6-27-18 Table Rock Lake Report Point Five to Big M

[Bill Babler]

White River Outfitters Guide Service 6-27-18

That's a pretty big chunk of water I just bit off, and I'm even going to sweeten the deal going up the James to point 12.

The are biting and I mean they are biting like I have not seen in the past 10-15 yrs.  Sometimes not as fast  but 6 out of 7 days if you want to, you can catch fish.  I'm saying if you " WILL" fish like the fish want it and fish where the fish are, its easy to catch them.

I don't do it everyday, some days and with some people mostly seasoned fishermen we make it hard on ourselves.  If I have novice fishermen they catch them easy.  If you want to drop shot any soft plastic or swim a Keitech fish are available.  If you want to power fish yes, you can be successful, but sometimes you have to work a bit more at it.

Surface temps have dropped to 83 degree but they will pop back up this week.  We have a complete solid thermocline at 26' lake wide.

There are fish off the flats, fish off the bluffends and fish suspended and on just about every major channel swing either just off suspended or on the bottom at the 30' mark.  Only part of the lake  would be called Super Hard  from Long Creek to Point 5  Probably decent at night, but from what the Big Cedar guides are saying its miserable.  Of course all they are doing is live bait fishing at depth on the same locations.  Over and over and over and over.

From Point 1 to Point 5 the whites have been blowing in the flat cove mouths most mornings.  Its over by 6:15 at the latest so you need to get out there.  Buster Loving has cleaned a zillion whites the past 3 weeks in that area.  After the whites go down he is headed to deep trees and catching LM, and K's' suspended out of the tops at the thermocline and off some of the gravel in that same 26' to 35' range the same as Bobby is.  By the way big shout out to Bobby for keeping us very well informed on the dam area.

Lets take a big stroll here and go from Point 5 to point 12 on the James and that's a lot of Aqua, but still the same bite, if you want it.  As usual this time of the year lake sections of fish group or school after the spawn and try to regain some flesh back after all the debauchery.  You can hit 5 runnouts and nothing and then the 6th. will be completely covered.  Be careful with the CPR as I said these are lake sections of fish.  One day they will be on one spot and the next day there gone to another or just out loafing over depth.

Early this week Rick Lisek had a 3 person trip and used a Chompers WMC drop shot worm up the James and they had 93 bass in a 4 hr. trip.  He said at least 20 keepers maybe more as they didn't measure.  All at the above mentioned depth, caught on the bottom mostly on gravel long points and runs in that 30' depth, or up suspended off the bottom.

Had one of my good friend and client Ed Shawbaker out this last week and had easy 40 on a jig on gravel  26' right on the money.  We were not throwing at the bank we sat in 26' and turned the boat bow toward the bank and fished a full drag in that depth and doubled on several as I spoke of earlier they were hard to detect, but were eating like pigs. 

Next day we threw the flutter spoon with James Atwood.  threw the big Lake Fork and the Dixie, and they just waxed either.  James got sick about 1/2 way thru the morning but I'm guessing we had 25 at least all on the spoons prior to " The Big time Potty Break." Most all were LM and most all were keeps.

Day before yesterday we fished from KC to just above Baxter and it was the same deal only I picked up a tip from Quill instead of drop shot we swam the Keitech thru the suspended fish, again at that same 26' mark and caught fish after fish, it was completely silly.

Yesterday I fished from Viola to Big M and again swam the Keitech.  I believe the guys said we had 80 total it was stupid.  Most of the time swimming the Keitech boat is in 60' to 70' to target these fish holding in the 30' range, usually about 1/2 way back.  I will tell you I could have sat on them with the drop shot, but this is way, way more fun, and the bite on a single location will last much longer when you pull them from the school and drop them away from the school instead of just pulling them straight up and then dropping them straight back to rat you out to their buddies.

Trick is you have to go slow and fish it thru the correct depth.  If your not getting bit, your reeling it to fast.  Back to my Ole Buddy Bill Beck here " Are you fishing it, or are you throwing it out and reeling it in?"

As usual I should have listened to Champ much more closely as he put me on a fantastic head for this.  I'm using the 3/8th. Wareagle with a 3.3 inch Keitech.  The shad are exactly this size.  If I try and use a 1/4 most of my clients do not have the patients to let it get down.  The 3/8 gets there quicker and maintains the depth at a more even level.  Depth is the key on these suspended fish.  Easy for the DS but hard throwing and casting.  I'm also swimming it on a heaver  rod with 8lb. Maxi as I need the backbone to get them stuck 6'9" Cara T7 spinning rod with a Shimano Stradic.  Sweet combo for this application with the big jig head and the heaver line.  Just a bit much for the Squirrel tail  It really likes the 1/8 to 1/4 up to 5/16.  Even a better rig for this is the Cara T7 Cranker spooled with 10 lb. InvizX but not a ton of my folks can throw a B. Caster.

Here is the deal on that Wareagle, it has double bait holder/ keepers  I still put a spot of glue on it and clip off that nasty light wire weed guard.  We used 7 total swimbaits to catch that 80 fish.  TOTAL.  That in the day of the jelly for bellie Keitech is more than great, its fantastic.  Here is another priceless tip.  You have to net the fish you catch with the swimbait.  If you try and swing them they will  shake their heads so violently that they tear the swimbait to pieces so just net them and save yourself a buck a fish.

Get out there and look around, you just never know what you'll find in the briny deep.

Good Luck

 

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[slothman]

Awesome report. Man, I’d like to get down and fish table rock sometime. I haven’t done much table rock fishing for quite a few years. I miss that place. Of course, most of my experience on that lake is out of cape fair. 

[IL Fisherman]

Wow.  That’s a lot of detail.  Thanks for sharing.  It’s a big help to us part timers.  

[Quillback]

Great report Bill, and thanks for providing some great info!

[Guest]

there is a night bite in your dead zone dam area.  we just caught 16 keepers wednesday night.  most bites are 15 to 22 ft. deep.  caught them on a new bait.  will post a pic tomorrow and a pic of the biggest one.  the big one did come on a 3/4 GrassJig.

bo

[Guest]

pics.  do not have a name for the lure yet.

bo

 

[Bill Babler]

Durn Bo, that thing looks more than Deadly.  Glad you got on I just knew there was something after dark going on down there.  In the day the place is just a Horrible Zoo.

[vernon]

Wow Bill, that's beyond amazing.  Thanks for sharing - especially in such great detail.

And now Bo obviously seems determined to just keep costing me more money!

Way to go to both of you.

 

[STLbassbuster]

Thanks for the report Bill!

[Browning Guy]

Bill, thanks for the details. Between baseball, softball, building a house and oh ya, work.... haven't been on the water since Late April. Off tomorrow and taking the 8 and 12 year old down this p.m. and putting the boat on the lift ready for tomorrow a.m.  I've been hearing similar details from a friend who's saying he's doing well also.  Between the two of you it is much appreciated. Need to get the kids into them.