Table Rock Lake Fishing Report June 5Th. 2011

[Tfsh4bass]

Yeah i fished the AIA and noticed the dead fish also, All the ones we caught swam away just fine. With the right amount of ice, and that rejuvinade our fish were super alive. I walked them down to the tank and told the guy to put those fish right into the lake that they were ready to go. WE finished with 12.63 pounds, three solid smallmouth, a good large mounth and one little kentucky. Our bite was best around 10:00 am. We found a school on a underwater rock pile on the side of a boat ramp and caught the fire out of them. Every fish we caught off that place had at least six more trying to get the jig out of thier mouths. We just couldn't get the big fish to go for us. First thing in the morning i seen a seven or eight pounder eating shad that were spawing off a boat dock. That was as close as I got to any big ones. On a side note, one of the kentuckys we culled had eggs coming out of it in the well. We caught 15 keepers throughout the day. With only a few short fish. Best producers were an eakins jig, and a baby brush hawg.

We had a black yesterday that still had eggs also...pretty crazy! We were fortunate that all of ours lived as well and 2 we weighed in had been in the livewell since 6:30ish. Rejuvinade and running recirc all day plus a little ice. Pretty funny I also saw a 5-6lb mule eating some shad by a dock and I fired in only to catch a 15.5" spot...made several more cast but no luck on the big girl.

[Tfsh4bass]

Do they have cooling tanks? Most of the small tournaments I have seen anglers will line up in the parking lot with five fish in a bag resting on the parking lot for 30 minutes or more and I am surprised that there is a live fish released after those conditions. I always keep the livewell running with ice until I see the line go down, but seems the heat effects the common sense of most the anglers too.

The easy fix to that would be to put the scales close to the water and not in a black top parking lot and require anybody standing in line to rest thier bag in the lake, but then someone would raise up and protest the scales are not on a stable footing. I would refund his money and ask him not to fish with the club anymore, but guess that is why I am not running a tournament.

If you see someone putting a dead or dying fish back in the lake please ask them to remove the fish or someone close by with thier boat in the water. I have never had anyone refuse to do so or even give an attitude. Just seems as temps get higher people need more direction but are still willing and egar to do the right thing.

They had a cooling tank and when I went up to get a bag there were only 5 guys in line to weigh...then only 3 when I got up to weigh. My only complaint with the cooling tanks were they didn't have any "stay alive" chemicals in there which I think they need....they weren't that cool either but you could see where they put several bags of ice in them. AIA is a pretty big outfit but don't draw well at TRock for some reason...drew 112 at Grand last month and always draw well at LOZ. They do a good job and yesterday was just a little shocking because I have never seen that many dead bass at a day tournament at Table Rock...some of the old Cape Fair night tournaments in July/Aug used to kill the crap out of fish which is why I stopped fishing those.

[Jason Essary]

Question, was anyone weighing dead fish?

[Tfsh4bass]

Question, was anyone weighing dead fish?

Yes, there were some weighed in...while I was up there I saw 5-6 teams take penalty but we were 2nd flight so we didn't weigh our fish until 3:20ish

[Bill Babler]

This water temp is 80 Plus. You have to run chemicals and Ice and just recirculate the water. We had another big one is morning, pushing 7 pounds. She also was full and spewing rotton eggs. My client caught her swimming a grub, on 6 pound mono and a very fast light grub rod. By the time he got her to the boat she was in serious trouble. poured the chem's to her and blew O2 on her solid for about 20 minutes and she was ok. It was close. I believe if we would have just turned her back, she would have sank to the bottom and died.

All these derby's need cold tanks set up with lots of aeriators and rejunivate in them. Fish need to be placed in the tank for 30 minutes after the weighin. Any that are on their sides need to be gotten rid of in a proper manner, either filleted or disposed of, not and I mean, NEVER thrown back in the lake at the ramp. Very poor judgement.

Right now as it is Fishing tournaments are just a notch above time share sales people and we all need to make that thing go away.

Again d5keps you are right. I slammed her yesterday with a 3/8th. FB Chompers EWG. Probably would not have hurt her on a Jewell or a Pigsticker.

