Table Rock Lake Fishing Report 7-16-18

[Bill Babler]

5 hours ago, Champ188 said:

^^^ Herein lies the real reason I haven’t been fishing much lately. I can practically beach my boat in the upper reaches of the rivers and first time I get a bite, here comes Bill right up my nose trying to horn in on my action. Doesn’t fish shallow, my foot!!! 😆😂

That's not really true.  If you were on them you would call and tell me where so I could take my people up there to catch them.  I wouldn't have to sneak, you would give them to me.

What I'm really saying is get out there and find me some more!

[bobby b.]

17 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

About 7:30 when they moved the big and I mean huge bluegill moved up in that 22/28ft. range and we could have caught a hundred of them about the size of your hand, on every gravel runnout, that we fished.  That should have been my clue but I missed it.

Bill, would you mind explaining this "should have been my clue but I missed it"? 

I've had the bluegill move in on me more this year than last (again I've only been at this 2-3 years).  I usually just move to another spot on the flat or to a whole other place still looking at the same depth.  Are you saying I should have just moved deeper in the first spot and/or look deeper on other similar ground?  Why would the fish move down 10 ft so quickly?  Wouldn't that take them out of their comfort zone or is the thermocline expanding?  You made it sound like you lucked out when you spun the boat around and found the fish deeper?  If that was the case and you had not seen them at 38 ft would look assume they were still at 22/28 elsewhere.  If I'm asking too much, just say so.

Thanks Bobby

[Royal Blue]

My understanding is that they're almost on the bottom at first and when they move, that they suspend at the same depth but deeper water.  I could be wrong though.  I've basically just been cranking points and dragging a jig all summer.  It's been working though and I've only caught 1 Kentucky in that time.  Almost all LM with a few brownies mixed in.

[Bill Babler]

4 hours ago, bobby b. said:

Bill, would you mind explaining this "should have been my clue but I missed it"? 

I've had the bluegill move in on me more this year than last (again I've only been at this 2-3 years).  I usually just move to another spot on the flat or to a whole other place still looking at the same depth.  Are you saying I should have just moved deeper in the first spot and/or look deeper on other similar ground?  Why would the fish move down 10 ft so quickly?  Wouldn't that take them out of their comfort zone or is the thermocline expanding?  You made it sound like you lucked out when you spun the boat around and found the fish deeper?  If that was the case and you had not seen them at 38 ft would look assume they were still at 22/28 elsewhere.  If I'm asking too much, just say so.

Thanks Bobby

These fish move extremely quickly this time of the year.  If you remember I said we were catching them shallow right on top of the ridge.  When the sun gets to a certain position or for who knows why they move and move quickly.  It's between 7:30 and 8:00 right now.  If your still seeing fish but catching gills, its because they moved.  Also if you are catching bass and all of a sudden your on those big gills, the bass have moved.  At times they will occupy the same water, but for the most part those gills regardless of size won't be hanging in those big schools of K's.  That is why I also said Beck was a master of fish movement, he knew and I really don't know if you can learn this, its more of just a feeling.   Of course having a couple of thousand hours a year on the lake for 30 yrs. helps.   Champ and Bo will tell you the same thing as will every professional elite fisherman.  You have to feel it.  It's either over or its on, and some guys feel it quicker than others.  Beck knew it immediately.

I'm reading a bit larger thermocline due to the extreme heat.  I think Bo mentioned it the other day in a post that his night time fish dropped in depth also.  We can figure the thermocline is probably in that 28' range at the top with a comfort zone to probably 38' as it is a real popular number right now lake wide with all the guides.

I did not react quite quickly enough when those big gills moved in on us yesterday.  On my second stop I chased out the ridge and was going to cut across a pocket to another ridge and spun the boat out over depth and saw them just sitting at that 38' range.  I said to my clients I should have known they pulled out here when those big gills started hitting us.  Me Bad.

If I had not seen them I would have looked on the top of the next ridge where it dumped into the channel.  If they were not there I would have known they had suspended and moved out.  By seeing them it solved that problem and again from what the guide talk is they moved lake wide on all of us at the above mentioned time.

Here is the deal however, they can be in the frigging middle of the lake but still at 38' over 100'+, no problem.  Most times however they will be in the vicinity of those long runs or bluffends and not heck and gone.  However what I'm hearing now is they have moved off the bluffends and most are suspending in the channel off flat gravel lake wide.  Moving up at night or early and late and then during the day moving out.  As I said yesterday they were just packed with little finger size craw daddy's, spitting them up and all over creation.

Good Luck

 

[Champ188]

9 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

That's not really true.  If you were on them you would call and tell me where so I could take my people up there to catch them.  I wouldn't have to sneak, you would give them to me.

What I'm really saying is get out there and find me some more!

Of course I would. It would take me from now till never to pay you back for all of the fish you've put me on. As much as it pains me to say it, you're a great guy. 😁

[mojorig]

Here are the Temp and DO profiles for TR taken at the dam on July 11th (link).

