Thanks For The Posts

[9LB]

Just want to say thanks to all the posters. I am a Stockton guy and the Big Lake can be a little initimidating. I went down Sunday morning to Inidan Point and applied the info from the forum and had a great day of Small Mouth fishing. Caught 10 in about 2.5 hours. PBJ grub caught most and Shad Rap did all the heavy lifting. Fish seemed to be deep to me? had most my hits in 15 foot of water. 54 degrees and you can see a mile. Seen a lot of beds with fish on them but man they were spooky.

[MOBass]

^{I fished Indian yesterday, as well as Kimberling, and Baxter. Early in the day I had the boat in 30' and counted the grub down 10 sec. By the end of the day I was in 17' and started swimming it straight away. All smallmouth and I really needed a bighead. Secondary points, with wind, and a little timber worked. All I caught in the pockets were shorts and did not see any bed fish.}

[KU_B]

I second this.

I've been down here for the first time the past couple days. Yesterday was really frustrating. I was fishing shallow (mainly while looking for some bigger bedding fish) and becoming very frustaretd. Just about at any given time I could see no less than 4 bass (a few BIG ones) around my boat, but could not get bit on anything. I threw everything I had in the boat at them. Nothing. Tons of follows, but could not get hooked up. By pure dumb luck while trying to get a loop out of my reel I made a long cast near a boat dock and caught my first fish of the trip at about 2:00. Made another cast around the dock and caught another one. I figured out yesterday I could get bit throwing a Keitech Swing Impact around boat docks. I doubt I caught any keepers on this pattern, but all in all a pretty fun day. I probably 15-20 spots/largemouths around docks and I was able to get one 4-08 largemouth off a bed.

So late last night I did some internet searching for some more recent fishing repots and found this forum. Reading through some post I realized I was probably fishing too shallow.

So today I scrapped the bed fishing and fished the same areas I was yesterday, but put my boat in 25 to 35 feet of water and made 45 degree angle casts with the ned rig. Bingo. I probably caught 20 to 25 and much better quality. Probably half were keeper size. A mixure of mainly spots and largemouths with and a couple smallies and a Goggle Eye? (that's a first for me). One of the smallies was something else. He had some sort of very deteriorated plastic sticking out his throat and about a foot fishing line sticking out his butt. I tried yanking on the line but it seemed pretty firm so I just cut it down to about an inch. I also had a "one that got away story". I know I had a good fish on. He ended up wrapping me up in a tree in about 25 feet of water. In hindsight I wish I would have tried to let him swim out of it a little longer.

Thanks to this forum for saving my trip. I love this lake. I will be back often.

BTW - All of my fishing was done about 2 to 3 miles west of the Kimberling Bridge.

[abkeenan]

KU_B,

Nice report and glad you got on some fish. It is not uncommon to find a fish with some gear still left in it. Once caught a nice 19" smallie that had passed a hook all the way through its digestive system only to have the hook stick in his rectal opening. The hook was 75% out and at the turn of the shank but I guess the barb just wouldn't allow it to come out. Didn't want to hurt the fish so I released it "as is" and figured he/she would eventually pass it on through naturally or it would rust out.

[motoman]

That's how it's done KU!.......good job on getting out a bit deeper. I certainly owe to a few other guys myself over the years, for helping me figure stuff out down there!:-)........and I'm a firm believer Table Rock is definitely a different 'animal' when it comes to bass fishing. I've always done better out a bit deeper myself. Glad the boards could help!:-)

-

Those goggle eye can be deceiving when you first hook into 'em. I always think they're a black bass of some sort; until I hop them in the boat. I hear they're good eating though?:-)

[9LB]

Up north we actually called the goggle eyes Rock Bass. I was not sure what everyone was talking about until I seen a Pic of them. They used to be awesome bait for Pikes and Muskies.

[KU_B]

Thanks again to everyone. I am already starting to think about my next trip down there. I am thinking late October/early November depending how the weather goes.

One thing is for sure, before i come back down again I know where to come to get the latest scoop.

I probably won't chime in too much this summer, but I will definitely be lurking around quite a bit to see what is going on down here. I have develpped a serious infatuation with this lake.