Just A Few Pics From The Marathon

[dtrs5kprs]

Won't bother with fish report info, except to note grubs/fins were the hot tickets. Lighter grub heads seemed to work better, especially if the wind laid off. Fish were caught on about everything and everywhere all within a few miles either way of Kimberling. Deep fish, suspended fish, shallow fish, bed fish, dock fish, school fish...and on grubs, fins, spooks, flukes, senkos, big and little rigs, shakey stuff, jig spoons around deep shad, hair jigs, whirly bees, Mc Sticks, hard and soft swimbaits...

Fished 4/19 to 5/9 in the longest consecutive stretch of days I have spent at the lake. Ah, to be a full time fish bum. Had company 5 of those days, a buddy from Leavenworth who is /was a Truman guy, and my wife's cousin & his girlfriend doing the Branson thing from Omaha, NE. Went through bags and bags of grubs, wore out gamak heads setting on fish, had a brown fish break a $20 swimbait. Crazy.

Always expect to have some good days at the Rock, but usually they involve a ton of work to make happen. This trip it was like a farm pond. No idea how many were caught, but there were definite 100+ days, triples hooked up with Joe and Amber in a storm shortened half day trip. If you love this lake, or are in the other camp and have had tough days here, now is the time to go. Just get your head around the clear water.

John with a nice one on a fin. Left him way too many fish.

He started to like smoke grubs and clear water. Couldn't get him to drop down to 6# though. This was the Sunday after the tornado.

Some Mc Stick fish. Kind of late, but with wind and sun they were into it.

The kids were great to fish with. Easy to see why some trips are more memorable for our guides than others. Was a little apprehensive since I usually fish alone, and was not sure of their skill level or interest. They beat me to the ramp, both took to the grub instantly, she whacked him most of the day, and she takes her own fish off. Can't get my wife to do that and she's been around bass for almost 16 years now.

Average grub keepers, some a little better, some not.

Types of places fished most of the week.

To answer one of the inevitable Q's...fish we boxed for pics were all post spawn as far as we could tell. Any obvious nest fish went right back. All were swimming when last I saw them. Do a search for Glory Bags if you want to see a neat way to keep fish calm in the livewell. Minimizes handling, thrashing, makes them simple to cull. Color coded individual rubber mesh zip bags for each fish.

http://www.basstackledepot.com/glorybags.aspx

Thanks to all of you who post here, especially when things do not work as planned. Have a new respect for the physical and mental beating our guide friends and the fish every day guys take. Will be back in mid June, hope some TW fish hold up. If not then it will be on to rigs, fb igs, and spoons.

[dtrs5kprs]

Sorry got the places pics mixed up, PC crashed about 3 times while trying to get the uploads. Basically postcard looking water for the fin, flat nothing stuff for the grub fish.

[motoman]

Awesome pics and report! I love those pics of the terrain too.

[Quillback]

Great pics, good to see some folks having fun fishing!