stock jockey

Top water on main lake and secondary points, blade deep in coves.

Fished from point 10 to Kimberling City today. 7am-2pm. Used top water in the wind and a red and white spinnerbait in the coves. caught about 20, with nine keepers. Best five weighed over 17 pounds! What a great day!

7.56

I will add something here. I think that it is important to have a few rods for your lure: jig rod (Falcon LFC-5-1610 Lowrider Casting 6'10" Eakins Jig special 10-20Lb). This is by far the best jig rod for the money. It is about $120.00 Crank bait rod (Wright & McGill Skeet Reese Signature Series Tri-Gressive™ S-Glass Crankbait Trigger Rods). This rod has the right parabolic action for cranking. It is about $80.00 Top Water (Cabela's Fish Eagle® XML Casting Rod). This is a graphite rod with great sensitivity for the money. In there bargain cave right now for $69.99-normal price is $130. Hope this helps. David

I have fished with many reels. I would only use a Johnny Morris from Bass Pro. I have bought one from Bass Pro and the rest off of ebay. I love the reels. I can fish for 4 days in a tournament and never backlash. My partner complains because he can not get to the shore. My Johnny's cast further than any other reel I have used. I can not tell the difference from the reels I bought on ebay. You can get them on ebay for about $40-$50. Good luck....

I have a question for you regulars. I fish the rock aprox. 3 times a year. You all seem so uptight about cleaning a few bass. I was down a few weeks ago, in a little tourney. Any bass of any size died due to being caught deep. I have never understood why it is normal to eat walleye on the rock, but a disgrace to eat bass. The bass significantly out number the walleye. I know that bass fishing has become a craze and that there is a lot of money in it. However, I feel that it is somewhat silly the attitude that many have on the lake. We took second in the tourney (it was just 7 boats) we caught 6 keeper fish in 3 days. That is 2 guys fishing over 20 hours each, and we caught 6 fish we could clean. Two were cleaned due to dying (needed fizzing and did not know how to do it). Please explain to me why this logic prevails. Thanks,

I have a question about getting help from one of the guides down at the 'rock'. I have a humminbird 998 on the consul of my boat and a humminbird 898 on the bow of the boat. I have got the side imaging down great. I can see the down imaging great also, but I can not see the bait when trying to drop shot. What I am looking for is a guide to help me get the electronics adjusted to be able to drop shot. Also I was hoping to get locations that are with in 15 miles of Aunts Creek that would be great to fish. I only get to make it down twice a year and just have not had luck in finding good 'blue bird skies' locations. I would be willing to pay for this information. Thought it would make the next trip more fun. Thanks.

Wanted to give an update to my brothers and my fishing report. My brother and I came down this weekend. Thursday: Arrived after 2pm and fished until about 5pm. Worst time of day. Not one bite. Friday: Fished from 6:30am until 4:00pm. Caught only 5 fish between us. However, 3 were of good size. 3# Smallie, 3 1/2# Spot, and a 2 pound Smallie. Caught the smallies swimming (slowly) a PBJ Jig. Caught the Spot very deep with a spoon. Saturday: Fished from 6:30am until 4:00pm. Caught about 6 between us. 2 were keepers each about 2# each. About 1/2 were caught on a spinner bait 1/2 were on a PBJ Jig. Sunday: Fished from 6:30am until 11:00am. Caught about 8 fish. only one was a keeper at 15 1/2 inches, caught on a PBJ jig. caught one 14" spot on a wiggle wart, rest were caught on jig or spinner. It was a tough weekend to catch fish. I wish the top water would have been on. It was not at all where we were fishing. The cold front may have made things more difficult. We both had a great time enjoying the beauty of the Rock and are all ready looking forward to coming back.

I did not mean to start a fight, was just looking for some help. I have a specific question for electronics. I just installed a humminbird 998c on the front of my boat and have a humminbird 898c at the steering wheel. I also have a 797c on the steering wheel so I can get depth when driving. (If anyone is interested in buying the 797c please let me know) The transducer for the 989c is a trolling motor transducer that I swapped with humminbird. The transducer for the 898c is on the transom, and is the one that came with the unit. What settings should I have for the following situations: on the steering wheel when cruising past a bank to get what is under the water. On the bow when fishing the bank with the trolling motor. and, on the bow when I am trying to drop shot. I would appreciate any help I could get. Thanks, Please PM me with and details. I will be fishing there in 10 days. Thanks Again.....

I am heading down to the lake in a few weeks. Was looking for some help from you folks who life down there. I am coming down with my brother and would love to catch some nice bass. I will be near KC area. Thanks for any advise.

I just spent the holiday weekend down at the lake. We stayed at Bavarian Village. I was very disappointed with the resort. The owner was short and unfriendly. We rented a 3 bedroom condo and it was not as described. I was told all cabins had water view. Ours did not. The roads were horrible. They did not have any store. Did not even sell ice. I wish we had stayed at Holiday Hideaway Resort. The owners are so nice. Sorry Carl and Sue. Thought this post would be a great idea so someone like myself would have good choices when coming down. Thanks, David

one last comment from me: * Genesis 9:3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

What did you catch them on?

