CaptainJoe

Bill/Phil, Just finished listening to Bill's presentation and it was GREAT! Phil thanks for sponsoring and posting Bill's presentation. You do so much for the fishing in this area and it is unmatched. You and OzarkAnglers.com has been my No. 1 resource. It is without question the "best of the best." Thank you, Bill, for sharing your knowledge, history, baits, rods, reels, and techniques that you have mastered over the years. I always enjoy reading your articles, posts, and now listening to your podcast. Sorry I could not make the event. I have learned so much from you and I sincerely appreciate the information, but more importantly, that you share this information with all of us. You are true gentlemen and a heck of a good stick. Thank you!!!!!!! Joe

Capt. Don, 10-4, thanks for the info. I will check it out and let you know. Joe

Techo, Sounds good. Hope to see you tomorrow. Was on Bull Shoals last Saturday in the sleet, snow, and wind. Had about an inch of snow on the boat and then driving home on the wet and salty roads really messed up the boat and truck. Took hours to clean them up. Only caught two keepers in the Hogan Creek area, one on a Eakins MO craw 5/16 oz. jig tipped with a green pumpkin craw trailer and the other on a green craw Wiggle Wart. The Wiggle Wart fish was 4lbs, 3ozs. and was in about 5' of water. My fishing buddy caught three keepers, two on a Table Rock Shad jerkbait and his 4lbs, 3oz. largemouth came on a brown craw Wiggle Wart on a cast just before I caught my big one. But, then the bite ended. Joe

I have not targeted the catfish on Table Rock, but the ones I caught have been on white spoons 45' deep in the first channel bend just past the Long Creek Marina. Small cuts in Long Creek using a bobber and nightcrawlers. And, believe it or not, the others were caught night fishing in the dam area using a black Jitterbug in one foot of water. Yes, they hit a very old topwater plug that still catches fish.

Techo, What color is your Skeeter? As of today, I plan to put in at Cape Fair and probably head towards Flat Creek. Joe

Welcome home, Don. I will be going out for Crappie, probably Wednesday thru Fri, as soon as I get the rest of the snow and the road grime off of my truck and boat. I plan to hit the James. Joe

I sure hope that Brian Snowden is having a fantastic day. He was 6th as of yesterday's standings. Bring it home, Brian!

Eric, No I have not. I peg a small tungsten 1/8 oz. weight sometimes, but the nails seemed to work better. I need to try the flick-shake. Hopefully, this year we will have a chance to experiment with them. I need to go fishing, now that my Steelers won, AGAIN! Take care and hope to see you on the water.

Techno, I use the o-wacky tool (BassPro sells them) to put a small o-ring on my senko-type bait. They really make the bait last a long time. I either use an Eagle Claw Wacky hook or an Owner semi-weedless wacky hook. I place the o-ring in the center of the bait and slide the hook under the o-ring. In 3-8 feet of water, I will throw it weightless. In deeper water, I will take a nail or straight piece of lead and put it in the ends of the senko. Sometimes, I will only put in one nail, so the bait sort of sinks side-to-side as it drops. I just throw it like a texas-rigged worm. It also works great flipping beds and docks. I use a spinning rod with 15-20 lbs. Spiderwire Invis-braid and a 8-10 lbs. Yo-Zuri or P-line 4' leader. The braid makes for a good hookset and the spinning reel drag works well. Because the pre-spawn fish are grouped up and in competition for food , you need to watch your line because it will take off. Good luck!

I agree with the others, it is too early to try to predict what April will bring. Heck, we are lucky to predict the next 5 minutes. With that said, the Wiggle Wart, Shakey Head, Carolina Rig, and grub are all great choices most times of the year. In the Spring, I always have a Wacky-rigged Senko-type bait ready to go. Pre-spawn fish hanging around secondary points are my favorate locations for this rig. This rig has worked well for me in the James. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Gabe, If you prefer Loomis, there is a gentleman in the Kimberling City area that makes rods using Loomis blanks. He does a great job and the rods are custom, but many, many bucks less than the real thing. His name is Billy. He can be reached via Jerry's Bait & Tackle in Kimberling City....739-1116. I am sorry that I do not have any more direct information. Good luck!

I agree with the previous post. I like the BPS Extreme Reels ($79). They have a 5.2:1, 6.3:1, 7.1:1, flipping, wide spool, and light tackle reels. For crankbaits, I use the 5.2:1. These reels cast very far. The free spool is great. I use it on a BPS Crankin Stick ($59, on sale now for $39) which is graphic and fiberglass combined. I have three rods ready: square-billed, wiggle wart, and a deep diver. Stacey King recommended the combo to me a couple of years ago and it has worked well for me. And inexpensive, too. Here is a 3# caught this past Thursday on a Norman deep diver: Good luck!

Larry, Great report. We (ABA District 64 tournament) went out of Aunt's Creek also on Sat. I saw you guys drive in. I was fishing one of the points by the ramp. It was a tough day for us, as well. We had one angler with a limit fishing deep and the other had 4 keepers. The rest had zero, one, or two fish. When I was able to find the fish deep, they were all the same size (14 1/2 inches). Joe

Great job, Eric.....thanks for the effort. Joe

Ring-blurb,ring-blurb,ring-blurp = The sound your cell phone makes after receiving a call and dropping the cell phone in the lake.

