Last Week

[vernon]

Fished out of Kimberling Sat 15 May thru Fri of last week traveling from Cow to about a mile past the mouth of the Kings up the White with many stops in between. Like many of the recent reports, I found each day to be a little different. Caught fish on Sammy, white spinnerbait, Eakins jig and grub although most consistent producer was watermelon red centipede with 1/8 oz. Florida weight from 15 ft to the bank with 12 - 15 probably being the most consistent. Lots of short strikes and flashes on the spinnerbait but couldn't hook up very often even with a trailer hook. Topwater seemed to be less efective as each day went by although I didn't spend much time in the areas that Babs has been doing so well on. Didn't get out that early either as I'm dealing with two blown out discs in my lower back that are gonna have to be cut on in the next couple of months so my time on the water was kind of dictated by how the back felt at any given time (or the lightning earlier in the week!). Have trouble standing to fish for any length of time as well - this getting old crap ain't all it's cracked up to be - although thank you Ranger for the soft ride seats in my 520 or I probably wouldn't be out there at all.

Was a little disapointed in the smallmouth bite as only caught a few shorts on the pede and usually do really well on them this time of year. No whites either and was looking forward to putting the wife on some of those. Nonetheless, had fifteen keepers for the week with the biggest going about 4 1/2. That fish hit the Sammy about as hard as a bored bluegill - just barely sucked it under. Averaged about 20 - 30 fish per day so overall not bad at all just not what I tend to anticipate (hope for?) in May with such good conditions. Shallower points were probably best overall but caught strays here and there just about everywhere I stopped. A few good size fish were up in the bushes later in the week but couldin't keep em' on. Even missed quite a few on the pede after having them on for 3-4 seconds they just disapeared - weird. Heading back down with my brother for another week the 5th of June so hopefully it's not too late by then. Thanks to all of you for the great informational resource that this site provides. Especially the guys that do this stuff for a living. Your sharing of information and advice is priceless and greatly appreciated by those of us that are only able to make it down a few times each year and are either too poor or too cheap and stubborn to hire a guide for a day. Bill, Eric, Don and Joe - you guys are the greatest and after 40 years of doing this I still hope to share a boat with one or more of you some day learning how to finally do it right.