rangerman

Browning fisherman sent you a pm..

Mike were you leadcoring it or using snapweights? Great job by the way!!

Dtrs5kprs made a comment just a day or so ago about not knowing when our last fish would be caught or something to that effect. Really sets in now. I didn't know Jim other than pm's exchanged. He seemed like a class act and my thoughts are with his friends and family.

Might as well give up brotha', You can't argue with close minded person(s). Remember all hail the bass...and if nothing else is biting you can always catch them.

It doesn't matter where you go...up north you are generally hassled for keeping walleye and smallies. Problem is in certain areas you have problems finding eater size fish. And if I drop a wad of cash on a trip I want to bring some fish home to eat. Down south it's the green fish. I grew up fishing table rock. Now deceased grandparents had a house there since the lake filled up. Ever since I was old enough, we kept limits of kentuckies to eat, so it has been 30 years. They ARE very good eating. I still look at it as everyone spends money on the sport and if it's legal it is their prerogative to keep it. If you don't like the fact someone keeps fish, fine, why doesn't one keep their comments to themselves as surely when a comment is made it just stirs the pot, especially when there is no reason for it. To much close mindedness.....and this thread would continue forever.

i wouldnt weight the front end. I wouldnt want the line that tight to the bottom. rear end I just use two small window weights so I figure 20 pounds or so. The line will be close to or on the bottom without the front weight.

I use window weights as an anchor, tie off on tree low or in the water. As mentioned make sure you don't snap line or you'll lose baits. Just work along line with trolling motor. Pulling it up is a given.

Real easy 5bites as long as you know where to look. 1) run short lines. 10 hooks or so. I have hooks spaced 4 to 5 foot apart. 2) secondary points are generally best as long as you have the right type of structure. Look for areas with decent size slab rock. Also a shelf of some sort that runs off into 20 foot of water before dropping deep is best. 3) mid May into early June is usually a real good bite prior to them spawning. 4) circle hooks are generally best as they snag fish real well but not rocks, trees, etc. 5) bait selections: green sunfish are the prime flathead bait. Soft finned and bodied. Catch them throwing small brown jigs and such around rocky areas as they are crawdad devouring machines. Pumpkinseed and normal bluegill will work in a pinch though. 6) a little trick I dreamt up and seems to work very well. I take a quarter of a pool noodle and tie it about 3 or four foot from the anchor and sort of lifts the end hooks off the bottom slightly. 7) hook bait slightly behind and above anus opening. The bait will swim up constantly and struggle freely. It also lives a lot longer. Make sure you bait right before dark, any earlier and gar and turtles play havoc along with the TR lobsters. These are just some of the techniques I use and it works real well. The best morning years ago I had trotlining resulted in 8 out of 10 hooks having flatties on it. Not something I do every year, due to the walleye fishing obsession, but you can fill a freezer real quick with some great eating. Average size I have found is about 7-14 pounds or so. It varies though. Good luck.

For only one eye being that big you couldn't be to disappointed! Lol.

There are TONS of flatheads in table rock. It's a actually a real good time, but definitely eats into normal fishing time.

On a side note, had a hard time NOT catching pesky 6 inch smallies. Flippin tons of those things.

Dayhem Ham! Lol. Hope I didn't offend you. We eat the hell out of fish!

Well my walleye trip to bull shoals was shot due to last minute cancellations by the corp. so hung out at our lake house in kc. I took my 7 year old out for his first trotlining adventure which he and I both enjoyed. He really got a kick out of it. Set two 10 hook lines and ended up with 19 in 3 days all in between 7 and 20 pounds. Lots of good eats in the freezer. On a side note, and I have noticed this in the past, we fish secondary pockets which the normal table rock slab rock where the preferred bait green sunfish hang out. On a couple of occasions had a big smallie and a big black bass grab them as I was bringing the sunfish in. This isn't a fluke I have seen this numerous times. Any Of you bass guys throw a erratic sunfish pattern crank? just a couple of pics.

Niiiiicceeee guys! ham with the lake being high fish the outer edges of the trees on the dc flats. Caught 8 or so a day last time it was this high on crawler harnesses so if you actually targeted them I think you could pull more. Nothing over 10 or so inches though... On a side note while I was being depressed at table rock thinking of walleye on bull shoals, I took it out on the flatheads with my 7 year old. We set two 10 hook lines and ended up with 19 fish all in between 7 and 20 pounds in 3 days. Flatties in the freezer, second favorite to walleye. his first trotlining adventure so it wasn't a loss to me. He got a kick out of it. Sorry for the hijack thread. I'll be driving down to compete for walleye with you guys next week.

