T-RockJaws

I have never hired a guide, but I have been strongly considering it... My partner and I have been really trying hard to learn how to drop shot fish and we are starting to have some success with it. It has taken us a lot of time, effort and research to get to the point we are at now with it. I think that hiring a guide with a specific style of fishing that you are trying to learn could help shorten that learning curve. I think we have some great guides on Table Rock and they are very generous with the information they share on this forum. I owe a lot of my success to the knowledge they share and I am very appreciative to them for that!

Put in with the derby out of the Shell Knob bridge last night. We decided to run all the way back to a bank that has been producing for us in the Eagle Rock area. Water temps at blast off were right around 91 to 92 degrees with air temps that felt like 191 to 192 degrees. Pulled up on a spot close to Big M to try to work a drop shot rig a little bit in the day light hours. We were able to locate fish holding in 25 to 40 foot of water over 60 foot of water. However, we were still not able to get them to be all that interested in what we were dropping in front of them. No hook ups and only a couple of bites on the drop shot. It is still really tough for the drop shot in the upper white. As night time approached, we started throwing big worms and moved on up towards the Eagle Rock area. During the time frame where the sun is trying to set we were getting several bites, but they were biting short. You would get a bite and bring your worm back in to find you now had a 6 inch worm compared to the 12 inch worm you had just thrown in. Once it the sun was down completely, the bite slowed even more. Stuck with the big worm for the most part and mixed in a couple casts with a craw or a jig. We only had 3 fish in the 4 hours we were out with 2 of them being keepers (total of 6.08 pounds) caught by my partner. The moon was nice and bright which made for a very nice evening drive back to Shell Knob.

Good reports guys, thanks! I have been hearing about fish starting to school up way up in the creeks, but have not gone looking for myself yet. We are still catching a few quality fish outside of the thermocline, but they are fewer and farther between than what they have been for the past couple of weeks. Either way, I think you are going to have to locate cooler water to have much success!

It has always been my opinion that the NADA prices are pretty accurate. On trade ins, you will get a little less and to sell out right you will get a little more. $5000 above the NADA price sounds a little steep to me. Of coarse, that is just my opinion...

Nice job, any time you can watch the sun come up while catching a few nice bass it is a great day!

I have lost more than one pair while running down the lake. I like to buy the cheaper ones for that reason. It is my experience that tells me the cheaper ones are typically just as good as the name brand and more expensive.

Just about any pet store you go by will have crickets for sale. The main use is for pet food, not fishing...

I believe in our state trout parks with permit fishing, you only need the permit and not the stamp. However, outside of the parks, you must have a stamp to fish for trout!

Nice job!

Jason, That seems to be pretty much what we have experienced the last few times out. The bite has been slow, but if you can find one keeper there are usually more in the same area. Last Wednesday night, we had 6 keepers on one 50 yard stretch of bank in about 45 minutes just after dark.

Weather patterns have much more to do with it than the "signs". You really need the weather to hold a pattern for a few days straight to get a consistant bite. Maybe not a real good bite, but at least consistant.

I am going with the "just don't respond method"... None of the three sound all that appealling to me. Think I will stick with Walleye and Crappie...

Fished out of the Shell Knob bridge last night with the Wednesday night group. Bunch of good guys there, really enjoyed it. Fishing was pretty tough as it has been for the last 3 to 4 weeks. Started out working a drop shot, but could not really find any fish stacked up. Only able to manage about half a dozen short spots before dark. Watermelon with a purple flake was my worm of choice last night with the drop shot, but had a couple hit on a small purple worm as well. We did try to work a jig a little bit before dark with very little success. Had one short and one small perch on the PB&J jig. Did not throw a jig at all after dark though. As night approached, we made our way to one of our favorite banks. Right at dusk had a nice 4 pound large mouth hit a 12 inch worm followed shortly by my partner hooking up with another 4 pounder. Pretty well stayed on that bank the rest of the night finishing with 6 good solid keepers going 15.57 pounds. All but one of our keepers came on big worms with the other keeper coming on a 4 inch salt craw. Typical night time colors. Don't get me wrong, the fishing was tough last night. My partner and I just got lucky that a few good fish were on our bank!

