MstStudent10

Most of us probably take this for granted as we already do it, but u never know, some people may not know to do this. NEVER throw a Redfin with the stock hooks it comes with. Replace with sticky sharp Gamakatsu or Mustad trebles. Night and day difference when it comes to hookups.

A lot of people have been wondering why Table Rock has been fishing extremely bad lately... Here's something to consider, Maybe Mother Nature just has to balance herself out, like EVERY other thing out there in the world you have up swings, down swings, and sometimes a few outlyers on the extreme ends of both sides... So the fall fishing is bad, let's not forget what everybody was reporting earlier this spring. I believe I remember Mr Bablers word saying In all his years on the Rock he had NEVER seen it as good for catching Smallmouth. We were all going out everyday and dragging that tube around and it was almost hard not to catch a Smallie over 15". Reason I bring this up, A lot of times we as people, especially Americans, forget what we truly have. Its tough out there, but not that long ago it was amazing as ever, and it's going to get back to that point. I just recently had to move away from the Ozarks to the East Coast for a job. At 23 yrs old, I've spent my whole life around the Springfield/Branson area growing up fishing Table Rock, Bull, Stockton, etc and have an undescribing love for my home waters... This has been one of the hardest times of my life leaving home and my family and Even with this Horrible fishing at Table Rock, I feel like I'd do anything to be out on that water again.

This past summer Bass Pro Shops in Springfield carried yellow magic poppers. Not the best color selection thou.

Awesome fish!!! For comparison, this Spring in TX I caught a "Florida Strain" bass that was 26" even with a 19" girth. She weighed 10.75 lbs on an exact digital scale. This was pre-spawn also and she had eggs, and like I said, a FL strain. With yours a Northern strain and a girth of 16.25 with no eggs, I'd say Chunk Rock is prolly pretty close with the guess of around 9 lbs... Had you caught her in late winter/early spring when she was a fatty and had eggs, I'd bet you would have joined the Double Digit club. That is a great catch man!!

I've had the best luck with spooks and 'walk the dog' style of topwaters around TRL than I have poppers. Especially around shallower banks, or brush lines, or down the sides and inside of dock stalls. The best places I've had luck with poppers seem to be rocky areas right next to the bank while also being deep water, i.e. Rocky bluff banks.

Yes all of the fish were suspended. All the docks that I fished I stayed in about 32 feet and deeper. And worked my spoon in the 20' to 30' range. Usually when there is a thermocline present, it bunches the majority of fish to the 28'-35' area, and you can specifically work that depth and catch bass on a ton of docks. Being in the lower lake area, I focused on DEEP docks in clear water for suspended fish, so I wasn't marking brush under the docks... I know of more docks with brush piles under them further up lake around Kimberling and into the White and James, and that is a VERY good way to catch some nice fish when there is a defined thermocline that concentrates the fish. If you know the thermocline is at 32 feet, then look for docks that have some brush under them that is about 32'-38' deep and BOOM sweet spot. It's like the cover on top of cover concept except in this case it's cover on top of shaded dock on top of "magic depth of thermocline". Good Luck!

Fished Saturday from about 630am to noon, from State Park to Indian Point. Spooned deep docks. Had around 15 bass, about a half half mix of largemouth and spots. The first big deep dock we fished, caught all but 2 of our fish on it. We just kept going back and forth around it and every pass hook up with one or two. About 830 900 the bite started slowing down. Moved around to some other docks and only caught two more largemouth, a double on the same spoon, in about 80 ft of water. One of em was a decent one bout 3 lbs and the other smaller. Only 3 keepers outta the 15. I didn't graph a lot of shad, and didn't really see any SURE signs of a thermocline. Not sure if it is that the spoon bite just died everywhere around 9, or if we just lucked onto a big school by that first dock, and they're scattered everywhere else... Either way, the spoon bite isn't what it should be this time of year. Fun day thou, anchored by the 21 gills my brother and dad caught drop shorting pieces of crawlers down about 15feet. Good fish fry tonight!!!

Thanks guys. Gonna see how the spoon bite is going around docks tomorrow from the dam to Kimberling. Hopefully can find some bunched up. Will report back.

Has the thermocline developed around the dam area yet this year? Has the decreasing of the lake level had an effect on the formation of a thermocline or prevented it from forming altogether? Thanks!

The REAL reason KVD runs a Nitro?.... I can't imagine it is because Bass Pro is a HUGE sponsor of his... I'm sure it's in his contract somewhere... "We sponsor you and give you anything, and you run our boat..." If he goes with a different boat, he loses Bass Pro Shops, only his biggest sponsor... I loved the time one of the Nitro reps at BPS tried to sell us on Nitros.. He said, "You know Nitros are number 1?"... I asked "Number one in what category exactly?"... "Bass fishing" is what he replied..and that was it...no other arguments about performance, ride, affordability, customer service... Nope... Just "Bass Fishing"... I chuckled and that was that..

