Jackie D

got out yesterday for the first time in like 4 or 5 weeks. Fished the big end and had a real nice trip for this time of year. 44 degree water,I had ten bites with 3 keeper blacks and two kentucky keepers. Had two more on that were pulling hard but they escaped before they made it to the boat, and my Dad had 3 bites with one short fish and missed two. Didn't seem to matter if the wind was blowing or not but we did catch the biggest fish after the wind picked up. I attached pictures of the best three blacks.

I would have to agree yesterday and today was two of the best days of topwater fishing I have had on Table rock. The big smallmouth fell victim to topwater today. The youngster caught this nice spot on drop shot and it nearly pulled the rod out of his hand. He will be hooked for life after the fight this fish gave him. He caught so many he went and set down in the seat and his mom ask him what was wrong and he said he had to let his hand rest, it was hurting from fighting so many fish....now that is a good thing to hear on a guide trip.

I'm with ya. See ya on the water.

Ok, You say you have been catching them good on the fluke around docks. Are you doing this on guide trips? I don't know if I have ever had anybody that could skip a fluke under a dock cable or in a stall under a lift...they might throw it on top of the roof. Oh I have had a few that could. I mean no disrespect to them because that is why they hired me and it is appreciated but that technique is one that would not work in my boat 99 percent of the time. Great people but their casting accurancy isn't what it needs to be in order to fish this way. Where are you finding people that can cast like that? Send some my way because that is a fun way to fish.

Put in at Aunts Creek this morning. Water was clear with lots of pollen on the water. I didn't go into every pocket but the ones I did go into had two or three beds with keeper fish locked on with a couple beds having two fish on them. Didn't really see many cruisers but where you thought there would be a bed there was. Ran out of Aunts and went up the James and ran into the rust colored turnover water. Couldn't catch anything in that water but we kept going and found better clarity toward Piney and the bite picked up again. Only had four keepers but lots of shorts. Wasted way to much time in bad water.

Don't know of any dealers but I have 4-6 gallons still in their original containers never opened I would sell for $20.00 a gallon...I used to run an E-Tec but run a yamaha now and don't need it. Let me know if interested..Thanks

The tires everyone refers to is the ones they used at the mouth of state park cove for years as a wind break. When they put in the new wind break a few years ago they sunk the old tires. They are located as you idle out of state park past the last covered dock on the right. There will be three or four big buoys on your right like they tie sailboats up to. When you find those buoys the tires will be under you.

Water Temp was 43-44 yesterday in the rain at Cape Fair.

Was on it today. Put in at PB2 and broke ice for 1/2 mile and it was frozen as far as we could see toward the main lake, some of it is 1/2 inch thick. We finally turned around and loaded up. . Decided to try Shawee Bend and as we drove around toward toll bridge and passed over the 54 bridge it was froze as far as you could see both ways. As we got closer to toll bridge we could see the lake from atop the hill going toward the bridge and it was froze as far as we could see both ways by the toll bridge. Turned around and decided to go to Stockton but on the way we went back over the niagua and it was open so we tried the Larry Gale access and it was open. We went toward the little Niagua and it was frozen over completely at the mouth as far as you could see going into the little Niagua. Several big patches of ice at the mouth of little biagua so I'm not sure if you could go further toward main lake or not. Water temp was 36 in the morning to 38 in the afternoon. One bite, a drum. Should have went to Table Rock.

I second that Bill. My brother and I have been using Pro-Guides since 1992 and they are as good as they get. I use a charger that puts 20 amps per battery in them that I bought from Lane at Shumaker battery called Deltran.

Ok, You got my attention....Why are they not drawing more boats?

We did have a great day of fishing. Until the motor went down at 11:00am and all we could do was idle. We never put another fish in the boat after that. I have never had a more frustrating day on the water dealing with mechanical failures. We had 4 blacks between 4.0 and 4.75 pounds a piece and one that weighed somewhere around 3.75 and we knew we had to cull that one fish to win and I had her on twice and they both escaped capture. Maybe next time

Lake Ozarks Skeeter Tour Results-3/29/09 March 30, 2009 Central Pro-Am’s first Skeeter Tour Tournament goes on despite the forecast. Anglers Jimmy Davis Jr. and Jackie Davis of Willard, Missouri took first place in this weekends Missouri Skeeter Tour Tournament at Lake of the Ozarks. The brothers once again proved that whenever present they should be considered a threat to win. Their incredible five fish limit weighed a whopping 24.44 pounds. Great job guys!!! BOATER NON BOATER # FISH WEIGHT $ AMOUNT 1 JIMMY DAVIS, JR JACKIE DAVIS 5 24.44 $10,000.00 2 JAMES EDGE JERRY ROARK 5 23.05 $1,760.00 3 JAMES WATSON ROBBIE DODSON 5 20.52 $1,050.00 4 STAN SNELSON BUTCH BELT 5 19.48 $950.00 5 BOBBY SULLIVAN JIM BIBLE 5 19.28 $780.00 6 MARK WIESE, JR KELLY POWER 5 18.59 $630.00 7 LUPE GARCIA JOEY PENZO 5 18.30 $530.00 8 DAVE THOMASON TODD EDDINGTON 5 18.04 $430.00 9 ANDRE DICKNEITE JOE WIEBERG 5 17.52 $330.00 10 BOB RICHARDSON LYNN LUTHER 5 17.44 $285.00 11 HORACE HAYNES STEVE BOILLOT 5 17.26 $255.00 12 BRETT GOUREAU BEAU GOUREAU 5 17.06 $200.00 13 DAVID MCCORMICK STEVE VANZANT 5 16.99 $200.00 14 EARL GARRISON PAUL GARRETT 5 16.95 $200.00 15 MIKE EUTSLER COREY EUTSLER 5 16.52 $200.00 16 WAYNE FOWLER JOHN SHUMWAY 5 16.47 $200.00 17 JAY HULSEY KYLE HULSEY 5 16.37 $200.00 18 TIM TAYLOR J.R. JENKINS 5 16.35 $200.00

