Quillback

I drove over the bridge by the camp ground yesterday, water looked low and clear from what I saw at a glance going 30 MPH. They placed some boulders in the water upstream of the bridge.

Well I went over to HLS yesterday, but for some reason, they were out of stock of split rings and trebles. Somebody cleaned out their supply.

Today was one heck of a day, I caught more bass today than I have on any one day on Table Rock. Things got off to a relatively slow start, fish were hitting top water, but not like they were last Friday early. Got some off a gravel point, then moved down lake and got a few off a cove mouth in the deep water. Moved again, found some blowing up in 30 FOW near the main channel and caught a few more. Moved up river a ways, found a bunch of them off a rocky cove point feeding on shad. I sat in that spot for close to two hours and got bit on just about every cast. If they missed that top water, they would come back for it, and keep at it until one of them got hooked. Just couldn't get any better. Best bait was a 130 size Whopper Plopper in, well I think they call it Sexy shad, white with a gray back, and a chartreuse stripe on the side. A fish broke off the front treble somehow, broke that hook right at the eye. I thought what the heck, I should still be able to hook them on the back treble, but it wouldn't happen, probably missed half a dozen before I changed that lure out. They would blast it all the way back to the boat, and I could see them come if from the side and grab it, but just couldn't get them on the back hook. Kind of neat just to see them taking shots at it. I didn't have another 130 Plopper, so changed it out for a 90. The double above came on my first cast with the 90. It caught fish too, but it got breezy and it was hard to see it, so I changed out again, this time to the Yellow Magic Havana. They tore that thing up for a while, did some real damage to the paint. The top water bite shut off at about 1130, I poked around for a while with a C-rig and UV Speed craw and picked up several with that. No bigguns, caught a couple of 3 lb. largemouth, and many chunky keeper sized spots. Not getting hardly any small mouth, I caught 2 smallies today, one on the c-rig and one on a Keitech. Keitechs will catch fish, but it's hard to put that top water down. Water temp was 66-67.

LOL, no I really wasn't expecting a reply. You are wise beyond your years.

Champ, If you're going to buy a yak, might as well buy a two seater. You can sit up front and fish, and Donna can sit in back and be your "human trolling motor". Think of all the benefits - no batteries to charge and maintain, no more foot pedal, - you can use "Voice commands" to steer the yak. Granted, it may take Donna a while to move down the lake a few miles to the next spot, especially into a 25 MPH headwind, but you could take advantage of the down time to eat a snack, observe the wildlife, maybe even take a picture or two. Sure sounds like a good deal, doesn't it?

I watched some of the live coverage yesterday. KVD was throwing a 6XD while I was watching and I believe he did a bit of bottom dragging also. Anyway, I did not see him catch a fish, but he was working hard, cast that crank out there, work it back, cast again. Meanwhile it was rough where he was fishing, water coming on the front deck, front end bouncing up and down. It did not look like too much fun to me.

I like that measuring board, makes a nice fish pic with the white background.

Too many stickers on the darn things.

Thanks!

Chris Lane is throwing the Plopper on the Toledo Bend BASS tourney and is doing very well with it.

Some very nice chunks!

My neighbor has been out the last couple of mornings early and has brought home 3, 8-10 lb. stripers. When it is calm, they look for top water activity, and on the windy day they went to the same spot and threw Storm Wild Eye Shad swim baits. They have been fishing the dam area.

No need to apologize, thanks for the entertainment. Definitely a channel cat.

Dagnabit!

Did you get them at HLS?

You're probably not going to get many replies because if anyone has a bank fishing spot that consistently produces walleye they aren't going to mention it on a public forum. There's quite a bit of bank access at the Viney park and at Big M. I believe Viney is now open, saw a boat launch there yesterday, and a few cars driving around. It would help to have waders, or I guess you could wet wade, but the weather looks to be a bit cool the next few days. I'd say the odds of catching a walleye at either location are pretty slim, but there's probably a few around as there are shad in the areas mentioned. Certainly there are bass to be caught. You could poke around on the upper White below the AR state line, there is some bank access here and there. Make sure and check the regs if you fish in the trout areas.

Very nice - saw some shad spawning on Table Rock this morning (they actually laid eggs on my motor and transom) - I bet those shad you see up on the bank are spawning.

Got out this morning with OA member Muddy Water. We launched at about 0530, it was cold and foggy. Foggy enough that we did not get too far from Big M, couldn't get to where I wanted to go in that fog. It worried me that we couldn't get to the good spot, but we found the top water bite anyway, and it was a pretty darned good one. Not sure exactly how many fish we got, I did count mine, but I didn't count Muddy's. We probably got between 50-60 in 5 hours of fishing. Maybe 40 on top water and another dozen or so on Keitechs and other paddle tail baits and a couple of c-rig fish. 4 or 5 largemouth that were between 2 -3 lbs., a bunch of 14-16 inch spots, and a smallie (on a c-rigged UV Speed Craw) that was just short of 4 lbs. That double above is a mean that was a little over 17" and the spot was about 16". If we would have put very bite in the boat, we would've caught over a 100. Just a great morning. We also caught a half dozen white bass on top of everything else. Mr. Babler is right about that Keitech, I was using the 3.3" on one of Dave's 1/8 oz Ned heads. Only thing I would change is maybe use one with a #1 hook instead of a #2 for those smaller 3.3 Keitechs. Only drawback to the Keitechs is they are so darned soft. Hard to get more that 2-3 bass out of one. Fish were out in the main lake off a point, and we got a few off a cove point that was near 60 FOW. Water temp was 71. Shad are spawning - how do I know that? Well, while we fishing off the point, there were a bunch of shad hanging around the motor and the transom splashing around. Got back to the ramp, and as I was wiping down the boat, noticed that there were small fish eggs sticking to the transom and the motor. Never have had shad spawn on the boat, but I guess there is a first time for everything.

Excellent Bill, thanks for the tips!

I'll post a report in a minute, but the top water action this morning was great. Cold and foggy for sure, but they were biting. Don't know if they'll bite tomorrow, but sure wouldn't hurt to get out and try.

I'm convinced Dave's are the best. And the price is right.

Curious if anyone has tried out that new Lew's Ned rig rod?

That's some good fishing! I need to clone myself so I can fish Beaver and Table Rock at the same time.

Slippery, it is stained green in that area around Viney. I'm going to estimate about 2-3 feet of visibility.

I sure would like to get out there again tomorrow, but I have to take the dog to the vet, Thursday I have a dentist apt, so I hope to get out there again Friday. Hopefully Babler hasn't sore mouthed them all by then.