MOBass

One of those looks like the one resting against the kids camp dock. It was pretty amazing to see Turkey creek yesterday. There was a pontoon well up on the bank and several other docks were damaged or missing. What a mess. Any estimates on how long it will take the creeks to clear? I want a re match this weekend after I get the trolling motor running right again.

I knew it was going to be an interesting day when I started off with trolling motor problems before we got on the water. Probably should have called it a day but really wanted to catch some. Turns out it wasn't that bad. On the water about 7:30 and ran to Turkey creek. I didn't realize how much run off had gone through until I saw the first set of docks were gone and another dock across from them was gone also. Water was milk brown with a mud line extending down the lake a ways. Current was still moving out of Turkey creek pretty good and the sick trolling motor made me give it up and go back to the main lake. Lots of debris and docks in bad places. We tried spoons and spinners for a little bit on the main lake in various spots for nothing. Finally ran up above Cooper Creek for one trout on a white spinner. Made a long move down past Bull Creek and the lake was chocolate milk from Bull to Powersite. We did stop in the better water above the mouth of Bull and fished up to the mud line. Had a really nice white bass chase a rattle trap to the boat and saw some smaller trout caught by other boats. The best water we saw was between Cooper Creek and Branson so we ran up to Monkey Island and caught a fish right off the bat. They must have been running 4 units because we were zipped past the island in no time. We made a few more passes on the island and I put two more in the well. That was enough for me. Some side notes. Be careful out there. WP and the Taney fire boat looked like they had some action. Didn't hear anything on the news so it must not have been too bad. There were also several canoes from the camp drifting from Cooper back down to the camp. Several were straying into the channel so be extra aware.

I would give night night fishing for Crappin a shot in Brushy creek. Take a submersible light, some crappie jigs and minnows, a bucket of KFC and find some brush piles and get comfortable. I prefer jigs, but minnows will probably catch more. It's a great way to beat the heat and big boat traffic. If you want to get on the bass I would second the use of a guide. A half day will pay for itself in save fuel and frustration. Let's face it we all enjoy catching fish and it is tough to call it a day wearing the white stripe on the back.

I am going to come down this weekend if the weather is fit and need some of those white jigs. Is the shop right at the dock?

Trav is right on. If you are fishing a popper be sure to have a follow up rod ready with fluke or stick o. There were followers with every top water fish I hooked on Sunday.

I recently put a Eagle Fishmark 320 on the boat and have been very happy with it. It retains your settings which will save some time having to "reprogram" it after each trip. It is a b/w unit and the screen is clear and has good contrast. It has a temp sensor built in the transducer which is nice. I haven't got serious about deep fishing but after playing around with a grub and shakey head to see if the unit could pick it up I feel pretty good about being able to see a drop shot if I needed to. It has plenty of definition and power for showing stuff on the bottom and picking up suspended fish. No it isn't one of the big color units that you could watch a football game on but I am happy with it.

A friend put me onto the same place for glasses. She has no lines and they came out really nice. I'll be ordering a pair for myself as a father's day present. I checked on the polarized and clip ons are what they offer. For $30 on a single vision I'm in.

You can put in at Rockaway Beach, Empire Park in Forsyth, Branson Campground by the Landing, or Cooper Creek near Lilley's. I like the ramp at Cooper Creek myself but they all will work under most conditions. I tried trout fishing on Sunday and it was tough. Wind, 3 units running, and as mentioned already there is more stuff on the bottom. I lost more rigs in a few hours than I did all of last year. Next time I'll switch over to a float and fly rig to stay out of the debris.

I am past the date on mine also and waiting. There was a note that it could be another few weeks. I'll be putting some in a coffee can for a rainy day and using some to fix stuff around the house from the last rainy, day, week, month.

After reading this post I am really reconsidering going down and trying to fish a day over the holiday weekend. I may just go down with a chair, umbrella, cooler, and a stack of big cards numbered 1-10. I figure I could set up shop and score the launches based on number of jack knives, curse words, yelled at spouses, ect....

I have to respect the guys that make a living taking the general public fishing. My hat is off to you all. Bass are the glam fish and the Saturday morning TV shows make it look so easy. I would give those shows partial blame for people having skewed expectations. Hopefully these guys understand what happened and will come back and follow your recommendation next time. 50 rigs at state park by 7AM? I am going to test my sanity and go down Memorial Day weekend. Guess I better put in the night before and sleep in the boat.

I would say the what is the easy part of the question. My guess is the real secrets are in the when, where, and how.

Google is probably being swamped with "shoe, bass fishing, California" serches now. I finally found one reference and it wasn't what I thought which was fishing on the anchor as opposed to using the trolling motor.

