Mid-may Bass Fishing

[Don House]

Whats the name of his tackle store?

Ozark Bait and Tackle

Jerry Snider

[dtrs5kprs]

Thank for the tips I appreciate it...Three Mile? You from the Emmetsburg area? Got alot of family up there.

Do most guys C-rigor T-rig the Fish Doctors ?

Des Moines, former member & officer of DSM Bass Club. Wife is from WDSM, family from Boone & Marshalltown respectively. Learned to fish on Little River, West Lake, Miss R., etc. Big change down here.

Mostly the doctor is a finesse rig deal...split shot or mojo weights, although it works on the big rig too.

Ask around when you get in the area, there are Iowans in places you would not expect

[dtrs5kprs]

dtrs5kprs,

Good reply, I agree 100%.

Jerry Snider is a good man. He always gives me spot on information with regards to what the fish are bitting on. His tackle store stocks the tried and true lures that catch bass on Table Rock.

+++ on Jerry. Good info, usually has what you need to fish with, and treats you like you live next door. Between the two shops you can normally manage to skip the drive back to Springfield.

[vacation]

Des Moines, former member & officer of DSM Bass Club. Wife is from WDSM, family from Boone & Marshalltown respectively. Learned to fish on Little River, West Lake, Miss R., etc. Big change down here.

Mostly the doctor is a finesse rig deal...split shot or mojo weights, although it works on the big rig too.

Ask around when you get in the area, there are Iowans in places you would not expect

I moved here 5 years ago from central Iowa, fished red rock lake my whole life and some at 10 mile, by three mile quite a bit...table rocks clear water requires patients and lighter line at 1st, get used to being humbled here, but use your electronics for drop shot fish later in year. night fishing is great, topwater bite is strong, but remember, the more often you get on the water, the better you will be

Good luck

[mrcold]

Thanks for the responses here, guys! I'm in the same boat, no pun intended. I'm coming down from Nebraska for the yearly trip, and will be there May 13th-17th. It seems like every year I get my butt kicked down there. One of these years I'll change that trend.

So this is going to be a bit late in the year for the wiggle wart bite, is that what I'm reading? I really enjoy drop-shotting, is there a potential DS bite around that time of year? Everytime we've been down there, the owner of the place we stay says either texas or split shot with watermelon french fries...frankly I'm tired of hearing the same response and not having much success.

Anyway, thanks again for the input, and any other thoughts are welcome. (hopefully I didn't hijack the thread too much)

Brian

[XRAY]

Mid-May is just about as good a time as you can choose. As Dutch said the lake is very diverse, but a very good bait shop in the Kimberling City area that for that matter, covers the entire lake, as it gets guide reports lake wide is Table Rock Bait and Tackle. If they don 't have it, you really won't need it.

My bag of goodies for your time frame would for sure include the fixin's for splitshot rigs with 1/4 oz. shot, bullet weights, or egg sinkers, or you can rig them carolina style or with a keeper. No 1 or 1/0 cheap eagle claw lazer hooks will do just fine, as if they wolf it down, just pull out the bait and let them keep the deep or gut hook. People have a hard time doing this with Owners, or expensive Gamai's.

Zoom Fish Dr. in green pumpkin, watermellon, watermellon red and junebug will work great. Zoom Baby Bushogs in watermellon red up the James will get you tickled. Chompers cenipedes in pbj and watermellon candy are also the bomb

Chompers 1/4 oz shakey head rigged with their pbj laminate is the absolute bomb for shakin and a bakin with the shakey head. You can also rig the watermellon candy cenipede.

Fish these baits off the flats and in spawning pockets.

Get out early and look for topwater activity and then use this to relate to your entire day. If I see fish working a flat at dawn, and you can use any of the multitudes of topwater noise makers, it really does not matter, then when the sun comes up they will for the most part relate to the bottom that time of year, so you can use that and ply the depths with the downstairs drag baits, already mentioned.

Grub swimming early of a morning, or thru schoolers is a plenty good way to get nipped, use a 1/4 oz jig head with a chompers 3 to 5 inch grub. We also like the BP XPS in Copper. Swim the bait or as locals call it scrub it along the bottom very slowly to active fish. Foul weather days are very good grub days, as SMJ's love the grub. Colores should include salt and pepper, grey or motor oil.

The more baits you bring the more apt, you are to mess-up. I would leave or not spend any money on the hard body cranks for Mid-May. Stay with the soft-plastics, and the topwater, and you will get bit.

Keep an eye on us and it will be pretty easy to see whats a goin on down here.

Good luck

Hi, I just picked up some of the zoom fish doctors that you mention here, and they are much different from any worm i have ever fished. For example, they have a smooth side on them, and are pretty light. My question is how to rig them. I'm assuming split shot, but do you hook the bait through the nose with the hook coming out of the smooth side or vice versa?

Or do most hook them Texas style? Thanks in advance, the members here are all very friendly and helpful. I appreciate that alot.

Good Fishing.

[motoman]

I Mojo rig them with the smooth side down, and the hook coming out of the top. (similar to Carolina rig, just no clacker, swivel, beads etc,; only a bullet weight and carolina keeper-or just split shots only about 18 inches above the bait-)

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We did pretty well with them on a drop shot rig, but not actually drop shotting. Just keeping the bait up above the mossy bottom, and would cast them out, and slowly drag them back to the boat with a taught line.