Biglerma

Me and dad have been doing this trip for 28 years (I post every year on it).... This year's weather was THE WORST! The cold front Thursday and Friday was miserable with the cold wind, rain, white caps on Friday. But we still managed to catch some monster slabs. Thank goodness for electronics. I brought my boat this year which has the ulterra and a helix 9 on the front and bow. As you can see by our clothes, we were cold as hell. Saturday we caught the biggest stringer of crappie we've ever caught at Table Rock. The picture makes me sad cus it just doesn't do it justice AT ALL but every fish was 13.5 inches or bigger with most being 14-15.5 with the big momma measuring out at 16 inches. They just look so small in the pics but boy were they huge and we were proud of that stringer! Dad caught a nice bass on a light crappie pole which was fun. I also posted a pic of some slabs next to a 10 inch fish so yall could see the size comparison. Used white marabou jigs and minnows. Big fish were deep but I imagine they have moved up by now with the warm days. WT was 65 up the kings our last day fishing on Saturday. First for me on the rock - had an otter hanging out below the dock eating the fish I had cleaned. Got a cool video of it on my phone but can't figure out how to upload it here. Good luck this week to all. We had several bass bedded below our dock which is on the main lake in shell knob. Should be spawning here any time. This post has been promoted to an article

Had 3 LM on beds under our dock, which we are on main lake past shell knob bridge there. One was a nice fish about 3 lbs I would say.

Wow I had no idea, thanks for letting me know. Sure hope his wife gets through it all alright.

Anyone know if Dave still makes these? Or how to get some? I tried to PM him but I think his inbox was full. Was needing to get some more as I ran out of my last one. Looked online for some similar jig heads but I still like his the best. Any help would be appreciated! Mark

A good friend of mine was looking at taking a family vacation to the lake and was asking if I knew of any good guides in the area. I normally fish Table rock and know several good guides there but was hoping some of the folks on this forum could help point my friend in the right direction. Which striper guide would you recommend? Are there any guides for walleye or bass on the lake? Thanks, Mark

What a week... Day 1 started out first cast with my fav reel not working (worked fine the other day!) Day 2 the bow fish finder stopped working. Day 3 the trolling motor broke and my cranking battery went dead (even though I have solar panels which come to find out were installed on the wrong dang battery). Thank goodness the trolling motor busted at 3 pm on Day 3. We had 21 crappie in the live well with 7 over 14 inches. Fished Thurs/Fri/Sat for crappie up the kings... this has been an annual deal with my dad since I was probably 7 or 8 years old (nearly 30 years now). Fishing was good with all of the larger females still out deep in 7-8 ft down on timber in 20-30 ft of water. Males were moving shallow with a few here few there kinda thing. Limited out day 1. Few short of a limit on day 2, same deal on day 3. Caught 6 crappie that weighed 2 lbs over the 3 day trip with several others in the 1.5-1.9 range. Was tough to get one much over 2lbs. I did lose one that I think might have gone 2 1/2 maybe 2 3/4. Love those huge Table Rock Slabs! I chose to spend most of the time finding and fishing the deep trees vs throwing the bank like everyone else as the shallow bite wasn't really on yet. With the water level being 915 a lot of my fav trees are under water and were tough to find. Day 2 when my bow fish finder went out it made life much more difficult. The other one worked and had my way points so I could still get in the vicinity of my trees, just took more casts/etc to find em. Water temps 64-66.5 last 2 days. My guess is this weekend the shallow bite will be on fire. Now I get to take the boat in to have it worked on.... BOAT = Bust Out Another Thousand. Mark This post has been promoted to an article

Aunt sent me these pics this morning. Uncle had to use a tube to float out to move the dock in.

I have a minn kota Ulterra on my boat. I have fished in 0 wind up to 25 mph gusting to 40 and I feel the GPS lock performs better with a little wind. I would say the 7' lock is about right on my boat. The Ultrex may be a little different but so far I have been very satisfied with my Ulterra. My Ulterra uses any force needed to hold and lock me on that spot. Last Saturday me and my wife were fishing in 15-20 mph wind. I wanted to fish a boat ramp on this lake I fish. We locked it in and both just stood on the back of the boat casting at the boat ramp while the motor held us in position. The motor found the optimal speed to hold the boat right on, adjusting at times for gusts.

Best part is I have a trip planned with Babler in May (taking my mom) and you KNOW I'm wearing that hat!

You're all welcome. Really had a great time. Glad you all enjoyed the post.

