Table Rock Lake Current Fishing Report 8-21-12

[Bill Babler]

Current Table Rock Lake Report for August 21st. Only word to discribe it is SILLY.

Lake Level 909.0

Surface Temp 81 degree

Thermocline 30'

Water Clarity above Thermocline 15'

Water Clarity below Thermocline 50'

Largemouth Bass Good Jig bite on the docks and any submerged cover shallow.

Smallmouth Good. Same pattern, also swimming a grub up close early and late. 4" SP

Spotted Bass Excellent to Beyond Belief. 22' to 36' Humps and Channel Swings. Crawlers, Shiners, Dropshot Plastics, Jigging and Flutter Spoons.

Walleye Excellent Same Locations as the K's and the same baits and presentations.

Catfish Excellent. Same Locations as the K's and the same baits and presentations.

Big Blue Gill Very Good to Excellent. 22' and under on the same swings, humps and runnouts as the others.

White Bass Fair Jigging Spoons same locations as the above meat eaters.

Trip out of OMR yesterday for 6 hrs. and the take on a catch and totally release basis was between 50 and 60 bass a combination of K's and quite a few Jaw's. 8 catfish up to 12 pounds and 2, 3.5 pound Walleye. Broke 3 or 4 off, unseen, and I am just guessing they were walleye, you can easily tell by the fight and the strike.

I'm usually not here in August, cause the fishing is slow and the temperature and boat prussure are high. Not so much of late. 75 degree when we hit the dock at Noon, and we probably didn't see a dozen boats while fishing.

Come on, this is just amazing. All the guides are just catching and releasing fish at a unbelieveable rate.

Bite seems to be mostly from Point 5 then completely up the White River. Kimberling City to Eagle Rock, Main Channel. Other than the dam area and the Kings River, the lake is fishing like Spring and Pre-Spawn, only deeper.

Better get out there and start hitting it. Got a feeling when this surface temps drops the fish will disperse as they always do in Late August thru mid October and it will get hard. That time of year they may be in 1' or 70'.

Right now however its Game On.

Good Luck

[Quillback]

Dang it Bill, after reading your report, I'll have to haul my boat up there and burn expensive gas.

Glad to hear your getting some LM on jigs, thanks for the report!

[magicwormman]

Great detailed report, as usual, Bill. It makes me want to forget that I'm building my own house and go fishing. That kind of fishing is a great day in April or May, much less August. Maybe the fish are coming out from the cover after all the big boats left the lake. Time to eat again!!!

[snakem]

Bill so glad to here your input, I have been gone for 5 mo., working in omaha,ne. going crazy wishing i was at home with all u guys fishing. but half to work some times. Home now, wife goes in for back surg. next wed. We did get out Sat. and had a very good day.Caught my first eyes on the old rock in 9 years by just reading your reports,all on crawlers.thx so much. 3 eyes with 1 keeper.Other half had to nice cats and over 20 k's.Good to here from u buddy Snakem Out.

[powerdive]

Thanks yet again, Bill. Quick question: what is OMR? Old Man River?

[Bill Babler]

Snake by Golly, great to hear from you. You and techo both took a bit of a hiatis, glad to have you back and all the best on the sugery for the Misses.

OMR is Ozark Mountain Resort. This is at Kimberling City back in Kennel Branch. OMR is one of the biggest places on the Rock outside of Big Cedar and Stillwaters.

This fishing has been as Hot as the weather for the past 3 weeks or so. These fish are simply locked into a Summer pattern and most of the locations are just choked with both gizzard and threadfin shad. Will catch a jaw out there also that will have a crawfish or two in it. I think it is some kind of a rule with the Small Jaw clan that before you can eat a shad you got to swallow a Daddy.

I'm telling you as soon as that water edges into the mid 70's look out! It will be a struggle as it always is in September and Early October. When they get off my deep junk, I'll have to look for tracks, trails and scrapes to follow them on the move rascules down again. Until then I'm going to irratate them to no end if I can.

Good Luck

[powerdive]

OK, thanks. Most of us eye guys didn't grow up here...if we had, we'd probably be bass chasers just like everybody else.

[Alex Heitman]

Great report bill. I was down last weekend and experienced the same thing. Fishing is great. On a side note ; a fishing friend of mine has developed new spinnerbaits and buzzbaits that interchange into hundreds of variations without re-tying your line. It's called The Interchangeable and he has a website at Revolution Lures.com. I was throwing some of those buzzbaits around docks, I heard from a local guide you could get some strikes early in the morning, he said he caught a few with using them.

[Rodmaker]

After rais'in my kids for 20 yrs.,I finally get to vacation [fish] the rock in the fall. Coming down oct. 3-13. Been coming down for 25 yrs. and always in the heat of the summer when kids were'nt in school. Now I read that in sept. and oct. its a crap shoot and I have to hunt for them in 1' to 70' feet of water! I always thought the fall would be an awesome time to fish the rock and that little tidbit burst my bubble! Tell me it aint so! There must be some sort of a fall pattern, or do I just hunt & peck?

[Bill Babler]

Fall is not nor has ever been the 1st. couple of weeks of October this far South. Fall here is pretty much just getting under way the last week or so of October and to up right before deer season on the 10th. of November. We had beautiful leafs still on the trees and our pretty week last year was the week of November 7th.

If you could shove that trip back a couple of weeks, you would see a night and day difference. None the less, I am sure we will keep you posted here.

Football jig bite usually starts just after Halloween, that usually starts to signal when things are just about to get started. Thanksgiving week is usually great here, with any of the close up stuff.

We usually have a lot of corporate trips the first two weeks of October, and we are always working hard to keep a fish on the string. Maybe different this year with the low water, only time will tell. Hope it is against the norm and you come down and catch a big bag everyday.

Good Luck and stay Tuned.