abkeenan

So apparently there was an issue with registering with our group if you tried yesterday. The website was giving a message that signups had closed on 2/16 even though the date was 2/15. Not sure why that happened and I’m sorry if that effected anyone. Donna was one of those people so in her case she is just going to fill out a lineup each week outside of our group but still in the BASS Fantasy system and then send me her weekly/event scores/team screenshot. Including Donna we have 20 participants this year. If you tried to signup for our group and couldn’t as a result of the website error just reach out to me and we can do the same for you as we did her (granted you filled out a lineup for this first tournament). Thanks all!

Thanks! I see that you registered in the group but I don’t see Donna. Be sure to have her register in the group and don’t forget to fill out your roster before THIS THURSDAY before the tournament begins. That goes for everyone!

We have 15 participants thus far. Let's get it up to at least 20. It's just $10 bucks TOTAL for all season ladies and gents. Makes watching the events live or reruns on TV a little more interesting when you have a little skin in the game. Just saying. Thanks to those that have already registered and paid. Don't forget to set those lineups before the first tournament which is just 5 days from now!

Sorry for the delay!! Usually get this posted sooner so more have time to join. Ladies and Gents, Registration is open an just about a month before the first Elite event. The $10 up front entry fee we did the last 3 seasons has been a success and people find it fair and worthwhile. PayPal is still preferable as that is the easiest method for most, including me. I can also do Venmo as an option. Payment details are in the group notes once you join the group/league. League entry fee is due by the start of the first tournament on 2/16 @ the Big O in Florida. If you have not paid by that time then you will not be eligible to win prizes in the league even if you continue to participate in filling out rosters every event. The prizes will be in the form of Tackle Warehouse gift cards at various values. The value of those gift cards will be determined on interest and amount of people that join the league. The payout will scale accordingly from 1st prize to an agreed upon (by the league majority) last winning place. Example: 25 entries x $10 = $250 in pot TW Gift Cards 1st - $100 2nd - $75 3rd - $50 4th - $25 - Something along these lines. To sign up go here: https://bassmasterfantasy.com/ For those of you new to fantasy fishing its very simple and requires very little effort or skill. The only thing you need to do is FILL OUT A TEAM EVERY WEEK there is an event. You forget or miss one tournament event then it is hard to compete for prizes as it is nearly impossible to make up those lost points. See above link for more info. Please register your name AS THE SAME NAME/HANDLE you have here on Ozark Anglers as it's easier for everyone to identify each other. To join the league find the OZARK ANGLERS group I've created after you've registered an account. It is marked as private as to not let a bunch of people into the league. Group name: OZARK ANGLERS Password: longcreek Please respond here on this thread for those that plan to participate so I can get an idea of how many will be joining. Thanks and good luck! Brett

Looks like the Many Little Fish circuit has changed their format. I personally think it’s a good move as the novelty of every “scorable” has worn off for most according to the polling. I’ve never been a fan of the format myself so I might actually pay a little more attention to that tour now. Wonder what this means for BASS and if any of the anglers might flip between tours. Guys like BP, Christie, Hackney, etc that I guess weren’t fans of the MLF catch as many as you can format that went back to BASS…..wonder if the money will make them swap back AGAIN.

Winners have been PM'd the gift card codes. Congrats and see everyone next year.

Just got around to buying the TW GC's today. Email on the orders said they would electronically deliver the gift card redemption numbers in 1-2 business days. As soon as they email those over I'll get them to the 3 winners. Thanks again to everyone who played/donated this year.

Sorry. Been on vacation the last 10 days. Thanks to all who participated this season. 1st place - SupremeJCK aka my idiot brother. 2nd place - Dwiebenga 3rd place - T. Ryan Congrats to the winners. I’ll get those TW gift cards emailed to you guys in the next couple of days. I’ll PM you three that won. If I’m not mistaken I think these 3 also won last year. Starting to see a pattern developing.

Last reminder of the year. Upper Mississippi River tournament starts tomorrow morning. Get those rosters set. Last Elite tournament of the season and thanks to all who have participated. Will be in contact with the winners after the season is completed. Once again, I have NO CHANCE of winning anything. My record of stinking at this is intact.

Just a reminder to get your lineups set. 2nd to last Elite tournament of the year. Should be interesting as this is not a typical lake on the BASS tour. good luck.

Just had that wind generator installed on the dock last month. Fully adjustable from a light breeze to full on gale. It's really nice and is more eco-friendly than the artillery shells and mustard gas that I sometimes have to use as a deterrent. Looks like it worked keeping you OUT of my cove. Drained my batteries running it all weekend but worth it.

