Long Creek Trip from Indian Point to Beardsley Creek on Saturday

[Don House]

Had another great day on Table Rock on Saturday! We had the all three species of bass before the day was over.

One thing I noticed is that the water temp is really moving up, I was in there just a few days ago and it was 47' water temp, Saturday I found temps in the mid 50's and moving up fast with the strong south winds.

We started in the back of Big Indian along with all of the tournament anglers and found some good fish on the sweeping creek bend banks. All chunk rock banks with pole timber, fish where staged right on the hardwood trees. We dragged a split shot rig in 15" to 18" feet of water to get our fish.

We then moved out to deeper water and fished the smaller creeks and secondary points just north of Indain point towards the dam. All of these fish came on the same split shot rig with a 4" zoom french fry and a shakey jig with a 4" zoom trick worm in watermelon purple and watermelon red in 18" to 25" of water. Bite was really slight but once you had them you knew it, they where eating the bait all the way down.

Moved down past the dam to beardsely creek and started fishing just past the no-ski arm on the north side of the creek. This was afternoon and the shakey Jig bite really came to life. All of these fish were blacks and they would just nail that bait, no doubt when you had a bite.

We ended up with over 15 keeper bass and to many shorts to count. Just wish I could have days like this everyday!!!

Back to crappie fishing all next week hopefully they are ready to turn on also. Will let everyone know how it goes..

Good Fishing

[MOBass]

Your results pretty well match mine from Saturday. There was a fair amount of fishing pressure with tournament and other anglers out. I took four keepers in one area and slid out so someone else could have a turn. I made it a short day with eight good fish. All but one of my fish were on a split shot rig with a watermelon red fry. Can't wait to go again.

[WebFreeman]

We then moved out to deeper water and fished the smaller creeks and secondary points just north of Indain point towards the dam. All of these fish came on the same split shot rig with a 4" zoom french fry and a shakey jig with a 4" zoom trick worm in watermelon purple and watermelon red in 18" to 25" of water. Bite was really slight but once you had them you knew it, they where eating the bait all the way down.

Moved down past the dam to beardsely creek and started fishing just past the no-ski arm on the north side of the creek. This was afternoon and the shakey Jig bite really came to life. All of these fish were blacks and they would just nail that bait, no doubt when you had a bite.

Hey Don, great report. I had a question on the shakey jig. Do you use a regular jig head when you rig it or do you use a specialized head? And do you rig it texas style or just as you would a grub? And finally, do you trim your trick worm down to 4 inches? It seems like I'd only seen them in the 6 3/4 inch model.

Thanks in advance, and like Phil and others have said, I really appreciate that you and other guides have been so forthcoming and open with your reports.

Web

[Don House]

Webfreeman, no and yes...

I use a jig made by critterbait tackle company (See attached Pic). It has a special jig just for the shakey jig.. Long shank hook with a special worm slide on the head to attach the worm to it.. Works really great and saves your worms!! Drop me an email and I can tell you where to get these guy's or call me and I can get you prices and other web sites to get them..

Next I take a 6" zoom trick worm (Right Now Watermelon with Purple) from zoom and trim off the first 1.5" to 2" or so off the worm them push the worm on the worm slide with alittle extra push so when I texas rig this one the worm hangs straight.. (See attached Pic) Sorry that worm is alittle torn from my little green friends!!

And they really work, I had a few more this afternoon on this worm.. Crappie fishing was really slow, so what else do you do, go bass fishing!!

Hope that helps it is a great way to catch fish...

Good Fishing