bumming rides is not always bad

[merc1997 Bo]

i am having to bum rides for a while since  the bottom half of my engine got knocked off by a pickup.  but, it is still pretty much the same, when you are still the guide regardless.  meaning that everyone that i fish with has me run the trolling motor.  had one heck of an afternoon of catching this cold cloudy winding day.

caught them on a 3/4 chartreuse zinc spoon, and on a 4 inch swimmer on a 3/4 GrassJig head.  used a pearl Elaztek swimmer.  most of the bites came 40 to 50 feet deep in 55 to 60 feet of water.  caught everything casting.  no bites fishing vertical.  yes, catching suspended bass by casting and working it through them takes time and practice, especially when the bites are that deep.  vertical bites have been hard to come by so far this year.

the final tally was 12 keeps.  of those, they were all lmgs, and there were 3 in the 4 lb. range and 5 over 3, and the others were over 16 inches.  two of the bigger ones came on the GrassJig head and swimmer.  

no pics because of trying to keep the boat in place out in the wind, and also, you want to get these deep bass back into the water quickly.  the longer they are out, the bigger the chance of them bloating up and not being able to swim back down.

 

bo

[cheesemaster]

Holly crap - well done Bo. Thanks for the report.

[Champ188]

It’s always good to know the bass are still there. Restores my faith that someday I’ll stumble onto a few myself. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Champ188 said:

It’s always good to know the bass are still there. Restores my faith that someday I’ll stumble onto a few myself. 

kind of a statement about fishing on those nasty days when everyone else stays home.  it would be easy to make a statement about the reasoning ability that some seem to believe bass have, but i won't.  i know you will agree with me that bass are active many times on these types of days.

i was also glad to see at least some 4 lb. lmg.  sure miss the days when the lake was full of 5 lb plus bass.  to show what the lake used to be like, back in 78 or 78, norman boles and i fished a tournament out of indian point.  back then, it was a 10 fish limit.  we weighed in a limit that weighed 52 lb and some change, and finished 2nd.  vernon stultz and allen moudy took first with 53 lb and some change.  this was a daytime tournament too, not night.  it just does not seen that we will ever see the lake with that amount of big bass in it.

it used to be that you could catch plenty of nice bass on lots of locations all over the lake on the same day, but that just is not the case anymore.  kind of like i can remember when we could find quail all over this part of the world, but that is only a memory also.  sure miss eating them.

bo

[dblades]

Call me if you need a ride.....You can run my troller anytime.

[Sore Thumbs]

6 hours ago, merc1997 said:

kind of a statement about fishing on those nasty days when everyone else stays home.  it would be easy to make a statement about the reasoning ability that some seem to believe bass have, but i won't.  i know you will agree with me that bass are active many times on these types of days.

i was also glad to see at least some 4 lb. lmg.  sure miss the days when the lake was full of 5 lb plus bass.  to show what the lake used to be like, back in 78 or 78, norman boles and i fished a tournament out of indian point.  back then, it was a 10 fish limit.  we weighed in a limit that weighed 52 lb and some change, and finished 2nd.  vernon stultz and allen moudy took first with 53 lb and some change.  this was a daytime tournament too, not night.  it just does not seen that we will ever see the lake with that amount of big bass in it.

it used to be that you could catch plenty of nice bass on lots of locations all over the lake on the same day, but that just is not the case anymore.  kind of like i can remember when we could find quail all over this part of the world, but that is only a memory also.  sure miss eating them.

bo

Wow. That sounds unreal compared to today. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Sore Thumbs said:

Wow. That sounds unreal compared to today. 

very true statement, but that is what table rock used to be like.  just like the trip i reported about.  12 keepers sounds like a heck of a trip, and it is by today's lake standards, but back before the fish kill, this time of the year, we would catch 40 to 80 keepers or more in a daytime trip.  table rock, regardless of what the mdc says, still does not have a very large population of bass.  since you fish beaver a lot, before they stocked stripers in beaver, beaver had bass fishing that was almost as good as table rock.  i fished beaver quite a bit back then, but about the only time i fish there anymore is to go fishing under the lights during the summer.

sometimes, there is a lot of truth about the good old days.

bo

[Sprint21fter]

My dad talks about his best year of fishing Table Rock was in 1995 or 1996.  Been fishing the area since the early 80's.  He stated in the month of May of 95 or 96 the year before the fish kill for sure he caught over 100 fish that were 7lbs.  That blows my mind because I have yet to catch a 7lber on Table Rock.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Sprint21fter said:

My dad talks about his best year of fishing Table Rock was in 1995 or 1996.  Been fishing the area since the early 80's.  He stated in the month of May of 95 or 96 the year before the fish kill for sure he caught over 100 fish that were 7lbs.  That blows my mind because I have yet to catch a 7lber on Table Rock.

well, it is very true that many big bass could be caught out of table rock back then.  i can tell you that any trip was deemed to be very slow if we only caught one over 6 lb.

bo

 

[Champ188]

Bo, you said a mouthful about fishing in foul weather and it seems that holds doubly true in the winter. You and I are definitely on the same page where that is concerned. I'm also thankful that my fishing partner is equally willing to take on the elements in order to enjoy some great fishing. 

I spent a few hours at Beaver yesterday by myself and was able to use a cold north wind and cloud cover to my advantage. Caught a mixed dozen spots/smallmouth in 3 hours' time throwing a spinnerbait and jerk bait on 45-degree banks in a major creek arm on the lower end. Also had a bonus striper that is destined for the grill and a healthy coating of blackening seasoning. Spent the morning at Swepco wasting my time and didn't get to Beaver until 1:30 or I likely would've had a much better day.

I wish I knew what reasoning MDC has for not stocking bass in Table Rock. I'm not a biologist but I've been fishing a lot of years in a lot of places and it's hard to think the lake is anywhere near its carrying capacity for bass when you can idle around just about anywhere and see giant balls of shad just begging to be eaten.