I saw a couple of good questions that I would like to see the expert answers on. 1)Are you leaving the bail open (assuming you are using a spinning reel) when the grub is sinking? 2)Is anyone using scent? For myself I have been closing the bail. My thinking, right or wrong is that I have a little more control if a fish hits it on the fall. I also use garlic as a cover scent. I don't know if it really does anything for the fish but it make me more confidant so I'll just keep using it for the mental edge.

Mine grub du juor is a 4" XPS in milky pepper and a 1/4 oz head with Gammy hook. I need to re stock before my next trip. It never fails that I start running low on whatever the fish are biting.

I fished above Fall Creek for the first time this year, but it was under very high flow conditions. There were 5 gates open and most everything had an extra several feet of water on it. I would be careful around fall creek and pay attention to any post made by Phil or Bill Babler on running up towards the dam. Unless they are running 4 or the gates are open I'll stick below Fall Creek, but that's just me.

Bill You need to have someone do the photo shop treatment and take out the backgrounds. I saw a post recently where I could easily identify the location and I really should have sent a PM to the person that posted it. I did make it a point to NOT fish that area because I just wouldn't feel right horning in on someone else spot even if they would never know about it. Everyone that post is pretty generous with info and I would hate to have someone's spot get beat up because of their generosity.

I stopped by there Sunday and would NOT recommend using Indian Point at this time. Eric summed it up nicely. The ramp is submerged and parking is limited. The courtesy dock WAS useable when I was there. I had to pull in to answer the call and did not hit anything but I suspect there are some lurking hazards. State Park was in great shape with plenty of parking and courtesy ramps in place. I spoke to someone that put in at Mill Creek and they reported it was useable with some minimal issues with parking. Your mileage may vary.

Haruno is pretty good considering were we are in the country and Ocean Zen is decent. While not traditional by any means there is a fried California roll at Ocean Zen that is fantastic. Dang I am getting hungry just thinking about it.

Sushi is the BOMB! Rolls, sashimi, nigiri, et al. The only thing I am not too high on is the eel. Rarely do I use wasabi. I like the natural flavor and texture of the fish and don't want it masked by heat. You are right on with the heat going away and not lingering like a pepper. Try some on a steak sometime, sparingly.

Prior to last year I did fish beds during tourmaments. For whatever reason I didn't see as many beds last spring and started fishing differently. I started looking for areas where the fish were moving to or from the spawning areas. It was pretty amazing to me how many more fish I caught compared to bed fishing. Now I am sure I still catch some incidental fish off a bed but I would say the majority are moving to or from their spawning area. Unless something changes drastically I won't be looking for beds at all this year. I have to trust in the MDC and their biologist. They know more about the eco system and fish than I do. If someone wants to keep a fish that is legal I am good with that. If I can catch fish at Table Rock it must be pretty good because I sure as heck am not that good a fisherman. Could it be better? Possibly, but I am of the mind if it isn't broke don't try fixing it. I still am not sure why anyone would keep a bass unless is was mortally injured. My taste is more for crappie, white bass, stripers, cats, trout, and walleye. I do work with some walleye guys that would howl about nice tasty pieces of fried walleye. Sorry guys but they just taste too good.

I use 8-10# for the finess stuff right now, 10# for cranks, and 12# for everything else. I did get whupped up on by a big fish and that is what I get for taking a knife to a gun fight. I have a 2-3 week lay off of fishing so I'll wait to see what happens with the water. If it keeps some color I'll be re spooling the 12# for 15# or 17#.

Ramp: State Park Area fished:Dam to Indian Pt. Water Temp:58-62 Fish:6 fish; 4 keepers; 50/50 mix K and SM Depth: 4-10ft. Lures:Grub-milky pepper 1/4oz head 4 fish(2keeps), TX rigged watermelon red lizard 2 keeps It was a lot colder than last week and a lot less people. All fish were clean and fat. Didn't see any beds but we were not looking for them. I can't buy a spinner bait bite. Slow rolled, shallow, deep, bumping stuff....zip. We should have done some cranking and covered more water but it is hard to stop doing something that is producing a little.

Thanks to you and Babler for the good info. I have to replace a bunk board on the trailer so I guess I might as well do a little fishing while I am at it. Hopefully I can pick up where I left off last week.

quote name='JoeSki' date='Apr 21 2008, 08:07 PM' post='66819'] Nice report, I throw the zoom lizard in that chartruese/watermellon color a lot. What color was working for you? Any pics of the 5? Watermelon red did the trick. All of the fish ate it to kill it. Nothing back in the gills thankfully. I'll be back down Sunday to give it a shot again. This is my first shot at posting a picture. My weight on her was just a guess so if I probably over guesstimated. I didn't care to mess around weighing her because I was just fun fishing. I opened the livewell lid to give some perspective on the size.