Hideaway.... what a day....kentuckies play....1-21-21

[Maverickpro201]

In Texas we have no size limit on them. Before that they were 12''.

I saw 2 guys come to the weigh-in once with their 5 fish all about 8'' down in Texas. Was a very good laugh. 

Actually I saw a guy come to the scales this year at LOZ with 1 skinny barely 12'' spot. A bunch of us could not believeve it. 

[Bill Babler]

Bill Beck and I weighed 6 K's in a 6 fish derby that weighed 21 pounds and change. Glad they were not in the skillet 

Check the results of the derby Alex just fished. Those last 10 teams that didn't weigh in a fish, probably would have been pretty happy to have 5 that weighed 18 pounds. 

Since they have taken the lake completely over they should not be to hard to come up with.  

When I was a kid here in the 70's they were thick. Not so much now, by any sense of the imagination

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

Im saying there is an abundance of small ones under 15" in the lake, im sure those last 10 teams that didnt weigh in caught plenty of short spots.  Im sure a long time ago it was much better but I cant remember the last time i saw a tournament on TR won with all spots.  I think there is just to many small ones for them to grow up.  I remember reading on here years and years ago when everyone was talking about when a spot reaches 15"on TR it close to the end of its life span anyways. 

[DavidB]

I've been a lurker on this forum for years, and have always found it informative.  The discussion about K's is of interest to me.  We spend a week on Table Rock every year, normally in April, and we've been coming since 1982.  I've always enjoyed catching the K's, and have marveled at how healthy they are--footballs!  In our experience, we catch far fewer K's than in the early years, and far more smallmouth.  
 

We've commented about it to one another, and have wondered why we catch fewer K's.  We fish Long Creek, primarily, but go from the Arkansas line to Point 5, at times.  It may be that we've learned to target smallmouth better, but there are no complaints from our crew when a fat K tugs on our line.

[Bill Babler]

Not even near the end of their life cycle at just 7 years old. They grow slow and live long. Former biologist for the Rock told me spotted bass can easily live into their middle teens

I'm one of the poorer fisherman on here and I understand that but I would bet you quite  a few of those teams that blanked did not catch a single fish short or otherwise  I know a couple of guides that fished it that couldn't catch a short. 

I fished 3 days prior to my surgery last week and caught a total of 7 fish. All nice K's. That's 22 hours in the water for 7 bass

Check out Quills reports he fishes a known area for spots and he catches some, but I'd bet the farm he would prefer to catch twice as many  

On a trip last Sumner with clients using live bait we caught 19 spotted bass. We caught them off 4 locations that I had not fish last season prior to fishing them that day. We had 19 with 7 keeper size. 18 of them had hook holes in their mouth and had been released. I'd have been in pretty big poo poo if someone had not taken care of them

I'm not a huge fan of killing fish in an unstocked  Corps of Engineer lake when the pressure continues to be simply unbelievable and water fluctuation during the spawn are the rule. 

In the 70's thru the 90's was not uncommon to not only catch lots of 5# plus quality LM but you would also catch about as many spots as you wanted. Not happening now or my guess is never again

Don't think I would steal eggs from under the hen hoping that the ones you left would turn into double yolkers 

Someone mentioned Texas and their disdain for spotted bass as soon as Missouri starts stocking millions upon millions of bass a year as Texas does i'll climb on board. Until then I'm going to be pretty protective of the ones we have left  

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

Everything i read online says there average lifespan is around six years, which maybe that varies depending on the region. So thats what has me wondering about the 15" length limit.  All the other lakes around have went to 12" and in general i think most people would agree are better bass lakes and less finicky.  Maybe not better but EASIER may be a better word.  

I agree i like catching them, but i dont catch all that many keepers up the James where I typically spend a lot of time.  I can tell you numerous times i would have loved to fill my limit out in a tourney with a 12" spot.  Whenever it is tough out and my little boy wants to catch a fish I can always count on the spots.  I tie on a drop shot and go catch those little buggers

 

Here is a good article from MDC about spots and their length limit and age

https://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/1998/03/spot-check-bass

[Quillback]

Man I love catching spots, granted you need to be fishing light tackle to get the most out of them, but sure do love it when I get one that is 16-17" long.  I weighed a fat 16 inch spot I caught last week and that fish went 2.75 lbs.  This time of year they are at  their best, fat and healthy.

I am a little more concerned about the largemouth population in the upper White.  I am just not catching the number of short LM's that I usually get this time of year, it has me concerned that we might be seeing some weak numbers of keeper LM in the next couple of years.  Some of the coves that reliably held LM's are just deserts - maybe I'm not throwing the right stuff, or maybe they all live out in 90 FOW full time now except to spawn, but I am just not seeing LM's around like I used to.  

I thought all these highwater springs we've had would be good for the spawn, seems we ought to have swarms of bass based on that.  

[Steve McBasser]

Great discussion guys. Thanks for the input. We catch our fair share of Kentuckies in the areas I generally fish which is from Wolfpen Hollow almost all the way to Roaring River. The Shell Knob area and Baxter both have excellent numbers of Kentuckies. Like I said in my original post, they save the day for me quite regularly. I was thrilled to see them so plentiful so far up James River as well. I catch tons of kentuckies. And yes.... most are short. But I like lots of bites. I don't have to bag 2 and 3 pounders to have fun. If I was still fishing tournaments it would be different. It may be because I am stuck on this blasted Ned rig TRD and can't make my self lay it down. It really does catch an abundance of short fish but occasionally catches a beast too. I can catch 10" to 14" kentuckies all day long and NEVER get tired of it. Besides, they keep you entertained between the keepers and they come pretty regularly too. Can't wait to get back after them.

 

[Champ188]

On 1/24/2021 at 8:35 AM, Bill Babler said:

Great report. Wish I could have been with y'all. 

On another note you take the K's out of here or mess with that 15" mark and this pond with the pressure it gets would, go to H-E double C-K IN A New York minute. 

With this being a no stocked lake, these free roaming shad chasers have more than carried us thru thick and really thin. I just love them, be they for clients or ripping the paint off a Red fin. We are totally blessed to have them

Couldn't agree more. Love those spotted fatties. Except when they swim around Babler's boat in 125 feet of water all day long. 

I can't see that spots are pushing out the largemouth. They are opportunistic feeders who will target shad, crawfish or anything else that swims by and looks like they could swallow. But we sure don't seem to have a shad population problem. I think the largemouth are suffering from the lake's old age and natural loss of shallow cover. They don't seem to be as nomadic and adaptive as the spots. 

Also have to agree with the Texas stocking deal ... if and when MDC starts supplementally stocking our lake with bass, I can see eating a few spots, along with the occasional walleye. But as it stands now, we need to take care of every fish out there. The more that are swimming around, the more babies they make and the more fish we have for everyone. 

[Quillback]

Speaking of stocking, I've seen where Tennessee is stocking FL/Northern bass hybrids.  I don't think they are doing it to increase LM populations, but are doing it to produce bigger bass on average.  Table Rock is too far north to support pure FL strain bass, but it seems it would be worth looking into stocking these hybrids, seems that if it works in the TN highland reservoirs it should work here.