Saturday fishing report

[ewlech]

I fish Stockton on a regular basis and only fish the lower Taney a handful of times each year.  The wife and I decided to fish out of Rockaway Beach Saturday afternoon/evening, fished about 5 hours up till dark.  The last time I fished Taney was this past fall.  As soon as I arrived I noticed the water clarity was much dirtier/cloudier than it was in the past, only about a foot and a half visibility.  I spent the first 2 hours flipping Baby Brush Hogs around the vegetation, threw a fluke over the weeds, threw a small Gun Fish over the weeds, and threw a small frog over the matts.  Only had 2 hits, one on the Brush Hog and one on the fluke and missed both of them.  After 2 hours without any fish we cranked up the Merc and ran down to a bluff wall/channel swing that usually produces some bass for me.  Spent the next few hours fishing this area and caught several trout, a nice sized smallmouth, several rock bass/warmouths, and several small largemouths.  I noticed the rock bass appeared to be ready to spawn as the belly on several of them were huge.  As the sun was starting to set we ran back up to Rockaway and finished the day off throwing the Gun Fish around the weeds.  Had several blow-ups that missed the bait and caught one nice largemouth that was around 3 pounds.  Pulled the boat out around 9pm. Water temp was around 59-61 degrees.

 

On a side note, shortly after arriving, while fishing across from Bull Creek, we had the “pleasure” of experiencing the Branson Jet boat coming by and doing circles and other sharp turns across from us.  I had read the posts on the upper Taney site from Phil and others talking about the jet boat attraction coming in the near future but didn’t know it had opened.  While I was in a large 20 foot bass boat with a 200 Merc on it, it didn’t cause any issues for me.  There were many kayaks enjoying the lake when this Jet boat came flying by.  I don’t think they were very happy with that experience.  It will be interesting to see how many complaints property owners and other folks that enjoy the lake lodge against this company.  The wake that it threw off wasn’t as big as I was anticipating and didn’t cause any issues with me in my larger boat but I am not sure how smaller boats would fare.  I will mention that it was very loud and you could hear it coming from a long way in advance.  I do understand it is a public lake and I am not taking any sides on the attraction, just mentioning that it is “open for business”.  Here are a few pictures form the trip:

 

[Fishin4Fun]

My son and I were out kayak fishing Saturday evening at the same time you were around Rockaway Beach.  We saw the jet boat a couple times and it really didn't cause us any issues.  We got hit by larger wakes from some of the boats that were out there than the jet boat.  Glad to see you faired a little better than us in the fishing category.  We only caught 1 little largemouth each and that was it.  The water was definitely dirtier than the weekend before.  The rain from the night before definitely stirred things up.  Water temps were anywhere from 59 degrees to 72 degrees, depending where we were around Bull Creek.  Thanks for sharing your report.

[ewlech]

We saw 2 kayaks fishing between Bull creek and Rockaway around 8:30, was that you? 

[moguy1973]

That goggle eye has a big appetite!

[Fishin4Fun]

That was probably us.  We got off the water around that time.  We were fishing the grass right there before heading back to the ramp.  There were 3 or 4 boats pulling out when we got off.

[fishin_addict]

Thanks for the post!  I could be wrong, but not thinking those fat rock bass are full of spawn.  must just be gorging themselves on something.  I've seen trout look almost that fat and ended up they were full of corn.  I've heard some fish struggle passing corn.  who knows.