[dtrs5kprs]

This water temp is 80 Plus. You have to run chemicals and Ice and just recirculate the water. We had another big one is morning, pushing 7 pounds. She also was full and spewing rotton eggs. My client caught her swimming a grub, on 6 pound mono and a very fast light grub rod. By the time he got her to the boat she was in serious trouble. poured the chem's to her and blew O2 on her solid for about 20 minutes and she was ok. It was close. I believe if we would have just turned her back, she would have sank to the bottom and died.

All these derby's need cold tanks set up with lots of aeriators and rejunivate in them. Fish need to be placed in the tank for 30 minutes after the weighin. Any that are on their sides need to be gotten rid of in a proper manner, either filleted or disposed of, not and I mean, NEVER thrown back in the lake at the ramp. Very poor judgement.

Right now as it is Fishing tournaments are just a notch above time share sales people and we all need to make that thing go away.

Again d5keps you are right. I slammed her yesterday with a 3/8th. FB Chompers EWG. Probably would not have hurt her on a Jewell or a Pigsticker.

Wish I was wrong on that, and still think I might be. One I lost this spring was on a 3/4oz Hazie Dazie with the round gamakatsu. If it is the EWG why am I not killing them flipping tubes, dragging rigs, etc? Maybe the power of the big FB jig rod and weight of the head slamming home with the hook?

Right now I'd be worried about those same fish coming up from deep water to eat TW's also.

Guess it is just a risk, I put her in the box and ran the pumps wide open with fish dope, but...Was sick about it the rest of the trip.

[Jason Essary]

Hate the idea of dead fish floating. Im with Bill, filet them, give them away or dispose of them. Hurting the face of fishing by leaving them floating is a discrace. I have been fishing the Millcreek Night derbys for awhile now. Joe does a great job of preaching ice and rejuv. powder. No dead fish are allowed to weigh-in. Period. Wish all tourneys were this way.

I have watch these guys after the weigh-in, put their boat back in the water just to go net one floater, bring her back to get her going better and then but the boat back on the trailer. Just for ONE fish. The fish swam away happy afterwards. Now I understand that after a few hours there might be a few that die from stress, but there really is no way of dealing with that, but to leave with fish floating, in my mind they should get a warning to have their permits revoked. Just my thoughts.

[Tfsh4bass]

Hate the idea of dead fish floating. Im with Bill, filet them, give them away or dispose of them. Hurting the face of fishing by leaving them floating is a discrace. I have been fishing the Millcreek Night derbys for awhile now. Joe does a great job of preaching ice and rejuv. powder. No dead fish are allowed to weigh-in. Period. Wish all tourneys were this way.

I have watch these guys after the weigh-in, put their boat back in the water just to go net one floater, bring her back to get her going better and then but the boat back on the trailer. Just for ONE fish. The fish swam away happy afterwards. Now I understand that after a few hours there might be a few that die from stress, but there really is no way of dealing with that, but to leave with fish floating, in my mind they should get a warning to have their permits revoked. Just my thoughts.

Most of the dead ones were in their release tank but there were some floating by shore when I left...hopefully they netted everything up before they left

I like the rule as long as guys aren't just throwing dead fish out in the lake and then filling out their limit with live ones

[Jason Essary]

We had one fish die last year, only one. Ate a worm deep and even after cutting the hook off, the fight must have done to much damage to her. I put her in an ice bag with ice, in with our sodas and toke her home. One fish out of all summer of fishing. My partner is crazy about ice for the fish, but glad he is.

[nwaoutdoorsman]

Someone smarter than me may be able to elaborate on this a little better than me, but one trick I have done in recent years is to clip weights on their pelvic fins and keep them in the livewell with chemicals and ice. After losing a few tournament fish I found that if I could keep them off their side and upright their survival rate increased dramatically. Fish that were borderline dead would come back and be full of pep by the time weigh in rolled around. I haven't lost one since I started doing this. All you need are some lead weights with small alligator clips attached. Clip them on the pelvic fins and it will work. I've even released a few fish with the weights still attached. I don't believe it hurts them and that they'll eventually throw them off once they regain their strength( I hope they do anyways). Like I said, someone may have something more than can add or this may have been posted before and old news. Just thought I'd pass it along.