Robert, It sounds like your day on Bull Shoals worked out.....glad the team caught the bug. Congrats, Joe

I agree with LonkM....I bought a LCX-15MT on Ebay 7 months ago for $350 for my pontoon. Ebay is your best source to research prices. Good Luck!

Nice job, Phil. I went fishing and didn't even leave the house. Joe

If you are just looking for reel cleaning and oiling: Rock Springs Tackle Attn: Justine Smith 1902 Rock Springs Road Harrison, AR 72601 870.741.7375 Last time I was there, they charged only $6 per reel. For repairs: Jerry or Dawn Ozarks Tackle Kimberling City Shopping Center Kimberling City, MO 417.739.1116 Good luck,

Eric, Congrats on the TD assignment......the CPAA did a great job picking you. Good luck,

The Branson Bass Club meets the 1st Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. located at the White River Electric Company's conference room on Hwy. 76. We are affilitated with B.A.S.S. and trophy-award our club's "best sticks" at the our annual Xmas party. We also have payouts at each tournament and our annual dues are $75 a year. We try to award scholarships to each local high school each year and we are a nonprofit club. We host an annual garage sale as our major fundraiser, which all donations are tax deductable. We do not have a website. Boaters and nonboaters are welcome and we draw partners at the monthly meetings. Here is our 2009 Schedule: BRANSON BASS CLUB 2009 SCHEDULE DayDate Lake Location Time Sat 2-28 Bull Shoals K-Dock 8-4 Sun 3-29 Table Rock Long Creek 7:30-4 Sun 4-26 Stockton State Park 7-4 Sat 5-16 Table Rock Viola 6-4 Sat 6-6 Grand Lake Honey Creek 5:30-3 Sun 6-7 Grand Lake Honey Creek 5:30-3 Sat 7-18 Table Rock-Night Long Creek 7pm-3am Sat 8-15 Lake of the Ozarks Drake Harbor 6-3 Sun 8-16 Truman Lake Osage Bluff 6-3 Sun 9-27 To Be Announced Sat 10-24 Bull Shoals Tucker Hollow 7-4 Sun 11-8 Table Rock Cape Fair 6:30-3:30 Sun 12-6 To Be Announced Jun and Aug are our two-day away tournaments. July is a night tournament. For more information, you can email or PM me. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Motoman, Yea, I am seeing braid being used more and more for the advantages I already stated. I will sometimes go to a longer leader in gin clear water. As you know, most breakoffs occur at the hook knot and not at the leader/braid knot; therefore, the leader usually lasts for awhile. The uni-to-uni knot is great. I like the crystal/white color of the braid. As stated, I can see it in all waters and sky conditions. Mike Iaconalli also uses the braid/floro combo, but only on the dropshot. Alton Jones also uses it once in awhile when flipping as seen on a Bass Edge show at Choke Canyon Lake. Take care,

Nobody has mentioned braid...so here goes. I use the Eakins Jigs, but I use 20 lb. (open, clear water, very little cover) or 30 lb. (heavy cover/dirty water) Spiderwire Ultracast Invisi-Braid line tied with a uni-to-uni knot to either a 4-5 foot leader of P-line Floroclear or Yo-Zuri Hybrid Clear (8lb - clear water up to 15 lb. dirty water) tied to the jig with a palomar knot. It is so easy to set the hook with braid and you can feel everything and see your line in all water and sky conditions. The leader provides near invisibility in the water. I can cast just as far with this braid and it lasts an entire fishing season, sometimes two seasons. I use a cheap 12 lb. mono for reel backing. I have used Fireline and PowerPro, but the Spiderwire Invisi-Braid is the smoothest, strongest, rod friendly, and casts the best. I use the braid 15 lb./floro 6-10 lbs. setup on all spinning and baitcasting equipment for Shakey Head, dropshot, and all soft plastic fishing in clear water and little cover situations and step up from there for heavier cover/dirty water fishing. My primary rod and reel is a G.Loomis MBR-843C with a Johnny Morris signature reel or the BPS Extreme Medium/Heavy with either the BPS Extreme Flipping Switch Reel or Shimano Castiac. All rods are 7'. For spinning, I use the wide spool BPS Extreme reel with a 7' medium BPS Extreme rod. The wide spool works great and eliminates all line twist and has a great drag for dropshotting.

I was in Ike's boat on the final day as his cameraman and observer. We did have an extremely cold and windy day. Yes, he caught 4 of his 5 keepers in shallow water; however, he did not figure out that they were shallow until the last hour of the tournament. He wished that he figured it out sooner, which he predicted would have changed his finish. It was a great experience and Ike was thrilled that via this tournament that he qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup next Summer in my hometown: Pittsburgh, PA.

I was fishing today and I personally saw at least a half a dozen boats motoring through the fog without any lights on. Not only do they motor through the fog, they anchor right in the middle of the channel without lights. I have seen many rental boats with no lights. It is a big problem and someone is going to get killed.