Shell Knob 4/17-4/20

[dwiebenga]

Wow! What a weekend for fishing! The last 4 days were some of the best fishing I have had on the lake in a couple years. I learned a lot about caught a bunch of fish.

Started out on Friday morning with a Keitech Swim Grub and caught a nice healthy 19in Largemouth in the first hour. It was one of the best "marked" fish I have seen in years. Not a blemish on him and great color too. I found fish on some deeper points suspended in the trees. I only put three in the boat, and I decided to move on to the "Ned" rig which I have not used in the past.

I spent the rest of the day playing with the Ned, and I had a blast. I caught about 25 fish, and most of them were between 13-14 inches. I tried to throw a few other baits (spinnerbait, rock crawler, wart), but to no avail. I stuck with what was working. Ended the day convinced that the Ned was the way to go for Saturday.

I started Saturday in the rain, and the fish were in the mood. I landed about 50 fish through out the day including this 18 inch 3lb Meanmouth on a Ned rig. I was using Dave's jighwads and Zman TRDs (Green Pumpmin, California Craw, and PB&J)

I knew that I could continue at this pace on Sunday, but I wanted to try to get a few bigger fish. I got a tip late in the afternoon from a "birdie" on the forum who told me take a Redfin and go out to the deep points in the morning and wake it across the tree tops. I was willing to give it a shot.

Sunday morning dawned with perfect conditions to wake a Redfin, and it paid off. I had 12 fish with 7 keepers including the Spot and Largemouth below.

By the end of the day, I had about 25 fish total, and many came on a Spro 115 in the same areas I was waking the Redfin later in the day when the wind came up. This morning, I was out for about an hour and caught 6 more on the Redfin with 2 keepers.

Overall, it was a great weekend of fishing, and spending time with my grandmother in the evening. Great company!

Here is a summary of my patterns:

Ned Rig: 6-10 feet deep on banks with larger rock (soft ball sized), and back corner of docks. Many hit the bait on the way down and it was the "weightless" bite. I was using 1/16 and 1/8 oz heads with the above mentioned baits. I tried to keep the bait off the banks because many banks had a layer of "slim" in the 2-6 foot range.

Keitech Grub: I was using the Swing Impact in Crystal Shad and a 3/16 oz head. I counted it down 5-7 sec, and then a slow steady retrieve.

Redfin: I was using jointed flat finished model. I found fish in the deep trees on points. I was often in 60-80 feet of water throwing toward the bank as far as I could. I figure most fish were coming out of 30-40 feet deep. The fish were not schooling too much. Every once in a while a single would push bait to the surface.

Here are the baits:

Good luck to all, and thank you for the great information that this forum provides. I am looking forward to another trip in June.

Dave

[Guest]

wow, I could get used to that!!

[Quillback]

Awesome report, thanks for posting!

[Nedrig fan]

I had a feeling that the redfin bite was about to begin

[dtrs5kprs]

I had a feeling that the redfin bite was about to begin

You just fight that feeling...

[Ken Drish]

I agree... had a blast last weekend!

[Bass Enforcer]

Dwiebenga. I loved the report. One of the best I have read in a while. Thanks for all the great info. The members on this forum do a wonderful job sharing a lot of great useful information. I wanna say thanks to everyone who provides the information helping other (like myself) get to enjoy the fishing that table rock has to offer. So....A big Thank you to everyone. Great appreciated.

[Leitsout]

Great report, thanks. I will be headed down to fish this coming Sat. thru Tuesday; Looking forward to a great few days of fishing.