Dam Area and Kings 9-20 to 9-22

[David Goddard]

Finally made it back down to Table Rock for the first time since May. Water temp was 80-84 in both areas of the lake that I fished. Caught some fish but the bite definitely is not great yet; at least not in the weather conditions that I got to fish.

Friday Justin and I fished the lower end and had a good half-day. We started fishing at 3 and fished until dark catching 13 lbs for our biggest 5. Justin caught a 4 lb largemouth on a jig and I caught a 3 lb smallie on a single swimbait. Nice cloud cover but kind of windy. Saw multiple single busts but not what I would call schooling activity in these low light conditions. Largemouth was about 30 foot deep and smallie was in about 5 foot of water. I also caught a huge rock bass on a jig, kind of a neat fish. Jig and single swimbait were the best baits today.

Saturday we put in at Viola in hope of having an amazing numbers day. There was a boat on every point from Viola to well past the mouth of the White. Significant schooling activity on the points for about an hour in the morning but all we found, caught, or saw being caught were small spots. Started fishing channel swing banks with a jig and I caught a 2.5 lb largemouth and Justin caught a very skinny 17 inch 2 lb smallmouth. We tried multiple different patterns up the Kings and in the White and just couldn't find them. Could catch one or 2 here and there, primarily on a jig, but never found em' biting good. We were almost completely unable to fish deep points because of the wind and the insane amount of boat traffic. It was worse than LOZ in my opinion. Wake boat driving between you and the point you were fishing, pontoons driving within 15 yards of us, just not for me. I hope it snows next week so all those folks head in for the year. We had like 9 keeps on the day and probably 30 fish but that's if you count those 6 inch spots and I'm not sure they count as fish.

Sunday fished the dam area again with almost no success. Caught one keeper all day got absolutely throttled by the insane winds that we had and only caught 10 bass all day. Many very small. All in all a fun trip. Can't wait to get back down there. 

[Quillback]

Cool, you guys got some nice bass.  Surprised to hear of all the rec traffic this time of year, but maybe it is due to the heat.  

Haven't been over to the Rock in a while, but should be soon.

[Bill Babler]

Thanks Dave, always a great report and lots of information.  I guided and fished out of Shell Knob two days last week and the boating and fishing traffic during the week, was really unreal. 

They were wake boarding at daylight during the middle of the week. 

Was fishing a bank up the Kings throwing the bank with a WP.  Not usually that close to shore, but had some intel.  Saw a big deep V bottom boat approaching down the bank trolling and just assumed he would troll around me as he was moving fast.  Nope, he trolled between me and the bank I was fishing.  I threw up my arms and he yelled over that I did not own the lake.  I mean this guy is trolling 4 rods which I think is not legal but the funny part is they all went down at once right in front of me.  I'm sitting in about 10' throwing shallower and he drives between me and the bank.  All four rods were hung on the bottom at once or a log.  2 lines snapped before he could get stopped and the other two I could hear just spooling the drag.

I lifted up my trolling motor laughing and slapping my leg as he tried to get stopped and unhinged.

All locations up there are just getting hammered.  None of us know something that the other doesn't so locations are getting hit multiple times on a daily basis.  For one thing that is the reason for small numbers per location.

I was rained out this morning but easily counted between 40 and 50 bass boats in front of the lodge.  I think some kind of a mid-week derby, but for sure just unreal amounts of fishing pressure on this pond right now.  I really cannot remember this much after Labor Day in September.  Usually starts a bit later but it has not lessened a bit here all year.

[David Goddard]

16 minutes ago, Bill Babler said:

Thanks Dave, always a great report and lots of information.  I guided and fished out of Shell Knob two days last week and the boating and fishing traffic during the week, was really unreal. 

They were wake boarding at daylight during the middle of the week. 

Was fishing a bank up the Kings throwing the bank with a WP.  Not usually that close to shore, but had some intel.  Saw a big deep V bottom boat approaching down the bank trolling and just assumed he would troll around me as he was moving fast.  Nope, he trolled between me and the bank I was fishing.  I threw up my arms and he yelled over that I did not own the lake.  I mean this guy is trolling 4 rods which I think is not legal but the funny part is they all went down at once right in front of me.  I'm sitting in about 10' throwing shallower and he drives between me and the bank.  All four rods were hung on the bottom at once or a log.  2 lines snapped before he could get stopped and the other two I could hear just spooling the drag.

I lifted up my trolling motor laughing and slapping my leg as he tried to get stopped and unhinged.

All locations up there are just getting hammered.  None of us know something that the other doesn't so locations are getting hit multiple times on a daily basis.  For one thing that is the reason for small numbers per location.

