6-27-14 Shell Knob To Owl Creek

[Bill Babler]

The spotted bass population in this lake took a very hard hit in 2008 and 2011, with the huge influx of water over spawning beds. The smallmouth and largemouth were able to move and have better spawns than the K's, who traditionally for the most part are deep spawners. Yes we have all seen them under the dock ramps and in the stalls, but as Bill Anderson once told me for every shallow bed you see on spotted bass there are 100 deep beds that you do not see.

In the guide and fishing community it has been thought really not thought but just stated that if you want to keep fish on Table Rock you should keep spotted bass. This theory is completely false. The spotted bass has the longest life and egg producing span of any of our fish. By killing spotted bass you kill the largest egg producers of any of the bass species.

I have not on purpose killed a bass on Table Rock lake in 20 years and it has not affected my business by one cent. Guides that think they have to kill fish here are completely out of touch with reality.

As has been touched on with the advance of electronics and mapping and the ability of everyone to find the deep locations these fish go to after spawning, taking lake sections of spotted bass that congregate in these areas and killing them has and in the future will have a very detrimental effect on the population.

I'm not a guy that is against drop shotting night crawlers at all. These fish usually come up and down this time of the year in the water column, so that is not a problem and as far as gut hooking fish, even with very inexperienced clients fishing a drop shot, catching usually 100's per Summer, I will have less than a handful swallow the bait. I have more problem with them swallowing the small soft plastics casted to the shore or on the bottom.

If this and last year were an indication, we are in an evolution on this pond that we may not like. I have caught more smallmouth this year and more largemouth than spotted bass. I have not changed my tactics other than using the varmint quite a bit, but spoon fishing these last two Winters and now for the second Summer, the K's numbers are not at all what they were.

Good Luck

[Quillback]

The disappearance of the top water bite is also a head scratcher. The shad are around, but just don't see schooling bass chasing them. As Bill was saying, the bass I've caught the last few trips have been spitting up craws. Maybe there's an abundance of craws and the bass are keying on them and ignoring shad.

I hope we see a drop shot bite this summer, sure is fun to get into those hard pulling spots on light spinning gear.

[rps]

Texoma, the major lake on the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma, is older than TR. It has undergone a change over the years. Largemouth when it was young, a gizzillion white bass and then stripers. Now days its premier bass is small mouth.

[DavidB]

A group of us have come for a week, at the end of April, for over 30 years (hope you enjoyed the "Cajun Basket", Bill). We

fish from Long Creek to Point 5, and always enjoy the change from Toledo Bend--the beauty of the lake, the differences in

depth, structure and cover, and the opportunity to catch smallmouth and "pig" Kentuckies. We've always marveled at how

much thicker across the backs, and how much deeper bodied the Kentuckies are on Table Rock compared to those we

catch at home. We've missed catching them, the last few years, and have talked about it among ourselves. We just assumed

it was because we've branched out, more and more, and have been catching more smallmouth (not a bad trade). Reading

these threads makes me wonder if Bill's not correct . . .

[*T*]

The disappearance of the top water bite is also a head scratcher. The shad are around, but just don't see schooling bass chasing them. As Bill was saying, the bass I've caught the last few trips have been spitting up craws. Maybe there's an abundance of craws and the bass are keying on them and ignoring shad.

I hope we see a drop shot bite this summer, sure is fun to get into those hard pulling spots on light spinning gear.

"Abundance of craws...." That's what I've thought might be reason for unusual bite this year & sporatic topwater bite. Can anyone (divers) confirm this is a super peak year for numbers of small craws. Bass spitting up many, many small ones makes me think so. Bottom bite has been so hot at times.

[merc1997 Bo]

i fished from bi m to eagle rock last night. ended up with 5 good 16-17 inch chunks. only caught two very small kentuckies. caught several small lmg to go with the keepers. the bass were very scattered, and at various depths out to 20 ft.. medium sloping chunk banks were definitely the best producers.

the producing baits were senkos, beaver type baits, and skirted jig and trailer. all were fished on various weights of NuTech Jigs.

to further comment about bill statement concerning kentuckies, i think the continual high water is affecting their spawn success. i know that after the fish kill that there was a big increase in size of the kentuckies, but to me not necessarily an increase in numbers. to me, i really think the numbers are declining even though they feed suspended off shore much more now. back when we really had a lot of kentuckies they would wear you out catching them on any chunk rock bank at night on a plastic worm.

the high water has been good for lmg spawn, and we are seeing those numbers increase. table rock has really struggled and continues to do so in recovering from the fish kill of several years ago. i ask the mdc and continue to do so as to why we do not stock our lakes. texas is very successful stocking their lakes and have some of the best fishing in the country. we stock trout, and many people enjoy catching trout, but the reality is there are a whole lot more people fishing for crappie and bass, and that group of people are also spending a whole lot more money. WAKE UP MDC!!!! take some lessons from texas. falcon has been in a decline, and because of that, they just stocked over 1,000,000 fingerlings in falcon over the last 4 to 5 months.

if our guides are struggling to catch bass, it will not take long, and they will not have a very long customer list. your average fisherman will quit coming to the lake, and all in all the local economy suffers tremendously. MDC perhaps we should just fire everyone, and get another bunch of employees. if you can raise and stock trout, you can do the same with bass, crappie, and perch.

bo

[dtrs5kprs]

The spotted bass population in this lake took a very hard hit in 2008 and 2011, with the huge influx of water over spawning beds. The smallmouth and largemouth were able to move and have better spawns than the K's, who traditionally for the most part are deep spawners. Yes we have all seen them under the dock ramps and in the stalls, but as Bill Anderson once told me for every shallow bed you see on spotted bass there are 100 deep beds that you do not see.

In the guide and fishing community it has been thought really not thought but just stated that if you want to keep fish on Table Rock you should keep spotted bass. This theory is completely false. The spotted bass has the longest life and egg producing span of any of our fish. By killing spotted bass you kill the largest egg producers of any of the bass species.

I have not on purpose killed a bass on Table Rock lake in 20 years and it has not affected my business by one cent. Guides that think they have to kill fish here are completely out of touch with reality.

As has been touched on with the advance of electronics and mapping and the ability of everyone to find the deep locations these fish go to after spawning, taking lake sections of spotted bass that congregate in these areas and killing them has and in the future will have a very detrimental effect on the population.

I'm not a guy that is against drop shotting night crawlers at all. These fish usually come up and down this time of the year in the water column, so that is not a problem and as far as gut hooking fish, even with very inexperienced clients fishing a drop shot, catching usually 100's per Summer, I will have less than a handful swallow the bait. I have more problem with them swallowing the small soft plastics casted to the shore or on the bottom.

If this and last year were an indication, we are in an evolution on this pond that we may not like. I have caught more smallmouth this year and more largemouth than spotted bass. I have not changed my tactics other than using the varmint quite a bit, but spoon fishing these last two Winters and now for the second Summer, the K's numbers are not at all what they were.

Good Luck

I'm with you on protecting all the bass we can from the knife. Was pretty shocked to hear some guides were putting knives to any bass. Lots of other table options that would better serve the lake.

If we end up with zebra mussels it will be a brown fish lake end to end anyway. Talked with some folks who think it is just a matter of time.