5/3/20 Dam Area - Great Topwater

[whiteley.matt]

Minus the small break we had to take to ride out the storm, yesterday was a great day on the water. Launched at Moonshine at around 6 and didn't have to go far to find a whole bunch of surfacing shad and active fish.  The pics will show you right where we were.... lol

1st hour or so:
This was the first morning that I had a top water tied on and I am glad I did.  On my second cast it got blew up on 4 times.  The last time being a clean connection on a nice keeper smallie.  For the next hour it was non stop blow ups.  Fish and shad were surfacing all over the entire cove.  I ended up catching 17 on the spook which made for a great start to the day.  As usual, the two biggest blowups I had were missed.  One was probably a 5.5 to 6lb largemouth that flew out of a dock and crushed it.  With the water clarity we got to see her come out and sit under the spook for a second before blowing it up.  We also got to see her make a quick dive and then turn and open her mouth and spit it out like there wasn't a single hook on it.  The other big miss was a very large smallie that flew out of the water multiple times but never connected.  The fish that were caught were spitting up shad all over the place.

Rest of the day:
After the top water extravaganza was over I tried a jerkbait for a bit and managed one good kentucky, but, they were not having it.  Also tried a small kietech and nothing there either.  Went to the Ned and it was on again.  Normally when I fish Ned I don't notice much of a difference in results with different colors of Ned's.  I normally throw a green pumpkin variation.  But, this time, they wanted something with purple in it.  It was crazy the difference it made.  Experimented a couple times just to confirm it.  Another note, we did not have to work the Ned slowly today.  They preferred it hopping and bouncing around a bit more.  Not just the let it sit and soak.  Caught fish the rest of the day doing this.  Most of the fish were around 8-10 ft and were really stacked on secondary points.  Caught them on pea gravel and chunk rock banks.  The breeze didn't seem to matter a whole lot, but, there were a few more fish stacked together on the spots with wind.

Overall just a great day.  Minus the quick storm the temp and overcast skies were perfect.  We ended up with over 50 total fish.  What amazed me was that out of all of the fish we caught I would say that maybe only a dozen or so did not hit the 15" keeper mark.  It was by far the most keepers I have ever caught in a single day.  None were big by any means, 15-17", but were keepers.  It was also a pretty even mix of all three species.  I generally do not catch that many LM around the dam on Ned.

If only these days would happen more often....

[Quillback]

That's great, sure is a lot of fun when they are biting like that!

[Bill Babler]

That is one super report.  Glad you all got on them like that.  Probably the best top action we have heard of so far this year. 

I didn't know any fish lived in Powerline Cove. 😂

Is that boat a 747 XLV Charger?

[whiteley.matt]

1 hour ago, Bill Babler said:

That is one super report.  Glad you all got on them like that.  Probably the best top action we have heard of so far this year. 

I didn't know any fish lived in Powerline Cove. 😂

Is that boat a 747 XLV Charger?

That was my first top water action this year.  Put the spook on with hopes of maybe catching a couple and was pleasantly surprised.

The boat is actually an 85 Ranger 395V.  Its a very close friend of mines boat that he is letting me use while my boat is out of commission.  He picked it up from the factory when it was finished and it has been babied ever since.  Had a new Merc put on it in 2002 I believe.  That and the trolling motor and graphs are about all thats new.  Everything else is factory.  He doesn't use it so I am working on him to pass it on to me...  (The 02 outboard doesn't even have 50 hours on it)

 

[Dock-in-it]

Did you guys catch any whites? They are grouped up on the spawning shad and seem to crowd out the bass. Lots of the whites are in the 1-3ft range in the Kimberling area.

[whiteley.matt]

1 hour ago, Dock-in-it said:

Did you guys catch any whites? They are grouped up on the spawning shad and seem to crowd out the bass. Lots of the whites are in the 1-3ft range in the Kimberling area.

No whites.  We did catch a huge crappie and a small walleye that I forgot to mention.

[Patlock]

Hey you guys were fishing in mine and m&m's home court! There's never any fish in there! Fake news!

[Patlock]

On 5/4/2020 at 1:41 PM, whiteley.matt said:

That was my first top water action this year.  Put the spook on with hopes of maybe catching a couple and was pleasantly surprised.

The boat is actually an 85 Ranger 395V.  Its a very close friend of mines boat that he is letting me use while my boat is out of commission.  He picked it up from the factory when it was finished and it has been babied ever since.  Had a new Merc put on it in 2002 I believe.  That and the trolling motor and graphs are about all thats new.  Everything else is factory.  He doesn't use it so I am working on him to pass it on to me...  (The 02 outboard doesn't even have 50 hours on it)

 

Good looking boat. Stay after it!