Sorry to add to this but I can't help it. I think that we all go through life and think of what is important to us. It is sad how selfish everyone is. I have only been in the bass fishing sport for a few years. Table Rock is my favorite place to fish. It is also the hardest lake I have ever fished. The reason I like it so much is because of many things, the challenge to catch fish, the beauty of the lake, the time with family, the list goes on and on. To my point, when I first went fishing it was exciting to be able to feed my family with what I caught. I originally kept any size bass. Now I only keep bass that are in the 13" - 16" length. (I fish other lakes than TR) Most times when I go fishing I do not keep any, however, I will say that I have a fish fry for my family once or twice a year. When my kids go fishing we keep their fish and cook them that night, almost like a ritual. (they have not caught any over 18") I do agree that this ritual is a big part of it for them. There are not many things that gives this father as much happiness as seeing one of my kids reeling in a fish. I do make it a point to C&R at TR. Why are you all so full of anger and judgement? There are so many other things in life to worry about. A friend of mine was diagnosed with a brain tumor Friday. That makes this all so trivial... one last thought I am a Christian man and I have a few for each of you. * Matthew 7:1 NIV "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. * Mark 12:31 NIV 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

Over the winter I bought a new in the box, sealed 1197 for about $2200. It works great and paid no sales taxes. It has been the biggest purchase online ever. However, no regrets.

Due to a limited budget I bought the falcon special low rider. Thanks for all your input. David

What about the falcon bucoo jig rod.

I am looking for a casting rod that will be best for a 3/8 or 1/2 jig and pig. I use 8# or 10# fluro with my casting rods. (I use mono for zara spooks) Thanks for all the input. David

I wanted to get some feedback from you all. I have been fishing for about four years now. I have learned many different ways to catch bass. My biggest struggle is to feel the bite with the jig and pig. I am in the market for a rod that will give me the best feel. Not really sure what to buy. So I thought I would open a topic to get some feedback. Thanks, David

I would agree with you normally, however, I discovered the pattern quickly reeling back full size zara spooks. The fish are very aggressive right now. Maybe from prespawn or post spawn. Not sure. I can tell you that I would fish bigger in the morning on the top water. Then, if it is high skies to go smaller.

I just finished spending 4 days on the 'rock'. It is the most beautiful lake I have ever fished. It is also one of the most difficult. I agree with what all said above, however I will tell you what worked for me and my partner this weekend. Thursday: Arived at 3pm and fished in Aunts Creek for about 1 hour before We spent the rest of the time getting my hummingbird 1197 tuned in to the lake. It was high sunny skies. We threw a 5" single tail hula grub on a 3/8 ounce round football jig (painted white). Caught 3 fish in that hour. (A 3# small mouth and 2 spots that were about 12"). Friday: Tried the same and we only caught about 6 fish and one was a 16" spot. It was also high sunny skies. Saturday: Had cloud cover all day and we decided to change things up. I had been told by 3 different people that top water was not working yet. Was told that if you use it to go slow, slow, slow. We threw zara spooks and did great. We caught about 20+ fish but only had 2 keepers. had many of the fish just knocking the lure with there head. Today: only fished for about 4 hours and after about 3 hours I switched over to a 6 inch 3 jointed swimbait that looked like a shad. fisherman's series from cabelas. I switched over because we had 2 strikes on the fast part of the retrieve close to the boat. This bait was the ticket. I wish that I would have discovered this pattern on Friday. I actually caught a 8" bass on a 6" lure. They definitely liked the very fast movement of the swim bait. Had 4 keepers today. All in all we had a great 4 days on one of the most amazing lakes in America. Caught about 40 fish total. Hope someday I catch the 'big one'. ------------------------------------------------ We fished from Kimberling City bridge to Aunts Creek. Mostly Aunts creek. Lots of boats were there but had the best luck there also. Release all fish unharmed. I have to say there were alot of people fishing the beds.

thanks for the pointer on the breakers.

Here is an update: Went to boat shop today and they ran a few tests. The did a test on the batteries with a load and they tested good. The checked the amperage on the system and it worked fine. The technician said that the MotorGuide must be failing. I am working with Cabelas right now to get the motor replace. Please give me input to let me know if you think it could be anything else. Oh, and I bought 20 foot of 8 gauge wire to wire directly to the batteries if the problem continues. Thanks, David

Went fishing today with my 2 boys and and my sons friend. I was fishing in illinois, however I was hoping to get some help from some of you here. I was in a lake that was 25 horse power or less. I could not get the kicker to get in gear so I had to troll the whole time. To the Point: The wind was high so I had to use the trolling motor on high about half the time. The other half of the time I had the trolling motor on half speed. I have a motor guide 71# thrust 24 volt trolling motor. I replaced the entire set up over winter. Two new batteries, new charger and new trolling motor. After about 2 hours the motor was very slow. It never stopped going though. I figured one of the batteries was bad. After a 2 hour drive home I checked the batteries with a meter and both were still solid. Was getting 23.7 volts? What would have caused this. At one point I was high for about 10 minutes to get across a section of the lake. Any help would be very appreciated. Thanks, David

I have broken a few and shimano is amazing with there warranty policy. Never a problem. In fact they have substituted 2 of my rods for a different model. Thanks for the advise on the Skeet rods. I saw them but they said graphite. Thanks, David