March 11th. 2015 Shell Knob Table Rock Lake Fishing Report

[rps]

I had Scott at HLS order me some. The Rapalas have a built in single hook at each end. I used dykes to cut those off and leave only the treble. Good stuff.

[Champ188]

Priceless? I heard one time he said he was fishing one of those silly varmints 30 feet deep. That's a fish story if I ever heard one!

I had brain freeze, willy. There was snow on the ground, my brain seized up and next thing I knew, I was doodling that little varmit in the abyss.

[Bluff-Bassin]

The movement of the bass in Table Rock lake is for sure a thing that is extremely hard to understand. Starting in the Fall they move up and feed fairly heavy along the shoreline, then by October back quickly out to the long flats and are available on a big jig.

Then as the Eagles come down following the ducks in November they pick up and move to the deep guts and channels. Come usually around Valentines day they leave the deep stuff and move out on the main lake and scatter like crazy. You can find them from 90 ft. to 2 feet depending on the day.

March usually finds them moving up and starting to ease back into the creeks and pockets they had occupied in the Winter, only shallower.

Right now they are main lake or huge pocket fish wanting depth and cover. last year fishing that kind of cover with an A-Rig huge bags were caught. This year they started it off with grubs. Same places just a different technique, however it is the same as years past prior to the rig.

That deep bite is very fickle however and a couple more warm days and they will be swarming and gone from the 60' stuff. Last year on this week, I was catching huge numbers of White Bass up the Kings. Every year is different.

I bookmarked this thread with a note to review it about january/february next year as a good reminder. Great post! Slightly off topic, but, Bill do you think this pattern would work on Bull Shoals as well? The only difference I see(as I was out yesterday) at least on the lake it is very hard to find any standing timber in less than 75 to 80FOW. The timber along the bluffs swings can come up from 25ft to the surface, but in the guts of the creeks and big coves if you find it, generally it is in 80+fow with the tops topping out at about 40ft or deeper. Is there anything that sets one tree apart from the others? Or is it just a matter of running your grub past as many as you can until you find them? Thanks for all the educating you do on the boards!

[Fish24/7]

bluff I would have bet you'd be throwing a susp. sticker since it's been the "go to" lure on BS since late Dec.

yes, this grub pattern works on BS , Beaver, and Norfork too, but you have to drive around and look for trees with bass or shad in/around them before you ever make a cast. If they aint there, move on. I'd rather spend a few hours if needed, looking w/ electronics to find a huge school of bass, rather than spend the day spot hopping hoping for a bite which is what the majority of people do. Imo it's the only way to catch them consistently year round on BS is use your eyes to find the prize, good luck

[Champ188]

bluff I would have bet you'd be throwing a susp. sticker since it's been the "go to" lure on BS since late Dec.

yes, this grub pattern works on BS , Beaver, and Norfork too, but you have to drive around and look for trees with bass or shad in/around them before you ever make a cast. If they aint there, move on. I'd rather spend a few hours if needed, looking w/ electronics to find a huge school of bass, then spend the day spot hopping hoping for a bite which is what the majority of people do. Imo it's the only way to catch them consistently year round on BS is use your eyes to find the prize, good luck

Well said, 24/7. Considering what we pay for electronics these days, people are foolish not to use them more. I'm certainly guilty of not knowing what I should about how to fully take advantage of what they can do but when fishing deep, I certainly use mine to locate fish before just casting and hoping.

[Fish24/7]

i'm sure Bill has much more details about the deep trees, maybe he'll chime in on this

[Bill Babler]

24/7 You are right as rain on seeing them first. Told Jack the other day to hang on they were blowing the graph up the minute I pulled up on the spot.

Bull Shoals however does fish a little different than the Rock. I can usually catch bass all Winter really shallow up the river above Tucker. Most all on a jerkbait a jig or swimming a grub or an A-Rig.

Buster is just catching huge bass over there right now targeting Walleye. Most all on mud flat rolloffs.

The deep trees that are holding fish on the rock are usually related to big spawning pockets or creek arms. Most all but not all are main lake deep pole timber runnouts.

The fish the other day, we caught a couple in 50' and as the boat swung around we were in 90' if that helps. Sometimes these fish are in the trees, sometimes over them or sometime on the bottom in between them. I pointed out these fish to Jack, and he could see them just as good as I could, after seeing what I was looking at.

If you pull on one of these locations and you see fish moving up and down, you better get ready. If you cannot tell if they are moving, you better do a little more work with the electronics

[buddygr53]

Say bill. What type of electronics do you use on on your ride.

[buddygr53]

Say bill. What type of electronics do you use on on your ride.

[Sac River Jim]

Bill the shallow jerkbait bite on mud banks had been good on stockton earlier this year but i got tired of busting bills on 25.00 jerkbaits!!!!!!