Quillback

Great trip, glad ya'll had fun and got to spend time together.

I hear Tenkiller is a good fishing lake, never have fished there. If you get up on the dam end and fish rocky timbered points, rocky banks and drag a 3/4 or 1/2 oz football jig you should get some bites. 10 feet deep seems to be the sweet spot.

Sounds like we'll need 2 places. I'll give it until the weekend to see how many we have before calling Miles. SIO3 is a maybe also at this point, so we could have 15 staying.

Largemouth! Fished Indian creek arm with a buddy this morning. We started out slinging various top waters, could not get anything on them except a couple of 8" spots. We started dragging football jigs off the banks and did get a few smallmouth, 4 to be exact, with a couple more coming off halfway to the boat. Had one keeper sized, the rest were 13-14" fish. No largemouth. Saw very little surface activity, there are shad mid-channel but not much chasing them. Saw a couple of boats striper fishing back in Indian, no idea if they did any good. Water temp, 71-72 degrees.

Yep, Terrierman and 3 of his buddies/family.

Nope, you're making the inferences. What I am saying, and it is simple, is that there seems to be no benefit to black bass populations in our Ozark lakes by having common carp present. I don't know what is eating those baby carp, but it doesn't appear to be black bass.

All I can comment is on is what I see on the water. I have never seen, in all the bass I have caught in Table Rock, a single one with a carp in it's gullet. Shad, craws, brook silversides, and an occasional bluegill have been it. I fish the dam end of Beaver every once in a while, clear water, and from what I can tell a healthy carp population. The bass fishing is tough on that end of the lake. I am not anti-carp, but I don't buy the argument that having a healthy carp population, leads to a healthy black bass population, at least in these Ozark highland lakes.

I was out today, not much to add, there were two of us fishing and we managed a dozen with 2 keepers. A couple early walking the dog, then the rest on jigs. Fairly good early bite, then things died off real quick. Not much boat traffic either which is another clue the fishing is tough, by noon it was a ghost town. Beautiful day, so it's good to be out fishing, but sure wouldn't hurt to have a little better bite going on. Water cooled down 2 more degrees from Champ's outing, saw 72 and 71 for the most part today. Little warm front coming in, so may jump a degree or two, but that ought to be temporary.

Cool, yesterday I was thinking that it might be a good day to go fishing, looks like it was. I wimped out and stayed inside.

Did you guys that stayed at the lodge last year have enough room? How many stayed, anyone remember? Just asking because we could rent an additional place if needed.

Got to the Big M launch early in the morning, and it was very foggy. Got a little ways outside the mouth of the Big M cove and started fishing as I wasn't going to run down the lake in the fog. Took Fido for a stroll, and picked up quite a few top water bites around docks and bluff lines. Lots of bites, but the bass were having trouble grabbing the lure. I think sometimes that zig-zag motion when walking the dog confuses them a bit and causes them to miss. Put 6 or 7 in the boat (one keeper) on the top water and probably had another dozen misses. Out of those dozen misses, I think 2 of them touched the lure. Had 2 doubles, but in both cases one of the fish pulled off before I could get them netted. Spent some time looking for the mid-channel top water bite, but not very much of that going on in spite of lots of shad swimming around in the channel. Once the fog burned off, the top water bite died. Threw a jig for a while, picked up a couple on it, had a good one pick it up and swim towards the boat, could not catch up to it and thus did not get a good hook set before he dropped it. Water is clearing up a bit, saw water temps around 76-77.