Hey guys, I had a trip today with two guys that were good casters and we caught 50+ up the James. Without a counter it is hard to judge just how many we did catch because sometimes I caught fish on back to back to back cast and I would hand my rod to client and then the bite would seem to end, but in reality they were having a hard time feeling some of the light bites. When you don't fish for those bottom fish alot, sometimes it is hard to tell the difference from a rock and a bite until it is to late. I know because I fish for them all the time and I jerked air probably 12-15 times today on bites....I'm sure they were small spots at least that is what I told myself. Water was flat and bad foggy in the morning. There was lots of boat traffic but they were biting all day. We quit with them biting and we had several doubles. One spot had several fish surfacing which I figured was whites and it was after we caught about 6 or 8 of them, they were all small. Only caught one good white but didn't fish for them anymore the rest of the day. Clients had lots of fun and so did I. Saturday in the Heartland Buddy we only had 8 bites all day long. Today we only had two keepers with many many 12" spots and the blacks were mostly 12" to 13 inchers except for the keepers. Water had some nasty scum on surface when it was slick calm. The fish seemed to like the windy areas when it started blowing around noon. We were supposed to stop at 3:00 PM but we stayed till 4:30 because it was so nice and they were biting. I certainly couldn't win any tourneys up there but the catching is fun right now. See ya on the water

I have been throwing shad colors

I have been getting bit real good first thing swimming grubs, let it fall to bottom and real it in slow. Have been getting 2 or three real nice smallmouths and several shorts doing this. Once the sun gets up your bites are lots harder to come by. I go to the drop shot once the sun gets up good and have been catching lots of fish. We caught them so good today my half day trip turned into a full day and they had a blast. We ran out of nightcrawlers since I was only planning on half day trip. We went to plastic and they were on it as good if not better than the real worms. Lots of fun right now.

Bill, You guys are killing me, I had to work inside all day.........But I will be there tomorrow.

I'm going to say a little of both.

They do have big bellies. You want to make sure you use a trailer hook because several of the fish were caught on it.

I had a trip today and we caught them good. 12 keepers mixed bag with 2 four pound blacks, 7-8 shorts. SB was the deal. Water is clearing from last weekend. Fished my way to Indian Point today. Mid-day & afternoon bite was best bite for us today. Good Luck! Here are pictures of some of the fish we caught.

Isn't it funny how we can remember little things like bait color after all those years. You are correct Bill, that was a great stringer of fish.

What a day. Just when you think you know how to catch them they change a little. I fished they Heartland buddy yesterday and we had 16.80 (12) place. Caught ten keepers with only one short fish all day. Today in the pro-am, on my second stop my partner catched a four pounder and it eats it so good he almost had to cut off hook to save fish but he got it out finally. 2nd stop he caught another four pound black and when he stands up from placing fish in livewell he makes another cast and catches keeper number three, his limit fish....heartland only lets co-angler weigh 3 keepers. I still have not had a bite yet. But that is ok because we caught them good on Wednesday and Saturday we had 10 keepers right, wrong. I'm looking his spinner over good now and I have one nearly the same ready shortly. Boom I catch 3 pounder pretty fast after putting it on and then a short fish. If I had known it was this easy I would have changed earlier...wrong again. I continue to throw that bait at various stops and my partner catches another then another and I'm still shaken my head wondering what I'm doing wrong. He now had 2 four's and a big fat spot going 3.2 pounds. then he catches a black that culls the spot. We move again and of course he sets on yet another big smallmouth that had to weigh 4.5...big belly and pretty. Caught her around a bush I had already thrown by. I catch a 3 pounder, he catches another keeper that won't help. I still don't know why he got so many bites and I didn't today because yesterday they would bite my bait but not today. That is why it is a challenge everytime we go out on the water. You never know what mother nature is going to throw your way. The fish seemed to have moved out away from the bushes, of course when your setting in 20' rolling a spinner by visible bushes there has top be a bunch of bushes under the water we can't see. Rick's limit was a great five fish limit. I remember a spring Heartland elite tourney I believe 6-8 years ago out of ahoy's when Rick Holmden weighed in 28 pounds in five fish...all jerkbait fish. I finished with 2 that weighed 6 something and my partner had 3 that weighed 12 something (2nd) place. Ironically he got beat by his traveling buddy who was throwing the same spinnerbait. He weighed 3 fish for 15 pounds that included a 7 pounder. He told me he saw her roll out of a bush and eat his bait....pretty cool when that happens. Fishing is going to be incredible when it warms back up, not that it isn't now...lots of good stringers today. I can't remember when the fish had bigger bellies on them than they do right now. Gotta go look at my blade box.......

Great Catch guys! We had a great day also. We never got that real big black though. Did have a few pull off that were giving me lots of trouble but never saw them. Jackie D.

Glad to be here, I wish I would have found this earlier, I enjoy reading the adventures of others.

Thanks for the kind words Bill. I couldn't have said it any better than you just did. I knew the best pattern for me to catch fish was to fish near the shore and bushes and docks but this nice gentleman didn't have the experience to cast with the accurancy you need to fish docks and the shallow cover properly. As you stated it wouldn't be fair for him to set and watch me catch fish with him not having anything tugging on his line. We adapted and ended up with a nice day. Be careful out there....I saw lots of floaters running in yesterday.