Quillback

It is time.

It is on.

Yeah baby! Afternoon sun with a little breeze, it can work.

Thanks for the update, I hope that water starts clearing soon.

It would be neat to be able to see the COE ramps, including the courtesy docks. When the water levels are normal it's not such a big deal, but when the water is high it would be neat to see what ramps are useable.

Fishing the Oakley Big Bass Tourney. Bill does a good show, he's usually fishing in Texas, his show is on FSSW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDpcHIZeZl0

I'm watching football tomorrow. I might tinker with some tackle, but that's as close to fishing as I'll get.

Man, it's going to be COLD tomorrow. Jeb replaced his bunks recently, I bet that was him you saw at the ramp.

You are right, it's time again, this Tuesday. Nhornback - I don't know of a way to archive the chat session.

The guy to answer the Ned questions is Dtrs5kprs (Dave). I think if you shoot him a PM, he'll provide a ton of info, or some links to the info. I can tell you the types of areas I target in the winter with the Ned, basically I have a milk run of a half dozen spots, I learned those locations through time on the water, and usually they hold bass in the winter, several of them are points at cove mouths that have timber out in 10-30 FOW, usually they are also rocky, not mud bottoms, main lake 45 degree chunk rock banks, bluffs can be good, if you can find a shelf coming off a bluff that is in 20 FOW and has some timber, that can be worth fishing. Winter Ned bites are going to be light, especially when you're fishing deep, usually your rod will just slowly load up, feels almost like you're pulling through moss, but they'll hang on to a Ned pretty well, so if it takes a second to recognize what's going on, you can still usually get them. It wouldn't hurt, being that you're new to bass fishing, to go out with one of the guides like Bill Babler or Pete Wenners. Winter fishing a big lake like Table Rock is a pretty daunting task even for experienced fishermen.

Well, I'd throw a Ned rig for sure, it's a great winter bait. See Alex Heitman's recent post for some good insight. I'd probably also try a jerk bait, and some cranks that run in that 8 -12 foot range.

Was up near the dam today, water is surprisingly clear around the Lost Bridge ramps, some pea green stain in Clifty, but fishable. We caught some bass, didn't tear them up, but enough to make it an enjoyable day. Dang cold weather will keep me from fishing next week.

Uncle Sam doesn't have to buy a ticket, but it's guaranteed he will win. I saw an estimate that if there is one winner, and that person takes a lump sum payment, they will have to pay around $200 million to Uncle Sam. And the winner lives in a state with a state income tax, then their state will get a little chunk also.

Thanks for posting! Ham might like it that you stocked redear fingerlings in Bull.

I like that one, I'll have to remember it.

Reminds me of an old joke: I was sitting down along the lake enjoying the cool breeze off the water, and admiring the view, when I noticed down the bank about 30 yards there was a squirrel sitting on a limb, overhanging the water about two feet, eating a hickory nut. I sat there for a couple minutes watching him and about that time the biggest large mouth bass I ever seen jumped out of the water and ate that squirrel. And do you know what? About a minute later that bass jumped out of the water and set another hickory nut back up on that limb.

Yep, I could fish Minnesota in the summer.

That is a huge sum of money, and a person could certainly donate a large amount to charity, hand out some cash to family members, but still have a chunk of change leftover. I'd buy a chunk of land where I could build my own lake and that lake would be at least 100 acres in size. I'd build it so that it would be structurally the best largemouth habitat that it could be. I would buy a chunk of land in South Dakota for my own private pheasant hunting reserve. And build a lodge on it. Certainly would be doing several exotic fishing trips a year, salmon fishing in Alaska, redfish in the gulf, etc.,

JF, I believe you are about the first person I have heard that wants to go north in the winter to go fishing. I've done the ice fishing thing before, and if I can help it, I'll never go ice fishing again.

Looks like a Liberty head nickel in the back ground.

Yeah, I fear that you may be correct.

I would be afraid to give it to someone, they might get so mad, they'd roll it up and start beating me with it. I don't want to be the next day headline: "Man beaten to death with rolled up Ike calendar."

I was just going to say the same thing, go for the pre-spawn fish. Better big fish possibilities too.

Table Rock Lake Update: The lake is at elevation 929.63 and falling. A combined discharge from the spillway and hydropower units of 20,000 cubic feet per second are scheduled to last up to three weeks without any additional rainfall. So, if this continues for 3 weeks, at a rate of almost a foot drawn down every 24 hours, we should see 910 or so in a few weeks, and that would be fine by me. Assuming no significant rain storms move in, and I don't see any in the extended forecast.

That's where they dropped it to last winter, then we got some heavy rain in March and we never saw that level again.