Table Rock Lake Shell Knob 12-11-18

[Bill Babler]

Man, what a beautiful morning and just no one to be seen.  It had been  since Thanksgiving that I had been on the Rock and wanted to see what was happening at the Knob. 

Launched at 0700 to Ice Fog and 28 degree air temps.

Its been quite a while for me since seeing the SK Bridge parking lot empty but I liked it.

Sun was just coming up as I pulled under the bridge headed down stream.  I fished 5 locations and caught at least one on all 5 but for the life of me I could not find any decent fish what so ever.

Had close to 40 bass with perhaps a dozen to 15 keeps and they all were young.  Had the slam but again the quality was just not there for me this morning.

Most everything  I caught deep was either on the Ice Jig or the  C-tail on a 3/8th. head fishing up and down.  Could not keep the camera lens from fogging so most pics are a blur.

Surface temps were at 49 when I started and just over 50 by 2 PM.

You can see several fish up and scattered all over the water column.  I caught 2 busting shad on the surface and saw several what looked to be nice brown fish coming out of the water chasing them.

I did catch 2 on an A-rig when the wind started to blow.  Had several blow up around me while fishing deep, they seemed to be scattered thru the water column from 20' to 70', and that 20 was over deep water.

Ice Minnow was by far the beat deal but for cripes sakes when fishing or messing with it be CAREFUL.....   That bait not only wants to catch fish but it wants more to catch you.  It is as deadly a bait at hooking the fishermen as I have ever fished and is needle sharp.

L

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[Bill Babler]

Quick addition from reading Bobby's post on the bite.  Usually you can see fish at times when fishing deep follow or chase the spoon up or down.  This did not happen yesterday, you pretty much had to fish the bait extremely still.  I tried and tried jerking the spoon or quivering it, to get them worming, but the  only worming was when you had one hooked and the others would follow it almost to the surface.  They wanted the bait extremely still.

The bite was more of a whisper than a thump and at times even on a tight line with the bait suspended it would seem as it was resting on the bottom, and that was the bite.  I could see the fish move in line with the bait and then the line was just a bit slack and that was the bite. 

Also like Bob said, I lost several fish on the journey to the boat, they just came unbuttoned, mostly on the jig/grub combo.   They don't come off that Ice Jig, if they get near it.

The C-tail grub is an excellent deep fishing tool when the bite is this lite.  The C-tail continues to swim when it is in a sitting vertical position and really gets their interest.

Good Luck

[Longball22]

Bill, are swapping out trebles on the ice jig, or leaving everything stock?

[Bill Babler]

Stock, that is one bait I leave alone.  That little center treble is sharp as a death trap.