Me and my little brother fished a tourney Friday night, I have about the same thing to report. We did manage to catch 8 with one keeper, All but 1 of those fish came before it got dark. We got them all on 7 or 10 inch worms on the steep side of mainlake chunk rock points. Fished isolated timber on a huge flat also before dark, where I had some decent ones the week before, NADA not a bite. My friend also fished the tourney using worms through brushpiles, didn't have one bite all night. There were 2 sacks of 22+ lbs weighed in, with everyone dropping WAY off after that. Heard talk that the big ones were coming off Deep Humps. I guess I need a better graph...

Bill, were u still fishin the gravel stuff that u have been lately? Or more bluffends, channel swings? Ledges? Thanks, I appreciate it!

It does hang on the side wall pretty close to my bed, and to be fair, this is far from the first time that I've done weird "sleep walking" types of things. But This is by far the funniest and most extreme thing so far. Most of the times I will just wake up in weird places like the floor, or lying on the stairs, or in one case on top of my nightstand/dresser thing. These things happen a couple times a year lol.

You may believe this, you may not. At around 4am this morning I awoke feeling uncomfortable. I was lying on my back with my arms around something. The "something" was my fish mount! The 8 lb bass replica mount and driftwood from OFF MY WALL. I have NO clue as to how this happened. Being extremely tired and confused, I just leaned over and set it on the floor beside my bed. Later this morning when I awoke, I looked down and sure enough there it is. All I could think to myself was "Wow, That Really Happened..." The best part is that after careful inspection this morning, THANKFULLY, there's no visible damage. So has anything like this ever happened to any of u guys, or do I just love bass that much?

Last week around Masters it was 81.5

Sons creek is the place to be around the beginning of June, especially when the water is up in the bushes, u picked a good area. Should be a great flipping bite going on, as long as they don't drop the lake this week.. Keep an eye on the lake level starting today if u haven't already done so. If they drop it, it can kill the flipping bite. Pull out and fish a Carolina rig or drag a football jig on points. Don't forget the buzzbait in the morning around the bushes and laydowns, and if it's rainy or cloudy all day, which it might, I prolly wouldnt put the buzzbait down all day.

Does anybody know what the results were for the Heartland this past weekend? Thanks!

Oh there's definitely calm days on Stockton... I think I remember one, oh... back in '99 or so... : ) anyway yeah, that lake is a wind tunnel.

Big jigs and big worms through and around deeper brushpiles. If water is up (which it prolly will) flipping bushes and laydowns will also produce nice fish. In dirtier water bass will still be in less than 5 ft of water, as long as there's something to provide shade. That dirtier water will be more on the bottom half of the lake in either leg. Don't count out spooks and squarebills.

Could u guys let us know what the wat temps are at fellows? Thanks guys!

I'll piggy back your report since mine pretty much mirrors it. First off, thanks to everyone giving reports on here that got me to go out and commit to a weekend of smallmouth fishing. Took my 10 yr old brother and 13 yr old sister and we had a BALL! Smallmouth fishing was great, it was the kind of fishing u hope for when u take kids out. Fished the afternoons of both Saturday and Sunday from about 11 to 5 each day. Fished from State Park up to Indian Pt. Surface temps ranged from around 61.5 to 66 throughout the weekend. We had around 20-30 bass each afternoon with about 10 keepers each day. Mostly all of them were smallmouth. Focused mainly on secondary points or smaller points around the main lake cuts. Kept the boat in 30 to 38 ft of water and worked our baits through the 15 to 25 foot zone. Green pumpkin tubes and Carolina rigged centipedes in watermelon whatever color. We used 3/8 oz to 1/2 oz jig heads in order to keep the tube on the bottom being that deep and that windy. Just crawl that thing along down there and they were gobbling it up!! Great time!

15.15 took first on the boater side and 11.35 on the co angler side at Bull Shoals.

Thanks for the report! We all appreciate it!

Also, don't get stuck on just keying on the secondary points. Go in a creek arm, and then find a cove or "smaller creek arm" that is inside that "big creek arm" and start fishing the back of that cove and work your way back out until u reach that secondary point. And the shallower sloping banks will prolly be more productive. Hope that made sense.

Don't know a ton about crappie fishing right now, but if she starts getting too bored, put her on a finesse worm on a spinning rod and let her catch some bass. A 3/16 to 1/4 oz shaky head with a green pumpkin or watermelon candy Zoom finesse worm, you can also simply Texas rig it with a lighter bullet sinker and worm hook.. Whether or not the bass have spawned or not, there's still a TON of buck bass swarming around in the shallows. Go into one of the creeks (Maze, Turkey, Sons, Price) and fish secondary points. Key in on gravel, like gravel points, or where chunk rock changes to gravel. Have her toss that finesse worm out and SLOWLY DRAG it back. The gravel makes it easy to drag. When I take my gf out and am only concerned with numbers, I'll do this and it's not uncommon to catch 30+ bass in a day, Especially in May. Use Good SHARP shaky head hooks as this style of bass fishing doesn't require her to set the hook. U just reel down and load up on the bass and the sharp thin hook sets itself with the weight of the fish. This is a good thing, at least for my girlfriend, because when she gets a bite the last thing on her mind as she frantically starts reeling in is "setting the hook". Good luck either way with whatever u decide to do.