Don't forget point 7 on down the lake, I have caught them there in the past. Hit the points with gravel.

All I know is this sucks.......now I have to deal with the idiot boaters on table rock. I wonder if one can still launch at tucker hollow. Haven't put in there during high water so I don't know.

I know I was kind of pizzed. I have a house in kimberling city but my kids like camping there at lead hill and the peace and quiet. Called campground host around 9am and he said b loop was shut down. I was b26...but other sites were available. 2 hours later the Feds left me a message saying lead hill was shut down and pay,net was being refunded. They would not reopen until at lease June 25th.

Good report ham, I just got the call they shut down lead hill campground.

All of the great above advise...remember whether trolling cranks, slow death or spinner rigs, walleye are notorious followers. Dropping the rod tip no matter what you are doing can initiate a strike.

I really don't think the numbers are as low as we think, at least I hope not. I do think patterns are changing. How many of us troll open water for walleye. They do eat a lot of shad. Shad roam open water and over the river channel. My scout was down last week and found good fish on the same points I had the banner year a couple of years ago during the high water. Normal pool I did not catch anything to speak of on the same points. Time to improvise, adapt, overcome. When I fished baaaaassssss, on table rock a long time ago on deep tree points in summer, I found the best fishing for my technique in between 10am-2pm....there was nada on the same locations before and after that time. Mornings they are out chasing shad, they stage in the trees from 10-2. After 2 they wolf packed back out to chase shad. Maybe the eyes are doing the same thing, but the times are different. At least it's a theory of some sorts...

Unless the bass are brown,,then I personally can deal with. Green fish are not for me. I did troll up a largie that went 7.5 at bull shoals out of 40 foot of water. That was interesting. Anyone been fishing the flats across from Baxter boat dock at all?

Just returned from a spring trip from sturgeon bay..weather did not cooperate very well last week, as a front came through dropping water temps about 7 degrees. Did not target smallies, as I was mainly looking for walleye. Even with tough conditions I was able to coach some good ones. All in all, all the walleye we had were in between 24.5 and 30 inches. Caught a majority rip jigging rippin raps. The only exception was the water at the Lake Michigan side of the canal. Visibility was 27 feet. You could see gobies swimming in the bottom as well as monster walleyes everywhere along with smallies and big piike. Only way I could find to catch those fish were long lining suckers WELL behind the boat. Good trip nonetheless. They had the sturgeon bay open smallmouth tourney while I was there. It took 55.75 pounds for 12 fish to win it. A sheer testament for the size smallmouth available.

I imagine there is a pretty good share of "lake spawners" there. Both walleye and whiteys. But then again the conditions with a good wind on the right rocky/gravelly points are needed. I am by no means the expert on Loz that wrench is, so he would know the best. If a contract with the Feds were signed I wonder about the USFW service becoming involved. They are always worried about sturgeon on big rivers and water flow rate and crap for a fish no one targets. I know the walleye I have caught there are absolutely packed with fat. I believe with the right guys looking for them it is a sleeper lake for an absolute giant. August always seemed good for me to catch bigger ones however, you can only fish them early in the morning before the lake goes nuts. I always fished the niangua arms for them. I definitely enjoy catching the walley there as it saves me about a1-1.5 hour drive in comparison to running down to bull shoals.

The walleye are in their post spawn gorging stage. The water temp is currently good as well. Working the banks with a crank you should have no problem catching multiple eyes. My best Missouri eye of 10pounds came out of that lake although I have lost a couple much larger ones from bull shoals. It is definitely a neat time of year to fish them in lake of the ozarks. A guy I know had one that was 13.75 pounds a couple of years ago. There are some big ones you can catch if targeted correctly. I strongly agree on the Ameren deal. it has got to hurt future fish generations.

I hope one doesn't mind me piggybacking this read...I have 5 large tackle boxes full of tackle from my grandfather whom had passed. I really started looking through some of it while reminiscing. Some of the stuff has not been taken out of the packages. Old zorro spinnerbaits, daredevil spoons, old rapalas, lazy Ike's and all the old good stuff when nothing was over about a $1.50. There is about 10 or so brand new balsa bagleys. I don't bass fish at all with the exception of smallies. Daredevils I can use up north for pike. But the bagleys kind of leave me scratching my head. Do you bass guys still use baits like this? What are the old ones worth if anything? Enlighten me. I'll attach a couple of pictures as example of a couple of them. Thanks gents for any info..