Some tax day fishing

[Quillback]

My first day on Table Rock since March 11, high water and the Big M dock being sideways kept me on Beaver and the Bella Vista lakes.  

Launched at Big M and coming out of the cove saw some scattered top water activity in the deep water so made a few casts with a 3.3 Keitech, caught a 13" spot and missed one.  Didn't tear them up in the location, but was good to see a few chasing shad.

Motored a few miles down the lake, started fishing a rocky point, saw some activity back in the cove, a smaller cove, one where you could reach both banks if you were in the middle.  Bass were off the deep end of a dock and along a steep bank that led back into the cove, feeding on 3" shad.  Stayed back there for maybe a couple of hours and caught 20 or so there on the 3.3 Keitech, they were all over the water column, some on top, some near the bottom in 35 FOW and some in between.  If I could get a cast to one that was on top, they'd hit it almost every time.  The others were caught slow rolling the Keitech with periodic drops, lots of bites on the drop.  Mix of largemouth and spots, some of them being keepers up to 17".

Once that bite died down the wind really started blasting, fished a few locations with just one here and there on the Keitech.  Caught one fish on the Ned rig, but it was too windy for me to fish it, I just hate fishing it in a strong wind.

Found another group of fish in the very back of a small cove chasing shad over shallow water, had the boat in 10 FOW casting to the bank.  Caught 8 or 9 in the back of that cove, again a mix of LM's and spots, but did catch my first smallie of the day that went 15".  All on the Keitech.

My last location to fish was a gravel point that had the wind blowing from the shallow part of the point straight out, so I put my boat up close to the point and threw that Keitech out and let it ride the wind.  Then I'd let it sink and roll it back with some drops.  That gave me my big fish of the day, an 18" smallie.  Had one more bite there and it was time to head for the barn.

34 bass total for the day, didn't keep track of the keepers, I know I had a half dozen keeper LM's, a couple of keeper smalls, and a bunch of spots that were in that 14-15" range.

I only saw three other boats today.  WT 56

Little bass, big shad:

My 2 best:

 

[Bill Babler]

Excellent. They were starving today

[Nitro 750]

Great report!!!  Nice smallie!!!

[m&m]

Quill, nice pictures. Good day using the keitech.

Mike

[Quillback]

Went back again today, shad chasers were out again early in the back of the same two coves as they were in yesterday.  Still eating the 3.3 Keitech on a 1/4 oz head.  Later on found some Ned eaters that were almost all spots on the bank usually on the drop off on the rock ledges you could see close to the bank, maybe 5 -10 FOW.

Caught 40+ bass, but mostly sub-legals, maybe 7 or 8 keepers in the bunch.

[Johnsfolly]

@Quillback definitely a couple of great bass catching trips buddy! Congrats!