Labor Day Weekend

[RedRaider n EagleRock]

RPS, you didn't miss much this morning. Had a couple of Ks on the spook jr that I gave the long distance release to ( or they gave to me ). Could not find the whites anywhere, would love to fry a few tomorrow. I looked all the way to the eagle rock marina. Depending which way you go tomorrow, I will see ya early. Boat traffic was bad at 9:00am. Go Red Raiders! Good luck to all Big 12 schools

[rps]

Went out today, Sunday, a little after 6:00 am. The fog was heavy so I felt my way down to Haddock Creek. Caught 3 on a jig with twin tail and 4 on a black buzz bait. The jig fish were keepers, but only one was a good fish. None of the buzz bait fish were legal. The jig fish were shallow but near the drop off. I'll post a picture of the 20 inch fish later.

Chased some early boils, but the only white bass I caught were 6 inches. Red Raider said he had found some nice whites on a spoon.

Ran into a walleye regular near Stubblefield Branch. He reported three short walleye. I asked his depth and started trolling.

I caught one 17.5 inch walleye, one large crappie, and six or seven near legal spots. No keeper walleye.

By the time I came in, the boat traffic was amazing.

One funny to relate. Saw a mature man (younger than me but not young) towing someone on a tube with his PWC. I waved him down and told him he needed a spotter to be legal and the patrol usually showed itself on Labor Day Weekend. He thanked me and drove over to the boat that was acting as a tender. He picked up a spotter, waved, and started going around in circles right in the path of my trolling pass. I asked myself what was I thinking. I should have kept my mouth shut and let Darwin take care of it. I have got to learn to let the grumpy old man out more often.

[techo]

You were getting a little low on the saves this year. Good to see you are still out there, towing and saving lives!

[rps]

Here is the fish. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo. The camera is great, but the operator sucks. Especially in low light conditions.

Techo: I was hoping everyone had forgotten the streak of good deeds last year. It's really hard to maintain a grumpy old man persona when people remember things like that.

[motoman]

Nice fish rps. That things lookin' tubby! Looks like he's eatin' right. It's always tough getting good fish pix yourself. I've got a few that look the same.

-

Darwin doesn't seem to be at it, as hard as he should! WAY to many inconsiderate fools out there.

[Sam]

Over on Bull Shoals last Thursday, in the middle of the day, I ran from Bear Creek on the Arkansas line up to K Dock. I think that's about 6 miles - and I passed TWO fishing boats in that whole distance. They were both friendly and waved as I went by, too.

I saw NO PWC's, water skiiers, heavy cruisers, tube-tow-ers, or houseboats throwing 4' wakes. No beer drinking, no spinning out boats at top speed and hollering "woo-hoo", no bikini girls (unfortunately), and I didn't hear any rap music. This was two days before the holiday weekend, but still.

Fellers, I think the fishing's often better over on Tablerock - I really do. But the trade-off is sure worth it to me.

[gitnby]

Fished between Gobbler Mountain and Mill Creek early Saturday. Few shorts on topwater, and a couple small keeper K's on FB jig. Lost a nice LM around a dock.

About 9:30, I ran into a huge school of whites around Hoot Owl and caught all I wanted in the 10-14" range.

Was about worn out by the whites, when something nailed my spoon as soon as it hit the water.

A 4 lb+ smallie was in there feeding with the whites and made a perfect ending to the morning!

[rps]

I do love TR. You just never know.

[techo]

I do love TR. You just never know.

I concur.

[tapout]

Hit the rock at 7am labor day with my wife. Fished from KC to the mouth of the white river. White bass were thick. Probably saw 6 boats in my immediate area catching whites. They surfaced at 8 and basically stayed up till about 10. Used a spoon and quickly found most of the bigger fish were at 25 feet. If the spoon got picked up sooner than that is was usually a dink. Kept a limit. Probably caught 50. It was fun. Caught a few spots and one smallie mixed in. The bass were short. Caught enough my wife said, "Is your wrist starting to hurt?" Thats a good day.

Now don't crucify me but from 11 till around 2 the kids joined us and we went........wakeboarding! Yes I admit it.

After that we tried dropshotting and across from Joe Bald. Same old purple worm. Found a gravel point holding fish at 25' in 40' of water. Caught 4 K's. One 17" , one 16" , and two 14". Not bad with a boat full of kids in our last hour. Confident I could of kept it up but had to go to work.

Seriously; it wasn't that crowded in that area. I've seen much, much worse. I only have so many chances to go fishing in a year so I don't care if its crowded, just play the hand your dealt. I have gotten quite frustrated with big cruisers and tubers at times, but overall I love TR.