July 4Th Fishing Report

[Biglerma]

Came down with the family for our yearly trip. We have a place up at Shell Knob. Saturday morning when we got there I took the girlfriend drop shotting. We caught about 20 fish but had to hit a lot of locations and most of my go-to spots were producing very few fish. The water was a bit murky I believe for the drop shot and it seemed like the KYs just hadn't really stacked up on many of the deep docks yet. I hit 6 or so deep docks and only 2 had fish. Usually I can pull 50 bass off those 6 docks. The girlfriend was happy with the fish she caught and wanted to tag along for the rest of the trip so that evening I switched to throwing a 5/8 oz PB&J football jib and a 3/16 oz green pumpkin or watermelon shaky head in 12-20 foot of water on points. Caught 14 fish in an hour and 15 min with several of them being keepers.

Sunday, went out early with my dad and brother. They were both throwing FB jigs while I was trying the shakyhead. That morning they wanted the FB jig as I only caught 4, while dad caught 10 and my brother caught 6 I believe. This last weekend it seemed like the evening bite was better than the morning bite. That evening I caught 12 fish off pt 22 in an hour with a nice 19 inch SM. Up at the Knob we don't get to catch many SM so I was thrilled! I ended up getting a 18 inch and 19 inch SM this last weekend, both came on the shakyhead.

Monday morning was fantastic with the cloud cover. Stayed on the lake until about 10:30 and caught the largest LM on a shakyhead off a bluff end in the white river. The key was really hopping from point to point. If they were there you would pick one up in 5-10 casts or so. I never stayed in a place long if I didn't get bit within a few casts.

This morning things were pretty slow. We tried about 6-8 different points and caught some decent fish but the bite was very slow by 8:00. I brought Dad and my brother back to the dock and I went back to try this one bluff with lots of cuts in it that usually has some fish. Caught 4 LM's off of one of the cuts in the bluff. Mad 12 casts and caught 10 fish, 9 of them being LM's and 1 being a KY. Caught one LM that went 19 inch and 4 lbs.

All in all it was a great trip with several LM's over 3 lbs and two nice smallies. I saw about a 8 lb dead walleye that had floated to the top. Was a shame to see him dead but what can you do.

Just wanted to thank the guys on this forum, I am always able to catch good fish by the generous reports on here. I only make it down to the Rock maybe once or twice a year but have been fishing it since I was old enough to hold a pole. Thanks again for the great info!

[Biglerma]

The crappie actually came from a 2 acre farm pond. Was about 3 lbs I'm guessing, but I had the pic so I figured I'd throw it up there.

[Martin]

Good job !

[Skeeter ZX190]

Nice report. Busy weekend on the lake and you still caught quite a few fish. I really like the hat your wearing. EMAW!