Big M area 10/23

[Quillback]

Not a lot to report - I caught 8 bass, spots, one smallmouth and a couple of meanmouth.  Had one spot that might have been a keeper, the rest were 12-14" fish.  1/2 oz jig, and a tube internally weighted with a 1/8 oz weight on steep banks caught my fish.  

Nice day, WT was 66-67.

[Bill Babler]

Tks Quill, I'm out of the dam area tomorrow and will report.  I have been hearing the dreaded talk about the Umbrella coming into play with the fish up and all over the water column, but won't use it tomorrow.  Rumor has it that the top 2 places in the Joe Bass event this past weekend were throwing it.  I know second place was for sure.

[rps]

1 hour ago, Bill Babler said:

Tks Quill, I'm out of the dam area tomorrow and will report.  I have been hearing the dreaded talk about the Umbrella coming into play with the fish up and all over the water column, but won't use it tomorrow.  Rumor has it that the top 2 places in the Joe Bass event this past weekend were throwing it.  I know second place was for sure.

I have yet to fish one. Fishing should be fun - not labor.

[Quillback]

8 hours ago, rps said:

I have yet to fish one. Fishing should be fun - not labor.

Pretty much sums up the reason I do not use it.  But I can see why tournament anglers throw it, hard to compete against it.

[fshndoug]

They are not that bad to throw.Let it sink to the depth you want and start reeling ,pause it start reeling again.You can just kinda lob it out..Sometimes the fish will try to take the rod out of your hand.Try it you might like it.

[Sore Thumbs]

I throw the flash mob jr. It’s light weight and I put the small kietechs on it. It works pretty well. 

[Sore Thumbs]

15 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

Tks Quill, I'm out of the dam area tomorrow and will report.  I have been hearing the dreaded talk about the Umbrella coming into play with the fish up and all over the water column, but won't use it tomorrow.  Rumor has it that the top 2 places in the Joe Bass event this past weekend were throwing it.  I know second place was for sure.

Are they skipping fall pattern or not quite into it? 

[Quillback]

1 hour ago, fshndoug said:

They are not that bad to throw.Let it sink to the depth you want and start reeling ,pause it start reeling again.You can just kinda lob it out..Sometimes the fish will try to take the rod out of your hand.Try it you might like it.

I have tried it, just not for me.  And I acknowledge their effectiveness, I have netted a few of my buddies bigguns they caught on the contraption.  

[abkeenan]

2 hours ago, Quillback said:

I have tried it, just not for me.  And I acknowledge their effectiveness, I have netted a few of my buddies bigguns they caught on the contraption.  

Kinda in the same boat. I have used them before and still do occasionally but I prefer throwing a jerkbait or crank during prime "A-Rig Season". Brother from that back of the boat likes to throw his more than I do and does okay with it. That said, the A-Rig has kind of replaced the "scrubbing a grub" or slow rolling a spinnerbait for deeper applications. Might as well up the odds and dredge the depth with the swimbait chandelier.

[Bill Babler]

Probably in 30 yrs. this was my toughest morning on the Rock.  Started at Old 86 with 2 very mature fishermen, a husband and wife team that were basically zebco 33 type folks and just could not get anything to work.  I mean nothing including live bait.  Other guides telling me the live bait deal is just terrible with small gills stealing your bait at any water depth.  It's true.  used 3 dozen crawlers and never had a bass bite on them.  They caught gills from 15' to the deepest gill coming on the bottom at close to 70'  All were just small bait stealers and were thru the entire water column, top to bottom.

Guys here are catching a few on a Hard head and a hula grub along with swimming a Keitech or swimming a small 3/8 jig and small trailer, and a Rock Crawler but that would have been above our pay grade this morning.

Right now this lake is just flat Brutal and that's from daylight till 8 AM.  It gets hard later in the day.

Good Luck