Quillback

Ouch, that will cause wallet pain.

From what I have seen on the upper end of the lake, there are some shallow large mouth that might bite a top water. You've got to commit to it and work for those shallow fish. You might find some schoolers out in deep water, maybe off the end of docks that are over deep water.

Some of the other folks that have experience with spin jigs would have to chime in on that. About the only one I have thrown is a Road Runner that have the small Colorado type blade. Never have fished a Road Runner for the schoolers, but I bet it might work, especially as the shad they were feeding on were pretty small, one inch or so.

Speaking of Rogues - this was in today's Bass Blaster email: Here's what Ryan Wood and Turner Mason (from CO!) used to win the recent Bassmaster High School National Championship on Kentucky Lake. Ryan (@RyanWoodFishing) talking: > We completely turned the stereotypical Kentucky Lake fishing on its head and won on floating jerkbaits in less than 3'. ...Smithwick Floating Rogue in chrome/blue back in sunny conditions and golden bass in cloudy low-light conditions. > We fished them as fast and erratic as possible. We were fishing small pockets right off the main lake. We fished there because there was quick access to deep water and the fish were feeding shallow. We also avoided ledges because we didn't believe they would hold up for 3 days and that proved to be true. > Our final-day bag also consisted of 3 smallmouth and 2 largemouth that came out of 92-degree water that was 2' deep. The smallies were the three biggest fish in the bag. > I used a 6' 8" M-XF St. Croix Legend Elite spinning rod with a Pflueger Patriarch spinning reel. The line I used was 15-lb Stren Braid with a 20-lb Stren Monofilament leader. The leader was about 6-10" long just to keep the bait from fouling. We used mono to avoid the bait from being pulled down deeper than it needed to be like fluoro would do. The reason we used braid was the keep the action of the bait as crisp and quick as possible.

Rode in my buddy Jeb's boat today. We launched before daylight, hit a few locations, got a few bass here and there. We moved to another location, stumbled across one of those schools of bass that just about fill the sonar screen out in 30 FOW off a gravel bank. We probably got around 25 out of that school on drop shot plastics and spoons. Maybe 5 keepers, couple of LM's around 2.5 being the biggest. Had fun for a while until the school dispersed and it was back to the grind. Left about 11 AM. Big M courtesy dock is about out of the water, it is possible to use it, but you must approach it straight on, don't come in from the side by the launch, nice pile of rocks there could get your prop. I talked to the park attendants, they had opened a work order and they expected it would get fixed soon, but it may not be fixed this weekend.

That top 20 looks interesting, last thing I need is another jerk bait, but the Rogues do have a unique action. TW Labor Day sale is approaching.

I threw a few casts with one of mine, it runs straight, but haven't caught fish one on it yet. Certainly would be disappointing if it self destructs after one bass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkXGGhuQs0o

I have thrown one a bit, they do get down deep, probably will need to be tuned and you might want to replace some of the hardware. All that being said, not a bad value when on sale and you're looking for a big, deep running jerk bait for your arsenal.

Good stuff, glad to see you got into them!

That is 2 boxes of bass catching dy-no-mite you got there!

It is good at times to set the rod down and take in the view.

Good write-up Ham. What's your estimate on size for the big bow?

Dan, you got it down for sure. That's some good fishing for August during the day.

Heck ya, can't wait for November.

Heck, I'm glad that Alex doesn't get specific on what crank he is using. Saves me money. Not too mention the frustration that happens when I drive over to Hook, Line, and Sinker, pull into the parking lot, (just in time to see Champ pulling out with a big smile on his face), walk into the store, and find that crank bait "X" is sold out.

Wow, that is a biggun for sure. I read somewhere that the genetics on hatchery rainbows are screwed up and that's why you might see spawners at any time of the year.

Welcome! I can't help you much with flathead advice. They are certainly in the lake and people catch them on trot lines. I'm sure there are also some folks that fish for them with rod and reel, but you don't hear much about that. Good luck if you go.

Fished yesterday with OA member Little Jasper. We started at daylight, had some pretty thick fog to begin with, which eventually burned off after about an hour. We caught some fish, about 20 bass total, but only one definite keeper that went about 2 lbs. Early we threw square bills and top waters shallow, we'd pick one up every once in a while, and covered quite a bit of water. Ran into a big school of ten inch spots that were out in 40 FOW chasing shad, we fished that for a bit hoping to find a big largemouth cruising underneath them, but no dice on that. We did a little drop shotting at one location out deep, but we only got one doing that and didn't see many fish on the graph. Fished a long bluff later in the morning and got a few on jigs and shaky heads. Lots of little shad back in the coves and in places in the main channel. It gives me hope we could have some pretty good fishing this fall. Have to give a shout out to Nu-Tech jigs, broke off 4 conventional jigs in a pretty short time frame, went with a Nu-Tech and it stayed on for the rest of the day, and even caught a bass or two on it. Used green pumpkin/blue, there are bluegills up shallow and I was throwing jigs that imitated them in color. Water temps were 82 early, rising to 84 when we left.

The dog days of August, come on October!

I don't know him personally. but have always heard good things about him. Pretty amazing that these days you can get a quadruple bypass and be out of the hospital after a few days. I wish him well.

I did get out yesterday with my buddy Jeb. It was slow, we tried some different types of banks, chunk rock, bluffs, back in coves, and we didn't get much doing that. The fish we caught, we were able to get out on flats near the channel in 30 FOW on drop shots and c-rigs. We caught 15, all spots except for one 2 lb. LM. Of course it is always good to get out fishing, and the temps have cooled down a bit, not as many wake boats out there with school starting up, we just need to move the calendar forward a month or two and we'll get some good fishing going again.

I came into the ramp about 1230 yesterday, stepped off onto the dock, looked into the water on the ramp, and saw 4 bass sitting there. One of them might have been 2 lbs., the others looked to be 12 inches or so. They had a bunch of little bluegill corralled in the shallow water. I just looked at them and thought "whatever, dudes" and loaded up my boat and left.

Well 176, I ain't scaring them, I was out there yesterday, fished hard for 8 bass. 4 of them came early, it sure helps if you can get out at first light, or go in the evening.

Wow, good for him.

You are right for sure. I think every top water bait out there should have "Norman Flake" as one of their color options.