Table Rock Lake Habitat Reconstruction

[Fat Boy]

I have not done that great around these areas or have I noticed more fish. The shallow brush Skeeter talked about I belive this is what they call Habitat Areas in the spring and fall I have done ok on these just fish them slow. The one thing I have noticed is they put brush on areas that did not need it and now make some of these spots dam hard to fish no matter how you circle the area the brush lays every which way. For the most part I would say it has got to help the over all fish population, the downfall they have covered up some great spots and I have lost my 1st retirement in DD 22's,jigs and spoons in there brush.

[BleacherBum28]

Bill, I'd like to get your opinion on this. I'm pretty sure I stumbled across a posting about this when it first started and you, along with many other area guides weighed in. If my memory serves me, most were against the program. Do most of the "pros" on this forum think it helped or was it not cost effective?

I make a yearly pilgramidge to the rock and don't have the technology in my boat to find these structures, so there is no point in me stating my opinion.

[Bill Babler]

For most of us everyday fishermen, I believe the jury is still out, and I guess it really should not be. I think the idea was great but the thought process qnd the application was far from good. That is pretty much what I am trying to figure out with this Blog. How many of you are really using the structure and how many are catching fish from it.

Fishing has been so poor since Spring, it is really hard for us to get a handle on it, cause its slow lake wide.

Again let me state the purpose of the project was to congreate fish and give fishermen easier access to larger quanities of fish. I believe on this front it has failed miserably. The debris for the most part was put in locations that previously and for that matter never had structure.

There are at least 2 dozen of these locations, that were really fish factories prior to the brush and now we just drive by them.

Not speaking for all the guides, but for the most part it has hurt our fishing to a huge extent in the dam area. What they did was take very active fishing sections out of play and removing any area always hurts.

AS was posted the huge fields of debris pointing in every direction are just about impossible to fish properly. Still have not figured it out. Topwater over the surface or a floating worm with the hook more then buried is just about the only way. JIgs, Cranks, and sticks and grubs are all but gone if you throw them near the area. I have even lost a spinnerbait or two on these locations, trying to figure it out. I have yet to catch a fish on any of them.

Perhaps a minnow under a bobber is our best bet. Maybe that is what they wanted, to make a crappie bed on a flat gravel Small Jaw Bank.

I was being selfish here also. I and most of my pards just cannot fish these junk piles, and was wondering if any of you have figured it out. When the BassMaster Central derby was here this Spring before the flood we had several of the fishermen staying with us practicing, as you may remember. All if them were aware of the Structure and I spoke to them about it. None were fishing it.

Would love some positive feedback, not what you think, but what you know. I want to hear if folks are catching fish from these piles of junk and how they are doing it, or for this most part is it already forgotten and we just fish the same stuff we have always fished going around their hangup holes and moving down the bank.

Good Luck

[inshore]

I have fished several of these locations and have all of them in my HB. I have found it easier to fish if you mark with buoy and fish

the edges. Have had a lot of luck catching big fish but will say have lost some gear. Be sure you are weedless or with plug run over top

as those cedars are tough. Most of my success has been on piles on or around points in deeper water. Have had less luck on piles placed on

banks.

[snakem]

I have fished several of these locations and have all of them in my HB. I have found it easier to fish if you mark with buoy and fish

the edges. Have had a lot of luck catching big fish but will say have lost some gear. Be sure you are weedless or with plug run over top

as those cedars are tough. Most of my success has been on piles on or around points in deeper water. Have had less luck on piles placed on

banks.

The fluke has worked for me around the edge of the shallow stuf in the spring,with some nice LM's.

snakem out.

[Sam]

From a different viewpoint, in my experience the new brushpiles have generally made crappie fishing more difficult also.

Crappie are bullies, and when they're on a brushpile the bigger fish always hog the best cover. The "slabs" go to the thickest, most impenetrable part of the cover, and they drive the dinks to the outer edges. That's not a problem with Tablerock's normal crappie areas, which tend to be stump fields with scattered stick-ups and flooded cedars that we can cast to and slow-troll around with jigs.

In these new, thick brushpiles the "slabs" have such good cover we can't get to them. We're catching short crappie and keepers that just barely make 10" off the tops and around the edges of those piles, with NO 13"+ crappie at all. I'm sure the big ones are in there, in the middle. Slip-bobbers and minnows fished just over the tops of the heavy cover might work better, but I'm not much of a minnow fisherman.

[Phil Lilley]

I'm surprised one of you bass guys hasn't posted this...

Bass Pro paid to have brush put in the lake and they sell the lures you're losing.

Hummmmmmmm.......

[rps]

The piles up at this end are fewer. Once you reach Big M they look like they were strewn rather continuously. As Bill won't allow me down lake of Big M, I guess it is not my problem. ;-)

[Bill Babler]

The piles up at this end are fewer. Once you reach Big M they look like they were strewn rather continuously. As Bill won't allow me down lake of Big M, I guess it is not my problem. ;-)

RP, there are quite a few piles between Devils Dive and Roaring River. This is not the same structure they put in the dam area. These are mainly isolated cedars and some hardwoods. You can fish them a little and really here they did a good job. Piles are much smaller and placed in excellent locations. Most on a little steeper shelf rock stuff.

If they would have continued and used the way they handled the White River Section I believe it would have been fine.

You are also correct on your boundaries, please continue to observe the No Fishing, No Trespassing Signs I have posted in that area.

[bassman1308]

I believe the reason they made these 'piles' was to help increase the bass and crappie population for the future, not just to help us catch fish, now. I've personaly not caught many bass from them. In my opinion, they are to big and take to long to fish. If you want to make piles just to catch bass, 10 piles with 2 trees each is much better than 1 pile with 20 trees.