Upper End Help

[jr45]

I am pretty new to bass fishing. The place I work as a little bass club and I fish in it. Can anyone offer a newbie some advice on fishing the upper end of Table Rock. I fish mainly the Campbell Point up to Roaring River area. I haven't been having much luck. Not sure if its where I'm fishing or what I'm throwing. I think its more of not knowing where to fsh.

[rps]

I feel your pain. I came over here in the 2002-2003 school year. I had fished many places, including a couple of trips here, before then. I found the learning curve difficult.

1. Discard any notion you have learned from fishing farm ponds or muddy, shallow lakes.,

2. Begin to learn "break on a break" fishing. Look for a change on a change.

3. Use the archives on this forum to research jerk bait, grub, jig, and top water fishing.

4. Buy some original model wiggle warts.

5. There are 25 to 50 regulars on the Table Rock forum whose every word is worth money in the bank. Learn who they are and pay attention. NOTE: There are an equal number from Beaver, Bull Shoals, Stockton, etc. who are equally reliable, and sometimes, what they write applies to TR as well.

Good Luck.

[Dutch]

IMO it is too big to run around and hit spots until you learn areas. Pick a place like Mill Creek or Big Creek and fish in there trying different baits and banks until you learn it then learn another. It takes a long time to be able to find fish then know a similar place where you can go and find more. Time on the water is very important to me.

[dtrs5kprs]

Both of the above offer good advice. Learn to fish a grub and love light line. Get over any fears of fishing in clear, deep water. Sell most of your casting rods except for sticks/cranks/TW, FB jig rod, blade rod, spoon rod. Focus on the gravel flats...to me that is where the most active, feeding bass are, most of the year. Get out of the upper end if you are looking for more than "just a keeper" keepers. Focus on learning what the shad do during the various seasons, conditions, and even different times of day.

TR is a learning lake and can be hard to pattern fish. Fish have a tendency to change daily. Increasingly, I think you have to know sort of a very general pattern and a spot to fish it. After that you just have to learn some spots. Places you can go to and normally find one, or find a good one.

TW and a grub should be working up where you are fishing. In a week or so you might start flipping the white jig spoon in deeper docks from there back towards Baxter.

[Champ188]

I would suggest keeping a bait in the water that the fish are truly apt to bite under just about any conditions. My picks would be (water 50 deg and up) a watermelon candy or green pumpkin finesse worm on a shaky head and 6-pound line — or in water cooler than 50 deg, a 5/16-ounce finesse jig in PBJ or green pumpkin/purple with a green pumpkin Zoom Lil Critter Craw trailer (yes, use the green pumpkin craw on both color of jigs).

There is nothing like getting bit for the ol' confidence level. Plus, those two lures will tell you whether you're around fish or not. There might be other lures that would do a better job of catching bigger fish, but you can experiment after you first locate some fish period. With those two lures, you will locate fish.