Morning Largemouth Bite

[kre11]

Went out Sunday morning from 5 til about 9:30. The lake was almost empty this morning, and I was thinking it was too good to be true. I was right, the erie feeling of solitude was quickly replaced at straight up 6 with the launch of a tournament. As close as most of those boats ran by me on the point I was fishing at 70 mph, I am assuming that my black sparkle boat blended in with the morning sky and my navigation lights that I switched back on as I heard them coming must have looked like guidance beacons! Is it bad that I was secretly hoping one of those tree tops would have jumped up and grabbed a lower unit or two? I shouldn't say that, I sure don't own Table Rock Lake and life is too short to get upset while you are fishing and enjoying a morning like today .

Anyway, the fishing was great this morning. I fished a little shallower than usual after a productive predawn bite on a 4 inch zoom craw in junebug beating the chunk rock banks out to about 10-12 fow. I was fishing this texas rigged on 12 lb bps flouro with a 1/8th ounce weight above a 2/0 trokar hook. By the way, if you have not tried the new trokar pointed hooks you are missing out!!! I remember the difference the new gama and mustad hooks made 10 or 15 years ago when they came out with their needle point worm hooks. Well this revolution may be just as significant. They are expensive, but give them a try, you will be very satisfied! I am missing a lot fewer fish with these hooks.

As the sun came up, I switched to my standby 3/8 oz chompers football in green pumpkin/purple fleck with a chompers trailer. I have been having success with a yum double tail in watermelon black fleck, but today used the the chompers cinnamon/purple and green pumpkin. I have found that if I bite off about half an inch of the body of these trailers, they seem to work better. I discovered this while trying to salvage one that was getting torn up. Besides, with the chompers, you get a great garlic flavor, and with the yum, a mouthful of salt to start the day with! I wanted to attach a picture to illustrate the baits I was using but I haven't been able to figure out how to resize pictures on this stupid mac computer yet, but I hope my descriptions were helpful.

As I stated earlier, I fished shallow all morning with the deepest fish coming off a boat dock in 18 fow. WIth that being said, all I caught today were largemouth. I did manage three fish that were close to 4 pounds each and the rest were between 1 and 2.

I am sure a few of those boats that raced by me this morning would have appreciated a few of those largemouth.

I am interested to see if anyone else has seen similar patterns with the largemouth in shallower water compared to deeper water for the KY's and smallies.

[johnboy2bfishin]

i am going out tomorrow morning, was curious what type of bank and what part of the lake you were on. thought about going to james river to throw a crankbait and jig.

[kre11]

i am going out tomorrow morning, was curious what type of bank and what part of the lake you were on. thought about going to james river to throw a crankbait and jig.

I have been fishing up the James, check out Bill Babler's post of feed them what they want, that jig bite is great right now. As far as the bank, look for chunk rock or gravel. The fish up there don't seem to be relating to the solid rock banks for some reason. I tried trowing a deep diving crank bait (even trolled a little) in about 35 fow where I was marking some fish, but nothing was biting. The likely reason is that the bait seems to be extremely small (1 to 2 inches) so maybe vertical jigging a small spoon would work. But just like Bill said, don't waste your time, hit the banks early and move to the docks when the sun comes out using the jig in both places. I don't think the jig color matters much as long as it is some sort of natural color (watermelon, pumpkin...).

Think about it from the fish's perspective, they are already swimming in water warm enough to bathe in. When that sun comes out, where would you go? I would go to shady banks and hide in the shade of the docks. Good luck to you, hope you wear 'em out in the morning! Let us know.

[johnboy2bfishin]

hey kre11 mondays fishing wasn't very productive. caught 4 small fish. fished everything. but thanks for the help. still learning this lake it can be fun or frustrating.