Big M 1/8/2013

[Quillback]

Pretty slow for me, ended up with 2 keeper LM's and one 12" spot. All caught on a Pointer XD. They came from 45 degree chunk rock banks FWIW. Fished some bluff areas that were producing a couple of weeks ago and could not get bit on the bluffs, tried tubes. senkos, spoons and various jerkbaits, just no bites at all on that stuff, the Pointer XD saved me from a skunk. Water temps were 44-47.

Big M ramp is still good for launching, saw a couple of rigs parked at Viney so I assume it's still good also.

[Champ188]

Thanks, Quillback. Donna and I fished four hours Sunday from Eagle Rock down to Big M and found things just about the same. Think we had four total with three line-bumper keeps. That area is just fishing tough right now. Also, we started out upriver from Eagle Rock near the state line and the temp was an even 40 up there. Got warmer as we came down toward Big M. Think we're going to Tenkiller this Saturday.

[Bill Babler]

Talked to some guys today while I was fishing Bull Shoals. They had fished Kimberling City yesterday and had done as they said, Really, Really Well on the Arig.

They had heard there was a walleye on every point on Bull Shoals and were trying to capture them. They found out pretty quickly if they were on every point, they were not interested in neither the Arig or a jerkbait

We eneded the day with 3 eyes, 3 bass and 2 crappie in 7 hrs. That is about 2 man hours per bite. Pretty tough. Got to have some time on your hands for this type of fishing. If it had not been for my partner today, i would be licking my wounds instead of a Walleye fillet or two. Bass were really nice 3.5 pound cookie cutters. 2 of the walleye measured is about all we can say.

Surface temp on upper bull 42.1

Good Luck

[powerdive]

Bill, were you fishing with Buster?

[Quillback]

Hey now, this is a family friendly bass fishing thread, none of that trashy walleye chatter is allowed.

[Bill Babler]

Bill, were you fishing with Buster?

Ya, he has been going down quite a bit and yelling at me to go with him. We pulled the trigger yesterday. He has caught some nice ones this Winter, but it is hard work and you really have to be a fisherman. Like I said you are going to get 4 or 5 bites all day and you had better make the best of them. You need to concentrate on every cast as they are by no means hammering anything. It is a very gentle bump at best.

Everything we caught were on custom baits and we spoke to two other boats that had not had a bite. Buster caught a short eye while we were visiting with them. They went nuts. I was completely worn out when we got off the water, we worked about as hard as shoveling ditches.

Still I had probably the best fried fish dinner I have ever had with those fresh eyes out of 40 degree water.

Good Luck

[merc1997 Bo]

hey, i just wanted to put my two cents in about fishing on the upper end. it has been the poorest year for me in all my years of fishing table rock. even this spring fishing at night, could not hardly get a bite of any kind. but, go down as far as kings river and on down to the dam and would catch lots of them. the summer was not any different, and fall just the same, and as of yet, i have not wasted any time or gas fishing the upper end. the other amazing thing to me is that i have seen very few fish on the electronics. i can not figure out what is going on.

the upper end of table rock has been suffering for decades of not having good spawns. maybe some success when the water is clear over all the parking lots. the biggest problem with the spawn success rate is all the cold water released from beaver. i have seen the water drop from 62 degrees to 50 degrees in a matter of a few hours. that does not add up to a successful spawn.

anyway, i have always loved fishing the upper end of table rock and still do, but it sure seems that the fish population on the upper end dwindles a bit more every year.

bo

[Bill Babler]

I on the other hand had simply a wonderful year up there with my clients. Cannot tell you the number of days we drove over from Branson to either launch at Shell Knob or at Viney or Eagle Rock.

Fished mostly from the mouth of the Kings up to Roaring River. Caught and released thousands of fish. Probably one of my best Walleye yrs. up there. I could accually take clients out and pretty much catch 2 or 3 quality walleye on every trip, with lots and lots of quality Kentucky's and lots of short stocky LM. Did not catch the brown bass I usually catch up there this year, but did do well for a time on a DD22 and a swimbait that I don't usually fish much up there.

Fished a spoon early in the year more than ever have. Fished the dropshot later in the year than ever. The fish are up there and in good numbers, but if you are a bank pounder, it is hard. The majority of fish I caught on the Upper End were a rifle shot from the bank and most were suspended.

It is kind of like fishing a derby. Everyone has a different take. That is what I love about TR. Even if you are not catching them, you better bet someone is, in pretty much the same location you are.

The bank area from Owl Creek to Beaver Town really fishes small anymore, just due to the sheer number of fishermen. Those banks are just hammered, and people know about transitions drops and runnouts and creek channels. It is getting harder on such a small area, even though there are quite a few miles there, to fish that way on a consistant basis and do well.

