Sat May 11-Sat May 18

[arsenal1477]

Much apologies for the delay in this report as getting back to the grind at work has me consumed. Of my 34 years coming down to Table Rock Lake only one word comes to mind: WOW. It has been a very long time since I have seen the lake fish like this. Here is a quick snapshot of our trip by the numbers, per day:

Sat May 11- On water by 630pm, off the water by 10pm. 15 caught, 3 keepers.

Sun May 12-On water by 930am, off water by 430pm, back on the water by 630pm, off the water by 12am. 50+ fish caught, 13 keepers.

Mon May 13-On the water by 10 am, off water by 430pm, back on the water by 7pm, off the water by 1am. 50+ fish caught, 20 keepers. 

Tues May 14th-On water by 3:30pm, off water by 1am. 40+ fish caught, 10 keepers

Wed May 15th-On water by 3:30pm, off water by 1am. 30+fish caught, 8 keepers.

Thurs May 16th- On water by 4:00 pm, off water by 12am, 30+ fish caught, 6 keepers.

Friday May 17th- On water by 6pm, off water by 2am. 40+ fish caught, 8 keepers.

Saturday May 18th- On water by 10am, of water by 12pm. 20+ fish caught, 2 keepers. 

That is correct, we finished our 7 day trip with exactly 70 keepers and easily 250+ fish caught, with a 20LB flathead as our "kicker". Of these fish I would say only a handful were at the 15" mark, most were over 16". Besides the catfish, largest Smallie was 4.5lbs, Largemouth at 5.5lbs and Spot at 3lbs. You already know what the were caught on: Keitech 2.8-3.3(bumping the bottom), smoke grub, NED, white fluke thrown into the bushes and at night we were throwing salt craws and the tried and true black colorado blade 3/8th. 80% of these fish were caught in the White as the clarity the first half of the week was an easy 10'-12'. The other 20% were caught up the James as the water started to turn green(almost too green-Algae boom). Of the 70 keepers, 5-8 were female and 2 were spawned out. Simply incredible. If you have a beginner or a little one you want to get hooked into fishing, this is the perfect time. Below are some pictures. Tight lines all, enjoy this time on Table Rock.

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[m&m]

Great pictures. Congratulations 

Mike

[Quillback]

For sure, some great fish!

[wily]

I’m surprised you guys fished the night shift instead of the morning shift...I usually don’t start fishing late til after it warms up more

Looks like you caught some good ones after dark tho...good job

 

[Johnsfolly]

Great fishing guys! Definitely some nice looking bass. I really like that flathead. Congrats!

[arsenal1477]

Thanks all. Yeah, we will always do night fishing this time of the year because you never truly know what stage of the spawn you may wind up with on any given night. We have night fished in early April in past years witnessing first hand the first wave of spawners moving up. Those nights get magical, quick. I’m talking 9 keepers in 10 casts kind of ordeal. Plus, we just love the peacefulness of it all. It is always on our agenda. There was a significant uptick though later in the week of quality bass being caught, especially at night. Points seemed to work best for us. One item of note-for those concerned about the quality of bass, you know, the “biguns”, on one instance in an unspecified cove up the white, where you could see down 10’, my dad and I personally witnessed seeing bass that were in the 8lb+ category just swimming around. This was not a one off, but multiple times. We even had a bass we estimated to be 24”-26” long come clear out of the water with what looked to be a turtle in its mouth. My guess is that bass was pushing every bit of 10lbs. Never in my life have I seen the quality that we did this week. Amazing.