This one is WAY back in the archives. Twelve years later what I've learned that $150-200 price range is significantly better than the $100 mark. Above the $200 mark there is marginal return benefit from spending up. I feel the same about rods as well. Sure there are nicer components and they shave weight down with higher grade materials but IMO I can't justify the 2 to 3x price for not 2 to 3x the performance. So since the decade+ since I posted this I only own 3 brands of reels: Lews, Shimano and Daiwa. I haven't bought anything but Daiwa for probably at least the last 5+ years. I just think for the buck you can't beat the Daiwa Tatula and all their various models of them. They have a model for literally every type of fishing someone could ever want from tiny finesse stuff to the big 300 size for monster swimbaits and everywhere in between. They have a size 70 that just came out this year for smaller/lighter baits if that's your thing. That said for panfish I use spinning gear. Just easier to use for that type of light fishing.

Like you said, I've only caught them on accident coming out of cedar trees on a jerkbait around the dam/deep clear water. Usually a good one when you do. Talked to my uncle on the ride home from TR last weekend who had been on LOZ. Catching them by the hundreds. If you want crappie that's the place to be. They can be had in TR in the river arms but it's rarely fast and furious.

If you don't fish Table Rock not sure why you are here trolling. Based on most of your comments and unfounded accusations you must not have much faith in your common man. Didn't know a 400+ boat tournament could cause someone to cast judgement on people that participate or operate the tournament that they are greedy, amoral, environment killing anti-conservationists and downright opportunistic thieves.

Not knocking anyone for buying this type of equipment. No doubt it helps catch more fish and is the latest and greatest out there. But at what point does it stop being fishing and start becoming a video game? I think we spend enough time glued to a phone, computer, TV or tablet screen as it is. Now to do it while fishing? Ugh. Saw plenty of guys using it this past weekend. Make the cast. Stare at screen during the ENTIRE retrieve. Look up for 1 second to recast. Repeat. Guess I’m getting old and crotchety at 40. Wish they’d ban A-Rigs and Live Scope. I have couple year old Garmin units with panoptics on console and bow and don’t really use them much to be honest aside from getting depth and temp. I think reading all of Champs posts over the years has turned me into a bank beater. All that said I think you’d be silly for not going Garmin. They appear to be leaps and bounds ahead of the field in sonar stuff.

Couple pics of the better ones from the weekend.

Anyone know what section of the lake the winning fish came from? Saw that it was on a SPRO McStick but that's all I know.

