March 27-31 Report. Its on FIRE!!!

[David Goddard]

Day 1. Tuesday, March 27. Weather: rain all day with temperature's in the high 50s and low 60s. No wind at all. Lake not rising much at all.

Me and my partner headed down to Table rock on Tuesday afternoon and got on the water around 2 p.m. putting in at the state park. This was my first time on the lake in 8 years and his first time ever. We started smashing them right away and caught around 35 fish before dark. All 3 species and ended with a biggest 5 of 17.01 pounds. Our bag was anchored by those two big largemouth one weighing 4.21 pounds and the other 5.35. Caught a ton of smallmouth on the jerk bait out of tree tops. I think the fish were suspended in the cedar tree tops 6-8 feet deep. We also caught some fish on a 2.8 inch keitech swim bait and on an underspin. The largemouth came off of mixed chunk rock and gravel banks on the side of points both secondary and main lake. Finding a good incline on the bank seemed key with the largemouth.

Day 2. Wednesday, March 28. Weather: rain most of the day with cloud cover all day, no sun. Temperatures in the low 60s and high 50s. Very little wind. Lake rising a little. Maybe 6 inches to a foot.

Got out early in the morning and got right back on the bite running the same pattern. Focused a bit more on main lake stuff and I caught my new personal best spot at 3.17 pounds. Had a largemouth that was caught by my partner on a red rock crawler that went 4.85 pounds. Seemed like the rock crawler was better during the day while the jerk bait ruled during the morning and evening. Probably caught around 40 fish this day. Caught almost all fish on the jerk bait and rock crawler and a few on the underspin. Never fished the same water twice as we were practicing for the BASS collegiate qualifier on the 31st. Left a lot of good spots hoping to save them for tournament day. We still had 15.98 pounds for our biggest 5 fish and it was another incredible day.

Day 3. Thursday March 29, Weather: Less rain but still some rain and clouds all day. Temperatures in the mid to high 60s. Considerable 7-13 mph wind. Lake rose about 1.5 foot today.

Hit the lake early in the morning again but did make a stop at the Cracker Barrel for breakfast which I would highly recommend. Today the bite started to change a bit as the wind and rising water made it harder to get the jerk bait deep enough to get the fish out of the tree tops. The wind helped the main lake bite white a bit though. Caught more big spots and more smallmouth off of main lake points and even some off of bluff walls and ends on the jerk bait. I couldn't believe how fat the spots were, a 15 inch keeper weighed like 2.5 pounds. Still caught good fish on the rock crawler and a few on the underspin. Probably caught around 30 fish and still had never fished the same water twice. Our biggest five fish weighed 13.06 pounds. No big largemouth today.

Day 4. Friday March 30, Weather: High bluebird sky with sun all day. Temperatures in the high 60s to low 70s. Almost no wind. Lake rose another foot or so at least.

Today the morning bite nd evening bite were king. Afternoon lull (10 a.m. - 2 p.m) were pretty prominent throughout the week but today especially bad. Never even had a bite in that time frame. Jerk bait was still king in the morning and the evening but after like 9 a.m. couldn't get a bite on it and before like 6 p.m. it was the same way. found some good fish on gravel points off of them pretty farm probably like 15 feet deep. It seemed like despite the water rising the fish stayed in the same type spots. The difference is that instead of being in 8-12 foot of water not the fish were in like 11-15 feet of water. Still caught them pretty good and had like 25 fish. The sun seemed to help the largemouth bite. Today most of the fish came on a underspin or 4 inch pearl blue Kalins curly tail grub. Our biggest 5 went 12.89 pounds.

Day 5, Tournament day. Saturday March 31, Weather: Sunny in the morning with thunderstorms and showers starting around 9 a.m.. Temperatures in the high 60s. Wind picking up to 15mph at noon or so. Lake continued to rise, but slowed. Caught good fish until 10 a.m. and then the lull set in and only caught one fish between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. jerk bait bite fell off a bit and the curly tail grub seemed to be better since it could be fished through those tree tops which were way deeper now. Caught them really well and weighed in 13.38 pounds to get 5th place. Would have won if we could have gotten a big bite. Winner had 14.61 with all smallmouth fishing gravel points and a rock crawler. Kind of disappointing since we were so close but all in all we pretty much fished for free for a week since we won $200, so its pretty hard to complain about that.

Main Keys: Jerk bait, grub, underspin, and swim bait in tree tops, secondary points, and bluff wall ends. Rock crawler on secondary points and main lake points. Avoid the lull ( 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.). Bite is best in morning and evening. Run this pattern in small cuts off the main lake. Thanks for reading everyone, good luck and tight lines.

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[Champ188]

Heck of a good report and lots of nice pics. Thanks, guys. Nothing quite like the prespawn bite on TR. Congrats on the good finish. Too bad you couldn't have found one more good one. 

[David Goddard]

Yeah next time!!!

[dblades]

Great report, you youngun's dun good, as we say round here.

[Hunter91]

Very nice report. Good job guys!

[abkeenan]

Just a top notch report. With pics as well! Nicely done guys! Thanks for sharing.

[big c]

Great report, thanks!

[Nitro 750]

Thanks for the report and pics.

[Quillback]

That is some awesome fishing, congrats!

[m&m]

David, nice report. Great details and pictures. Now don’t wait 8 years to come back. 

Mike