Kimberling area 4/24 thru 4/28

[dtrs5kprs]

Fished around Kimberling most of last week. Temps varied from low 60's Tues to upper 50's with the cooler nights and rain, then back to low 60's Sat afternoon. Very good finesse rig bite on shallow gravel places back in the creeks (4'-10') for brownies-fry or fish doctor, w'melon red if bright and green pumpkin with clouds. Also a good shakey head bite in same areas-1/8oz head and same colors. Numbers of fish in 16-18" range, plus lots of shorts. Blacks good on shakey head or deadsticking a senko around the first big rocks off the bank, back in little cuts and coves in the creeks. Had a good blade bite (two over 19", 5 other good keepers) the day the big front finished pushing thru with that little squall in the am, throwing it around those same rocks. Only saw 4 obvious beds, caught 3 fish from them but no big fish. Am fairly certain some of the fish were just on deeper nests. Best fish of the week was a 20"+ black on a rig.

Had a hard time with the topwater bite, a few small fish on redfins, couple of good brownies on a spook. Might have just been in the wrong place for that. Fishing the shakey on 6# floro increased the bites in the range of 3 to 1 over 8# floro, even with some color in the water. Seemed like a lot of boats were fishing a little deeper than the fish were holding, maybe out of habit. Variety of stages on the fish, some pre-, some post-, some on beds.

Will be back after them next week. Good luck all & thanks for all the info along the way.