tapout

I read in a bass master article that the daiwa exceler was the best reel under $80. Don't own one though. I own two Shimano stradic's I really like. There was a prior thread on this forum that addressed spinning reels in october. It was titled "suggestions on a new shimano egg beater"

I can't say enough about Bill Beck. Been out with him several times in the last couple years and I've learned a ton. The quality and quanity of my fishing tripled after fishing with him, and he is just a super nice person. He was even able to teach my wife a thing or two, something that has eluded me for seventeen years. Of course I know many of the other guides mentioned are very good, I just haven't had the chance to use them yet.

Oh yeah, that fish would make any fisherman enjoy any weather. Nice.

Right on!!!! You had a good time and you got the bad guys. Double bonus.

Capt. Joe, never met ya but really appreciate your time and effort demonstrating this technology. Really!!! There is a ton of information in these posts. Thank you.

Got my son the Rapala version for the wii and he likes it, but he's 6. I don't really care for it. I liked the bass pro shop game he used to have for his xbox better. Haven't played any others but I wouldn't buy the Rapala one if I was looking now.

I went saturday up the james from point 9 to point 12. Had over 100 whites. It was awesome. Found one spot at 35 feet where it was fish on every drop. Like BB said, just see line on the bottom until you dropped the spoon then it was on. I didn't fish as deep as he did. Deepest water I caught fish was 35 to 45 feet. I was hoping for a cat but no such action. Probably caught 6 or 7 K's mixed in but maybe two would of been keepers. About 2pm I went cranking to see if I could catch any black bass of any variety. No such luck. How long will these whites keep biting. Its fun when you find em, and my rather large family loves it when I bring home filets. I just keep thinking its got to end yet it just keeps going. This is the first year I've gotten into catching white bass.

and then when that doesn't work...we'll figure it out from there I love it. I'm confident you're an experienced fisherman.

Preceding my trip to the lake on Sunday I heard all week from my buds that the K's and whites were on a feeding frenzy with the spoon. I read bb's report a couple days back and it re-enforced what I was hearing. I skipped church (which I truly like going to church but feeding frenzy, c'mon) and got down to KC at 8 and headed up river. Fished till noon with four 13 inch whites and one tiny K. I made the same trip with the same results about a week earlier. there were boats everywhere and best I could tell nobody was just wackin the whites. Made me feel better when a couple in a tundra came over to chat and said they caught 30 saturday and had only 3 on that day. Seems to be day to day. I got to spend the day with my son so its all good. Funny stuff Champ, SDC or spleen?.....I'm pretty sure I'll blow $200 bucks stare at the Christmas lights and tolerate throngs of people to keep my spleen (and make the family happy). In fact I do it every year. But I get it...yeah its right up there with going to the mall and somehow I always wind up there too. I need "Man" lessons.

Hit the rock at 7am labor day with my wife. Fished from KC to the mouth of the white river. White bass were thick. Probably saw 6 boats in my immediate area catching whites. They surfaced at 8 and basically stayed up till about 10. Used a spoon and quickly found most of the bigger fish were at 25 feet. If the spoon got picked up sooner than that is was usually a dink. Kept a limit. Probably caught 50. It was fun. Caught a few spots and one smallie mixed in. The bass were short. Caught enough my wife said, "Is your wrist starting to hurt?" Thats a good day. Now don't crucify me but from 11 till around 2 the kids joined us and we went........wakeboarding! Yes I admit it. After that we tried dropshotting and across from Joe Bald. Same old purple worm. Found a gravel point holding fish at 25' in 40' of water. Caught 4 K's. One 17" , one 16" , and two 14". Not bad with a boat full of kids in our last hour. Confident I could of kept it up but had to go to work. Seriously; it wasn't that crowded in that area. I've seen much, much worse. I only have so many chances to go fishing in a year so I don't care if its crowded, just play the hand your dealt. I have gotten quite frustrated with big cruisers and tubers at times, but overall I love TR.

Is it against the law to cut in line a wal-mart? Is it against the law to cheat on a test? Is it against the law to lie to your boss? Is it against the law to return used merchandise to Bass Pro? The answer to each is no. The difference is some people know right and wrong, while others have no freaking idea. And truthfully everyone draws their own moral line!!! Champ, Nice speculative observation. Liked it.

"Best five" "Best five" Don't know about friday but today (sat) I fished kc to long creek and had a handful of short fish. Spook and dropshot. Anyway, these are definately days when being able to utter the words "best five" is really quite good. Glad you found em and caught em. I'm stuck saying....... a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work...... or maybe tomorrow..... or I just like being out on the water.... ???

