Not Familiar With The Area

[Slabhunter]

My wife and a couple of friends at coming over to the Rock this weekend and we are staying at Fish n Fun resort outside of Shellknob. I was curious to what part of the lake this is called. And what the fish are doing around that part of the lake. I have only fished this lake one time this same time last year. This year i have a bass boat and would really like the catch some SM. Any suggestions. Thanks for the help.

[focused fishing]

Slabhunter,

You are in the White River, near Campbell Point. The bite in that area has been on jerkbaits, wiggle warts, single tail grubs and jigs on channel swing banks and adjacent points in the creek arms and up the river. SM have been a little harder to come by in that area but target the ends of the swings where rock changes over to gravel. Look for water temps in the upper 40's / low 50's to be the most productive.

Hope this helps.

EP

[jay bird]

This is a very amateur statement so please take with a grain of salt and anyone else please comment. In March I seem to catch more Smallies around the Big M area and in the Baxter area. Both theses areas are a little run away from where you will be staying, but not to bad. Up around the Dam is supposed to be a great Smallie area I just do not fish that part of the lake very often.

[Slabhunter]

Thanks for the help. It is very much appreciated.

[Sam]

slabhunter - From your name and avatar, I know you're a crappie fisherman too. Be sure and bring your crappie pole, you might find some.

Crappie are pre-staging right now. Look for spawning coves with pea gravel banks 5-10 feet deep. They're not on those banks yet, but they'll be within 150 yards of so of them, on drop-offs to deep water in about 16-20 feet, bunched up around brush and underwater bushes. They're not everywhere, just bunched up in spots - but they show up real well on a scope when you find them. The water's cold, so move your jig real slow - white's the color.

[Slabhunter]

slabhunter - From your name and avatar, I know you're a crappie fisherman too. Be sure and bring your crappie pole, you might find some.

Crappie are pre-staging right now. Look for spawning coves with pea gravel banks 5-10 feet deep. They're not on those banks yet, but they'll be within 150 yards of so of them, on drop-offs to deep water in about 16-20 feet, bunched up around brush and underwater bushes. They're not everywhere, just bunched up in spots - but they show up real well on a scope when you find them. The water's cold, so move your jig real slow - white's the color.

Around here they are kinda strange. On the lake they will be anywhere from 10-25ft deep and in the river that i fish they are 3ft even on the coldest days. Last year on the rock I couldn't even catch one. Off of the dock all we would catch were small K's and on the main lake fishin minnow's and jigs we caught lots of bluegill. Im a die-hard crappie fisherman here. But it seems like the things i try on the Rock don't work. Oh and the crappie on my aviator is 3Ib6oz and 2Ib4oz.

[HillbillyJim]

This is info. from a few years back in my sketchy memory, but........

I've occasionally caught several crappie in and around (a half mile or so) the bridge at Shell Knob in the real early spring (early March)......I just used to hit some timber just off of the main lake into some of the few coves there, usually would find them at a certain depth and play hit and miss with them for a while....sometimes I could close in on a limit, sometimes a few here and there, and sometimes zilch........the other place I had luck in the early spring was up the roaring river arm near Eagle Rock

[Sam]

Tablerock's a real good crappie lake. I'm like you, I'll bass-fish 'til the cows come home and have a great time doing it, but I'm not a specialist. I'm just as happy catching bass, white bass, walleyes, big perch, goggleyes, catfish, or grabbing suckers. Big slab crappie are my favorites, though, I'd rather have that kind of trip than any other. Best of all are the trips (which do happen sometimes) where I can put a limit of crappie in the live well in short order - and then go fishing for something else.

To each his own, but I've always thought the guys who won't fish for anything but bass are missing a lot.

[Whack'emGood]

To each his own, but I've always thought the guys who won't fish for anything but bass are missing a lot.

I used to crappie, walleye, trout, and white bass fish-- anything that would bite, really. I have since lost the desire, for some reason. I could probably bass fish every day for 10 years and never get tired of it. I don't know what it is, but the thrill of the hunt is much greater for me with bass than any other species. I guess it is because there are so many techniques and baits on which you can catch them. Also, it is such a challenge that it is very satisfying to me to really figure them out.

Dad and I went to Taneycomo once last year when Table Rock was a mess. We caught a whole bunch of nice trout, yet we decided that it wasn't nearly as much fun as bass fishing (for us). We haven't been back to Taneycomo since.

We also used to go crappie fishing up at Stockton at night (under lights) during the summer. Most of the time we could catch our limit of 11-13 inch crappie and pick that limit out of 40-80 (maybe more) to get it-- meanwhile catching quite a few nice walleye and white bass along with them. That was fun, but we didn't even go once last year-- had the bass bug instead.

Like you said though, to each his own. Alot of folks really enjoy catching trout, crappie, walleye, etc and I understand why they like it-- it's just not for me. Alot of folks don't like bass fishing... I understand that too.

I guess if we all liked the exact same things, there wouldn't be enough of that thing to go around. It is a good thing that everybody's likes and dislikes are different.

I think we can all agree that we all love to catch fish. There aint anything that I would rather do in this world but fish. If there weren't such a thing as LM, SM, or KY bass, I would probably be hooked on crappie or white bass fishing.

Whack'em

[Sam]

Yep, we're all fishing for our own satisfaction - and how that works is up to the individual. I don't care about trout fishing, myself, but that's because I'm not really into it. Those guys who trout fish below the Dam with their tippets and little scud flies, well, I don't understand just what they're doing but I know it's a real challenge to catch big trout that way and it takes a lot of skill.

More power to 'em - I'll never knock anybody else's hobby, and certainly never knock anybody's choice to master the specialized skills needed to target and consistently catch just one species. Others, like myself, enjoy catching them all and while I'll probably never have the skills to win any bass tournaments, that's a valid choice too - 'cause I'm having lots of fun out there and we enjoy the panfish filets.