fishingaddiction Posted May 6, 2014 Posted May 6, 2014 Took some much needed time off from the Salt Mine and fished with my brother in law, my nephew, and his friend in the Kimberling City area last week. No, all of us were not in the boat at the same time. Fishing shifts were taken, the ones that weren't fishing had chores to do. Didn't know what impact the cold front that blew in early last week would have on the catching, but kept an open mind and figured something out. I can tell you now the front had little to no effect on the fish, other than it might have pushed them somewhat deeper. Water temp was in the mid to upper 50 degree range on Thursday with it rising to the low 60's when we got off the lake Sunday at noon. The morning bite was slow to get started, but when the sun hit the water the catching was on. Caught most all of our fish in gin clear water with about 14 foot visibility. Targeted areas were main lake points leading to spawning pockets, secondary points inside creeks or pockets all with a mix of gravel and small rock. Fished some deeper stuff with larger rock and didn't do good on those. The best depth for better quality fish was 10 to 20', with good numbers of smaller bucks coming much shallower. Our best baits in order were: The Ned Rig on 1/16th head for flat water and 1/8th in the wind, 5" zoom fat albert grub, Keitech swim bait, and a finesse C-rig fished on spinning tackle with either a doctor or 4" stick worm. Our fish total for the trip was in excess of 100, with a mix of K's, small jaws, LM, and goggle eye. We even caught several keeper crappie on the Little Rig. The goggle eye's were huge sows ready to discharge their load. We caught so many eye's that I wondered why we didn't keep some for the dinner table, but they are all still swimming. Our best fish were smallies with several in the 2 1/2 to 31/2 lb range, but we also had some football K's full to the brim. When the water was slick we did see some bucks in or around nest, but not many momma's A wonderful several days fishing on the Rock! What a great fishery we have. Good Luck. Born to Fish. Forced to Work.
Quillback Posted May 6, 2014 Posted May 6, 2014 Very nice! Glad to see you all got into the fish. Love those smallies!
Ham Posted May 6, 2014 Posted May 6, 2014 Great job ! Every Saint has a past, every Sinner has a future. On Instagram @hamneedstofish
Champ188 Posted May 6, 2014 Posted May 6, 2014 Sounds like a fun and relaxing trip. Glad you got in on some of this really good action of late.
dtrs5kprs Posted May 6, 2014 Posted May 6, 2014 Nicely done. The little rig will definitely catch the brown fish. Love the Gog's, like little lab experiments gone wrong.
fishingaddiction Posted May 6, 2014 Author Posted May 6, 2014 Nicely done. The little rig will definitely catch the brown fish. Love the Gog's, like little lab experiments gone wrong. LOL on the lab experiment. Crappie body with smallie color, head and eyes. Never caught that many in one area before, but they like Ned and the grub. Does anyone knows what different bass species together created these little beast? Born to Fish. Forced to Work.
abkeenan Posted May 6, 2014 Posted May 6, 2014 LOL on the lab experiment. Crappie body with smallie color, head and eyes. Never caught that many in one area before, but they like Ned and the grub. Does anyone knows what different bass species together created these little beast? Goggle eye or Rock Bass are their own species even though they may look like a Frankenstein of a smallmouth, green sunfish and peacock bass. And yes they love grubs and neds. If you find one there are 30 more in the area. They really stack up like crappie only always dead on the bottom and not suspended like the paper mouths. Nice report also.
fishingaddiction Posted May 6, 2014 Author Posted May 6, 2014 Thanks for the info abkeenan. Your facts about them is dead on. We did catch most of them in 1 location on the bottom, within about a 30 yard area. Born to Fish. Forced to Work.
dtrs5kprs Posted May 6, 2014 Posted May 6, 2014 Goggle eye or Rock Bass are their own species even though they may look like a Frankenstein of a smallmouth, green sunfish and peacock bass. And yes they love grubs and neds. If you find one there are 30 more in the area. They really stack up like crappie only always dead on the bottom and not suspended like the paper mouths. Nice report also. Methinks I need to take Brett vertical fishing for gog's. They will suspend in deep wood along with the spots in June. The boy had to take a break from smallmouth to fish for gogs last summer. Was the first time he'd caught fish he could see on a graph below the boat. We have a place where they do it pretty consistently, some trees in the gut of a spawn cove.
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