Quite the day

[dtrs5kprs]

Morning was slow. Got much better when the sun got up, even better with boat traffic. Fishies like big wakes banging the bank. Not a surprise.

Caught fish consistently from 830-3pm. Quit reluctantly. Number of keepers...many. Main lake stuff, not necessarily points or run outs, close to the main river channel. Mostly 18'-25', with some out to 28' or so. Temps pretty much 84-85. Color our new normal cloudy mess.

Tubes, football jig, Ned. Fish seem to want an aggressive presentation, so deadly Nedly got a little less love. Hopping, darting, etc.

Lost a bunch of fish on tubes. Need to look at hook options. Best tube bite I've had in years. We've gone through two and a half 20ct bags in a week.

First thing we saw a lot of singles, but they weren't playing. Wake bait, spoon, nothing. The dragging fish are very much as Mr. Babler described. Quite a few are "catching" it. Too many were also pitching, lol. Jig fish were ridiculously touchy about trailer size.

Plus one very optimistic gog...

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[IL Fisherman]

Nice bunch of fish D.   Glad to see you out chasing em.  

[Champ188]

Awesome day, my friend. Glad you’re enjoying the trip and getting your string stretched often!

[abkeenan]

I sure hope that goggle wasn't relocated. More exotic relocation infractions are triple the fine, according to misinterpreted MDC laws, if I'm not mistaken.

Nice fish. Bout time someone gave some love to bronzebacks. Usually the largies or big boned K's always steal the photo ops. Good deal.

[Seth Clarkson]

On 6/13/2018 at 7:48 PM, dtrs5kprs said:

Lost a bunch of fish on tubes. Need to look at hook options. Best tube bite I've had in years. We've gone through two and a half 20ct bags in a week.

I'm not sure what type of tubes you were using, but I tried the full size Z-Man EZ Tubez for the first time on Bull Shoals a couple months ago and I was impressed. You don't even have to retie to change colors. They only have like 6 color options compared to the 20 plus that the Bass Pro Tender Tubes have but the Canada Craw had worked real well for me, and they were not able to tear up the Elaztech of course, so I only had to replace the tube if I broke it off. 

[5bites]

Great report!

 

I know you’ll get a bunch of recommendations but I wanted to suggest trying the Owner Rig’n hook. My very most favorite hook and especially for big bodied plastics like a tube. For all I know you’re already using it but it works great for me. 

[dtrs5kprs]

3 hours ago, 5bites said:

Great report!

 

I know you’ll get a bunch of recommendations but I wanted to suggest trying the Owner Rig’n hook. My very most favorite hook and especially for big bodied plastics like a tube. For all I know you’re already using it but it works great for me. 

It's a good hook for Texas rigging short, thick plastics. Use some on swing heads we pour.

We're fishing the tube on a 3/8 speed load head, 4/0 Mustad ultrapoint or Eagle Claw 570. The cheapie is hooking up better, but the fish are straightening some out. Mustad just isn't stabbing them well.

Normally our tube fishing is a change of pace from Ned. Wanted something that wasn't a Gammie or Owner, as I expect to end up using cutters on several hooks during the trip.

Will probably look at some vmc 60 degree hooks, tweak a mold for them.

[mixermarkb]

What's a "speed load head"?

[dtrs5kprs]

Tapered tube head...jam it in the front like a big crappie tube head.

[Bill Babler]

Sweet.