This Week On Table Rock

[focused fishing]

Guided Mon - Thur out of Kimberling and the Dam area, the drop shot bite is about as good as I've seen it in years. Most of the fish are coming on flat gravel points and flats 28' - 35' deep on Robo Worms or Chompers in MMIII or brown / purple laminate. The fish holding close to the bottom until you hook one, then the bottom explodes. Jerry from southern Il was my client on Tuesday out of Big Cedar, we fished flat points and islands around Big Cedar for four hours, had 20+ fish with over half being keepers.

Had one of my regular clients on Monday and Wednesday, Bobby Conely from TX, he hates to drop shot so we fished shallow. Found a mixed bag of smallmouth and KY's on gravel flats and points in the Kim City area 10' - 15' deep before the storm hit on Monday. Not a lot of quality but allot of fish, would of had a limit between the two of us that would of weighed around 13 or 14 pound but that included a nice 4+ pound smallmouth. All of these fish came on either Jewel 5/16 oz spider jig or 3/8 oz football jig in PB&J with a GP J tail or Paca chunk trailer or a shaky head with a finesse worm. All of the baits had to have a little chartreuse on the tail to draw strikes. We had 40 fish in 6 hours but only 8 keepers on Monday.

Wednesday the bite was a lot tougher shallow, we did have several fish early on a spook in the few calm pockets I could find on the south side of the lake, all main lake pockets with little or no wind, the wind made it tough to fish a spook on the north shore line. Once the topwater bite died off we went back to fishing jigs and shaky heads and found the fish a little deeper from 12' - 25' deep on the same gravel, again not alot of quality but good numbers. We would of managed a small limit around 11 - 12 pounds, total of around 35 fish (half came early on the spook) and 6 or 7 keepers.

Thursday went out of Indian Point, had Tom and his son from Iowa, Tom's boy Brandon is 12 and eat up with fishing. Fished flat points from Indian to around Rice camp 28' - 35' deep (the wind sucked, had to try to hide from it whenever possible) with a drop shot rig using Chomper and Robo worms or crawlers. When we found the fish it seemed we'd find the motherload. Had 30+ fish in 4 hours with 14 keepers, most around the 2.5 - 2.75 in the FAT KY flavor.

Good week so far, gotta thank Jim Bruffey for letting me borrow his rig while mine is getting fixed.

Good luck out there.

EP

[dtrs5kprs]

Much appreciated. You guys are making me twitch, esp all this talk of 13HWY fish.

[Jason Essary]

Rice Camp!! no fish there. Move along, move along. Nothing to see here!!!

[Chris_Fish]

Thanks for the report. I'm heading out Saturday from Big Cedar to fish for a little while. Sadly, it's only my second time fishing Table Rock this year. I've only been into bass fishing for about a year now, but am really hoping for some good action this weekend. I'm sure there'll be a lot of traffic on the water, but that's to expect for a warm weekend. Any advice you could give a beginner on catching bass tomorrow would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to catch a smallie - as I hear they put up a great fight! Thanks!

[dtrs5kprs]

EP...do you think the 10-15' fish around KC were just pulled up b/c of the impending weather?

[Tfsh4bass]

EP...do you think the 10-15' fish around KC were just pulled up b/c of the impending weather?

Not EP but I would say the weather helped some but I caught good fish in that range again Friday around the Cow Creek area and again today around Baxter...plus the previous 2 weeks now. I hammered them Friday and I even caught several fish in the backs of coves that had shad in them...had to be short main lake ones with timber but I had some good smallmouth Friday. Today was much tougher though as I only had 4 good keepers with around a dozen shorts...just fished 6am to noon though and it seems strange but the bite has been better for me in the afternoon. I just think the afternoon sun really suspends the fish in the trees better plus I get a little more flash off my swimbait...just my opinion of course

[Paul Nienhaus]

I fished mon. thru thurs. I caught occasional jig&trailer fish in brush 15ft. and dragging a jig 25ft. Most fish that I caught though were suspended, on grub, jigging spoon and deepcrank. I fished joe bald to baxter, and the secret was to find active schools on the fishfinder

[Gone Fishing]

Not EP but I would say the weather helped some but I caught good fish in that range again Friday around the Cow Creek area and again today around Baxter...plus the previous 2 weeks now. I hammered them Friday and I even caught several fish in the backs of coves that had shad in them...had to be short main lake ones with timber but I had some good smallmouth Friday. Today was much tougher though as I only had 4 good keepers with around a dozen shorts...just fished 6am to noon though and it seems strange but the bite has been better for me in the afternoon. I just think the afternoon sun really suspends the fish in the trees better plus I get a little more flash off my swimbait...just my opinion of course

What kind of swimbait are you throwing? How is it weighted? To many questions yet?

[focused fishing]

EP...do you think the 10-15' fish around KC were just pulled up b/c of the impending weather?

Absolutely, the incoming rain on Monday was a plus and the wind on Weds as well, anything to move up bait and in turn fish has helped the shallow bite. Just like Terry pointed out the bite was not nearly as good on Saturday, limited cloud cover and wind plus the boat traffic hurt the shallow bite. Had a half dozen fish with only one keeper shallow and then bailed for the deep bite by 7:00. Deep fish are still there if the boat traffic will let you fish.......... ARRGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

[Tfsh4bass]

What kind of swimbait are you throwing? How is it weighted? To many questions yet?

Swimming super fluke in white ice color on 1/2oz head (no weedguard) with 20lb flurocarbon...adding a touch of chartreuse on the side with a marker. Steady retrieve and most bites have been coming in the 6-10 range with the boat 12-20. I have caught some off pea gravel and mixed banks BUT most fish have been in timber close to points...main lake mostly but I did have some good days in creeks Wed/Fri. You have to be patient on the tough days but during the KVD I caught 15 of my 17 keepers in 2 days throwing it...just couldn't get any over 3.3lbs