jeb

Wife and I went out and watched the weigh in for a while. Lots of 11-14 lb bags of 6 fish being weighed. Saw that 6.40lber get weighed, too. BIG fish! Several over 5, too. Almost a 3lb per fish average for the winners. Incredible!

Great to see you're still fishing with the family. That's awesome. And congrats on a good day of fishing!

I have both the JM Gold and Curado 200E7 in my boat and use them often. Both have been in use for 9+ months, fishing usually 3-4 days a week. Not a single issue with either. The Curado is a little easier to palm, if that's important to you. I think the DBS on the gold gives it more range of application. Works better for smaller baits, for example. The chrome finish, like my Calais DC, is cold in the hands on a cold day, though. And I did switch out the knobs on the gold for EVA ones included with the reel. I couldn't get used to the finned ones. But if I were buying another baitcaster in that price range, like Quillback, I'd for sure pick another Revo Premier (2010 version only, 10 bearing model). Fantastic reels that are way underpriced for the value. I have 4 of them now and prefer them to my Core 50MG7, Curado and JM gold. Just a super light, super smooth, very strong drag and very versatile reel.

Hope you did well. I'm finding temps in the 42-45 range in the mid-lake area right now.

I've only live here 5 years, but the water is not nearly as low right now as it was the first 2-3 years we were here. I consider this level to be somewhere in the middle, I guess. Would not surprise me to see it drop 10 more feet. Or to see it fill up in a week. Just gotta' roll with it. But you guys have a great point about noting the structure while it's low. I've been doing that, too.

You're not going to be close to Beaver Lake coming down 71. You could either go out Hwy 12 to Prarire Creek Marina or out 264 to Hickory Creek. I know for sure PC has a fishing dock, but not sure about HC. If you come down Hwy 62 by going down through Monett (which is the way we always take up to Springfield from Rogers), you'll get pretty close to the dam and Lost Bridge areas where you can bank fish. I have no idea how the fishing would be at those areas since I don't bank fish. What time and day are you coming? I fish several days a week and might be willing to pick you up at a dock for a couple of hours of fishing.

I have one of the Gold reels. I like it pretty well. I've been fishing it for 7 months now and loaded it the FC line from the get go. Versatile reel that is a great flipping reel, too. I recently switched it over to mono for surface lures, and it actually seems much happier with mono. Throws popping type lures a mile with it on there. The chrome finish, heavier weight and chromed finish make if feel very much like my Shimano Calais DC. And like my DC, it's a COLD reel to handle on a chilly day, at least for the first few minutes after you pick it up. It is a good reel overall, IMO.

I saw a fair amount of shad breaking the surface yesterday once it warmed up in the late morning. I could see the bait balls rising up in the water column, too. They'd been down from 20-40' feet around PC, but were in the 10-30' range early yesterday, in the same places. Water temp got up to 62 from 59 in the morning. Black bass bite was pretty good yesterday. Finally.

Nice video, Sam. Looked like a great day! I did see a lot of fish up in Ventris today. Saw a striper guy out there fishing them, but did not see him catch anything. Not saying he didn't, I just didn't notice. I was busy drop shotting a few black bass into the boat at the time.

Just one? darn. I guess worms. But I tend to fish all of them on any given trip trying to figure out what they want. So it depends on the day, really.

Yeah, I've been a little disappointed with the fishing lately, too. I expected them to be feeding heavier. I keep hoping it'll pick up as the water continues to cool. I've had a couple of decent days lately, and some really slow ones. Water temp was 58-60 in the mid-lake areas. Been throwing spinnerbaits, square bill cranks, spoons, C-rigs on points, shakey head, jigs, topwater, suspending jerk baits, etc. Backs of coves, cove mouths, points, etc. Nothing is really producing big numbers for me. I see a lot of active fish in places, but hard to get them to bite. I wonder if there is just so much natural bait that they aren't chasing much? I've been charging HUGE bait balls, too.

After the south wind picked up yesterday morning, the eagles were out soaring. I saw one group of 3 mature bald eagles over Avoca Hollow. 2 of them were putting on quite a show, chasing each other around. Cool to see all of them right now. I know they over winter in big numbers over on Swepco Lake and I saw them almost everyday of my 2 months fishing in Wisc this summer. But I just never get tired of seeing them. Fishing was so-so. Biggest fish was a 2+lb spot, on topwater. Not exactly jumping in the boat.

Saw a lot of guys fishing for them around Prarire Creek Marina area this week. Not sure if they're catching anything. Shad are schooling big time in front of cove mouths in that area. Caught a few whites on spoons in that area, but I didn't fish for them real hard. Beautiful time to be on the lake with the leafs changing.

I was diving in Avoca Cove yesterday, and the lake had not turned over in there as far as I could tell. I have not been out to the main lake for a couple of days, though.

Thanks for the report, Jeff. I went out from 6-9am this morning in the Avoca cove area. Very little going on. Got only one fish, a 14" spot, and that was not until the sun came up. So tough bite. I'm thinking I'd have been better off out on some of the main lake points right away and wait to go back into the coves until the sun is up good. Oh well, some days are tougher than others, I guess. And this is a transitional period.

I'm not impressed. I'd have to drive right by the Rogers Hook, Line and Sinker to get there, and it is just not worth it unless it's for something HLS doesn't carry, which is only one item I've found so far. Prices do not seem any better and, as stated, they don't seem to really have any better selection of most things. Higher end reels are almost non-existent there, and higher end rods are non-existent. I'd rather help out the local folks anyway, so there will be pretty much no change in my buying habits.

Mostly spots. We had a couple of nice ones on, but they shook off before we could touch them. Otherwise, mostly 10-14 inch spots with a few LM mixed in.

Quillback/Jeff and I found the shad in the back of coves yesterday, too. We didn't catch any whites, but sure made a killing on black bass on topwaters.

I have no trouble seeing my HB screens with my polarized sunglasses on. I have been following a couple of HB forums for a couple of years now and have never read about that issue, so I guess they must have fixed it some years back. All you need to do to get the free updates is register your unit at their website. You don't have to be the first owner, show a receipt, etc. Just register, enter the serial number and download the update.

I saw a lot of surface activity in that arm when I was out on Wednesday. I launch out of that cove, so was just motoring to the trailer, not fishing in there. Can't say what they were as I didn't get a good look at any of them. Shad should be moving back into the coves, so it would not surprise me if the bigger fish were moving in there, too. Last year, the next cove up - Avoca - seemed to attract them more than PC.

HB makes some very nice units. And the fact that provide free updates for all this cool stuff, like Down Imaging ($600 on a Lowrance!!!), is just awesome. And on top of that, they have wonderful customer support. I've sure happy with my 798 and 997 units.

Thanks for the report. I'm headed out this morning to see how this cold front has hit my hot spots. But I'm ready to start following them back into the coves, if the fishing is not good on the main lake. I fear they may be starting to transition now, so it might be hard to find the quality fish for a while.

You'd think they'd do something like Cabela's does and have a "Bargain Cave" type of thing at some stores to get rid of those returns. It's obvious that some items in the Springfield outlet store are returned items, but it's mostly closeouts or discontinued stock from the main store. Odd they don't try to blow out more of the returned stuff.

I believe there is a mixture of each, refurbed and returned. They also have some new stuff in the cases by the front door. The reel I got was obviously a return. If it had been refurbed, it would not still have had a piece of fishing line stuck under one of the knobs.

They had one more right hander, and 3 more lefts. They had a couple of Diawa Steez reels at $320 before the 20% off, but they were both leftys. Whole bunch of others too, of course, but those are the ones I was interested in.