March 28

[techo]

I have been ill the last three days. I mean can't get out of bed sick! We had already paid the fee for the AIA Tourney today, so off we went this morning. The Mrs is my partner this year as Adam was deployed to Iraq.

Weather turned out fairly nice. We both have red faces from the breeze which was a bit strong. AIA took off from Ahoy's at 7. We put in at Mill Creek and boated to the take off.

Headed up toward Aunt's Creek and I don't think I have ever saw it so muddy. Continued up toward Cape Fair (also very muddy) and found some clear water. We caught a lot of fish on the Spro McStick in about forty feet of water. Only one fish was long enough to weigh. It was just over 2.5 pounds and caught by my (better than me) fishing partner.

I saw a few guys not weigh a fish, saw some five fish bags. One fella had two very nice fish...one over 6.5 pounds, with a 20 pound bag total. The Mrs had to use the facilities so we didn't hang around for the whole weigh in.

That is the down side to a female partner....they don't have rest rooms at weigh out and you aren't supposed to leave the boat...any input here Donna?

On a side note....had a good strategy this time for the tourney, we were less than an inch or so off on several fish that would have been a five fish bag. The little Skeeter with the 90 horse held up really really well in the wind and bouncy waters. Every time I think about getting a bigger faster boat, i fall in love with this one a little bit more.

[motoman]

.........

That is the down side to a female partner....they don't have rest rooms at weigh out and you aren't supposed to leave the boat...any input here Donna?.......

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Sorry to hear you've been under the weather techo; that's especially rough this time of year.

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Donna may be able to speak better on this item; but I've seen this thing called the 'Lady J' in outdoor catalogs and websites. Here's a link of it from Cabelas.

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http://www.cabelas.com/p-0014250515391a.shtml

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I wouldn't think you would need the actual Little John portable urinal to use it, I'd think a large mouth bottle would work. (Gatorade?)

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It's funny you mention falling in love with the Skeeter a little more. I've got a 150 on my old dawg 1986 Basscat; and I'm the same way. Everytime it gets us back safe through some heavy chop/waves/weather; I love that thing even more.

[snakem]

Techo,dont know how modest your wife is. I keep a minnow bucket in my boat,and my big jacket It works for her bless her heart. I under stand fishing with the other sex ,but boy are they not a hoot to fish with. Mine will be my buddy coming up May the first for the cape fair Eagles lodge tournament. Good luck out there,their fixing to turn on big time.

Snakem Out.

[Bill Babler]

T. Sorry about you being under the weather. Beck and I fished and I thought it was one of the toughest days we have ever had on the water. Fished the main lake dam area and it was so rough, we both had to stand on the bow, just to keep the troller in the water. We had 11 bites all day and put 9 in the boat with 4 small keepers. No need to weigh them in. I thought it was just brutal out there. Never took my life jacket or hood off all day.

Spoke to one of the Big Cedar guides and he had taken a limit of LM off one of the banks we were going to hit. He was right in front of us. There are just not a lot of places we are catching them. With 70 degree weather coming this week, and the water starting to clear, they will start biting lake wide.

Big bag yesterday at 20 pounds, came on a wart. 2nd. was a sticker. Fish were caught from Eagle Rock to Long Creek, on every manner possible. Jig, Wart, Deep Crankin, Stickbait, Spoon, grub, Spinnerbait, and dragging. I guess about everything, but a Spook or a Fin.

Put that pattern together.

Bottom Line, is we stunk it up. We seemed to be just a step behind all day. It is just about to get better though.

[reelhawk]

Came down for the weekend with group of guys from Iowa that have been posting on this site. My parents have a resort on Indian Point that we all stayed at together for the weekend. We were planning on fishing the AIA yesterday, but ended up not doing it for a couple of reasons. From what I had been hearing from my Dad it sounded like people were catching big bags up the rivers which is an area of the lake I am not familiar with. Also, our buddy (Cyclone Bass) had been having trouble with his steering and with all the wind didn't want to get out in main lake. We figured we'd stick around and fish with them on Sunday morning.

Anyway, we ended up having a pretty good weekend fishing wise. On Saturday EP Iowa Bass and I caught about 10 - 12 fish with 3 pretty good keepers that would have weighed between 9.5 - 10 lbs together.

Sunday was much better. We fished for half the day and ended up with about 20 fish. I'm guessing if we had done the tournament we would been in the 16 lb range for a five fish limit. Not sure if this would have done any good yesterday but we were happy with it.

All of our fish came from the back end of coves that had small creeks running into them and we caught all of our fish on some form of salt and pepper grub. The majority of the bass we caught were largemouths and kentuckies. Also caught a few nice whites and one nice smallmouth that was over 3 lbs. If the bass were active on the surface I would let the grub sink 4 - 8 ft before starting my retrieve. If nothing was going on the surface I'd let it get down 15 - 20 ft before starting the retrieve. We had no luck on stickbaits or jigs. The water temps we were seeing were between 46 - 48 degrees for the weekend.

Hopefully we'll be able to get down again this spring after things start warming up.

[poker fisherman]

Fished Friday and Saturday daylight til dark. Put in at Eagle Rock. Table Rock has humbled me several times in the past few years, with several trips of being completely skunked. However, managed to put some fish in the boat this weekend. Caught lots of short largemouths and spots working the Eakins jigs in 8-20 feet of water. Tried throwing stickbaits and wiggle warts as I see all the guys on here talk about in 20-40 feet with no luck. fishing partner had one strike on a wart and it caught him so off guard he missed.

Got into the whites really well near the Roaring River arm.

The maps with Babler's notations on where to catch fish and with what bait were a perfect tool for Table Rock newbies. We basically hit the spots he has marked and this was our best outing by far on TR. So thanks Bill and Phil for making these available.

Posted a few pics, short bass but very satisfying to pull him out of the water with the jig. Friday and Saturday white bass pics - note the live well pic, Mine is the nearly full well, buddies on the left was having trouble getting them in the boat. Also marked the Holiday Island map with where we were really catching the whites in 2-11 feet of water. Quite a few other boats were in there as well putting to them.

[cyclonebass]

Reelhawk had called to tell me he had been killing the bass in the backs of coves and invited me to the cove he was in. In one hour of fishing in his cove, my partner and I had 3 keepers, including these two 3lb 10 oz bass. We did not fish longer because we needed to head back to Iowa. Who would have guessed the fish would be that active in the back of coves with 46 degree water. This cove had shad all over the place, but the difference between this cove and other coves with shad was that this one did not have any dying shad on the surface. Don't know if that mattered or not, just thought I would throw that out there. Thanks for inviting us over Reelhawk.

[techo]

I think you are right about the dying shad. We hit the back of Mill Creek and it was filled with dead shad. Seagulls everywhere, but couldn't get a bite there. We usually catch something even if it is small there at this time of year.

[Quillback]

Alright! Thanks for sharing the pics!

[mosouthpaw]

http://www.coveryourbass.com/

saw this advertised over at BBC for your privacy needs on the water.