Biglerma

http://www.lostriverlures.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=748 Looks like you can buy those hoodler's still.

Sounds like a stellar day to me!

I fished this past weekend in SK and the best bait for me was a 3/16 oz shaky head with a green pumpkin 7" power bait worm. Boat was in 25 ft, threw to the bank. Did better around docks.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. As for the tacklebox, I agree but it is my dads. He has all those plugs in there for trolling because my stepmom loves to fish that way.

Yes we catch walleye under our dock every once in awhile. We have quite a bit of brush under our dock but no crappie were caught this weekend. Our dock only sits in about 18-20 ft of water though.

Took my girlfriend down to Shell Knob for the first time this weekend. First morning we got out there at 6 am, pulled up to a point that I have pretty good luck on with top water. My girlfriend is a skilled fisherman but she had not fished a redfin before. So I threw it out and was explaining how to reel it back and WHAM! First cast... keeper LM. After that she was eager to try, so she throws hers out there... fish comes up, swing and a miss! 2nd cast she stuck him, keeper spot. Her first one ever! We ended up catching 5 or 6 more. We had another boat pull up on the point with his wife and he was throwing a fluke and just absolutely hammering the fish. We watched him catch 15 in the time it took us to catch 5. We got to talking and he came over and gave us a few hooks/flukes and we gave it a shot, but let me tell you we couldn't buy a bite on one. He was just catching fish left and right and our boats were no more than a cast apart (which I didn't mind cus we were talking back n forth). We had several follow it and make runs at the bait but no takers. Finally I got discouraged and we left that point and went to throwing the wobble head. I didn't have any luck on it, and it wasn't due to lack of trying! I threw it quite a bit at some of my best spots and no takers. After an hour of throwing the wobble head I switched to a green pumpkin 3/16 oz shaky head and started catching fish. My girlfriend didn't want to throw the worm, instead she wanted to throw a bright pink worm (girls.. go figure) I said you'll never catch one on that... few casts later she proved me wrong. She threw that for a bit and caught 2-3 more fish, then she wanted to try a chartruese lizard. Again, you'll never catch one on that... and again she proved me wrong catching 3 fish on it! All this time I was also catching fish, but I was just shocked that the bright pink worm and lizard got a few bites. We fished til about noon on Saturday and then went out again that evening but the bite was much slower, only caught 3. I think this was due to the heavy boat traffic. Day 2 - Sunday - Went back to my top water point, caught some fish. Same guy was there throwing the fluke smashing the fish again. Again we tried, again we failed. I just don't have the touch for those flukes. We threw the shaky head and caught some good fish. We went into Mill Creek (Shell Knob area) and started fishing the docks on the right side. We would catch 2-3 fish per dock and I had one nice one that broke me off on the dock. Caught one 3 lb LM the rest were 1.5-2lb fish. We were past the docks fishing the bank and I asked her to grab map of the lake out of my dad's tackle box that was under the console. She pulled it up, opened the lid and there I had a ring box open, with the ring shining nice and bright. I took to one knee and asked my best friend to marry me in the same cove that my mother and father had shared so many great memories from before I was born. I landed a real goodun! To this day my folks still tell me fish stories about "mill creek" and all the monster slab crappies they used to catch there. After that we went back to the house and had lunch. The day got even better from here! We decided to drive up to Flat Creek south of Aurora and go wading. We got there and waded up stream away from the other people. We were throwing silver rooster tails. We must have caught 15 smallmouth with a couple being really nice ones! We would hook one and they would come flying out of the water! Such great little fighters. We caught a few goggle-eye and some sunfish, all fish were released. She had never caught a small mouth or goggle-eye before either. We came home, my family had some bubbly prepared for a toast. Great end to a great weekend. Mark Bigler Click Here for Slide Show - pics were too big to upload here. http://s852.photobucket.com/user/markbigler/slideshow/

Thanks guys for the replies and great info. I think I have everything I need to catch some fish with this bait!

Coming down to Shell Knob this weekend and was going to try the wobble head. Are there still a decent amount of fish being caught on it or are fish starting to transition to other baits? 2nd - Do you fish it more like a football jig or is it more of a steady retrieve bouncing the bottom every now and again? Lastly - what size head do you recommend and is there one specific plastic that BPS sells that you all recommend? (looking at all the diff plastics can just overwhelm you sometimes) Thanks guys as always.

Coming down to Shell Knob this weekend and was going to try the wobble head. Are there still a decent amount of fish being caught on it or are fish starting to transition to other baits? 2nd - Do you fish it more like a football jig or is it more of a steady retreive bouncing the bottom every now and again? Lastly - what size head do you recommend and is there one specific plastic that BPS sells that you all recommend? (looking at all the diff plastics can just overwhelm you sometimes) Thanks guys as always.

I think a decent amount of fish have already spawned out. When I was there 2nd weekend of April we absolutely smashed em on the banks (two 2 man limits 2 days in a row). Males and females were all in 3 ft of water or less and the eggs were runny when we cleaned them. I fish the shell knob/kings river side of the lake so things might be diff down on your end. My Aunt/Uncle/Cousins went out Easter weekend and caught a fair amount on the banks but it was winding down they said.

