Table Rock Lake Fishing Report April 3Rd. 2011

[Bill Babler]

Table Rock Lake 3-4-11

White River Outfitters Guide Service Branson, Mo. Current Table Rock Lake Bass Fishing Report

Out all week and for the most part, not huge numbers, but just very "Big Fish." Most days averaging 15 to 20 fish with the majority being small. BUT, everyday, we are picking up a Table Rock Lake Monster or two in the bag. Not uncommon to have and I will also speak for Beck here as we have been guiding together alot. 2 or 3 fish each in the 6 pound plus catagory.

We both had fish over 9 pounds this last week.

Water temps lake wide are ranging from as high as 56 in the Rivers to 48-50 on the main lake. Clarity of main lake is 15 ft. of visibility, and the Rivers are discribed a perfect with 2-10 ft. depending where you are.

Crankbait bite on the Rivers is reported as very good, but fish are running pretty small, with loads of 12 to 15 inch "Buck" Largemouth. Main lake is producing lots bigger fish but in smaller numbers. Point 2 point 23 which I know is a large area, seem to be housing the bigger fish. Most are coming from main lake bluffends and timbered inside points.

IF you can get some wind, the stickbait bite is fair, not at all up to par. IF not, a jig is by far the best bet, with the wart being a close second. Natural Green Craw seems to be the top producer on both baits.

Fished an Anglers in Action team deal yesterday. Jason Baxter of Pig Sticker Jig Company was my Alternate as Beck had a Trout Trip, and the derbies are just our side deal if we are not gainfully employed.

71 entry fees so this was a big ticket derby on the Rock. Only I believe 39 of the teams weighed in a fish. We were very fortunate to win 3rd. place, and our tournament play for pay continues to be a great fun deal this last 8 weeks. Side pot money again, so Harter House is still doing as well as we are.

Jason on his first cast caught a huge bass that was 6.72 pounds and won us the Big Bass Pot. It was off a tree that Beck and I have caught 11 fish over 5 pounds on this year so far. It is on a bluff with a big spawning cove near by and it has really held big fish. We have also caught a 3.77 pound Small Jaw and a K over 4 pounds off this tree. It is in 36 ft. of water and thank goodness for us is very, very hard to see and find. It just looks like all the other ones, but it is a cedar with no limbs. It is a Monster Holder. We have yet to catch a short fish off this tree. That should tell us something.

Winning bag was only 15.92. Second 15.90 and our bag was only 15.72. We only caught 15 fish in the tournament, 5 keeps. The last keep was 15 minutes before weigh-in. The winner had a 5.31 colored up Jaw, that was tiger stripped and was just a magnificent fish.

Spoke to two other derby guys, and the wart seemed to be what their fish were taken on. Even on no wind. It is a very strange year so far.

Just a note on Jason's Big bass, we thought it was bigger than 7 pounds as it had a huge girth. It was only 22 inches long, and for those fish to be Great Big, they have to be 25 plus inches.

My biggin here was closer to 28 inches that 27, but not the girth. Beck had one this week at 9.1 that was close to 27 inches. Lots of the weight in the length.

Good Luck out there.

[gabe]

Thanks for the report Bill. I wonder why the stickbait bite has been sub par so far this year?

[techo]

Bill.....either you lost a lot more weight or the fish are getting bigger this year! Nice catch and congrats on another fine placing in the tournies.

[Bill Babler]

T. thanks for noticing. I'm back down to 187 again. Got back up to around 219 when Phil and I took our trip to Alaska last September. He charged me for the extra baggage. When we flew out of Kotzebue to the Kelly River, I was at 219. After the trip when we got back to Kotzebue, I was at 209 and just decided to eat a little smarter. It was still less than my 235 but it feels good to be under 190 again. Hope to hold it for a while, but who knows, I just love to eat.

As far as the fish. YES they are runnng bigger this year. We are all catching fish as big or bigger than prior to the fish kill. You can see in the derby weights on the Big Bass Side that there are some complete toads coming in. Our tournament total weights are down, not counting that insane day Beck and I had. Most of the derby's are running a pound or two, maybe more lighter than years past, but all are weighing in complete toads for Big Fish.

