Weekend Report

[Bill Babler]

Lets start on Friday with Full day Guide trips out of Kimberling City for Beck and Myself. I think every Guide worked this weekend as lots of folks in the Area.

Just a very good stickbait bite Thursday thru Sunday, very early on Bluffends and Transitions near spawning coves, with fish staging in these locations. When the sun got up you had to have a breeze to get any interest.

Grub Swimming from Kimberling to point 5 worked excellent for Beck this weekend, after the stickbait bite died, but I am still struggling with it. Drag baits especially the Fish Dr. are keeping me in business along the the shakey head.

Great reports lakewide of the 1/2 oz football catchin them out to 25 ft. off the flats staging was also reported.

Good reports of spinnerbaits slow rolled on windy banks caught fish Saturday and Sunday, in similar locations.

Moss line from Point 9 to Long Creek, seems to be 10 ft. Stickbaits and Grubs over the top out to the line and then rigs and jigs on the deep side seem to be the ticket. The spinnerbait is also great at shallow depths, if the wind is howling.

The topwater bite will I think be on by first of next week, maybe sooner if it stops freezing.

Fridays trips were all about the same for most of us 15 to 20 keepers and 40 fish. Some guides did way better, in the Kimberling area.

Saturday my trip with Karen, Gary and Hunter out of Viney Creek was really fun. About 25 fish came to the boat before it got to windy for us to fish 3 and several nice keepers were ammong them. Was not going to mention Gary's catches of limbs, and rocks, but they supplimented our catch so great work Gary.

Hunter was the star of the show, and at 12 yrs. old, he has the potential to really be good.

All fish came on bluffends and major cove points.

Sunday was rough with lots of wind, but the two derby's out of Aunts creek, all caught fish in very nice quanities.

Saturday's Weekend series took a huge bag by Wes Endicott to win, with 24 pounds, for 5 fish, that included a 7 and a 6er. Great Job Wes.

Its goin get really started soon.

Good Luck out there.

[dtrs5kprs]

Thanks for the post, as always Bill. Did you get a hard freeze there? Got cold and nasty here in the KC metro. Would have preferred to be at the lake with the same weather.

Without outright asking, it sounds as if some of the fish are moving towards the spawn coves / pockets, but not quite into them yet.

[Ham]

I'm out of the mix as I am in my week on work cycle, bt the weather sure seemed to be crap. Good on ya for catching em.

[Trolling 4 Walleye]

at what depth is the thermocline right now?

what is it estimated to be at on 4/25?

[Bill Babler]

No thermocline at this time. None expected on the date mentioned.

[Trolling For Walleye]

No thermocline at this time. None expected on the date mentioned.

maybe i don't understand the concept of thermocline then

[Bill Babler]

Not a scientific explaination, but stradification of water due to the temperature. A layering of the warmest on the surface to the coolest on the bottom due to the weight as cooler water being heavier.

Usually here it is about Mid-June or later before we can see any real stradification. A very good judge is the temps coming thru the tubes from Table Rock to Taneycomo. The Intake tubes are at 160 ft. and the water temp on taney is very similar to the surface temps here on the Rock.

Yesterday morning I had about 50 degree surface temp in front of the dam, and a couple of days before on Taney, I had 48 degree. Thus, the difference between the top and water 160 ft. below, was marginal if any. Pretty much the same thru the entire water column.

As the surface warms significently there will be a layering and we will see diffenences. Usually surface temp and I'm just trying to remember, seems to me need to be pusing low 80's, before we really start to see a thermocline. Usually around to top dozen feet or so, and then when it really effects the fishing it establishes in the 22 to 26 ft. zone.

This is pretty much how it works here, but I might have my dates mixed up a bit.

[rps]

Bill, my memory agrees with yours as far as the date. You tend to watch the thermocline for drop shot reasons. I watch it for walleye trolling reasons. First to second week of June is when the pattern I look for seems to begin.

[Trolling For Walleye]

Bill, my memory agrees with yours as far as the date. You tend to watch the thermocline for drop shot reasons. I watch it for walleye trolling reasons. First to second week of June is when the pattern I look for seems to begin.

My first fishing weekend with my buddies is april 25/26.

What depth should I target to have my lures running for bass and/or walleye while trolling?

[Tom Spence]

My computer was messed up all week so I couldn't post anything from the past weekend, so I'll just piggyback off Bill. Took my 12 year old son out Saturday and fished from Cape Fair to Piney. Concentrated on main lake and 2ndary points in the wind. We had a great day. I started off with the McStick and put a grub in his hands. Both of us caught several fish on every spot. He'd never thrown a grub before but caught on pretty quick to scrubbing it and keeping it low in the water column. It worked out good for him as he caught several. Later in the day I tied a LC pointer 78 in Aurora Black on a spinning rod for him and introduced him to jerkbait fishing. Again he caught on to it very quickly. I held the boat in the wind and let him cast straight back over the engine to the points. He started catching fish right away. Not much in the way of keepers but he caught fish and had a good time. Later in the day I got tired of windburn and found some sheltered water on the east side of the channel on pea gravel with isolated brush and docks. Had him throwing a power bait chigger craw on a shakey head while I threw a jig. Again we caught several including a 3 pound LM for him that we decided to end the day on. All in all about 35-40 fish with 7 keepers. Its a great time to take a kid fishing and it will only get better as we ease into Spring. Hopefully is I can get the computer fixed I can post the pics.