Quillback

The bank fishing has been fun for sure, but I'm ready to get back out in the boat. The fish are eating the Ned rig well right now, I'm fishing it like a shaky head, dragging it, shaking it. Muddy Water picked up a few a couple of days ago dead sticking it.

Sorry to hear that, maybe we'll see you next time.

In other words, from the bank. Caught 23 today, 3 no doubt largemouth keepers, biggest was around 3.5. Might have had a keeper spot or two, and maybe a keeper smallie. Boderline fish. Dragging 1/8 and 1/16 Neds uphill on mostly rocky bottom with some shelf rock and bluff end stuff thrown in, Fished a couple of spots around Big M and also the bank in Viney. Fish were a little more aggressive today, had several hit it on the drop. Also caught many of them a bit shallower 5 - 10 FOW with some being out in the 20 foot area also. Lots of boats out there today. Beautiful weather.

Excellent, I was poking around Big M and Viney, lots of rigs in the lot.

Go get them!

The angler leading the Co-angler side of things is Mike Jones, who posts some on the Beaver forum. He does well over on Beaver, be neat to see him pull it off. Still some guys to be weighed so it is not in the bag.

Excellent, see you there!

Good day for sure! I agree the bass this time of year are at their peak as far as health and appearance. Once they've spawned and the water gets warm they can get pretty beat looking.

Lucky Craft produced those Flat series cranks that had dad claws painted on the lip. They will catch fish, but those claws on the front ain't right.

One last thought from me, sometimes people forget that it doesn't hurt to be a little stealthy. Had a boat come full speed into Viney, guy cuts the engine while still on plane, runs to the front and drops the troller in, I mean DROPS it. This is about 50 feet down the bank from me which I thought was a bit discourteous, but I had already worked that piece of bank over. Anyway the giant 2 foot rollers crash into the bank, and the guy makes 4 or 5 casts with a crank right on the bank, pulls the troller and U-turns out at practically full throttle. Back seater didn't even get out of the passenger seat.

Ask and ye shall receive. Needs to be cleaned up a bit and the bronze hooks will be replaced.

Well from what I saw in Viney, 4 out of 5 of those boats are fishing shallow, saw several throwing spinner baits right up on the gravel bank, maybe that is working, but I think that is very low percentage. Back seaters for those guys had maybe a half cast to the bank to work with, and I think those guys in the back would be much better off throwing off the deep side of the boat, swimming a grub or working a Ned. None of that slimy stuff up the White so you can work the bottom. I don't want to sound like I am some kind of expert, those guys are better fisherman than me for sure. But it's Table Rock and it fishes different.

I really appreciate the offer, but that end of the lake is just a bit too far for me to drive for a day trip.

I see Harvey Horne is in 19th on the boater side. Harvey helped me out the other day when my boat was broke down on the side of the road. Go get them Harvey!

Wow, good job Mike!

Might get it back next week, they had to order an axel.

It looks like it might catch a bass. Nice thing about top waters is that they are usually harder to lose (have to watch out for bad knots and trees), so even if they are a bit pricey at times you'll hopefully have them around for a long time.

I'll be interested to hear how those swim baits work out, they sure look good.

Thanks for the report, I was wondering if it was time for them to start chasing that Menace Grub.

Very nice bag of fish! I need to get over there this year and do some fishing.

I'm sure it was us you saw. So many boats out there today, you'd have to come within casting distance before I'd recognize you.

Fished around Viney again today with Muddy Water, and we were banking it. Good numbers day, approximately 28 bass between the two of us, a couple of solid keeper largemouth, and maybe another one or two that were close. Caught a nice walleye, no measuring device on hand, but it was a solid keeper, maybe 22 inches. Dragging Neds. Lots of tourney boats in Viney, had 4 or 5 in there at one time, constantly had boats running in and out. But most of them were fishing shallow, so left us plenty of water to fish. And we got some bonus free tackle, I found a custom painted Wiggle Wart on the banks and Muddy dredged up a spinning combo. That spinning outfit is going to need some work, looks to have been in the lake since Babler was a pup.

Fished up there once, 7 years ago or so, up the Spring maybe a mile up past the bridge at Twin Bridges, I think we caught about 20 whites that day throwing size 5 shad colored Shad Raps. If there are a bunch of boats up there then the whites are probably there too.

And if you are fishing with a buddy, and are catching fish on a "hot" color, your buddy will want to fish it too. So, bump it to 5.

Hope you can make it for the weigh in!