My partner and I are fairly new at the whole drop shot approach. We are getting some what comfortable with it in the day time once we find the fish stacked up. However, come night fall we always resort back to the jig, big worm or salt craw for that night time bite. It doesn't seem like I have ever heard anyone talking about using the drop shot at night and was just curious if any of you out here on OAF use it after dark? Thanks in advance for any help or pointers you can offer!

My partner and I are fairly new to the drop shot all together, but trying to learn. We were wondering about using it at night as well, doesn't seem like I have really ever heard of anyone using it at night though??? I will start a new thread on here and see what comes from it.

Jason, That Beaver draw down is exactly when my struggles began. The weeks leading up to that, I had been on fish and lots of them. We were easily putting 5 to 6 keepers in the boat each night. Then all of a sudden, they just shut off. Been real tuff for me ever since... The only derby I have been fishing is a small company deal, about 15 boats or so each time and we have about 14 tourneys per year. My partner and I have been wanting to fish some of the Wednesday nighters, but always felt as though we were way out of our league there. I think we are planning to give it a try tomorrow night though... Pre-fishing so to speak, we are pretty much always looking for new areas and leave our "honey holes" alone. Really been learning a lot by doing that this year. The best way to get any better is to simply put in the time on the water! T-Rock

I have run the motor guides in the past, but love the 101 lb. Minn Kota I am running now. Minn Kota deffinately gets my vote.

No big shocker there, SW MO is typically just blown off anyway...

Doesn't matter much to me where it was caught, still one heck of a fish!

It seems like every point or bank that I pull up on has a brush pile or 10 on it already. Some hold fish and some do not, but they are definately there!

Just got my post up from last night in the Shell Knob area. Jay Bird nailed it, I can go out on a non tourney night and bag some nice fish. There really is no set pattern to be found right now, several things are working for a night bite. They just do not work every night! It has been very tough for us the past 3 weeks or so.

Only got to fish out of the Shell Knob bridge for about 3 hours last night. As the storm started to roll in and the bright flashes of light in the sky got closer, we got off the water. As is usually the case, as the storm approached the bite seemed to get a little better. Makes it hard to finally say enough and head out! Started out looking for some drop shot fish on the points, but did not have much luck. Partner did have a few bites and just missed a couple on the drop shot. Then we moved up into a deep cove and started flipping some jigs into the buck brush. Had a couple of shorts hit on a PB&J jig with watermelon trailers. We also saw a couple of nice fish up in there cruising. As night (and the storm) approached, the bite seemed to heat up a little. Started throwing big worms on a bank that dropped to about 35 feet deep, but we could still reach the bank on a good cast. Had several good bites, a couple of 14 inchers and one that went 5.4 lbs on the big worm. One thing about an evening with storms rolling in, there sure isn't much big boat traffic!!!

Bill Yes, there are fish in the cooler water. In the spring you can catch good fish in as little as 1 foot of water. There are always fish in the shallow water, just seems as the water warms up, the larger fish get deeper. Anytime you can find buck brush in shallow water it is good for flippin jigs or even running buzz baits through. This time of year, you can do that with success way up in the backs of creeks and such. Good Luck!

For me, it all depends on the time of year and water temp. With the warmer water temps we have now, you need to back out a ways. If you are looking to drop shot, you will likely find the fish somewhere close to the drop off on the point or at least out to about 30 to 35 feet deep. If you are wanting to throw a C-rig or a Texas rig, you will need to position your boat in about 38 to 45 foot of water. Same would be true if you are throwing a jig. Don't be afraid to go on around the points and fish the trasition areas where you go from pea gravel to chunk rock or from chunk rock to bluffs. Hope this helps a little.

Nice fish, thanks for the report!