You have to move out and look for structure away from the bank. By structure I mean drops and channel swings in the main White River Channel. These are the fish that are not wearing a helmet from being pounded on an everyday basis. Gives you a much better chance at gettting nipped.

Really to this day, I don't see alot of people out there. You get down the White River from Campbell Point to LongCreek, and you will see guys fishing the main lake, just not so much up the White River. They are out there all year. You just have to make the right decisions on how deep and where to look.

People drive past me all the time up there, I guess thinking I'm crazy and then they pull onto a bank that 3 boats have just went down and wonder why they are not getting bit. Try something different. You are probably not going to catch 6 pound LM out there, but you will catch plenty of K's and enough Walleye to keep you with a smile on your face.

Good Luck

[merc1997 Bo]

I on the other hand had simply a wonderful year up there with my clients. Cannot tell you the number of days we drove over from Branson to either launch at Shell Knob or at Viney or Eagle Rock.

Fished mostly from the mouth of the Kings up to Roaring River. Caught and released thousands of fish. Probably one of my best Walleye yrs. up there. I could accually take clients out and pretty much catch 2 or 3 quality walleye on every trip, with lots and lots of quality Kentucky's and lots of short stocky LM. Did not catch the brown bass I usually catch up there this year, but did do well for a time on a DD22 and a swimbait that I don't usually fish much up there.

Fished a spoon early in the year more than ever have. Fished the dropshot later in the year than ever. The fish are up there and in good numbers, but if you are a bank pounder, it is hard. The majority of fish I caught on the Upper End were a rifle shot from the bank and most were suspended.

It is kind of like fishing a derby. Everyone has a different take. That is what I love about TR. Even if you are not catching them, you better bet someone is, in pretty much the same location you are.

The bank area from Owl Creek to Beaver Town really fishes small anymore, just due to the sheer number of fishermen. Those banks are just hammered, and people know about transitions drops and runnouts and creek channels. It is getting harder on such a small area, even though there are quite a few miles there, to fish that way on a consistant basis and do well.

You have to move out and look for structure away from the bank. By structure I mean drops and channel swings in the main White River Channel. These are the fish that are not wearing a helmet from being pounded on an everyday basis. Gives you a much better chance at gettting nipped.

Really to this day, I don't see alot of people out there. You get down the White River from Campbell Point to LongCreek, and you will see guys fishing the main lake, just not so much up the White River. They are out there all year. You just have to make the right decisions on how deep and where to look.

People drive past me all the time up there, I guess thinking I'm crazy and then they pull onto a bank that 3 boats have just went down and wonder why they are not getting bit. Try something different. You are probably not going to catch 6 pound LM out there, but you will catch plenty of K's and enough Walleye to keep you with a smile on your face.

Good Luck

well bill, i probably know every piece of off shore structure in that area, and there just is not the bass population that we used to have. in "yester" years, you could see fish everywhere on a paper graph. now, you can almost count on one hand all the fish you see all day on the electronics. i will be the first on to tell anyone that we are forcing the bass to become open water feeders. they never go to the bank or bottom, but just stay suspended following shad schools. pressure and lack of cover factor into this. but, another factor is all the sludge that is covering all the trees left and also the bottom of the lake. i believe that this brown sludge is having a negative affect on the crawdad population also. i noticed all year when loading the boat at night, it was seldom to see a crawdad on any boat ramp. you used to see crawdads all over a boat ramp at night. i will tell you that i caught only two or three big bass from big m on up this spring. but, i caught well over 100 of them from the kings down to the dam. in normal years, i will catch the majority of my big bass night fishing in the spring up here on the upper end, but not this year. all of my retired fishing buddies that live at emerald beach all had the same results as i have had. last year(2011), was a very good year on the upper end, but 2012 was just a big reversal. we caught small bass, but the big ones eluded us.

bo

[Quillback]

Well it's my first year fishing the Big M area, and I agree with Bill that the fish this summer and early fall were off the bank in water 20-30 feet. Had many a good day fishing DS, spoons and jigs. I also agree that it's tough to get a fish over 3 Lbs. But I get a kick out of catching spots on light tackle, and when you get them in the 2-3 lb. range it's a lot of fun. There are a lot of spotted bass in the Big M area.

Watching tournament shows and other competitions there seems to be a trend for the winning bags to come off of offshore structure, doesn't happen all the time, sometimes the bank bangers do well and of course it depends on the lake, but I do know that this coming summer I'm going to be doing a lot of graphing, looking for off shore structure to fish.