Quillback

I use a 6'10" spinning rod, moderate action. 6lb. InvisX, 1/4 oz weight. Pretty much vertical fishing, I'll flip it out there 30 feet or so, let it drop to the bottom, work it with some subtle shakes and hops. When you get over them like in those screen shots, they'll usually bite. Sometimes you've got to leave it down there for a bit, they may not hit right away.

Up with the chickens again this morning, launched the boat at about 6 AM. My plan was to do a little c-rigging and then try the drop shot for a bit. Didn't think I'd be out for long, due to a combination of heat, non-biting fish and recreational traffic. The c-rigging didn't pan out too well. I picked up 3 random smallmouth on a couple of different locations, main channel points and rocks, fish were in the 10-20 range. Found some spotted bass in 30 FOW off a gravel point, caught 10 of them on a drop shot fished near the bottom using a Roboworm. That was the only place I found them. Took a couple of screen shots of them. That was the sum of my catching, caught them early, didn't get one after about 9 AM and put the boat on the trailer at 1030. This post has been promoted to an article

Nice ones Dan!

And who could ever forget Mudcat Grant?

Speaking of bullheads, and another name for them. Cody Sparkman of Perryville caught a 2-pound, 13-ounce catfish on a Perry County farm pond. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) congratulates Cody Sparkman of Perryville for now holding the state record for black bullhead catfish. Sparkman caught a 2-pound, 13-ounce fish on a farm pond in Perry County July 21 using a jug line. The previous record was a 2-pound, 4-ounce fish caught in 2010 in Cass County. “I was out that day hoping to catch catfish and turtles,” said Sparkman. “It’s definitely something to now hold the state record.” The fish’s weight was verified on an MDC scale in Perry County. Bullhead, such as black, brown, and yellow, are nongame fish and may be caught and kept. For more information on bullhead catfish, visit https://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/fishing/species/bullhead. This now makes the eighth state-record fish caught in 2019. Sparkman caught the fish using chicken liver. Though Sparkman now holds a state record, he has some reservations about mounting his award-winning catch. “I got to admit, it’s a pretty ugly fish,” laughed Sparkman. “We call them mudcats around here. But it’s a record so I’ll take it. I’m still debating on whether or not to mount it.”

New England has some unusual names for fish, might be more of a local thing in the Boston area, but sunfish were called "Kivvers" (don't know if I spelled that correctly as never saw it printed). Bullheads were "Horned Pout". And as mentioned above, crappie were "Calicoes". My Tennessee uncle calls redears, shell crackers. .

Hard for me to say, I certainly did not find any big schools like 196 had found.

My first day on TR since June 20. I knew it would be a challenge to find some fish, and it was. Dragged a jig in a timbered cove first thing in the morning, had one solid bite and that was it for the jig. After that, I spent some time scoping deep water spots hoping to find some schooled fish - never really found any except for off the end of one gravel point in 30 FOW I managed to catch a couple of 13" spots on a drop shot worm. After that I decided to live or die dragging a c-rig around with a Rage Craw, that did bring me a couple of largemouth (one keeper) and a walleye. The c-rig fish were in 15-20 FOW on a flat that came out from a chunk rock bank. If I had to do it over again, I would have just thrown the c-rig and jig all morning. 6 bass total, only one keeper. Left at 1030, boat traffic was getting pretty busy and the bite, what there was of one, tailed off. This post has been promoted to an article

Carp chunks?

I bet mackerel would work really well.

For sure, congrats to you and your son. That replica will last a lifetime and provide a lifetime of memories for your son.

That is neat, used to catch Dungeness crabs in Puget Sound - drop a couple of pots on the way out to go fishing, pick them back up on the way back to the ramp. Usually would get anywhere from 4 -6 keepers and maybe a bonus red rock crab or two. I found that fish heads/trimmings, basically the leftovers from filleting a salmon, worked a lot better for bait than chicken parts. I had a couple of little bait cages that I'd put the fish parts in that were tie wrapped to the bottom of the inside of the trap, that kept them from eating all the fish parts, well kept them from quickly eating them.

Well look at it this way, you got off fairly lightly. Hope you have a quick recovery!

I am going to go out on a limb and say those partridges were probably Hungarian Partridge. I used to shoot a few every year while chukkar hunting in Washington.

I was unhooking a 14" chinook by the side of the boat, freaking sealion came up out of the depths and almost grabbed it out of my hand, I had no idea that SOB was even in the area, I probably jumped about 2 feet backwards. I hate those fat, salmon stealing SOB's.

Good fishing! That might inspire me to haul the boat up there if there's a drop-shot bite going on.

Nice trip for sure. Hear or see any chukkar? There has to be some there, that would be a pretty neat bird hunting trip/float also. Might be some quail around in the brush too.

My namesake species. I hope you thought of me when you caught it. 😄

The south end of Table Rock, the upper White river arm is within your one hour range (I think). There's quite a few neighborhood launches where you can put a kayak in. I know of 2 in Viney cove and a couple in Carter cove. You can also use Eagle Rock and the Big M Corps launches but they will hit you up for a day use pass. Do some scouting and you can find these little used places to launch in coves that work great for a kayak where you can fish and not see a lot of big boats zooming by kicking up wakes. Summer time is tough, especially during the day. But if you get out as soon as it is starting to get light, or fish the evening into the night you should get a shot at a fish or two. Drag a Carolina rig or a football jig in 10-25 FOW. Something to consider for your crankbaits is trolling them, just paddle along with your kayak with enough speed to get the crank near or touching bottom. Sounds like you're a night fisherman, you might get some scary fish trolling cranks at night. I used to fish at night many years ago when I lived on the east coast, had a little 10 or 12 foot fiberglass canoe (can't remember the exact length) I used to haul around in a Chevy S-10. Bass were stupid in back then, I used to fish a black Jitterbug, had a lot of fun.

Glad to hear you got that medical stuff fixed so that you could get out and fish.

Got out at first light with my buddy Mike, we headed down to the Point 5 area and started off fishing a bluff. First bass I caught was a 2 lb. smallmouth and that fish would end up being the "Big One" of the day. Caught it and a couple of 12" fish on a 1/2 oz Nutech Grass jig off the bluff. Picked up another three 12" fish during the morning on c-rigs with UV Speed Craws. Pretty slow overall, we just kept working and every once in a while one of us would get a bite. We did have several hookups with better fish but could not boat them, bite was very light and it was hard to keep them pinned. Fish were deep for the most part, usually in 10-25 FOW. Very little top water activity. Several striper boats near Point 5, saw one of them hook up, they looked to be fishing shad or minnows deep. Nice morning to be out fishing, even if it was a bit slow. We left at 10 AM. WT 82.

There's a kids summer camp deal up there by the mouth of the Kings and they always seem to have a boat or two out there pulling kids around. Tough to fish that area unless you get out there at the crack of dawn.

Nice ride!