Had a great weekend with the old man. My dad flew up and met me in Shell Knob for what would hopefully be 4 fun filled days of crappie slaying! Well, with the weather we got 2 amazing days out of the trip and had a great time. We fished the Kings river up past Viola both days and fish were right up on the banks, limited out both days. We used the tried and true bobber and a minnow rig, with the minnow about 18 inches under the bobber. The fish were about half way backs in the coves and you if you could find a small cut with blown in debris in it you would be able to catch 5-10 nice fish it seemed. Day 1 we only caught one real big fish at 14.5 inches. It was a male black crappie in fine spawning colors. Day 2 we caught a few nice females with the biggest being 15 1/4 inches weighing right at 2 lbs and then a big male at 14.5 inches weighing 1lb 11 oz. The first day we only caught 2 shorts and the 2nd day we caught 5. All the fish were just nice 11-13inch slabs and we had only a couple that were in the 10-11 inch range. Water temps on Sat were 60-61, Sunday saw as high as 63.7. We never ran way up the river either, we stayed about 1-2 bends from Viola. Monday the front came through and it was colder than hell so we decided to fry up some crappie for dinner. Tuesday I stopped by Diamond Missouri and visited my grandpa and brought him a nice bag of fish on my way back home to KS. Funny story from the 1st day... we went into a cove and there was another boat in there throwing jigs at the bank. As we passed each other the guy up front says "You're a little young to be old man fishin aren't ya?". I said well, hard to change from what's working! We had 26 in the live well at that point and he said they had caught 6. I'll take "old man fishin" any day! First 3 pics are from Day 1(Sat), rest are from Day 2(Sun). Don't laugh at my hat from day 1 too bad. Please excuse the KU hat, I only wear it because I don't mind if it gets dirty!

Fished today pretty hard. Caught 25 crappie with 11 keepers. Biggest went 13 inches. Caught all black crappie except 2, which is very rare for me fishing past viola. Fish wanted a very slow presentation and would not touch a jig. We tried jigs for 2 hours without a bite. Switched to straight lining minnows over brush/trees and we would get bit, although the bite was light. Fish were 12-16 ft down in 20-30ft of water. Found one brush pile in 14 ft and caught a few shallow. Zero fish off the bank or anywhere near it. Today would have been easier if the front fish finder has been working. Had to rely on the console one. Have a 1 year old humminbird 898c that has only been used a handful of times. Just wouldn't turn on today. Even had sport boats come out to viola and meet me at the doc and they tested the power and it was getting powe. Unit just wouldn't turn on. Sigh. We made the best of it. Saw water temps as warm as 58.7 degrees. Going to hit it again tomorrow.

Read the posts bro.

Headed down today to Shell Knob. Going to try our luck with the crappie for a few days. Will fish Kings River mostly. We usually run up past Viola. I think I'm bringing the entire tackle store with me, so hopefully we can trick a few into biting. I have to scout the way as I have my dad and 83 yr old grandpa flying up from Mobile AL next weekend to do some fishing. My grandpa has owned our place in Shell Knob since 1972. I haven't had the chance to fish with him at Table Rock in years since he lives so far away and doesn't make it back very often. Hopefully we can find some fish and have a few laughs. I've been reading the crappie posts, but most are from the other end of the lake. If anyone has any tips on how deep the fish are or what they have been biting on to point us in the right direction it would be appreciated. Thanks! Mark

Nice post. How deep were the fish?

Thanks for your crappie reports. I'm coming down the 1st weekend of April to Shell Knob and hopefully the fish will be biting on that end of the lake as well. We usually fish way up the kings and do pretty well. I've been reading your reports, thanks for the great detail.

I'll second this. I've fished with Bill a few times and his knowledge and teachings are worth every penny. I've been fishing Table Rock for 25 years and I "thought" I knew what I was doing until I fished with Bill and realized how clueless I was. Now I go out and catch fish every time and I plan on booking more trips with Bill in the future as it has been a blast each time!

Hazbin - sent you a PM.

Thanks for the kind response. I never expected to get so much criticism by posting one of the best stories of my life on here. I liked this forum because everyone seemed to be very supportive and always shared what they were doing. After reading some of the posts I got on here it was pretty disappointing. I rarely post on forums for this very reason. I just didn't expect to find the same kind of things here. My dad has been fishing table rock since 1970 and he's caught some big fish out of there. We would rather fish The Rock any day of the week, but sue me for wanting to take a special trip once in a while to a unique place and have at least a chance at catching a monster. I guess I don't view it any different than paying some guide 3000$ to take you Elk hunting on a mountain side that has trophy elk, or paying to fly to Canada to have a chance at catching a monster small mouth. What ever happened to the saying - If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all? To those close minded fisherman out there, good luck to you. -Mark

It is very well managed. It is a catch and release lake and you cannot keep any fish over 18 inches. They also have some northern strain bass in the lake that are marked by having only one belly fin. You are not allowed to keep those either.

