The big girls disappear every year

[96 CHAMP]

Nite time, I agree, they don't get big by being dumb, a lot of daytime activity with all the boats, get some warm nights should help. 

[vernon]

Can't say as I blame them big un's - I, too, like eating at night just as much as during the day and there's usually a lot less competition!  

[Bill Babler]

Guided yesterday with a regular and we had 41 total fish.  Only 4 keepers.  He just bought one of the same scales they use on MLF and I have to have one.   They work so good and you can get the fish back in the water in a jiffy.  We measured and weighed a lot of fish.  We had a Spot that weighed 2.39 and was an even 14"  She was just loaded with both eggs and shad Just about to get her pic, and she flip flopped back in the drink.  Said the scale was spot on and ran very close to the AIA scales.  Maybe a couple of oz light on a limit of derby fish.  Caught most of our fish on a jerkbait, but did have our two biggest both LM on the Keitech.  Although we did catch a lot of jaws none would measure.  Every fish we caught that measured was a LM.  He is fishing the BFL so we kept pretty good count of keepers.

Fished AbK's beloved Beardsley for at least 3 hrs. mostly  hiding from the horrible wind. Warmest water we saw yesterday was 56.7 and I bet that has gone down this AM. 

Not to pile back on to the Carbon lite rods, but Dave tried to swing a 14.5 inch K and you can guess what happened, 3 pieces.   He also hung a jerkbait in a cedar and tried to shake it off with the buggy whip.  I told him stop!, that rod is not going to take that, but on the 3 rd. whip the tip and about a foot of rod broke.  2 in one day.  He said he had just  wonderful luck with those rods on lake O and had broke a couple, but never 2 that easy.  I told him I was on a forum with some of the best fishermen in the Ozarks and most all that had tried them had a problem.   He broke one of the older black ones and one of the new white ones.  I will say this, that old black one is so light and balanced it is a great JB rod.  I threw it a couple of times and really liked it.  Not a Falcon, but its $119.00.

Chris Tetrick guided Tuesday out of Indian Pt. and told me he had 60 total fish, mostly jaws and had 3 keepers, continuing the theme of where are the biggins.

Good Luck

[merc1997 Bo]

bullshoalscat said it before me.  the bigger bass have always seemed, at this time of the year, to be offshore during the day.  i can not recall very many times that i won a day tournament this time of the year fishing bottom baits.  a muddy lake would have been the exception.  the rest of the time fishing off shore for suspended bass was always the key.  as i have stated before, we still do not have the number of bass in the lake we had pre-fish kill, but we are slowly improving.  just do not know if i will live long enough to ever see it get back there.  searching with your electronics can aid in finding these suspended bass.

however, at night things can change in your favor, because those suspended bass go over the bank and gorge up at night.  clear water lakes are clear water lakes and the bigger bass tend to be more nocturnal in their feeding patterns.  and many times, it is an all night affair to get them.  anyway, this is exactly why when the water temps get back above 50, you rarely will find me daytime fishing.

bo

[Ketchup]

I was out yesterday out of Aunts, and like Bill, i caught alot of 12" to 14" fish. Out of the 25 or so in 3 hours, not 1 went 15".  I marked suspended fish in several locations, but you might as well bury them under the rocks, because me catching them in that manner is like catching a firefly while in a wheelchair. It can be done, but its a chore.  "Not in any way making fun of anyone in a wheelchair." 

That wind kept me within a mile of the ramp as i would rather fish in the rain or snow than that much of wind. 

[m&m]

Bill, thank you for the report. The various posts by forum members confirming that the bigger fish are few and far between because of the life cycle stage is something I have wondered about for a number of years. We have to put that in our knowledge base and monitor the movement to the spawn. If we understand it, we can replicate it each year. And since TRL is so big, it is possible that there are different stages going on in the different areas of the lake. And this is one of the reasons why this forum is so valuable. We get daily reports from fisherman all over the lake who provide information about the stage in their area. Again thank you to all who contribute. 

By the way, 3 hours in Beardsley and you got out intact. Abk's watchdogs must have been off duty. 

Mike

[96 CHAMP]

 

I was out yesterday out of Aunts, and like Bill, i caught alot of 12" to 14" fish. Out of the 25 or so in 3 hours, not 1 went 15".  I marked suspended fish in several locations, but you might as well bury them under the rocks, because me catching them in that manner is like catching a firefly while in a wheelchair. It can be done, but its a chore.  "Not in any way making fun of anyone in a wheelchair." 

That wind kept me within a mile of the ramp as i would rather fish in the rain or snow than that much of wind. 

I agree with the wind ketchup, when it is strong  the wind flat out wears me down to the bone, better off resting up during the middle of the day.

[Ketchup]

True 96.  I was off the water at 2:30.  Peek-a-boo around the docks with a 7" worm T-R'gd is what most of my fish came on. Caught a few on a wart but the number were liking the worm. 

[96 CHAMP]

 

True 96.  I was off the water at 2:30.  Peek-a-boo around the docks with a 7" worm T-R'gd is what most of my fish came on. Caught a few on a wart but the number were liking the worm. 

 

 

True 96.  I was off the water at 2:30.  Peek-a-boo around the docks with a 7" worm T-R'gd is what most of my fish came on. Caught a few on a wart but the number were liking the worm. 

I was using the shakey head the other day with  a shaky tail worm, they were having that as well. Good luck!

[Bill Babler]

I have to say,  that I have fished this lake for "Yikes 45 yrs. and I have never fished a wind day like yesterday.  If was STRAIGHT out of the NORTH..  I usually don't mind a North wind, in fact kind of like it.  Not so much yesterday.  The stretch from Chateau to LC Bridge was rolling 3 plus footers, Huge swell like rollers.  Fished in my friends Ranger and we took waves over the sides, the bow and the stern, just depending on how the boat was positioned.    Had to run completely nose down or it would throw you out.   Not the boat, just horrible conditions.  Pumps came on several times just from waves coming in while we were fishing.  They were coming in on the least wavy sides of the lake it was that bad.  There were places that were totally unfishable.  I think we although we caught tons of fish, we fished extremely poorly.  Just could not get the boat the bait and the speed in any kind of a decent attitude, we were always fishing in front or behind ourselves and fishing and covering water at light speed, or a dead slow.

  We both were completely worn out.  My knees are really bothering me this morning, I'm glad I don't have a trip.  If we would have had to fish out of my. Bay Boat we could not. have done it.  Big boat will be here the week of the 17th and I'm wilting on the vine waiting for it.