I stayed at Schooner Creek Resort for a week (not an endorsement). I fished each day from 6 am till it was hot (usually about 9:30 or 10). I caught 5 to 10 keepers everyday with about the same number of shorts mixed in. All K's except one 15inch smallie. I had a couple of 4lbs fish, and a couple 3lbs fish, but the rest were typical 15 to 16 inch K's weighing maybe 2lbs. I fished within 2 miles of KC and only used a dropshot 4 inch worm and a 1/2 oz. spoon. It was fun. Find bait or mark fish on graph between 25-35 feet. Drop down and you knew pretty quick if they were eating or it was time to move. (I'm not posting any secrets here just public knowledge. I wish I knew a few secrets.) I don't know if changing colors or presentations would of caught more fish, but I just ran around looking for active fish. It worked pretty well. My two best days I had 5 fish that would of topped 14 pounds. They came off humps, trees, points, docks, and bridge piers. I was just using the graph looking for fish in the 25-35 foot range. My wife, sister-n-law, and father-n-law, all went with me (at different times) and caught fish too. It's fun when your catching. But I love fishing. Table rock just happened to allow me both this past week. Anyone know of any a.m. tournaments, say 5 to 9. Jk. If I'm catching limits of K's some other semi pro is catching a sack of big blacks. PS. I can't post any of this because the memory card on my phone jacked up and I lost all the pics. Sickening. Last time I rely on my phone for pictures.

Thought I might add my very amature input to the fishing report. June 3rd I went out at 6am. Had three fish, two of them over 15, before I launched my boat. Fish were chasing shad at the Mill Creek ramp so I grabbed my rod and flung a redfin to em and they ate it. As I landed the third fish he slung his head around while I was holding him and came unhooked, so I thought, so I put him back and as he swims off, I cast again. I notice my redfin is not swimming right. It got slammed three times and no hook up. I reel in and notice the front treble came off the split ring. Wierd. I guess that bass got a souvineer. Anyhow I decided to launch the boat, retie, and try again. By the time I got back at it they didn't want to play. I went up the white a little ways and hit three points. Caught good numbers of fish on each point but only one over 15, the rest were short. Mostly used the redfin and a grub. Nice rainy day. Can't wait to go back. By the way, noticed an ozark anglers bumber sticker on a truck at the ramp. Nice. Hope you caught the snot out of em'.

Wow! You left no stone unturned. Thanks.

Ok, this info is a little late coming but I usually don't feel qualified to report my imagined or real information, but it seems there hasn't been a bass fishing report since, I believe the 6th. Went out all day on Monday. Caught lots of fish including 8 decent keepers. Best part of the day was a 20 inch roughly 4.5 lbs black caught on top. Biggest fish I've caught on top so that was cool. Several 3ish lbs fish also on top. It was really fun. Can't wait to get back down there. Ok Ok I used a spook all day long. Mostly shallow flats (6ft or less) but bluff ends also. Tried grub, jig, and fluke (when my wrist needed a break) but the spook was working best. I fished from Piney to Joe Bald. No one spot better than the rest.

I've been out with Bill Beck twice. Super nice. Great communicator. Knows how to fish. Knows how to guide. Great equipment. Knows the lake. One of the best, if not the best, guides on the rock. I've been out with Pete Wenners also. I learned a ton about fishing table rock. Great guide. I'm sure all of the guides mentioned so far in this thread are good guides, I just haven't fished with the others. Word of mouth is what keeps them in business, so if folks are recomending them on this forum they are probably worth a try. (of course I didn't agree with everything in this thread) Jockey, Everybody is entitled to an opinion but to put down Beck, come on.

Hey techo, I wish I would of known you were there, I would of found you and intoduced myself. I met Babler. Already knew Beck. I also had two keepers, quite a few short fish, and this feeling of if only I had one more hour....... I've never placed in that tournament but that is one of my goals. I caught quality and quanity fish three days before the tournament. My partner caught them the day before the tournament. And tourny day....couldn't find em'. Thats fishing.

Me and and my son played hooky yesterday and doubled up at one point. The fish are small but the memory is enormous. Thats also him on the avatar. Hope the attachment works.

Great topic. I mean really good info. I'm not sure people realize how much time, money, and frustration this can save them. Maybe they do. I wish I would of had this information before I made the switch. In my experience vanish is too brittle (and it coils and loops unbearably). After three trips with vanish on my reels I swore off flourocarbon forever. Then I sucombed to the tidal wave of people tauting flouro's greatness and tried it again. This time P-line. Much happier. Recently a really great fisherman told me to try seagaur invizx. The comments about invizx on this post have sealed the deal. I'm going to try it. I would still use P-line, just know when you spool it, its not mono!

rps, I'm also hopeful the shallow bite is good this fall. I went out saturday from Joe Bald to Smith Branch and fished shallow from 7 am to 1 pm. Had 15 fish. 1 keeper LM and 1 keeper SM. The rest short K's. All were jigs, xps shallow crank, and watermelon finesse worm in 4 to 15 feet. I saw lots of boats deep on points I think dshotting. Curious if they did any better.

Thanks so much for the report. Have not fished in three weeks. Read it this morning. Went to state park at 11:30am and fished till 2pm. Used your dock aproach. Result - two k's on a spoon on the deep shady corner of deep (45') docks off the bottom. I was satisfied given the short trip and time of day. I did drop shot a little, but to no avail. I didn't see any balls of baitfish. Without your report I would of been chasing the wind. Thanks again.

Jeremy said, "You can look back and mirror the grub reports of april and replace it with a PBJ Jig and have a good trip." Good advice. Simple and to the point. Its been working for me all summer. Not typical, but the fish don't seem to care.