Got to the Big M launch early in the morning, and it was very foggy. Got a little ways outside the mouth of the Big M cove and started fishing as I wasn't going to run down the lake in the fog. Took Fido for a stroll, and picked up quite a few top water bites around docks and bluff lines. Lots of bites, but the bass were having trouble grabbing the lure. I think sometimes that zig-zag motion when walking the dog confuses them a bit and causes them to miss. Put 6 or 7 in the boat (one keeper) on the top water and probably had another dozen misses. Out of those dozen misses, I think 2 of them touched the lure. Had 2 doubles, but in both cases one of the fish pulled off before I could get them netted. Spent some time looking for the mid-channel top water bite, but not very much of that going on in spite of lots of shad swimming around in the channel. Once the fog burned off, the top water bite died. Threw a jig for a while, picked up a couple on it, had a good one pick it up and swim towards the boat, could not catch up to it and thus did not get a good hook set before he dropped it. Water is clearing up a bit, saw water temps around 76-77. View full article

Need to get a rough estimate of how many want to stay at the lodge. Reply back what nights you plan to stay. I plan on being there Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Weekend of 12/9.

I'll say those dates work it appears. Weekend of 12/9, lock it down!

I'd like to fish with you at least one day, maybe Friday? I can come down Thursday night.

OK, here we go, Ham is requesting the weekend of 12/9, which is about when we usually hold it. We'll need to get a rough count of how many people will be staying at the lodge so we can notify Miles.

Thanks for the update, I fish Indian every once in a while, very pretty area of the lake, I'll have to get over there soon.

Yak, did you see any top water activity?

Looks to be relatively tough fishing. Harvey Horne (Bella Vista) is in 6th, only a couple of pounds off the lead. Hope he has a good day today. https://www.bassmaster.com/news/andy-ortega-leads-day-2-grand-lake

Wow, lot of guys will be out pre-fishing too.

A beautiful early fall morning. I began my day by fishing the edge of the buck brush with a tail spinner type top water. Caught 2 bass total working the brush, one was a keeper large mouth. Did that for an hour and moved out into the channel to try again for the bass that are living out there. They were scattered, no schools, and every once in a while one or two would come up within casting range. Caught another 4 bass, all spots, fishing main channel. If you can get on them, they will jump on that top water, but if you're late, they'll ignore your bait. I can't make fan casting around the boat work, they've got to be up feeding. Only thing I haven't tried is to try finesse type top waters, may try that next time. Might even try a float and fly. Seems every time out lately I have a Big One that Got Away story. I tied up to the dock at Big M, backed the trailer in, as I got in the boat I saw a bass pin some shad against the bank right at the edge of the blacktop in the parking lot. Close enough to the boat that I stepped in the boat and picked up my top water rod and threw a pencil popper right at the spot where that fish came up. Made two casts there, no sniffs. Made another cast about 10 feet further down the bank, walked the bait about 10 feet of the bank, and pow, got a blow up - just felt a little tick, didn't hook up, but I got a look at the fish as it rolled on the bait and it was a good one. Made a few more casts but that bass wasn't coming back.

A beautiful early fall morning. I began my day by fishing the edge of the buck brush with a tail spinner type top water. Caught 2 bass total working the brush, one was a keeper large mouth. Did that for an hour and moved out into the channel to try again for the bass that are living out there. They were scattered, no schools, and every once in a while one or two would come up within casting range. Caught another 4 bass, all spots, fishing main channel. If you can get on them, they will jump on that top water, but if you're late, they'll ignore your bait. I can't make fan casting around the boat work, they've got to be up feeding. Only thing I haven't tried is to try finesse type top waters, may try that next time. Might even try a float and fly. Seems every time out lately I have a Big One that Got Away story. I tied up to the dock at Big M, backed the trailer in, as I got in the boat I saw a bass pin some shad against the bank right at the edge of the blacktop in the parking lot. Close enough to the boat that I stepped in the boat and picked up my top water rod and threw a pencil popper right at the spot where that fish came up. Made two casts there, no sniffs. Made another cast about 10 feet further down the bank, walked the bait about 10 feet of the bank, and pow, got a blow up - just felt a little tick, didn't hook up, but I got a look at the fish as it rolled on the bait and it was a good one. Made a few more casts but that bass wasn't coming back. View full article