There are quite a few guys that fly fish for bluegill on that lake. The bluegill are so big you can filet them.

Just got back from my trip to Mobile AL. Weather was beautiful with 72 degrees on Sat and 75 degrees on Sunday. The fish had been out deep but the guy at the boat house told us that they had moved up between 4-8 ft of water. This lake isn't very deep, only 18 ft at the deepest part by the dam. Most guys on this lake throw soft plastics but we throw A-rigs.... everyday.. all day. We had been told that in January a guy had caught a 16 lb monster, only a few ounces from the state record. Needless to say our hopes were high that they would be biting. So we take the 12 ft aluminum jon boat with a 55 lb thrust trolling motor and away we go. We pull up to an island that usually has produced good fish in the past. We throw a A-rig with 1/16 oz heads and a white trailers with a yellow hue on the tops. After a couple dozen casts and no luck, we decide to move to this area that is nothing but submerged cypress stumps from when they made the lake. My dad catches a small 2.5 lb fish on his 2nd cast. After about an hour we had landed a few more in the 3-4 lb range. We moved into this cove and started throwing, really having to burn the A-rig to keep it from going to deep and snagging up. I threw over by this dock.. bam.. fish on, only to have him come off 3 seconds later. I threw back.. got struck again by a diff fish this time I believe. Again, he comes off. 3rd cast I reel it back to the boat only to have a solid 7-8lb fish side swipe it in full view literally 2 feet from the boat. After a dozen casts I couldn't ever get him to bite. So we moved on to this point up the lake a bit. We were throwing on some submerged stumps and I see a huge fish boil right up on the bank next to this stump that was sticking out of the water. I say "Hey dad, I just saw a huge fish boil there.. let's troll over and see if we can get him". Of course my dad is in the front of the boat so naturally he makes the first cast. The bait hits the water and 2 reels later he is hooked up. I could tell it was a big one because it wasn't coming up and it was running straight out to the side. It was pulling drag and after 8-10 seconds it comes up and tail walks.. we both start yelling and going crazy as it is the biggest bass we've ever seen. After a few more seconds it comes around to the other side of the boat and tail walks again. My dad is trying not to lose it. Finally we get it close and I lip it and pull it over. I'm pretty sure ever fisherman on the lake heard us yelling in excitement! It was my dad's biggest bass ever and it weight 11.3 lbs. What a monster and I'm so glad I got to see him catch it after all these years of fishing. The 1st day we only caught 8 fish, with 4 I believe being over 5 lbs. The 2nd day we caught 7 with 2 being over 5 lbs, the rest were 3-5lb range. You don't catch a lot on this lake, but with every cast you really do have the chance of hooking a monster! A funny part of the trip, at one point we were trolling into a cove and I said "dad, let's throw off that lay down tree over there". A few seconds later I realized I was looking at a 11-12 ft alligator! We asked the guy at the boat house and he said he was 12 ft and that they have been trying to catch him for a few years but he is smart and avoids their baits/traps. Some of you may ask why are we throwing A-rigs in such shallow water. Well, to be honest it is just because they flat out catch fish. We've thrown everything else in the box and nothing produces like the A-rig does on this lake. They have an abundance of shad which is probably one reason the A-rig works so well. All in all it was a nice trip with great memories. I was having trouble with photos being too large of file size so I posted them here. http://s852.photobucket.com/user/markbigler/slideshow/ The place we fished was Steelwood Country Club. Check out the website if you want. http://www.steelwood.us/

Yup will do, we always stop there at least once.

Going to visit the family this weekend down in Mobile. We fish a several hundred acre golf course pond down there with A-rigs (Steelwood Country Club, you can look it up online). They have little 12 foot aluminum boats they let you take out with trolling motors. The lake is only about 15 feet deep but it is nothing but cypress stumps cut off. Last time we caught a 10.5, two 8.5's, two 7's, and 6 fish between 6-7lbs in one day. Can't keep anything over 18 inches, so it is managed for trophy fish. Last week a guy caught a 14 out of there on the Rig so hopefully they are still biting when I get there. I'll post pics! I gotta take a break from this cold nasty weather!

Mine originates at Table Rock Lake actually. My family has had a house there since before I was born. I have a picture of me when I was 3 years old holding a perch that I caught on our dock (I'm 31 now). That old wood dock with the well house has since been replaced with a newer version but that house and section of the lake at Shell Knob has always been a special place for me. Every year as a kid I would look forward to coming down to Table Rock in the spring to catch crappie. Even though T-Rock isn't nearly as good of a crappie lake as others, we always did very well and I've got countless pictures of stringers full of monster 2lb slabs. Now days my family lives in Mobile Alabama and even though I can go down there and fish the golf course ponds for 10lb+ bass, I still love fishing The Rock over everywhere else! My great grandpa, my grandpa, my dad, myself, and my brothers have all had great memories from Shell Knob and Table Rock Lake!