Report from the weekend/Shell Knob area

[Dinkslayer]

Took my dad, brother, and nephew down to TR and stayed at Lunker Landing(great place for us) Thursday through Sunday.  Had a great long weekend of fishing and family.  Dad and I got on the lake Thursday by 1 pm and it didn't take us long to start catching fish.  He was able to catch one of our biggest of the weekend which was right at 3lbs on a Keitech swimbait in black shad in the first 20 minutes.  I know 3lbs isn't that big, but to my dad it is!  So, the old man is catching some fish on the swimbait and the ned rig while I chucked the A-Rig.  Found two transition banks in the wind and we had a blast catching 14 1/2 inch spots on light spinning rods with the swimbaits.  We caught the occasional 15-16 inch fish throughout the day and ended with 4 keepers and about 35 fish.

My brother and nephew joined us on Friday and we made it out after breakfast around 8 am and caught fish off and on all day until 7 pm.  Again we caught several shorts but we still had a blast and everyone got in on the action.  My nephew caught the biggest of the day and of his life with about a 2 3/4lb spot on a road runner while he was crappie fishing.  We ended up with 9 keepers Saturday and also 1  14 inch crappie with about 30-40 shorts throughout the day.  Caught most fish on one of the transition banks from the day before and also caught some of our keepers all the way back in the coves.  Main lures were ned rig, A-rig, and every different type of plastic craw I had in the boat.  Fish seemed to nip at the swimbait and A-rig a lot on Friday.  I had a pile of keitechs in the bottom of my boat with the tails bit off when I cleaned it that night. 

Saturday got a little more difficult for us with fewer fish but better ones.  We maybe caught 15-20 fish all day but ended with 7 keepers.  Mostly on the A-rig and a few on a spinnerbait.  We ended our day early and had a fish fry and never made it back out.  All in all it was a good weekend.  Everyone got to catch some fish and make fun of each other like we were all kids again.  Found a few beds but no fish on them yet where we were. 

I know there were several tourneys on TR this past weekend and I'm sure most of those guys were respectful.  I had two incidents with tournament guys that give them all a bad name.  Whoever runs the Friday night tourney has a guy in a blue Nitro 18 with a 175 merc on it that rolled into our cove around 11:30pm and proceeded to cast 5 feet in front of us while we were crappie fishing on the dock.  You just don't do that.  No excuses in my opinion.  I bit my lip because my nephew was sitting in the boat behind me.  The next day as we idled to a point to begin fishing, I had two guys in a ranger pull right in front of me as we were dropping the trolling motor.  I simply told them that I thought that was a BS move and they stated that they thought I was fishing out deep.  I believe they knew better but maybe they didn't.  To their credit, they apologized and said they would leave.  I told them to go ahead and fish, don't worry about it and then they proceeded to drive between me and the bank, right over the brush that we were both there to fish.  Just want to thank all the other tournament anglers we spoke to that were kind and respectful of other fishermen.  I guess when you are playing for money and trophies some of them think they can walk over a boat with a family in it.  Sad.  I've fished tournaments for years and have nothing against them.  Just witnessed things that I would never do and I would never want my nephew to think it was okay to do that to someone or let someone do it to you. 

 

Good luck and be careful.

[JLEWS01]

Great report and thanks for the info. 

In my experience, the Friday night Mill Creek guys are some of the worse (not all but several). There are a bunch of big headed, in debt up to their eyeballs local guys that fish that one. Don't get me wrong there are several salt of the earth guys fishing that tournament, but they get outweighed by some real pricks. It's a weekly local tournament guys, not an elite series. Go take a cold shower and calm yourself. 

I love tournament fishing as much as anyone, but hey you know what they say, "common sense is not so common anymore"!

FISH ON!!