I was rained out this morning but easily counted between 40 and 50 bass boats in front of the lodge.  I think some kind of a mid-week derby, but for sure just unreal amounts of fishing pressure on this pond right now.  I really cannot remember this much after Labor Day in September.  Usually starts a bit later but it has not lessened a bit here all year.

Yeah I don't know where these people learned their manners but I can tell ya that they must've been brought up different than me. Any how I know the lake has got a ton of pressure this year because of the MLF events there. I was hoping up the river it would be less hammered on but oh well. I like the lower end/KC area the best anyways. Table Rock is still my favorite lake in the U.S. I'll be back as soon as I can.

[magicwormman]

On 9/24/2019 at 1:02 PM, Bill Babler said:

Thanks Dave, always a great report and lots of information.  I guided and fished out of Shell Knob two days last week and the boating and fishing traffic during the week, was really unreal. 

They were wake boarding at daylight during the middle of the week. 

Was fishing a bank up the Kings throwing the bank with a WP.  Not usually that close to shore, but had some intel.  Saw a big deep V bottom boat approaching down the bank trolling and just assumed he would troll around me as he was moving fast.  Nope, he trolled between me and the bank I was fishing.  I threw up my arms and he yelled over that I did not own the lake.  I mean this guy is trolling 4 rods which I think is not legal but the funny part is they all went down at once right in front of me.  I'm sitting in about 10' throwing shallower and he drives between me and the bank.  All four rods were hung on the bottom at once or a log.  2 lines snapped before he could get stopped and the other two I could hear just spooling the drag.

I lifted up my trolling motor laughing and slapping my leg as he tried to get stopped and unhinged.

All locations up there are just getting hammered.  None of us know something that the other doesn't so locations are getting hit multiple times on a daily basis.  For one thing that is the reason for small numbers per location.

I was rained out this morning but easily counted between 40 and 50 bass boats in front of the lodge.  I think some kind of a mid-week derby, but for sure just unreal amounts of fishing pressure on this pond right now.  I really cannot remember this much after Labor Day in September.  Usually starts a bit later but it has not lessened a bit here all year.

I think there is a big derby out of the State Park this coming weekend. That might account for some of the traffic with guys practicing.

[Guest]

On 9/24/2019 at 1:02 PM, Bill Babler said:

Thanks Dave, always a great report and lots of information.  I guided and fished out of Shell Knob two days last week and the boating and fishing traffic during the week, was really unreal. 

They were wake boarding at daylight during the middle of the week. 

Was fishing a bank up the Kings throwing the bank with a WP.  Not usually that close to shore, but had some intel.  Saw a big deep V bottom boat approaching down the bank trolling and just assumed he would troll around me as he was moving fast.  Nope, he trolled between me and the bank I was fishing.  I threw up my arms and he yelled over that I did not own the lake.  I mean this guy is trolling 4 rods which I think is not legal but the funny part is they all went down at once right in front of me.  I'm sitting in about 10' throwing shallower and he drives between me and the bank.  All four rods were hung on the bottom at once or a log.  2 lines snapped before he could get stopped and the other two I could hear just spooling the drag.

I lifted up my trolling motor laughing and slapping my leg as he tried to get stopped and unhinged.

All locations up there are just getting hammered.  None of us know something that the other doesn't so locations are getting hit multiple times on a daily basis.  For one thing that is the reason for small numbers per location.

I was rained out this morning but easily counted between 40 and 50 bass boats in front of the lodge.  I think some kind of a mid-week derby, but for sure just unreal amounts of fishing pressure on this pond right now.  I really cannot remember this much after Labor Day in September.  Usually starts a bit later but it has not lessened a bit here all year.

now you know why i am still fishing at night.

bo

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

Im convinced that the least utilized area, fisherman or pleasure boaters has to be between Hideaway Marina and Piney Creek. I made may way from Cape Fair to Kimberling a lot of times this year and that little section always seems lonely

[Larry Eby]

8 hours ago, aarchdale@coresleep.com said:

Im convinced that the least utilized area, fisherman or pleasure boaters has to be between Hideaway Marina and Piney Creek. I made may way from Cape Fair to Kimberling a lot of times this year and that little section always seems lonely

Shhhhhh. Enough of that talk.

[David Goddard]

11 hours ago, aarchdale@coresleep.com said:

Im convinced that the least utilized area, fisherman or pleasure boaters has to be between Hideaway Marina and Piney Creek. I made may way from Cape Fair to Kimberling a lot of times this year and that little section always seems lonely

Thanks for the tip! The james is the only arm of the lake that I haven't fished. I'm dying to give it a try!