T-RockJaws

Fished Kings River just above Viola last night for about 3 hours. I am guessing that the rain and heavy cloud cover allowed the fish to feed pretty much all day as they really did not want much to do with anything we tried to offer them. Probably should have tried a drop shot before dark, but did not. Pretty much stuck with big worms and salt craws all evening. We caught a couple of shorts and my partner hooked up with one that would have easily gone over 4 pounds, but it got off just before we got it in the boat. My partner did have a nice 3 pound large mouth on a spook early in the evening. Stars were out and it was a beautiful night even if the fish weren't biting all that well...

Fished a small club tourney out of Big M on Saturday. Surface temps ranged from 76 at blast off to 80 degrees at weigh in (2:00 pm). My partner and I took first place with 6 fish that weighed 11.07 pounds. Had some top water action early but my partner could not hook up with any size on top, just a short or two. We had to work really hard for the six keepers, only caught 10 fish all day. All of the keepers came on big worms in a purple color Texas rigged. Seemed like we could not hardly even get bit on anything else. On a side note, there were 29 fish weighed in on a very hot day with pretty warm water temps. Only 1 fish (not one of ours), was not able to swim away. We opened both sides of our live well numerous times throughout the day to make sure they were doing alright.

We tried to work up in the bushes some last night. Not much going on up there other than a little bit of a perch bite.

You might try a big worm texas rigged... I like blue fleck 10 inch worms after dark.

Fished out of the Big M area for a couple of hours last night. Pretty productive couple of hours though, we had 2 keepers and a few shorts. Got off the lake once the lightning got close. One keeper just before dark on big worm texas rigged, the other came at about the same time swimming a PB & J grub in about 18 feet of water. Did not see any fish surface on points so did not try any top water stuff. The grub fish went just over 4 pounds...

It has been about a week and a half since I have been below the Shell Knob bridge, but at that time there was still quite a bit of moss in the Campbell Point area. Would assume it is about the same in the KC area...

Fished out of the Big M area last night. It was a rather short trip, only fished for about 3 hours. Fishing was pretty slow before dark, not much top water action going on and only had a couple of fish hit a grub before dark. My partner had a 16 inch LM on a shaky head worm on a chunk rock bank at about dusk. That was pretty much it until well after dark. Started fishing some deeper water (boat in 35 plus feet of water) primarily throwing salt craws and the black and blue jig. We had very few bites, but the bites we had were good fish. Total, about 7 or 8 fish with 5 keepers. My partner had never caught a bass over 3 pounds on the lake. Last night changed all of that. He had 2 last night that were over 3 pounds with the best one going 5.1 pounds!

Heck, too many days are tuff on this lake for those of us who are not kids... Glad he had a good time!

Thanks guys for all of the input, I value your opinions. From here on I am going to put this behind me and just continue to do what I do! Redbud - Panther is one of my favorite areas, also catch several fish down around Johns Branch...

Nice fish! I had one Friday just shy of 5 pounds freshly spawned out...

Sorry it is a little late, but fished last Friday and Saturday out of Campbell Point. For me, it was 2 totally different days on the water. Friday wasn't a bad day with my partner and I catching about 15 to 20 fish. I had 3 keepers that were easily 10 pounds with the best one being 4.6 pounds. Most of my fish Friday came off of wind blown points using a spinner bait (blue herron shad color) in about 10 to 15 feet of water. We did have a few fish on grubs Friday as well. Could not get much action on any top water stuff we tried. Saturday was a little diferent story. We tried all of the same approaches that we used on Friday, just could not get on any fish. Worked really hard all day for 2 small keepers. Both keepers came on a grub (milky salt and pepper color). Did have a few fish bight on a hula grub, but no keepers. A friend of mine had 5 keepers the same day and said they all came on spinner bait in shallow water, pea gravel points. Hope this helps!

