Table Rock 2013 - Nearing Peak Performance?

[Bill Babler]

Guys, don't get me wrong here and I should be the last one to be critical of the fishing this year, but 09, 10 and 11 were very good to me in far different ways. Each was a different year, and each had super merits. In the flood year of 11 my clients caught more and bigger Jaw's than I have ever seen. In the years previous we caught huge strings of post spawn LM and weighed in huge bags. Last year in 12 with the A-Rig coming to town, you all know how this turned out.

Last year I had incredible numbers and lots and lots of quality walleye. Every year is different. But for sure we are off to one fantastic start.

Good Luck

[Pepe]

We have owned a home here since April 2011 and this is, far and away, the best several months of bass fishing my wife and I have experienced.

I caught a 6 lb+ Walleye this morning on topwater while it was still too dark to see him hit it. Between 5 & 7 AM we had caught dozens of bass with 6 keepers including a 22.5 inch LM my wife caught. All looked and acted healthy and all swam away briskly.

We got our work done and were on the water again from 3 to 5 with the first trial of my home-made Ned jigs. 7 bass on first 10 cast with 1 nice keeper.

If it gets much better than this will have to check my pulse to see if I died and went to heaven;)

I really appreciate the information shared on this forum. It has certainly added to our enjoyment

Mike

[chub minnow]

I have been lucky enough to have fished the Shell Knob area my whole life. The fishing the last few years has been the best I can remember since early childhood. That's 35+ years. Maybe it's because those childhood memories are always so super sized, but I do remember it being better. This absolutely had everything to do with less pressure. I remember summer days when you might see two or three other boats all day.

My grandmother would take me out fishing in a little, aluminum fishing boat. The kind with three wooden bench seats. She didn't really take me out to fish, so much as to drive the trolling motor while SHE fished. She did teach me how to properly thread the hook through the crawdad though. "Be careful! Those crawdads are 22 cents apiece! Just like throwing a quarter in the water!" She would say it every time.

Anyway we caught the snot out of some bass. On good days she would limit out in minutes and we never left sight of the dock. Of course Grandmother would keep anything close to 15". And she'd step on it if it wasn't quite so close. I fish same spot now all the time and it's good, but not like I remember it.

[Quillback]

My granddad and dad fished TR when I was a tyke, I was probably 4 or 5 years old, so it must have been 1962 or 63. My only memory is standing on a sand beach pitching a fit as my dad and granddad left in the boat. I had to stay with the women folk at the cabin and was none too happy. They've both passed, but when they were alive they always said the fishing then was great. We lived in Wichita and moved away to Ohio not long after that so I never got to fish TR until recently.