[Jim Elam]

4 hours ago, Dinkslayer said:

Took my dad, brother, and nephew down to TR and stayed at Lunker Landing(great place for us) Thursday through Sunday.  Had a great long weekend of fishing and family.  Dad and I got on the lake Thursday by 1 pm and it didn't take us long to start catching fish.  He was able to catch one of our biggest of the weekend which was right at 3lbs on a Keitech swimbait in black shad in the first 20 minutes.  I know 3lbs isn't that big, but to my dad it is!  So, the old man is catching some fish on the swimbait and the ned rig while I chucked the A-Rig.  Found two transition banks in the wind and we had a blast catching 14 1/2 inch spots on light spinning rods with the swimbaits.  We caught the occasional 15-16 inch fish throughout the day and ended with 4 keepers and about 35 fish.

My brother and nephew joined us on Friday and we made it out after breakfast around 8 am and caught fish off and on all day until 7 pm.  Again we caught several shorts but we still had a blast and everyone got in on the action.  My nephew caught the biggest of the day and of his life with about a 2 3/4lb spot on a road runner while he was crappie fishing.  We ended up with 9 keepers Saturday and also 1  14 inch crappie with about 30-40 shorts throughout the day.  Caught most fish on one of the transition banks from the day before and also caught some of our keepers all the way back in the coves.  Main lures were ned rig, A-rig, and every different type of plastic craw I had in the boat.  Fish seemed to nip at the swimbait and A-rig a lot on Friday.  I had a pile of keitechs in the bottom of my boat with the tails bit off when I cleaned it that night. 

Saturday got a little more difficult for us with fewer fish but better ones.  We maybe caught 15-20 fish all day but ended with 7 keepers.  Mostly on the A-rig and a few on a spinnerbait.  We ended our day early and had a fish fry and never made it back out.  All in all it was a good weekend.  Everyone got to catch some fish and make fun of each other like we were all kids again.  Found a few beds but no fish on them yet where we were. 

I know there were several tourneys on TR this past weekend and I'm sure most of those guys were respectful.  I had two incidents with tournament guys that give them all a bad name.  Whoever runs the Friday night tourney has a guy in a blue Nitro 18 with a 175 merc on it that rolled into our cove around 11:30pm and proceeded to cast 5 feet in front of us while we were crappie fishing on the dock.  You just don't do that.  No excuses in my opinion.  I bit my lip because my nephew was sitting in the boat behind me.  The next day as we idled to a point to begin fishing, I had two guys in a ranger pull right in front of me as we were dropping the trolling motor.  I simply told them that I thought that was a BS move and they stated that they thought I was fishing out deep.  I believe they knew better but maybe they didn't.  To their credit, they apologized and said they would leave.  I told them to go ahead and fish, don't worry about it and then they proceeded to drive between me and the bank, right over the brush that we were both there to fish.  Just want to thank all the other tournament anglers we spoke to that were kind and respectful of other fishermen.  I guess when you are playing for money and trophies some of them think they can walk over a boat with a family in it.  Sad.  I've fished tournaments for years and have nothing against them.  Just witnessed things that I would never do and I would never want my nephew to think it was okay to do that to someone or let someone do it to you. 

 

Good luck and be careful.

Teaching moments for your nephew.

Guessing there will be an abundance of teaching moments to choose from if one were to fish this next Saturday in the mid lake area LOL!

 

 

 

[MickinMO]

3 hours ago, JLEWS01 said:

In my experience, the Friday night Mill Creek guys are some of the worse (not all but several). There are a bunch of big headed, in debt up to their eyeballs local guys that fish that one. Don't get me wrong there are several salt of the earth guys fishing that tournament, but they get outweighed by some real pricks. It's a weekly local tournament guys, not an elite series. Go take a cold shower and calm yourself. 

You forgot to add that some are also good at feeding fish and keeping holding, errrrr bait tanks, in proper working condition

[Ketchup]

9 hours ago, MickinMO said:

You forgot to add that some are also good at feeding fish and keeping holding, errrrr bait tanks, in proper working condition

as in fish placed in a barrel to be takin during a tourney? If so PM me details please and dont post it public. 

[Champ188]

Settle down guys. No one would cheat in a tournament. Especially not these local club/jackpot fellers. I have it on good account that they are just out there having fun and spreading good cheer to mankind. 

Shoot, we wouldn’t have a gas station, restaurant or maybe even a lake without them!