Quillback

Yep I second what Al is saying, you also won't get as much line twist with a BC as you'll get with a spinning reel. I was one of those spinning only guys until I started seriously using baitcasters about 15 years ago, I still like spinning for drop shots, shakeyhead, and real light non-aerodynamic cranks like a Shad Rap size 5 or 6, but the BC's can't be beat for bottom dragging stuff like Carolina rigs, Texas rigs, and jigs. I can also walk the dog with topwaters much easier with a BC than a spinning rod. So Jack, are you going to be at the OA gathering at Cape Fair next Saturday? I plan on going and I can bring a couple of BC setups if you want to do a little test casting. I have a lightly used Citica 200D that I'd be willing to sell to you that I never use, for say, $35, which is dirt cheap for that reel. A good deal that is running right now is Cabelas has Daiwa Vientos on sale for $99, that's a great value buy for a decent reel, it has a twitching bar feature which some folks don't like, but it's not in the way and if you don't like that feature, don't use it, the Viento is fairly compact and light. I have a Viento and can bring it to the gathering if you're interested in checking one out.

Didn't see many shad, most of the winter the shad have been in the deep water down by the dam, huge schools of them, but we did not fish that end of the lake so I don't know if they are still there but my guess is they are. A couple of years ago I used to go out real early in the morning (2 or 3 AM) while it's still dark and fish until about 8 or so, did OK on bigger bass doing that. Most guys that night fish put in in the evening and fish until midnight or so, so if you go out early in the AM usually you'll have the lake to yourself until it gets light. How is that neck of yours doing Trophy?

Nice one! BTW how was the black bass fishing?

Very nice rebuild.

I do remember that, it is nice to have the LM's biting, but I get a kick out of drop-shotting for those K's in the summer also. One thing I like about this time of year is the big ones come out to play.

Good luck! I did see some surface activity this morning, I didn't throw a topwater, but I think I'm going to start keeping one on the deck. I also caught a 17" eye on a tube, he's lucky he wasn't an inch longer.

A great day to be fishing! I think every bass fisher in a 100 mile radius thought the same thing as there were a lot of boats out there today. But it's all good and I hope everyone did well. As for me, I ended up with 10 bass, all LM's except one small spot. 9 of them came from dragging a t-rigged tube on chunk rock banks. My best banks were in coves or cove mouths where it was rocky but not too steep. Best depths were in the 5 - 12 foot range. Worked a jerkbait around trees for a bit but that was not working for me today. I did get one bass on a finesse jig and it was a dandy, a bit over 5 lbs.

That Watermelon red flake looks killer! I like the idea of a phantom red craw also.

You do have to watch out for the deadly "White river fog", that oxygen less water can create an oxygen less fog on those calm summer mornings. It claims the lives of several boaters a year. There used to be a warning sign about this on the Eagle Rock bridge but the local hillbillies tore it down.

Caught a couple of nice ones first thing in the morning, 6.25 and 7.25 lbs., both came on a jerkbait, from the same location, maybe 10 minutes apart. Jeb got a 4.75 lb. fish later in the morning on a jig. Good early bite, then things got really slow, we left a little after noon. I think we got 7 bass total, and 6 of those came in the first hour. Water temp was nudging 49 when we left.

Depends what you mean by "reasonably priced". I've heard a lot of good comments on the BPS Johnny Morris Pro-Qualfier reels, never tried one myself, but I believe you can pick thm up for less than $100 when they are on sale. I picked up a Gen 3 Revo STX last fall, I'm impressed with it except they do have an issue with having to really tighten down the tension control knob if you want to fish it with a slow spool. You can get them for around 159-179 on sale. Shimano Chronarch G is another good reel in the STX price range. Lews makes a good reel from what I hear.

There's a COE park there with a launch and dock. Sits on a small cove sheltered from the wind, which makes loading a lot easier on those windy days.

I'm old enough to remember, back in the ealry 60's when I was 5 or 6, we used to drive from Wichita to Kennett MO to visit my grandparents. This was before the anti-litter campaigns came out. Everybody, and I mean everybody, when traveling down the highway and finishing a fast food meal, tossed everything out the window, bottles, cups, wrappers, bags, everything. The roadside ditches were filled with trash. Things today are much better as far as that is concerned.

Let's hope they get more than a slap on the wrist.

We've been catching them on jigs and tubes the last 3 weeks. Smaller jigs, 5/16 or 3/8 seems to be the best. We're also finding fish back in the coves, not all the way back on the spawning flats but in the deeper water that gives access to the flats.

Fished out of Jeb's boat today, we caught around 15 bass between the two of us, mostly sub-legals with maybe 5 or 6 keeper sized. Mix of spots and LM's. Our top baits were finesse jigs and tubes, with a couple on a jigging spoon, one on a Shad Rap, and one on the spinner bait. It went from dead calm and 26 degrees early to pretty darn windy and 71 degrees by 2 PM. One of out better spots, a small cove with rocky shallow flats near the cove mouth that is near a deep channel swing, kicked out 5 fish when we swung by it later in the afternoon when the wind was on it. We hit that spot early in the AM when it was dead calm and did not get a bite. Most of our other fish came from inside coves, just one every once in a while. Water was 43 -46 depending on where we were, but in spite of that we noticed a bit of surface activity when the water was calm, Jeb caught one of his spoon fish casting at a boil, it wasn't a big fish, but nice to see some signs of life.

Great video, thanks for posting it Mitch!

If the rivers are blown out you can try the Indian creek arm, the last couple of years I've caught walleye incidentally up there while bass fishing. Backs of coves and pockets is where they've been. You're going to have to work for them, but it's a scenic part of the lake and relatively uncrowded.

Is there going to be a grill of some kind there? If I come, I could bring a couple of packs of brats.

Thanks, if I ever decide to stay for a couple of days, that sounds like a good place. Just need to remember to bring a card table and a lamp.

Four guys with 22 lb. bags, pretty impressive. http://www.flwoutdoors.com/bassfishing/bfl/tournament/2013/6975/table-rock-lake-boater-results/

The thing is, we'll still get electricity here if Swepco shuts down, but it will cost more. There's smarter ways to do things, but the Arkansas utilities commision may choose to take the dumb route.

Congrats!

Having grown up during the 60's and 70's I'm not nearly as worried nowadays about "end of the world scenarios". I remember having bomb drills (nuclear bombs) in elementary school, couching down along the walls in the hallways, facing the wall with your hands over the back of your neck. Not that it would have done much good. Now I worry about biological weapons, or engineered viruses creating some sort of pandemic, not that I worry too much about it, but it's a concern. Ever see that movie "Dr Strangelove"? It's an old one, but a classic, and very funny in an ironic sort of way. Kind of gives you an idea of what could have happened in those days, could've happened any day, but fortunately it never did,

Fished with Jeb from near Big M all the way up to the Kings river mouth, we fished from about 0800 to 1400, ended up with a dozen bass between the two of us, maybe half of those were keeps. Nothing large, biggest was around 2 Lbs. Mostly LM's and I think there may have been 2 Kentucks. Got a few on a Pointer 100, one on the a-rig and 8 or so dragging finesse jigs and tubes in 5-15 FOW. Did have one really strong fish that ate a tube, just didn't get a good hookset on it and it got off pretty quickly. All of our fish except the a-rig fish came from 2 locations, a channel swing halfway back a cove and a small pocket entrance in the back of another cove. Water temp was 45 or so near Big M and 47 in the large cove near the Kings mouth. Quite a few bass boats out there today.