Annual weekend trip with my dad to find some slabs... Friday March 31st - cold as hell! Went to 2 of our normal honey holes without a bite. Didn't catch our first fist until about 10:30, which was a nice 13 inch black crappie that came off of pole timber. (We had been fishing too shallow). Proceeded to hit a brush pile after that where we pulled in 5 fish, lost another 2. One of which was a 14.5 inch fat female. We fished hard hitting deep trees as we couldn't find fish shallow that day. Ended up with only 14 but we only had one fish that was under 12 inches. All of the rest were in the 12-14 inch range with two fish measuring in at 14.5 inches. Water temps 57-58. It was one of the nicest stringers of crappie we've had off the lake in a long time. The picture just doesn't do it justice! Females on trees 6-8 ft down in 20+ foot of water. Saturday April 1st - went back to the same tactics hitting deep trees and finding the big fat females. Ran clear up the river and found one spot where the males were almost on the banks and we proceeded to catch about 15 nice ones out of there. Didn't catch our limit but we were ok with that. On the way back in we decided to hit one of our favorite trees for the 2nd time that day. Earlier we did not catch a fish off of it but my dad had a good feeling so we pulled in. I put on the biggest minnow in the bucket and dropped him down. 2 seconds later my line was tight with a huge 16 inch crappie. It had me wrapped around the tree and I had to stretch my rod out to try to unwrap the fish. Finally we got her up and in the net. What a beast! Personal best for me! Great way to end the day. Females still on trees, males off the bank 7-10 ft down. Ended with 27 I believe.. Water temps as high as 61.7 Sunday - Went back to where we found them close to the banks. Started off slow with only 3 fish out of the spot. Moved a bit and found some more. Had a good day fishing and we were close to our limit but said good enough and came in. On the way back in we stopped back at our favorite tree where I had caught the 16 inch crappie on Saturday. No bites on that tree but we hit the tree next to it and wham.. another 16 inch crappie! Dad was jealous as I caught both of the big ones. Ended with 26 fish. Water temps little cooler at 60.2 On the way back to the dock my dad got another one of his feelings so we pulled over to a couple deep trees near the island by the white/kings mouth. Dropped on the first two.. nothing. The third one I got a hit.. set the hook and drag just started screaming off my crappie rig. I fought the fish for a good 30 seconds not being able to turn him at all. Finally got me wrapped in the tree and got off. Figured it was a nice bass but never got to see it. So that was the end to our trip. Was great and we ended with a nice mess of fish for the frying pan. -Mark

Yeah I've been there 3 times. Caught some absolute monster bass out there, but this was about 10 years ago that I had my last trip. My dad lived in McAllen TX for a while which is in driving distance so we would go when I would come down to visit. Dangerous place for sure.

Good to know. Yeah we fish Kings and White.

I wonder why Stockton, Truman and LOZ are so much better for crappie compared to TR then? I know both of those lakes, especially LOZ have a ton of fishing pressure also.

Yeah usually we do the 3rd weekend of April, but with this warm weather I think the crappie spawn will be over by then. I don't mind sharing the lake with bass fisherman. I bass fish myself, just not during crappie season. I prefer to fill the freezer this time of the year.

Looking at the forecast for the next 15 days..... pretty darn warm! Right most water temps I've read about were 50-51-52 etc. How quick do you think the water will hit 60 degrees? I'm coming down this weekend and also April 1-4th to chase some crappie with my dad (our annual trip deal). Hopefully they will be on the banks but its always a crap shoot, especially this year! We moved our trip twice due to the unusually warm temps this spring. Also if anyone has any tips on how deep the crappie are right now that would be awesome. I've read the posts on here which have provided some insight. I fish up the Kings mostly since we have a place in shell knob. Thanks everyone!

Curious, what was the water temp?

Thanks for posting your report

I prefer live worms over plastics. I haven't had a problem having fish swallow the worm although I'm sure they would if you give them time to eat.

Nice work!

When I was down over memorial day top water bite was great in the morning and only lasted for 30-45 minutes in the evening. I say go early if you want top water.

Thanks everyone for the nice replies! A great time was had by all!

First off thanks to everyone on the forum including Mr. Bill Babler for the tips/etc via threads and PM's on how to fish grubs, neds, and everything in between. Sorry for the late post, been out of town. Went down to Shell Knob Friday before memorial day after work and fished Sat/Sun/Mon morning before heading home. Yes the boats were everywhere but the bite was really good Sat & Sun and slowed down a bit Monday morning due to the rising water and poor clarity/trash in the lake. Saturday morning I fished with my best friend Brian who was also down at his house as well. We pulled up to our first spot and the top water bite was insane. I wish I had been counting but I'm guessing between 30-40 fish by 8:00 with a decent grub bite after that. Several 15 inch spots with a couple nice LM's. Most fish caught on a 90 series WP in monkey butt color and a 3/16 oz jighead with a keitech 3.3 in Tennesee shad (was the only color cabelas had left in KC). Sunday morning I was fishing by myself. I had 26 fish by 8:30 with several really nice ones. I caught an absolute stud 18 inch spotted bass on top water as well as a nice 17 inch smallie. Also had a bonus short walleye that was released back. Sunday evening I took my two cousins out to show them something new. Previously all they ever do is drop shot since they don't have much fishing experience nor the tackle/gear to do much else. We went from point to point and my cousin Kristina caught a nice white bass, with the very next cast landing her a monster LM, the biggest fish she's ever caught. Later that evening we hit another point and my cousin Steve caught 2 fish on one WP which was awesome. The bite really only lasted 45 minutes but I would say we had 20-25 fish and that isn't bad considering this was the first time these two had ever thrown top water or swim baits. Monday morning went out again and Kristina caught another stud LM on top water and that day the SM showed up in force! She caught her first SM ever that morning as well. We must have caught 10-12 SM's on top water, all small but boy they are fun. The bite really only lasted 2 hours before slowing down. We had a great time and it was my very first time "seriously throwing" a swim bait and by god we caught fish on it! Thanks again, Mark