bass, and bass last year on the upper end. Phillip Stone 870-715-2764 www.ozarksfishin.com

Pre rap is before Rapala bought Storm lures and changed the mold for wiggle warts, James. There was a "flaw" in the old mold that made them hunt erratically when they came off a rock. That's why you sweep the rod tip during the retrieve, to load the wart so it hunts erratically

I use the suspend dots to get a farther cast so the wart will dive deeper, not to get it to suspend. The fish will react to it coming off a rock or something. Gerald Swindle tried to fish the wiggle wart back to the boat real fast back in 05 and couldn't catch em, he had to switch over and fish it on a spinning reel to make himself slow down. There will always be new baits and new paint jobs, but like Babler said, the old tried and true brown craw (or tomato red as Barker called it) has put 6 figures in his pocket. It ain't broke don't fix it

The v38 is still my go to color and I will fish them til the paint is wore off. If I get up into the rivers with a little color, I will change up and throw the brown craw because it has more orange. I remember last year on Lake of the Ozarks I was fishing the CPA and just caught a 3lb er and next cast completely shattered one of my favorite warts on a rock. I almost cried! I was taught by Dave Barker, probably the best with a wart, how to fish it properly in the mid 90s. One particular day in march at a club tournament, Dave hauled in 18lbs of fish and 2nd place was 6lbs. His favorite was the brown craw or v37 like Alex has. Fishing the wart is more of a technique than anything, it's not just throw it out and reel back. You are feeling every rock and stump as you come back. And the bite most of the time feels like you hooked a leaf!

I don't think Bill was trying to discourage anyone from fishing any tournament. He is simply letting people know what to expect from any tournament circuit. None of the locals fish tournaments to make money, if you do you are kidding yourself

In my experience, the fish like it in the colder water. They are looking for shad in tight schools, but when the water warms up, the shad are not as tightly packed. The bass will pick one shad off and chase it down. I haven't had much luck on it when the water gets in the upper 50s. With the water temps low like they are, we should have a good a rig bite for a while.

Most of the coves up around Shell Knob had ice on them last week. Put in at the bridge and ran down the lake a little ways. Pulled into a cove only to find 2\3 of it iced over. Ice was probably 1 1\2 in thick.

Glad to help out guys, had a great time and appreciated the great response! Great bunch of guys and gals in these forums

And he kept the spoon on the deck, usually this time of year we are always vertically jiggjng a spoon. Should have thrown the rig at em, mite have caught two or three on one cast. I know you love throwin that thing !