motoman

Thanks tippett, I was down a couple weekends ago, and we nailed 'em on that spinnerbait bite. It was a HOOT! - I hope to be back down in a few more weeks, sadly, I'm not too confident that same bite may not be active.

Anyone been throwing the spinnerbait recently?

I'm a fan of Shanghai Star chinese buffet in Branson West (hooked onto the motel next to Taco Bell), delicious and affordable. - And Danna's barb-que, also on the edge of Branson West (looks like an old filling station?) - I think these were also mentioned in someone else's thread. (may not be the caliber of places you're looking for, but still good food!)

Thanks rps, I'm not terribly familiar with all the details. Except that on one of the other boards I'm on, the pre-rapala warts are always in demand.

I think they did change the design too. The older one you have may be pre-Rapala Wart, and is more sought after. I hear the older Warts just run better. But I can't say for certain. - I will say, those older Warts (depenmding on how old) bring a prettier penny than the newer ones. And that's a great price at $2.00/piece. - Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I will chime in.

T4W, glad to hear everything worked out for yah. - It's funny, I thought it was ridiculous to get pay radio, but once I bought it; I was addicted. I haven't listened to free radio in years. It's like not having cable television..............I would'nt dream of going back to the old rabbit ears T.V.!

Dang lv2fish. That's a nice one!! Great pic.

- Snakem, If you don't mind me asking, what part of the lake were you fishing and what kinda temps did you have? - (I saw you put in at aunts creek, did you fish near there?)

Yikes! I thought I was having a rough day, tending to 2 newborns while the wife works. - That hurts RPS. I feel your pain! - Hopefully you can get things back up and running ASAP. Good Luck.

ktm, - My understanding of secondary points, are those smaller points, back in the coves. - Main lake points are just that, out in the main lake. Then once you get back into a cove, if the cove has smaller coves (or pockets) within, those points at the mouth of each of these mini-coves (or pockets) - But someone more knowledageable than I will confirm that.

Good idea Troy! - I've got an 86 Basscat Pantera, Silver and Blue with Evinrude 150 on the back.

Here's a list of the registered torunaments and their dates. - Not sure about the other questions. - http://www.mswp.dps.mo.gov/regattas/RegRes...h&offset=25

I'd like some stickers too. I'd be a great identifier on the boat.

I Mojo rig them with the smooth side down, and the hook coming out of the top. (similar to Carolina rig, just no clacker, swivel, beads etc,; only a bullet weight and carolina keeper-or just split shots only about 18 inches above the bait-) - We did pretty well with them on a drop shot rig, but not actually drop shotting. Just keeping the bait up above the mossy bottom, and would cast them out, and slowly drag them back to the boat with a taught line.

- That's too funny techo. I got a good chuckle out of that one! - I try and wave at everyone too, and I sure get some strange looks sometimes. But no one has come over to see if I was O.K. .................... yet.

I try to keep at least 2 cast lengths away from another boat. That way there's no way I'm 'disturbing' any water another angler may want to fish. As I have a few spots myself that are in deeper water, near shore, and I cast a 360 ring around the boat for fish. - And yup, also pull 'em out of deeper water, too. - When I was down last saturday, there was the BFL, or Stren Series or some big tournament going on. And a spot I wanted to hit was about 3-4 casting lengths away from some guys fishing a point. I watched them from a distance and they were slowly working back and forth around the outer edge of this point. My spot was 3-4 cast lengths from their closest spot. (They were casting to shore, fishing a bluff end, I was going for some sunken timber offshore a bit) As I got close, (with trolling motor only) I made sure one of them was looking, and I spoke in a loud enough whisper (little to no wind) attempting not to disturb anything they had going on, and asked if I was getting too close to water they were fishing, they said I was not, and they wished me luck. - The same day, we had a nice spot we were holding, fishing a tournament. Another angler was working the bank coming by, and talked to us, but he got close enough for me to toss him a can of soda if I wanted. And he was actually casting right next to our boat several times as he passed. And I mean, RIGHT NEXT TO OUR BOAT, as he passed. He was friendly enough as he passed, and we made small talk; but I was not happy with how close he was. As I would never have gotten that close. Maybe it's just me erring on the side of caution.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I know that yahoo I ran into is in the minority, everyone on the boards here have been great. - OAF harkens back to my ute', when everyone was friendly to each other; always willing to lend a hand, and you never locked your doors. I guess when I'm on the boards here, I quickly forget that there are a couple of bad apples floating around. Every great community has 'em, it's probably just best to ignore 'em! - I need to just make like a duck, and let it run off my back! .............quack, quack!

Sorry to hear you're having trouble Doc. I would agree with what Don said. The afternoon bite until dark was best for us. Heck, it may be worth getting up before sunrise, fish until 9:30'ish, then go back for a nap, and come back out after 3:00 p.m.'ish. We sure considered it! - This report is almost a week old, (so it may be more like a history lesson, than an accurate report) but I thought I might post it in here for a bit of a look over. Things changed almost daily for us, but this is one pattern that held. - http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16883

Good points guys, I shouldn't let it bother me. But, it just got under my skin. - Sadly, goons like that guy give anglers a bad name. - And whack'em, I'll be on the lookout for yah, and certainly say howdy!

