Rough Day On The Rock

[DoctaJ]

I'm doing this on my phone so I'll post pics later. Long story short, 3 fish. So I need some advice. Besides getting nlown off the lake, I carolined a ring fry, used creature baits, shakey head, and spinnerbaits. What depth do I need to fish 12-10? I only saw one on a bed, a bunch were trolling though. Any thoughts, suggestions? Tomoorow is going to be even more wind. Blah. My little 15ft astroglass isn't liking it too well.

[nwaoutdoorsman]

I'm doing this on my phone so I'll post pics later. Long story short, 3 fish. So I need some advice. Besides getting nlown off the lake, I carolined a ring fry, used creature baits, shakey head, and spinnerbaits. What depth do I need to fish 12-10? I only saw one on a bed, a bunch were trolling though. Any thoughts, suggestions? Tomoorow is going to be even more wind. Blah. My little 15ft astroglass isn't liking it too well.

It was a rough day for me too. I put in at cow creek this morning and fished in cow and spring creeks. Tried to catch em on a spinnerbait, and did catch a few. But it was very slow for me. I ran across the lake and threw a grub on some pea gravel points and caught one about 10 inches long. The wind was blowing me all over, so I ran back to spring creek and fished all the arms on the left side. I threw a spinnerbait, jerkbait, swimbait all with no results. Picked up a senko and casted to cedars in 10-20ft of water and caught several spots, most were 14-15 inch range. I didnt keep track of numbers and didnt put any on a board to measure them, so I could say how many shorts or keepers. But the senko definitely salvaged my day. Otherthan the wind being brutal it was a good day.

Also, saw a van in the parking lot that said branson guide service I believe and had a ozark anglers sticker on it. Wish I had gotten the chance to say hello, but the rig was gone when I loaded out.

[Don House]

It was a rough day for me too. I put in at cow creek this morning and fished in cow and spring creeks. Tried to catch em on a spinnerbait, and did catch a few. But it was very slow for me. I ran across the lake and threw a grub on some pea gravel points and caught one about 10 inches long. The wind was blowing me all over, so I ran back to spring creek and fished all the arms on the left side. I threw a spinnerbait, jerkbait, swimbait all with no results. Picked up a senko and casted to cedars in 10-20ft of water and caught several spots, most were 14-15 inch range. I didnt keep track of numbers and didnt put any on a board to measure them, so I could say how many shorts or keepers. But the senko definitely salvaged my day. Otherthan the wind being brutal it was a good day.

Also, saw a van in the parking lot that said branson guide service I believe and had a ozark anglers sticker on it. Wish I had gotten the chance to say hello, but the rig was gone when I loaded out.

Was that you in the Ranger? I came back in around 3:30, after getting beat to death in the wind.. Sorry we missed each other, love to meet guys from on here.. I use Cow creek ramp alot, really nice and it never gets used this time of year..

DoctaJ here is what you are looking for....

Ok here is how my day went... Started out in Cow creek on main creek points on the wind blow side.. Was able to catch a few dinks, started moving into the backs of the pockets and found two more on a white and gold blade. Then fishing really slowed down for us moved around tried Fisher Creek, nothing it has been beat to death. Went into Schooner and started catching little fish but the wind was crazy bad, ended up fishing in the main lake creeks with banks that had 45" bank and chunk rock with ledges right off the bank that fall into deeper water... We kept the boat in 20 feet all day..

Waited out the really bad winds as the warm front came through, winds calmed alittle and right about 2:00 they really started to fire back up, all of shakey jigs with a small 3.5 to 4" green pumpkin paddle tail ring worm. Had a nice Black in the 4 pouund range, another really nice smallie a strong 3.5 pounder and alot of 14 - 15 inch swimers. Just had to keep at it and wait for them to fire up... Finding alot of spawning fish and fish on the beds but very spookey. This warm weather will really fire them up, today I found areas they were not even making beds and areas they were doing the dance...

Back out on Friday.. See the Big blue tanker stop by and say Hello, will be up around DAM to COW Creek again..

Good Fishing Everyone

Don

[MOBass]

Thanks for the report guys. I'll be on the water the next three days trying to find enough fish to not embarass myself. The wind is looking to be a factor at least until Sunday morning. If you see a white Nitro 882 dual console in the dam area tomorrow that will probably be me. Stop by and say hello if you care to. Be safe out there.

[motoman]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble Doc. I would agree with what Don said. The afternoon bite until dark was best for us. Heck, it may be worth getting up before sunrise, fish until 9:30'ish, then go back for a nap, and come back out after 3:00 p.m.'ish. We sure considered it!

-

This report is almost a week old, (so it may be more like a history lesson, than an accurate report) but I thought I might post it in here for a bit of a look over. Things changed almost daily for us, but this is one pattern that held.

-

http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16883

[nwaoutdoorsman]

Was that you in the Ranger? I came back in around 3:30, after getting beat to death in the wind.. Sorry we missed each other, love to meet guys from on here.. I use Cow creek ramp alot, really nice and it never gets used this time of year..

That was me in the Ranger. Blue white and silver 519 with an etec. I'll keep an eye open for ya next time I'm up that way. May come up tomorrow, but if so I may go towards Campbells Point area.

[captmac]

Fished the Ja mes from Cape Fair to point 12, managed 4 short fish including a 14 inch Kentucky thw weighed 2.5 pounds we put him on the scales to settle an argument, have always been snake bit up there for some reason. Trying the Baxter to k c area tomorrow will report . All our fish came on the jig in about 10 feet of water. Fishing out of a green Javelin with a johnny two old fat boys if you see us stop and give a shout

[DoctaJ]

Thanks for the reply guys, today was better. Caught two nice mamas on jig. Another on a creature. 4 bluegill on the jig too . All in all, it was slow. Will post pics, taking out of big cedar and will either be up Indian or brush. Will post pics later.

[skeeter]

Glad you did better yesterday Dr. J.

I was out for only about three hours due to having the XYL with me and fished Big Indian out of Baxter. Tried the white bliade and hung one semi-decent 16-17 " towards the rear of a smaller, shallow cove but figured it was a big male off a bed and let him jump, shake and throw the hook. Hate catching fish off beds. Kept getting a number of deep "bumps" on the blade and couldn't determine whether the hits were really small bass or males just trying to drive the bait off beds. Strangely, as I made my way further up the creek arm the water temperature kept dropping from 61.7 down to 57.2. I can only guess that the South wind was blowing the warmer surface out and cooler water was coming to the surface. Does that make any sense ??

Tried moving over into Little Indian and warmer water back in the 61 degree range again and picked up a mojo rigged lizard attempting to target big females moving in but caught two small males in about 20 feet of water on which I did a very quick release and gave up as, again, I hate catching fish off beds.

As we came in, we noticed a small trackhoe spreading several truckloads of topsoil around various campsites at Baxter campground over by the launch ramp. I can only wonder what in the world the Corps is thinking spreading topsoil with several inches of heavy rain predicted on Monday and several days next week. The only way this soil won't wash across the parking lot and into the lake is if they immediately sod it and you know they aren't going to do that. If a landowner did this you know they would have to install those plastic sheeting fences that do such a poor job of catching the mud runoff but we saw no evidence of that .