TABLE ROCK LAKE					
PROFILE DATE = 11Jul18					
ELEVATION = 916.32				
                                        									
NO	 	 DEPTH		D.O.		TEMP        				
	 	  feet		mg/l		deg F
 1		  0.4		8.68		88.81
 2		  7.0		8.93		87.42
 3		 10.0		9.13		86.11
 4		 17.0		9.55		84.49
 5		 18.0		9.93		83.75
 6		 19.0	       10.06		82.38
 7		 20.0	       10.33		78.82
 8		 21.0	       10.12		74.80
 9		 23.0		9.64		73.15
10		 25.0		9.52		71.60
11		 26.0		9.24		70.12
12		 27.0		8.99		67.73
13		 28.0		8.57		66.24
14		 29.0		8.28		64.74
15		 30.0		8.00		64.35
16		 31.0		7.37		63.14
17		 33.0		6.77		61.57
18		 35.0		5.72		60.31
19		 40.0		4.37		58.62
20	 	 44.0		3.57		57.34
21               50.0           3.63            56.19
22               58.0           4.35            54.81
23               60.0           4.70            54.61
24               70.0           5.20            54.01
25               80.0           5.91            53.08
26               90.0           6.64            52.21
27              100.0           6.65            51.57
28              110.0           6.77            50.79
29              120.0           6.71            50.50
30              130.0           7.21            49.53
31              140.0           7.13            49.30
32              150.0           7.00            49.05
33              160.0           6.39            48.45
34              170.0           5.68            48.04
35              180.0           4.71            47.43
36              190.0           3.00            46.80
37              200.0           2.15            46.69
38              206.5           2.09            46.71

 

 

[Sprint21fter]

Fished KC area today had to really hunt around to find the bait. Once we did caught a few. 8 good keepers with afew small fish mixed in. They were buched up more today. Reeling one in they would have multiple buddies with them.  Hit 30 places and 5 had bait and fish on them. WT upper 80's visibility 7-10 feet. Depth 35-45 today. Moved out a smidge.

[Bill Babler]

Thanks so much for the chart.  On July 11th. they were hanging in there right at the 28' mark mostly on the bottom but some over depth and in the trees .  Up early in the morning they are still at that depth but with the light penetration they are moving down and suspending in the close to 40' range usually by 8 or 8;30.  They have now somewhat abandoned the trees and bluffends and are on the humps and channel swings and long runnout points that are right off the channel, either inside or outside. 

I can see the first line of thermocline at the 28-30 ft. mark on my Lowrance and then a bolder deeper color at the 40 ft. mark.  As of the 11th. that was about a 12 degree separation that my unit was picking up.  It did start to blend but its very hard to put an exact depth mark on the blend.

With the extreme heat the past week I would think those numbers might have changed a bit.

All the fish I am catching are just full of crawfish about the size of a pencil around and about 3" long.  I mean they are packed with them and the front deck of my boat will prove it.  Not seeing them spitting any shad what so ever.  Seeing a lot of shad on the surface in the big pockets and suspending in the pockets at about that 30' mark, but not seeing any fish on them.

We had over 50 yesterday with the walleye and about 30 solid keeper size fish.  Probably the best quality I've seen in the last 20 yrs.  Only 3 of those fish had hook marks.  We saw maybe 4 other boats fishing.

Thanks for all the great information and good luck out there.

[snagged in outlet 3]

We had a bunch spit up small craws last week and the Ned was killing them. Green/orange

[bobby b.]

6 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

These fish move extremely quickly this time of the year.  If you remember I said we were catching them shallow right on top of the ridge.  When the sun gets to a certain position or for who knows why they move and move quickly.  It's between 7:30 and 8:00 right now.  If your still seeing fish but catching gills, its because they moved.  Also if you are catching bass and all of a sudden your on those big gills, the bass have moved.  At times they will occupy the same water, but for the most part those gills regardless of size won't be hanging in those big schools of K's.  That is why I also said Beck was a master of fish movement, he knew and I really don't know if you can learn this, its more of just a feeling.   Of course having a couple of thousand hours a year on the lake for 30 yrs. helps.   Champ and Bo will tell you the same thing as will every professional elite fisherman.  You have to feel it.  It's either over or its on, and some guys feel it quicker than others.  Beck knew it immediately.

I'm reading a bit larger thermocline due to the extreme heat.  I think Bo mentioned it the other day in a post that his night time fish dropped in depth also.  We can figure the thermocline is probably in that 28' range at the top with a comfort zone to probably 38' as it is a real popular number right now lake wide with all the guides.

I did not react quite quickly enough when those big gills moved in on us yesterday.  On my second stop I chased out the ridge and was going to cut across a pocket to another ridge and spun the boat out over depth and saw them just sitting at that 38' range.  I said to my clients I should have known they pulled out here when those big gills started hitting us.  Me Bad.

If I had not seen them I would have looked on the top of the next ridge where it dumped into the channel.  If they were not there I would have known they had suspended and moved out.  By seeing them it solved that problem and again from what the guide talk is they moved lake wide on all of us at the above mentioned time.

Here is the deal however, they can be in the frigging middle of the lake but still at 38' over 100'+, no problem.  Most times however they will be in the vicinity of those long runs or bluffends and not heck and gone.  However what I'm hearing now is they have moved off the bluffends and most are suspending in the channel off flat gravel lake wide.  Moving up at night or early and late and then during the day moving out.  As I said yesterday they were just packed with little finger size craw daddy's, spitting them up and all over creation.

Good Luck

 

Thanks Bill for the detailed explanation plus the follow up.

Bobby