12-9 Somewhere Around The Kings

[merc1997 Bo]

had a chance to get out and fish a bit today. not the best day post front most of the time, but sometimes you just go when you can. needless to say that with the sun out after how many cloudy days, shallow bass were not to be found for us.

so, we just started idling around out in the main channel until we would see fish suspended. occasionally we would see a very small wad of shad. those suspended fish were willing to bite a spoon. both chrome and white seemed to work equally well. we ended up with 8 keeps. 5 of those were lmg. all were 16 to 17 inch bass. nothing big. caught several small bass. the bonus was a 5 lb. walleye, and 12 big whites, 2 1/2 lb. plus size. strike zone was 30 to 40 ft. over at least 50 ft. of water.

i am sure that some of these bass are the same ones that are up shallower on good cloudy windy days. moral to the story is to not be afraid to take a shot at suspended fish you see out in the middle of nothing. sometimes these fish just will not bite, but it is surprising just how many times they will.

from what looking around that i have done, there are not the big shad schools packed up like normal, and this might be due to last winter's cold. seems as though the threadfin took a dead beat down. however, i have witnessed in past years when the threadfin were not very plentiful, that there was a very good jerk bait bite during the winter, and a good spring spinner bait bite in the spring. this lake is changing a lot, and to keep catching bass, it requires some changes ourselves sometimes.

bo

[kjackson]

Good report; thanks.

[rps]

Well done Bo!

[abkeenan]

Great report Bo. I hope you are right forecasting for a potentially good winter/spring jerk bait bite. Last 2 years have been pretty lackluster on the sticker. The 2-3 years before that were good.

[Pepe]

Thanks for the help, Bo. We hope to get on the road tomorrow and be on the lake thu-Sun. I do struggle to stay on top of fish that I spot on the graph, though. Mostly they are gone, or not showing, when I get up on the troller.

[tley]

Had a very similar day yesterday (12-9), that could front really changed them up. I got to Table Rock Monday about 1, fished till dark. I had them pinned down to bluff walls with a jig and main lake points with a crank. I got up yesterday and the pattern I thought I had established was gone. Fished all day yesterday and manged to scrap 3 keeper spots, a short spot and a 3.0 lb rainbow trout. Which I wanted to ask you guys about... both Monday and Tuesday we caught a 3 lb trout off our "bass" crank baits (1 on a lip less the other on a medium diver). I don't have a lot of experience on this lake but I do make a few day trip up every year and this is a first for me... two days in row. And these were personal best trout for my brother and I; we trout fish in Oklahoma but only catch the standard "stocked" size fish. Anyhow, we are going out of big cedar today and tomorrow, hope the fishing turns on a bit more.

[Quillback]

Never have caught a trout down in the lake, but have heard of many who have. And they are usually nice ones when they are caught.

[Champ188]

Only one I've caught --- actually Donna caught it --- was on a drop shot while fishing a bridge piling.

[merc1997 Bo]

i would suspect that some from roaring river make it down when we have flooding, and dogwood canyon has probably contributed some also. kelly williamson caught one fishing with me many years ago on a plastic worm. it was in the baxter area. bull shoals has many trout, and there are lots of people fish for them under the lights at night there.

bo

[Alex Heitman]

I've had around a 4lb rainbow on a wiggle wart in the back of Beardsley about a month or so ago. Really surprised me it was that shallow and in that part of the lake. He jumped off right at the boat too of course.