Let me start by saying I love to fish and have learned most everything I know by trial and error as well as being an avid reader of the posts here on OAF. In the past couple of years as I have started getting a little better at fishing, I have tried to start posting more when I thought I might have some good information to share. I truely owe a lot to all of the members here on OAF and hope that some of my posts might help out some beginners in the future. The only tournament fishing per say that I do is a small 2 company event that runs all summer long and tallies points for plaques to be handed out at the end of the year. We can weigh 6 fish per boat, but only 3 fish per person count towards the standings. On average we will have about 15 to 20 boats per tournament. The first year I fished it, I weighed very few fish and finished in the bottom of the pack. Last year and so far into this year, I have only missed weighing fish in 2 tournaments and usually weigh 3 fish each time out (sometimes only 2). I finished the season last year in second place and had a chance to win it all the way to the end. So far for this year I am hanging in to the top 5 and it is pretty tight for all of us in the top 5. I sincerely attribute all of this to time on the water and all of the fantastic reports I read on OAF. I have now heard that there is talk out there that some people think I am pulling baskets at our tourneys. This hurt pretty bad to hear as I am one of the most honest people you would ever meet. I even offer anything I can to help the next guy out. Heck, if I caught fish the day before and you asked I would tell you exactly where and how just in hopes you might catch some as well. I was just curious if anyone else has been faced with anything like this? And if so, how you dealt with it? Thanks again for all of the help from all of the wonderful contributors here on OAF!

You can just about bet the house that any time there are 2 or 3 threads on here talking about a particular bait, BPS will be sold out... Personally, I prefer the spook over the red fin. However, the red fin is much easier to use!

6 fish limit... The small company tourny I fish in is an all year thing where we keep points for awards at the end of the year. We allow 6 keepers or 3 per person which allows the same amount to each guy in the boat.

I was in BPS last Saturday and there wasn't a Red Fin to be found... That was okay since it wasn't really what I was in there to get. Maybe they have gotten re-stocked by now?

Sounds like our night last Friday as well. What bites I was getting on the jig were so light it was hard to get a good hook set... Missed about 3 quality fish due to it!

Fished a small bass club tournament that went out from the Shell Knob bridge this past weekend. We had a total of 16 boats with the winning bag being 18.02 pounds. My partner and I had 4 fish that went just under 8 pounds. Water temps were 64 to 70 degrees with most fish being caught on pea gravel points with C-rigs. There was one boat that reported catching most of their fish before dark on top water. For my partner and I, we worked the transition areas of chunck rock into pea gravel points. Had one small keeper before dark on this pattern with a spinner bait. After dark, switched to using black and blue jigs with trailers and same color in the chompers. Fished primarily pea gravel points after dark picking up 3 more keepers. We did catch several short fish as well before dark using split shot rigs and shaky heads.

Been doing pretty good on Black and blue jigs with trailors as well as dark colored chompers. The bite seems to go away right around dark and then picks back up again around 10:30pm or so. Hope this helps!

Look for secondary pea gravel points and drag a fish doctor or shaky head. After dark, switch to a dark colored jig with some kind of craw trailer in the same type areas. Good luck!!!

I would be interested to find out as well. I have always heard that the lake turns over twice per year, once in the winter and once in the spring. In the spring, when it turns over you start to see a lot of debri and stuff coming up from the bottom. I also always thought the term refered to the time when the water temp became warmer on top than on the bottom in the spring and vice versa for in the winter. Thanks for checking in on this, it is greatly appreciated!

It is in Kansas so you would need a KS liscense, but there is a real nice little lake in Topeka. I believe it is Lake Shawnee. It is fairly easy to get to being on the East side of Topeka.

I think you have a better chance at getting it quicker from Basswishes!

Main lake between bridge and Campbell point is still pretty clear. Have not really had much rain in the last 20 days or so. Clarity should still be around 15 feet on main lake. Just stained a little up in the creeks and rivers.

Did not see much of the slime and moss. Spent most of our time up Kings River, water temps really warm up that way and the water is stained but did not notcie much slime or moss. Hope that helps!

Fished out of the Shell Knob bridge last night for about 4 hours. Fished mainly up in the creeks figuring the fish would be close to getting on their nests. We found some water as warm as 69 degrees, but had to be up in the creek arms pretty far to find that. Caught several short fish before dark dragging the fish doctor in watermelon seed and a shaky head in a watermelon candy on pea gravel points. Once it got dark, the bite pretty much stopped in these areas. After a hour and a half or so of searching, we were able to get a good night bite going on some secondary points with some chompers and jigs in darker colors. All in all a good night, caught around 20 to 25 fish with best 5 around 14 pounds.