Fishing this weekend 12/18/15

[Eric the awful fisherman]

Going to try my luck at fishing in this cold weather. I've never fished table rock in the cold so I'm looking for some pointers. Also I've not really fished deeper than 10 foot. Curious about tips on deep fishing too. Thanks 

[Guest]

Pete Wenner's has a weekly fishing report on youtube. You might start there.

[Champ188]

There are a lot of variables involved depending on what part of the lake you'll be in, but I'll try to give you some general pointers.

First, if you aren't familiar with fishing deep, then don't. You don't have to right now. There are plenty of fish from 15 feet and up.

Saturday is forecasted to be sunny with winds 5-10 mph. My suggestion would be to start at Shell Knob bridge (Hwy 39) and go either direction, paying particular attention to boat docks. I would put a little Ned rig (green pumpkin) on a spinning rod and would not put it down. Pitch the little dude into every boat slip with 5-20 feet of water in it and leave your bail open as it falls so it will fall straight down. Be alert for it stopping before it should ... that's a bite. My second lure choice would be a finesse jig (some flavor of brown or green) with a green pumpkin Zoom Lil Critter Craw on the back. A green pumpkin shaky head worm would probably work, too.

Sunday is supposed to be cloudy and windy. This would be a good day to put on your favorite spinnerbait or crank bait (phantom brown Rock Crawler would be a very good choice) and start hitting windblown points and bluff ends until you either get something going or the fish flat tell you no. In that case, go back to the Ned rig or jig and see if you can get something going in these same areas. If not, move into the creeks/bigger pockets and try both the winding baits and the Ned or jig, concentrating on 5-15 feet of water.

[m&m]

Earlier posts indicated that the dam area water temp was till in the mid 50's so pick the right location for the type of fishing you want to try.

Mike

[gruber]

Lots of handwarmers in your gloves and everything Champ said plus a jerkbait of some kind also....all I got

[Eric the awful fisherman]

Awesome info. Thanks guys. You can never have too much info for fishing. 

[Champ188]

7 minutes ago, gruber said:

Lots of handwarmers in your gloves and everything Champ said plus a jerkbait of some kind also....all I got

Pauses of 3-4 seconds should be plenty on that jerk bait with the water temp still in the 50s. Spro McStick in blue bandit is hard to beat on Table Rock. I'd throw it on 10-pound green-tinted mono like P-Line CXX or BPS Excel.

[m&m]

49 minutes ago, Champ188 said:

There are a lot of variables involved depending on what part of the lake you'll be in, but I'll try to give you some general pointers.

 

Champ, your general pointers are amazing.  I wonder what your specific pointers look like. lol 

Eric, Champ is giving you great advice. I look forward to your report on Monday.

Mike

[176champion]

Good luck Eric...Sunday suppose to be windy up to 30 mph wind gust..

We fished a couple of the coves just west of the 39 bridge in Shell Knob and caught a few and missed a few..that was a couple weeks ago.

Son and i talking about going Tuesday

[abkeenan]

Champ nailed this thread. If you are unfamiliar with the lake, are not accustomed to fishing deep (30 feet and beyond I consider deep) or are not adept with sonar/electronics the deep bite is going to be hard to get on.

Spooning takes about as much skill as playing checkers but FINDING them is the tough part, real tough. See Bo's (merc1997) posts within the last month. It can be the most productive way to put fish on the boat with a fish every drop at times but finding them like I said is the hard part. Hitting them at the right time when they are active or feeding is also part of the puzzle and they are not always willing to cooperate.

Another tried and true bait is just a good old 4" or 5" C-tail grub on a 1/4 darter/jighead and swam along the bottom making contact (aka "scrubbing a grub") or just up off the bottom. You can fish that at any depth if you figure out where they are holding. Very versatile bait that has kind of gone by the wayside since the emergence of the A-Rig. Can also throw a paddle tail swimbait (swing impact fat, swimmin' fluke, skinny dipper, etc) on the same jighead and fish it the same was as a grub. This is another bait and technique that doesn't require a whole lot of skill and is great for novice fisherman or even kids. Just cast it out, count down to depth (or til it hits bottom) and swim it back to the boat.  I usually have this tied onto my spinning gear in the cooler water months.

Wiggle wart...find chunk rock bank cast at 45 degree angles or even parallel....chuck, wind, repeat. Need to be grinding the bottom to get bit.

Lastly, I would have a jerkbait on right now. Requires a little more skill in fishing angles but it's not rocket science either. I like to fish them near cedar trees or over the top of pole timber that sits anywhere from 0-15ish feet below the surface. I work mine maybe quicker than most here on OAF. Some guys here when water temps are in the 30's or low 40's will let them sit/pause for 30 seconds to over a minute between twitches. I never let it go for more than 10-15 seconds and usually only around 3-5 seconds. It's my favorite way to fish and has the potential to stick a good one that is suspended in a tree top and see's a easy meal struggling just above and will crush it.

 

If all that fails, throw Dave's saving grace......the NED RIG.