Memorial Weekend Report

[skeeter]

Had the usual crew down for the three day weekend and got out at 5 Sat. morning. Fished deep cove across from Pt.19 and no topwater action, period, on Spook or Fin. Couldn't raise a fish even that early. Small cold front went thru Fri. night and heavy dew falling soaked the boat. Switched to 3/8oz. War Eagle jig in MO Craw color with large Zoom Pumpkin trailer and started catching fish on chunk rock banks. Had one nice 6 & 1/2 (guesstimate) LM and several 16" K's and one nice 3 lb. or so SM. The fish were actually HOT in comparison with the air temps. when we released them. Reminded you of Fall fishing.

Back out late Monday morning about 7ish and, on a tip from a buddy, went directly across the White from Saturday's trip over onto the flats. Again, no topwater, lot's and lot's of big gar and again switched to same jig and pig combo and started catching nice 17 to 18 in. SM in 10-12 ft thanks to nice cloud cover. The fifth, and largest of course, SM hit the jig directly under the boat and zoomed at flank speed to the surface not six inches from the gunwale of the boat clearing the water by a good foot or two at least ! Thought it was coming aboard and actually jumped back 'cause you don't want to be smacked by a fish with an exposed hook. Didn't have enough line out to control the high speed SM run and it jumped again throwing the jig and we laughed our "you know what's" off at both mine and the fish's antics but at least we all got to see the fish twice ! Also had some really nice bull bluegill on white with black spots and silver blade Rooster Tail the young man in the rear of the boat was throwing. Came in about 1 PM due to Battleship and Aircraft Carrier activity in main channel throwing wakes over the transom and gunwales.

[Sam]

The last time I fished Tablerock on a Memorial Day weekend, I was real lucky to get back to the ramp with party-boat waves coming over the front deck and the bilge pump running the whole way. I've decided to never try that again, but I'm glad you got a good trip out of it.

[MOBass]

I love the battleship and carrier activity line. Glad some fish was to be had. With the nice weather it's time to start fishing from pre dawn to Ski Doo o'clock. The last time I fished Table Rock on Memorial Day Weekend was about 8 years ago. Put in at Cape Fair at dark o'clock and ran up the James. Caught the fire out of fish and decided to head home about 3pm. It looked like the Spanish Armada was on the lake. Craft of every size and shape you could imagine. After a very bumpy ride I was glad to put it on the trailer and see nothing was broken.

Never again.

[Gilly]

[ .........Never again.]

Isn't that the truth!? The wife and I decided to stay off of the water this weekend. Got the itch anyway and ran up to a little lake in Iowa. I'll be darn if in the middle of this little lake 3 boats and 12+ pwc hadn't tied up and made their own little 'party cove'. Every now and then a couple of the pwc would zoom down the lake and go back to their loudmouth group. Annoying at best. Even back on what I would consider the fishing side of the lake the sob's would zoom in close. Rather than not try to pizz everyone off it's like they go out of their way to do exactly that.

[CMAC]

Dragging efforts yesterday resulted in only 3 very quality keepers. Lots of white bass action early, glad I got up! Boat traffic horrible in Long Creek. Amazing how those small Teagues/mastercrafts/malibus can produce those huge wakes!

[kre11]

Can't usually make it out for the early morning bite, so most of my fishing is done in the evening. So maybe this is a little different perspective for everyone.

Fished last night around Kimberling City from about 5 until 10pm. Fishing was slow until the sun went down. We caught a few Spots on sharp dropping points between the shore and 20 feet of water on chunk rock. I was using a MO craw colored football jig with a YUM watermelon trailer, while my buddy was using a fluke with a split shot about 2 feet up. Both of us were fishing extremely slow and it seemed like most of the bites were coming on the bottom.

Once the sun went down, the action got better with both the smallies and the spots. Started throwing a 4 inch smoke colored grub out on long main lake points that had a little bit of wind on them. Strangely enough, most of the bites were on the leeward side of the points. I figured the windward side would have been better with the wind moving over it, but no. The bites were extremely subtle but were fairly consistent. Nothing bigger than a couple of 15-17 inch spots, but a lot of fun none the less.

The boat traffic was basically nonexistent after dark and the weather was great.