Table Rock In August Help...

[GaryO]

A couple of rookie fishermen and I will visit table rock in mid August for some general fumbling around hoping to catch a few dumb bass. None of us have much experience in bass catchin and have never fished TR. We will rent a boat and throw cranks and plastics, I guess. Could you folks suggest 3 or 4 of your favorite baits for that time of year? Thanks...

[techo]

Hard to tell this far out, but I would guess deep with the shakey head, drop shot or Eakins jig. Hopefully the smart guys will chime in.

[crazy4fishin]

Techo is right about the choices - I am down there late august or early sept. every year and they will be deep so I would recommend night crawlers on a drop shot around structure.....usually 20-30 foot deep.

If you throw the jig I would recommend a football style and work the flats - I am sure that you will catch a few. Depending on your finances I would hire a guide for 1/2 day to give you the insight to what is happening on the water at that time.

Best of luck!

[ozark trout fisher]

A couple of rookie fishermen and I will visit table rock in mid August for some general fumbling around hoping to catch a few dumb bass. None of us have much experience in bass catchin and have never fished TR. We will rent a boat and throw cranks and plastics, I guess. Could you folks suggest 3 or 4 of your favorite baits for that time of year? Thanks...

I don't know Table Rock, but I would consider myself a halfway experienced bass fisherman in other Missouri lakes. So I guess I'll give you a little useless advice.

Get plenty of 1/4 ounce yellow spinnerbaits, with willow leaf blades (actually it really doesn't matter what kind of blade it has). Get some five inch zoom curly tail worms. You can rig them Texas style, Carolina Style, or drop shot style (if you're not sure how to do one of these rigs, say so, and I or someone else can explain). Fish them slowly, and then slow down a little more. You want it to stay on the bottom. I would guess by August the bass will be on the outside areas of creeks arms, and points should be a good place to hit them. I'd confine most of my fishing in 5" to 15" feet of water. You might have to go deeper if you want walleye or white bass. You shouldn't need a depth finder. Generally, in those clear corp of engineer lakes I've found the best fishing about as far down as I can see the bottom, especially in late summer. With that said, some electronics would be a mighty good asset to you.

Also, bring along some devil horses, Poprs, Black Jitterbugs, and other topwaters. They'll work well in the mornings, evenings, and the middle of the night. Actually, if you do any night fishing (which might not be a bad idea), you probably won't need anything but black Jitterbugs and black buzzbaits. Bass love black after dark, don't ask me why.

Hope this helps.

[Fishrman]

You might also try to fish up some of the major creeks and rivers as far as you can go and throw a little shallow diving crankbait like a 1/4 oz. Big O or deep baby N. Had a 60 fish day a few years ago doing this up the Kings and the White. Only had 6 keepers, but plenty of action. You would be surprise how many fish could be caught shallow that time of year. Good luck.

[Fat Boy]

Guys to me your picking one of the hardest times of the yr to fish the Rock. But still lots of fish can be caught, you just have to go a little deeper and stay opened minded on what you do. A cloudy morning that time of the yr you can run up the James and throw blades early around the deep trees and should be ok it just won't last long. 3/4 oz jigs on the ledges and 3/4oz white spoons on the same places once the sun is up will be good. Find deep docks and jigs and spoons small worms will get you lots of numbers. Good luck

[Tom Spence]

I'm with Fat Boy. For me August has always been tough on the rock. However, heres my input. Drop shot, drop shot, drop shot, and spoons deep. That time of year you can find me over very deep water looking for shad and schools of fish with electronics, then dropping baits to them. With the spoon I like deep trees, dock ends, and bluff ends on or in the channels. However, I'm also a believer in river fish and the fact that there is always a population of bass in those areas that don't go deep (or they go to what they consider deep for the area they are in). If you're that kind of guy you can run up rivers as far as you can go and throw square bills at visible cover. Good luck and have fun.

[techo]

Tom is one of the guys who taugt me aout Table Rock. He is generally right. Deep. Both the fish and Tom.