Skeeter ZX190

If I caught them like DPrice, I would need CPR! Cardiopulmonary resuscitation!

I love bass fishing in the winter except when the temperature gets down below 40. I really struggle after it gets below that. I fish mainly between the dam and State Park. Best banks seem to be where the channel swings in close to the shore in the larger creeks. I mainly throw a jerkbait and I am partial to the Megabass 110 and the 110+1. You have to go SLOW! One of my best days was on President's Day in February several years ago. Caught 33. 22 of them came on one short stretch of bank in Orleans Trail out by the buoy line on the north side of the cove. They were really stacked up!

You da man!

Hard to believe there's a 10 degree difference between the dam area and CC.

Put in about 9:30 am at Orleans Trail. Water temps ranged from 57.3 to 58.9. Stayed in the dam area. Ended up with 24 and 8 of them were keepers. The biggest went 18 inches and had another one that was 17 3/4. Caught them on a white spinnerbait, Pop R, and a ned rig in green pumpkin. Got off the water at 3:30 pm. Most of the fish came right off the bank.

Put in at sunrise and headed to Hawker. Water temps were 68 to 70 degrees. Fished a long day and got off the water around 5:30. Caught 52 bass, 2 drum, a white bass, and a walleye. The walleye was 17 inches long and came on a spinnerbait. 4 of the bass were keepers with the biggest being 17 inches. Caught half of the fish on the ned and the other half on a spinnerbait. The key to the spinnerbait was wind blowing on points with big rock. Pitch the spinnerbait right to the edge of the shore and they would hit it within the first 2 or 3 reel cranks.

6 pound Invisx. 6'8" St. Croix Eyecon medium light action. 6930 Pflueger President. I also have a Bass Pro Extreme 6'8" medium light with the same reel. I use both Shroomz 1/15th ounce head, and the one Dave makes which I think is call Ozark Finesse. The advantages of the Shroomz is no gluing. Disadvantage is the Zinker Z gets twisted, no weed guard, and the hooks are very thin. Another tip I picked up at Dave's class in Springfield back in June is to use the Zinker Z instead of the TRD. The Zinker Z is much squishier and more buoyant. Hope this helps.

Put in at Orleans Trail at 7:15 am and fished until 3:45 pm. Caught 68 bass but 63 of them had eye tail disease. The 5 that didn't went from 15 1/4 to 16 inches so nothing to write home about. Water temps were around 71 degrees. Fished from Orleans Trail to Old State Park. We had 45 bass by noon and it slowed way down after that. Everything but 2 came on the ned rig. The other 2 came on a Pop-R. Either PB&J or green pumpkin for the ned rig. Seemed like we did best in some of the larger creeks from 3/4 to 1/2 back on secondary points. 2 to 6 feet of water.

Here is mine. A 2009 Skeeter ZX 190 with a Yamaha 150 4 stroke.

Is the video of the crash that killed the 2 men? The boat in the video doesn't look 40 feet long and I could only make out 1 occupant.

Put in at 6:00 a.m. and started with topwater. Caught 6, with 3 on a whopper plopper and 3 on a Spook jr. After the sun came up we went to the Ned. Green pumpkin and Green Pumpkin orange were the 2 colors we used. Caught 18 on the Ned. Around mid-day we tried using Binks 1/4 ounce spoons around a main lake point. (Thanks Dan Hufferd) Ended up catching 5 white bass and a drum. Not one of the fish today was a keeper. Caught all species of bass (largemouth, kentucky, and smallmouth) but mostly smallmouth. Caught most of them in 8 to 15 feet of water around main lake points. This was my first time out in over 2 months. As the day wore on, the bite got tougher and tougher. Got off the water around 3:00 p.m.

82.6 on the main lake close to the dam to start the day. By 3:00 p.m. it was pushing 85.

I attended Dave's class. Dave passed around a bottle of water with a ned rig inside to show it would stand straight up. He mentioned that other brands of baits like a Yum Dinger would lay flat on the bottom. Since I am from Missouri, you have to "show me". So I took a Yum Dinger and cut it to size and put it on a 1/16 ounce mushroom jig along with a ZinkerZ on a 1/16 ounce mushroom jig. Dave was right. Stretching out the ZinkerZ before you put it on the jig also makes a difference. It makes it more buoyant. The picture are the two different ned rigs in a container of water.

I attended Dave's class. Dave passed around a bottle of water with a ned rig inside to show it would stand straight up. He mentioned that other brands of baits like a Yum Dinger would lay flat on the bottom. Since I am from Missouri, you have to "show me". So I took a Yum Dinger and cut it to size and put it on a 1/16 ounce mushroom jig along with a ZinkerZ on a 1/16 ounce mushroom jig. Dave was right. Stretching out the ZinkerZ before you put it on the jig also makes a difference. It makes it more buoyant. The picture are the two different ned rigs in a container of water.

Attended Dave's Ned class on Thursday night, so I put the ned to work Friday morning. I tried really hard to be careful with the Super Glue but I still found my fingers sticking to the bait or hook. Got on the water about 6:45 am and fished until 12:30 pm. Even at 8:00 am it was HOT!!! Water temps were 85.5 to 88. Struggled to find fish. Ended up catching 10 with 3 of them keepers. Biggest was 16 inches. Lost 2 others that would have measured and one of those was really nice. It spit the hook. The 3 keepers were caught along a short stretch of flat bank VERY close to the Little Sac channel. They all came in 3 to 7 feet of water. I caught them around 11:30 am. I probably spent too much time looking for them in deeper water. Hard to believe with water temps that high that they are that shallow. I saw a 12 or 13 inch bass bust some bait within a foot or two of the bank. That was around 11:00. Green pumpkin seemed to be the best but I also caught a couple on pb&j. I also tried a shad colored Deal, but only had 1 bite on it and it only thumped it once and dropped it.

Map Guy: Keep Springfield running straight. Without you they won't know which way is north! I gave it a workout this morning. Fished from 6:45 am until 12:30 pm. Only caught 10 but 3 were keepers. Missed 2 others that would have kept. One spit the hook and the other broke off. It was brutally hot out. Very little wind.

Dave did a great job. Very informative. I even won a Lew's rod! Tomorrow morning I'm going to give it a test.

Only 1 for me. I know it.

Whopper Plopper

Last year was the same way. Then June hits and I struggle to find them. I suppose they move out to off shore structure, or another theory I have is that they are out cruising the lake following the shad. Either way, the quality and quantity drops like a rock. But I sure do like looking for them!

Got on the water about 8:30 am and off at 6:00 pm. Water temps were 67.5 to start the day and were just over 70 when we got off. Put in at Orleans Trail but headed up the Big Sac almost to Mutton. We ended up with 71 total fish with 11 of them being keeper bass. Nothing over 17 inch. Fish were caught anywhere from 3 feet to 12 feet of water. Gravel was the best. Only fished the ned rig in green pumpkin. I caught a 14 1/2 largemouth on my very 1st cast and my son caught a 16 1/2 largemouth on his very 1st cast. Great way to start. The 70th fish caught was by me and it was a 10 lb carp. There was NO way I was ending the day on a carp so we kept fishing until I caught a bass. It just happened to be the biggest of the day, a 17 incher..

I crop the photo before posting. That seems to do the trick.

Latest Corps forecast shows Stockton cresting at 3 feet high on Friday.

Corps of Engineers is forecasting the lake to stay at the current level. That was as of today. Hard to believe with the flood advisories that are in effect for the southern basin of Stockton Lake.