April 6 - 11 Better Late Than Never Report

[wdberkley]

Fished Table Rock April 6-11, here's a brief run down of what we saw...

April 6 - fished from Point 5 to the Dam. Water temps in the low 50's. Caught fish on a Wart and a couple on a jig. Nothing to write home about but we caught fish. Points (main lake & secondary) seemed to be key and if there was timber around, all the better. Caught more Smallies than K's or Largemouth, but only a couple keeps. I did hook into something BIG, but it broke me off. 8# Sunline finally failed me - or I failed myself having my drag set way too tight. Lesson learned - cost me a big fish and a $30 Wiggle Wart....

April 7 - Fished same general area, water temps low 50's and again, most fish came on a Wart. Best fish of the day was a Smallie that was a shade over 3.5# that absolutely ate a wart up near Indian Point. Again, steeper banks, chuck rock, transitions, and timber helped.

April 8 - made a run up to the mouth of the James, fished a variety of different areas (Pea Gravel, Transitions, Points, Cuts, etc etc) caught a few on a Jerkbait, a couple on a Wart. Took refuge under a dock in the rain/hail that popped up out of no where, and then slowly worked our way back to Indian Point. By that time the wind kicked up and things were getting a little ugly, so we headed back to the resort.

April 9 - Started the morning near Big Cedar, had a couple shorts on the wart, moved south into Long Creek, kept at it on the wart, but again, nothing spectacular. Lots of short fish. Water temps near the Ark/Mo border mid/upper 50's. Fish seemed to shut off around noon.

April 10 - Trailered over to Shell Knob and found fish right away. Gradual banks (less than 45 degree) getting wind, smaller chunk with pea gravel mixed in seemed to be key. Timber didn't really matter, but did catch fish around it at times. Had 30+ fish in the boat with 12 keeps, biggest going 4lbs-13oz. All fish came on a 3/4oz jig. Seemed fish were schooled up - if you caught one you caught multiple. Days like that are nice, it's pretty easy to eliminate dead water. My partner had one that was much bigger hooked up and we saw it right before it came unbuttoned. (Remember to check your drag fellas, hooksets are more effective if it's set properly. Pretty sure that improper drag cost my buddy a 7+ that morning.)

April 11th - Everyone decided to get Arkansas licenses and head south down Long Creek. Water looked like chocolate milk, but water temps in the low/mid 60's had fish pretty active. Fished transitions, points, and bluffs with some success. Biggest fish of the day was just under 4lbs 8oz and best 5 went just over 15lbs.

Got some pretty cool shots/videos using my GoPro. If you guys haven't seen these things yet, check em out - they're amazing.

As always, had a fantastic week on one of the most beautiful lakes in the country. Thanks to everyone who shares their knowledge on this forum - it makes things that much easier on us when we come down.

***While some of these pics were taken at our dock, all fish caught were released back into the lake.***

[Jozark]

Thanks great report. Looks like you boys had a great trip.

[RogueAgent]

Well done! Love the GoPro shots.

[jmes]

Thanks for the great pics, looks like you guys had a good time

[fishingaddiction]

Very nice pics, you got to fish a lot of the lake and had some good action. Sorry for the upsets on the big ones, but that is fishing. Thanks for posting.

[Sore Thumbs]

Great job guys. Love the pics and vids. I gotta get a goPro.

[magicwormman]

Great report!!! Love the photos!!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

[wdberkley]

Great job guys. Love the pics and vids. I gotta get a goPro.

Thanks!

I highly recommend grabbing one to anybody who spends some time on the water. This trip was my first time using it, so i learned a few things, and i'm sure I'll continue to pickup on some stuff as the year goes on. The video is crisp and if you're computer savy enough, you can grab stills from the video that look awesome. There's no way in hell I could have gotten that last picture where I'm swinging a fish into the boat with any other camera. That was a still taken from a video. And the video link i posted was a 30 second grab from 15 minutes of footage.

It's a pretty handy tool - it gives you the ability to fish and not worry about snapping pictures, plus you'll have some video to review when you're off the water that can give you a refresher as to where/what/how you were fishing when you caught a couple.

They're not cheap, especially when you start adding accessories, but they're awesome.

Mounted on the motor with the Suction Cup mount at 65mph under the 86 Bridge...

http://youtu.be/9q25DY8M0o0

[Quillback]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

[fishingaddiction]

wd: Thanks for the gopro info. I have had mine since Christmas, but haven't decided on the right mounts for the boat. Are there other locations to place the suction cup mount other than the top of the outboard? Although the ouboard field of view is a good position to capture lots of area. Possibly the wind shield, or on the top cap of the boat? I am thinking also about the clamp mount with the flexible arm. Have you had any experience with this one? The camera could be placed anywhere you had somewhere to place the clamp. Also are you getting enough run time with the standard battery? I do have two battery's that will provide additional run time. think there are other options for direct connection to an alternative battery source. Any feed back would be helpful. Thanks.