Not alot of Jaw's or K's coming to the scales. Mostly Buck Largemouth. I am struggling to find a good K bite, and the Jaw's for me do not exist. Usually this time of the year the creels in the derby's and the fish numbers on guide trips are filled with K's and Jaws. Not so much this year. I had a trip Thursday with Beck and he had only 10 total fish on his trip and I had only 5 total fish. All mine were LM and Beck had 9 LM and one Big K. Of my 5 fish, all were Keepers, with the two best at 5.5 an 5 pounds. The 5 keeps my clients caught would have gone 18 pounds and Billy could have put together a bag at 25 pounds. Beck had the 9.1 and a couple more at 5 pounds all LM.

In the derby on Saturday, we had 2 Jaws short. 1 K, a keeper, last fish we caught and 12 LM with 4 keeps, including the big gal. That was it. Did have a good day on numbers up the White River on Monday with several nice K's along with the big Gal's. BUT... for the most part, low numbers of K's and Jaws.

The threadfin shad kill is still in full bloom, with the water hovering in the upper 40's. If we get a couple of nights again the first of the week at 30 and then on tuesday at 26, it will continue. We saw litterly hundreds of shad dying on Saturday. Probably the reason the K's are not up. They are I am guessing out suspended under all this feed. I have at this time of the year never seen the ammounts of Gulls we have. Thousands. When they leave, I believe we will start seeing the Jaws and K's.

Gabe, as far as the sticker bite, I am at a total loss. Got to be the threadfin. You know how good it was when you were here in March last year. No deal this year. Jig, wart, square bill, and even the grub are doing better than the sticker. But me being me means I have to throw it anyway.

Good Luck

[Rackasaurus]

Question ? When you mention "up the rivers " About how far are we going? coming down Wed thru Sun James arm area, Put in point, "Campers Point" Would we be going past 76 bridge up stream at at Cape Fair. Thank's some directions or other spots back towards Aunts Creek.

Scott

[Bill Babler]

Campers is up the river, but by no means UP the river. You still have a fur piece to go to get to the 76 bridge. If your headed for Campers, that means you are doing that, camping. It is about as far as you can get out of Shell Knob, on a pretty iffy road.

Tell us what type of fishing you are wanting to do and I bet we can get you headed in the right direction. If it were me, this time of the year, probably would think of a place closer to where the fish are, if that was what I was really after.

If you were after solitude a big camp fire and maybe just playing on a stretch of really nice water, not so much where the fish are really concentrated now and that didn't matter, you have picked wisly.

Good Luck

[dtrs5kprs]

Appreciate your efforts to keep us dialed in as always. Beautiful fish, and if I am not wrong the background on your fish is what I use for my computer's desktop pic. Out now, big bad bow echo storm rolling into west side of KC.

[gitnby]

Fished Kimberling area Saturday from 7 AM to 10 AM and again from 6 PM to dark.

Had 6 bites, 5 keeper LM and one short SM.

Caught 4 LM off one main lake point in about 15 minutes from 9:30-9:45 on a Fish Doctor rig in 10'.

I'd guess the 4 weighed right around 15 lbs. Biggest was 4.4, and the rest were slightly smaller.

Funny thing is, I came up on the point after watching 2 guys throwing jigs all over it, so I decided to try something different.

Seems a bit early for the rig, but someone forgot to tell the fish.

Second cast in the evening got absolutely hammered by a LM that came in at 5.8.

Got him on a FB jig in 18' on a timbered main lake point.

[thefrog22]

So when you are using jigs on the bluffs and points and fishing the deeper water (15-30+), are you in contact with the bottom still? Also, do you prefer a spinning or baitcasting rod for the technique?

[MstStudent10]

Keep in contact with the bottom. If need be, use a heavier jig in order to keep it on the bottom. At least for me, I've found they're biting a jig better when I am dragging it, not hoping it. Use a baitcaster for this, preferably a longer pole (7 footish) and a higher geared reel. This allows you to move more line quickly and get a better hookset on those deeper fish.