abkeenan

That's the truth. About 10 years ago hit a deer on I-70 coming back from Mizzou going about 70mph at 4am in the morning and SMOKED a doe with my Wrangler. She pushed the radiator all the way to the belt/pulley system. I smoked my way for about 1/4 mile to the rest stop and had to get towed to the dealer.

Nice report!

Crap disturber extraordinaire.

Found a really nice 8 pointer two Novembers ago just like that up on the bank. Guess it's that time of year that the males get frisky and do crazy stuff chasing the ladies.

Couple of cold nights the last month or so could have zapped the starting battery? Hope it's not too serious. Been there, done that more times that one man should deal with motor issues recently. Have been relegated to just launching anyways and using the troller around the lauch vicinity quite a few times.

Yes that would suck. Last winter and this years spring jerk bait bite was REALLY disappointing as I look forward to "McStickin'" all year. Hope that doesn't happen again.

Wow. Great job and fantastic detailed report. That 6.1 is a beauty and not very common on TR these days. Come winter/spring she will probably be over 8. What MDC attractor was it exactly? lol.

Duck. You could run into trouble with the chrome warts that you have in that pic. Lots of painters won't paint over a chrome bait. Whoever you choose I would call first and see if they would do them. You/They would have to blast off the chrome before painting and not all painters are willing to do that. Just a heads up.

I would highly recommend Dwain at baitwerks.com. His pricing is really fair for custom paint work especially if you get 3 or more in the same color/pattern. I honestly think he is the best painter I've ever seen on lures. He is in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. His turn around time can be a couple of weeks or more because I know he gets a ton of work. I've had some old beater warts brought back to life by Dwain.

X 2 on everything Champ said. You won't need to leave Clevenger. Plenty of places to hit in there and will be nicely protected in there for your kayak fishing. Might give the "ned rig" a try as it seems it is still getting a lot of bites and it is a multi-species bait. Sounds like that is the end goal...any fish...lots of them....= ned rig.

LOL. I was thinking the same thing.

Wave Worm Tiki Anaconda has a snake head and a swimming C-tail. Think they just went out of production but can easily be found.

I think you will be fine. The bait fish are starting to migrate to the backs of creeks and coves and the bass will follow. If the rain muds up the water you might get into a good shallow bite on a topwater, spinnerbait, shallow crank or your wiggle wart. If that fails then throw jigs with your favorite trailer in timber from 5-30 feet and you will get bit.

OK. You win. lol.

LOL. I was thinking more the youngest Duck Dynasty brother Jep.

I will 2nd this and my brother LOVES the Nutech jigs. We have only used the pro model and the blitz series (their version of a football head) and have been happy with them. More so with the pro model. Comes through cover just great and it is pretty hard to lose them. And like they claim the hook penetrates the roof of the top lip about 90% of the time and the other 10% if just slightly off to the side. Really is a good jig and Bo uses Owner hooks which are my favorite anyways. Bo and Nutech will be getting my brother and I's business for the foreseeable future. Plus it's local and made in the USA!

Why don't you return the favor and bring some of the Largies down from the upper end down here to the dam area/lower end. Heck, bring some of RPS's pet Walters too if you have some spare time.

Ahhh, the rewards of Bo's breeding/stocking/relocation program.

Bo, That was what I noticed as well over this past weekend. Most all of our fish came around areas with surface minnow activity.

I wouldn't trade them for largemouth on a year round basis but maybe for a trip or two a year I would like to catch nothing but largies to try to get some fish with size. Those smallies are just little mules. There may have been a few times the words were uttered "get the net" and a 14" smallie came up from the depths. Face palm. Little brutes they are.

Will also mention I did see a lot of surface minnow action in the backs of pockets and creeks. Didn't see any shad balls though. But I did see some HUGE gizzard shad groups running pretty shallow near docks and timbered coves. Gizzards were from 5" to over 10".

Another interesting question that would have to be fielded by a MDC biologist. I have no idea what a fishes "home range" is and would be interesting to see how long a fish stays in an area for the duration of its life.

Not much to add to Babler's report from the other day. Tried for a couple hours with the chrome flutter spoon in docks, long gravel runouts and in deep pockets over trees.....NADA...ZERO...ZILCH. Caught one really healthy 13" Kentucky off the end of a deep dock at about 50 feet over 90 FOW. Trash fished with squarebill, spoon, wiggle wart, buzzbait, A-Rig, wobble head and jig-n-pig. Fish were scattered...one here, two there. Abandoned the spoon and A-Rig and pretty much all of our fish came off wood in the 8-30 FOW range and all came on the jig. Had a couple of nice bites on the deep part of docks in the 15-25 foot range and had one pull off that felt like a real nice fish that had me over a deep cable. Looks like they are really munching the jig as others over the weekend had also noticed. Bro had the biggest one was probably pushing 3.25 maybe 3.5lbs and was an inch or two longer than my 18" bump board and just a thick healthy smallie. Brother wanted me to give a shout out to Bo about his NuTEch Jigs. Brother says they are the only jigs he is ever fishing now. Couple of pics of the bro and I. Bonus fish caught walking the bank in front of the house 20 min before the MIZZOU vs South Carolina game. Had another 17" Largemouth pull off out of the same brushpile in 5 feet of water. Cards clinched the division and Mizzou is back in the hunt for the SEC East title. Twas a good weekend.

You think it will ever come back?

Makes it easier for the impending let down.