Kim City - Jan 13 - Deep bite vertical & horizontal presentations

[Dock-in-it]

I fished this morning and the deep bite is still going Ok. Lately I focus more on resident fish versus looking for the right shad scenaro. The cold, wind, and fog conditions limits my search options and travel distance. This morning I was able to catch them vertical on an ice jig and hortizonal on a 4" yamamoto grub. The vertical fish were very stubborn and it was much easier to get them to hit the swimming grub. The graph shows the vertical fish and the fish pictures were caught on the grub. I wish I would have committed to the grub but when the vertical fish appear on your graph it is hard to ignore them. A regular swimbait would work but I just stuck with the grub. I was fortunate to have several loons working the area and most of them focused on water less than 30ft. 

[IL Fisherman]

Nice looking fish.   Fat and happy eating all those shad.

[Steve McBasser]

nice.....

[Bill Babler]

Boy those are nice.  Thanks and a great report as usual.  About 10 days ago those deep ones in this area got really gun shy on any type of a vertical presentation.  They would either nip at it, bump it or just flat run from it kind of like Summer time drop shot fish.  They got a dose of being hammered from above everyday.  Swimming that grub or small swim bait deep is working way better down here.  The trick is long mega cast, throw that thing as far as you can, pick up the slack on it and let it drop on a simi-tight string.  I'm counting at least 40 so that is putting it down.  

Also at times when it gets like this you can try a drop shot with a Glup Alive Gobe.  It is a complete mess to jack with that stuff but it will catch fish.  Mike Webb caught the snot out of very spooky fish with it a few years ago and both Beck and I did too.  I am pretty sure Mike told Bill about it and that's what got me on it.  If you use it put a towel down so you don't get that juice on your carpet.  It is green and somewhat slimy and will stain.  In the Summer when you can take it by the car wash its not a problem, but now it is a total mess.  It does catch fish however.

 Must be something going on at Big Cedar this morning cause there are boats running pretty hard down here.  I have seen at least a dozen folks out fighting the cool and fog.

 Lake has stabilized at 919.9 as it has been there for a couple of days now.  I know this is not what the Corp. wanted as they had gotten everything in pretty good shape.  I guess they are calling for more this weekend, so get out there and catch some this week.

Prior to the last rain a couple of shout outs to the guys keeping the launch ramp docks in great shape.  They will be really busy now.

Good Luck

[Guest]

4

[Bill Babler]

I've got some and like them too, especially the Smelt.

[Fish24/7]

Good ones Dock!

 

[Dock-in-it]

I like the bait recommendations and they are a good excuse to order more stuff. I fished Mon, Tue, and Wed. On Monday the fished preferred the swimming grub/swimbait over the ice jig. On Tuesday the fish preferred the 4" grub worked vertical and the ice jig and swimming the grub did not get much attention. On Wednesday the fish were starving and everything worked because the shad were plentiful. The loons around me would kill 2.5" shad, but when I caught a fish they had 1" shad in their mouth. So the deep bite is working but you have to figure out the preferred presentation each day. Attached are a few graph pics showing the different depths the fish were using today. Also, there were plenty of shad & fish in the 15-30ft range (I caught a few but they were short), perhaps some shad are shallow due to the current flow or the fish just pushed them shallow.

[Bill Babler]

Phil Stone with a nice 5 lb. Table Rock LM caught on an A-rig

Had a great day at Kimberling City this morning.  Launched at Mill at 7 am and started catching them.  Most were suspended for me in that 30' to 40' range over shad and trees.

Dock is finding them shallower, and maybe I need to look a little shallower, but there are plenty where I am looking.  Phil and Eric caught about 20 yesterday with a combination of the A-rig, Ice Jig and drop shot with a shad shape worm.  I had 2 bites on the Ice Jig and lost them both this morning.  I had the best results,swimming something or fish a drop shot.

Phil Stone and Eric Prey were on them yesterday and Phil clued me in.  The fish pictured above was chasing shad on the surface as were quite a few others.  They were also chasing this morning and I caught them about as good as possible for me on the 2.8 Keitech with a 1/4 oz head.

I also caught about 1/2 a dozen on the Gulp Alive minnow pictured below

There were quite a few shad floating and really the best deal if you wanted to do it was just scoop one up, put it on a drop shot and lower it down.  Immediate fish.