Some of you may have read a month or so ago, I was down at The Rock, and had some engine trouble within the first 10 minutes of being on the water. Leon over at Schooner Creek Resort referred me to Specialized Marine, their tech was out, but they were very nice, and referred me to Carl over at Dynaprop. Although I didn't have a prop issue, Carl quickly got us back on the water, for pennies on the dollar. - I'm more used to LOZ hospitality, where they see someone from out of town in a bind, and then all they see are $$$$$. And take advantage of the situation. Carl could have easily done that, as I was unfamiliar with the issue I was having, but he took good care of us and was very honest on what he charged. I was pleasantly surprised. And that's why I did not title this thread 'Ozark Hospitality'................as it may have been misconstrude to include LOZ. (but again, this is just my experience) - But, my next experience kinda soured me. Although I don't think it involved a local. - I had misread a thread while I was staying at Schooner last weekend, and thought a fellow board member was staying there the same time as I, as he gave a description of his boat in the thread. - Well, I saw (who I thought) was this boat owner pull up in the dock, I went over and asked how he did (after a tournament last sunday). Hoping it would be a fellow OAF member I could put a face to a name with. He replied they did not do too well. And told me the weight of their sack. I told him, "that was pretty good!", trying to be positive and respectful. and he stated, "Well not good enough"..............O.K. (sarcasm) - Then I asked if he was a board member on Ozarkanglers.................and here's where I get steamed.................. - His response is, "....................possibly..........(in a crappy tone).................." - POSSIBLY !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!???!. What kind of crap answer is that!?!?!?!?! - I then told him I thought he may have been someone who posted on the boards that was staying at Schooner. He said it wasn't him. (odds were pretty good if I read the thread correctly, as sunday evening, there were only 2 other boats there) - For some reason, that A$$hole response really hit a nerve with me! POSSIBLY????????????............give me a break. Good Lord, I was just trying to be friendly, and that's the reply I get...............sheesh! - Appearently if you don't have big sponsorship, an expensive boat, a fishfinder that looks like a laptop, you can't be part of the cool club! - It just hacks me off to think such a great online community as these boards, has some lurkers who insist on hiding in the shadows, peering out at everyone. And then when asked if they are a member, to only reply.............POSSIBLY! Like he's embarrassed to admit he's a board member here. (shameful) - I understand that not everyone wants to post or discuss things on the boards, but for petes sake, you don't have to be a jerk about it! - O.K. I think my rants over.

- Glad to hear that spinnerbait bite is still kickin'. It was out of control for us last weekend!

No problem guys. Hope you can find some similar results. I'm back home now, and it's certainly bittersweet. - But, I went out again this morning before leaving, and had another limit of keepers in about an hour and a half......UNREAL for me. Maybe some of you guys have regular days like this, but not myself. - Our best action seemed to be on west and south facing banks. If that matters. And there are occasional breaks on the surface of baitfish all around. - Let me know if anyone else gets out and has the same fun on the spinnerbait. - I had even more fun with this bite, because I only own 3 spinnerbaits, a non-boater gave me he made a few years back. I simply never throw them, because I never caught fish with them. So after the bite was taking off these passed few days, I went to Wal-Mart (local tackle shops were closed) and grabbed some more. Dems War Eagle ones are real nice, but most of my fish were caught on a homemade 1/4 ounce one................and don't forget the trailer hook!

Some of you may have in a few other posts, read about the spinnerbait bite. But, I figured it would be worth elaborating on in an individual thread. If any of this conflicts with a previous post in other threads, I apologize; but after tonights' action, the bite became a bit more clear. - The bite seems to be best from sunrise to 10:00 a.m. and after 2:00 p.m. to sunset. In between there, it kind of tapers off. - We've been throwing 1/4 ounce and 3/8 ounce, any kind of skirt, with some sort of majority being white in color, double willow blades (or single, in silver, or one of the 2, being gold). - Throwing them in heavy timber, and verrrry gradual sloping pea gravel banks. (some of them had larger baseball sized rocks mixed in) - Either paralleling the bank, or throwing to shore. Holding the boat in about 20 foot of water. Secondary points were working a bit too. All the bites seemed to come in about the 10 foot depth of water. - This morning I caught a limit from about 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., which would've gone about 15 pounds. - Tonight a partner and I went out around 5:00 p.m., and could not force ourselves to come back in until it was PITCH dark, about 9:15 with heavy cloud cover, and a light drizzle. - We boated over 25 fish; smallies, kentuckies and one LM. The biggest were a LM of 4.1 lbs, smallie of 3.9 lbs and kentuckies in the 2.5 lb range. - Of the 25'ish fish we caught, only 4 were shorts. And all the keepers would have averaged darn near 3 pounds each. - I was thrilled with these results, as I don't get down to The Rock, but only a few times a year. - Hopefully this helps others, as this bite has really served us well!

Let me make an addition to my above post. One of the gradual sloping banks we've been catching them on, also has small rocks that are about the size of a baseball, scattered about. - And when I say slow-roll the spinnerbait, I've been reeling it so sssslow, the blades accidentally stop for a second, then I've got to speed the reeling up a pinch to get 'em back moving. Also, I've had a partner here and there fishing, and he has trouble reeling it that slow, and has caught far less fish.

- Sorry to hear you didn't weigh anything, that's a bummer. We only weighed 2 at our tourney saturday, and we didn't catch those until 3:30. We went to weigh in early to try and beat the monsoon, no luck! - What time were you in Schooner today? I was in and out of there a few times myself. (we ended up staying an extra day, long story )