I'll go ahead and defend the BBT and their staff. My brother and I have been fishing their event every year but two since they starting coming to Table Rock over a decade ago. They have always been a professional outfit in every way with staff being just as courteous as can be. Like most things in life there is a give and take. Is it a nuisance for locals to have the influx of anglers crowding the water? Sure. The lake gets hammered for three days straight. But the flip side is that a bunch of money is spent on food, lodging, etc. and injected LOCALLY. Some small businesses and folk's livelihood may rely on this weekend. But it's just ONCE a year they roll into town. I think we can calm down and not act like the BBT is destroying any of the lakes that they visit across the country on their circuit. If there were evidence that fish were just being slaughtered and you saw floaters all over the lake...sure. That would warrant an eyebrow raise and an alarm. But there has never been any evidence of that in the 10+ years of the event. Are there some poor sports that come out of the woodwork and have bad fishing etiquette? No doubt, either knowingly or ignorant, it happens. How do you want the guys at BBT to manage that? They can't. It's impossible. They have it in writing in their rules but no way to actually police it. I'd also argue that it's no more of a regular occurrence than any other tournament. The more people on the water the higher the probability that there is an issue with people fishing on top of one another and some feathers being ruffled. Especially when money is involved. As far as fish health I'd also being willing to bet that there are more fish killed in a 30 boat 5 fish limit tournament in a single night in the summer than during the entirety of the BBT weekend. The format lends itself to not toting a bunch of fish around all day. Also helps that it's during the colder months of the year and not during the spawn (only saw a handful of beds all weekend and no fish glued to them) nor did I see anyone sight fishing. Unless you see the BBTs process of fish handling I don't really understand how you can cast judgement or have an opinion. We can all agree that MLFs system of catch, weigh and release is the best there is in the business. But that just isn't feasible at the scale and scope of BBT. No way to marshal EACH of the 500+ anglers and with accuracy. What I do have an issue with is the scheduling of it all and the Missouri Regatta. They decided that it would be okay to schedule the BBT with 350+ boats, the MLF High School/College tournament with 130 and Anglers in Action with 150 all on the same weekend. Then add in all the small time club tournaments and you have the lake under a huge amount of fishing pressure. So if you want to point blame maybe steer it towards them without using any sort common sense here. Last thing I will say about this particular tournament is that it gives Joe Schmo's (aka ME) a chance to win a little money or perhaps the grand prize with one lucky cast. But it's more than that. It levels the playing field for the everyday guy or gal who would never otherwise have a chance to win a large tournament against the best local sticks on the lake. It also allows for fathers to take their young sons. Son's to take their aging dads. Grandpa to show grandson how to fish and treat others. Husbands to fish with their wives. Brothers to have a good time and talk smack for 3 days to one another. I look forward to this tournament each year like a kid on Christmas. Silly as that may be, it's about making memories on the water with family and friends. Speaking of memories, I'll add in a short report for my brother and I's weekend. Friday was about as poor of fishing conditions as I deem allowable to get out on the boat by my standards. 35 degree weather with 20-30mph northern winds with no let-up ALLLLL DAY with some snow flurries and sleet mixed in was brutal. But the fishing was good to those that braved the elements (record setting day for the lake in this tournaments history). Fished Long Creek most of the day with large baits going for that bigger bite. I could only muster some 2lb fish with nothing to weigh coming on a Megabass Kanata jerkbait. Brother stuck with a 8" Megabass Magdraft all day. He caught a mid 3 that was bested by the slimmest of margins of .01 pounds to bump from the 10th place to just missing a check. Although I think he deserved something for that effort as when the fish bit his reel popped out of the reel seat on the rod and it was a s**t show watching him fumble to get the fish to the boat with rod in one hand and detached reel in the other (added to the memory bank). A few hours later he was rewarded with 5lb'er that was good for a 2nd place finish for one of the hours. Saturday and Sunday the weather shaped up but the fishing didn't. Bounced around from Spring Branch, Dam and Long Creek. Still stuck with mostly an arsenal of the large ocean-going baits. Here and there threw a jig when the situation presented. Didn't weigh anything Saturday and on Sunday weighed a 3.13 on a jig with full-size brush hog that ended up getting bumped. Water temps Friday were 48-50 and moved up around 53-55 end of day Sunday. Long Creek being about 2-3 degrees warmer than main lake dam water. Long Creek fron 86 bridge to MO/Ark line was a nice green stain with around 3-5 feet of visibility. Past Cricket Creek was much more chocolate with around 1 foot or less visibility. Dam and up is clear with around 10-15ish feet of visibility. Sorry for the long read and tight lines to all. Fishing should be really good here soon.

Reminder that Elites fire up again at Chickamauga this week so get those lineups set. Also, Matt Hyde please contact me.

I know that bank/power line! Rock snot is just the worst. I can only take so much of removing it after each cast before I switch to a jerkbait or something else that isn't catching as good. I did stop slapping rock crawlers and warts on the water surface after Bill had warned against do so in the past. I did break the bill off my favorite wart a couple of years ago doing just that and never again. Question for the biologist regarding the snot and pollution. I was always under the impression that the more snot, the cleaner the water? Due to light being able to penetrate deeper into the water creating photosynthesis (or whatever mechanism you call it) for the algae to bloom?

Agreed. The line conditioners 100% help with older line or on a reel you haven't used for a bit but the line is still good. Removes the memory and seems to rehydrate the line to where it becomes limp/manageable again. Have used both Reel Magic and Reelsnot. Both work well.

Bait WRX in Springfield now carries Vitrus rods. Was in there a couple weeks ago and felt them for the first time. They are the same blanks as Falcon/Hammer rods (Ark-Rod in Harrison/Rock Spring) but have different handles (cork and Winn) to chose from as well as different real seats and guides. Nice rods and wouldn't hesitate to give them a look if I were in the market for a rod.

I really only use Owner (Stingers) or Gammy (round bend or EWG) replacement trebles. They are as sharp as you can get, don't bend out and I've never had an issue with corrosion. The KVD Mustads are also acceptable. All are a quality hook. Not a fan of VMC, cheap Eagle Claw or some of the other brands. Trokars are nice but too rich for my blood. Heard that Berkley fusion trebles are good for the money but I've not tried them myself.

Man I stink. I have the worst total score thus far into the season not including people that took a zero by failing to enter a team for a event. I should be in dead last.

Most any online retailer will have the rod replaced or refunded if it shows up destroyed. That said I've heard of a lot of bad experiences of people purchasing rods through Amazon. Those employees could give a rats posterior and just throw it an any box that the rod will fit in. I've ordered from Tackle Warehouse, Tackle Trap and other reputable dealers and never an issue with them being damaged. What model rod you looking at with Dobyns? If you are in the Springfield area Bait Wrx is a nice shop. They carry some of the mid to higher end rods.