Shell Knob Deep Sea Fishing. 12-3-21

[Bill Babler]

White River Outfitters Guide Service. 

Got on the water at the Knob at 6:15 to a fantastic morning, just glorious. 

Air temp at launch 58 degree. Surface temp main lake White River 58 degree. Creek arms and pockets 54 to 57 degree. 

Started looking in the creek arms and started looking at about 70'. Really got an education watching the bait this morning.   When I launched the bait was all over the ramp and service dock. Millions of shad. In the creek mouths the bait was right on the surface, with some chasing.   Just like Doc said. 

Minute by minute as the day brightened the shad kept getting deeper and deeper.  By 11 AM they were down to the 60' mark. 

Now for the fish catching. Been so long I just about forgot how.  Caught 6 LM early swimming the Keitech thru the shad from surface to about 30'. 2 nice keeps and 1 more skinny borderline. 

I will tell you just like Doc said, these fish want plastic. Never caught a fish on hardware, Ice Jig and Spoon. 

Best bait for me was a 3" Yamamoto C-tail on a 3/8 head and a drop shot with a shad shape worm vertical. 

Bluegill nearly ate me alive at any depth till I got on to the buggers.  When I was swimming the Keitech early the kept biting off the tails. 

All those are Gills. 

Lots of whites around the mouth of the Kings, probably had at least a dozen. 

Ended the day with a dozen K's most all like the one in the picture 15" to 16.5", the whites and the 6 LM. 

 

Lake and ramp absolutely packed. Really good morning with a lot of action. I will again reiterate what Bobby and Doc have said, If you see 2-3 or more you can catch them, but a single is not having it. 

Had 4 out of this group all K's. Only location I caught over 3 except for the whites. Majority of my fish came 46' to 62' with 55' being the best number.   Don't you just love seeing them worm up and do that silly stuff?

Good Luck

[bobby b.]

41 minutes ago, Bill Babler said:

All those are Gills. 

Bill, Excellent report - Thanks 

Questions regarding "All those are Gills" - Do you think some (even maybe one) could have been a bass?  Are you able to tell the different in the graph and if so how - Live Scope, Down Image or 2D.

Comment - yesterday morning I found that although the graph showed fish, after I caught one I could not get a second to bite at that location so I learned to just move to another spot.  - of course this is the dam area.

Bobby

[Bill Babler]

Nope they were all bluegill not a size identification as much as a school or cluster ID. 

Saw it so many times this morning and they are not small, they are palm size fish. Snagged 2 on a white spoon and caught one in the mouth. Identical graph picture.    I don't think the bass are in those schools of large gills. 

In all my years of fishing deep here I saw more gill schools this morning than in my entire previous 40 some odd years. Lake is totally full of them. 

I also snagged 3 shad and should have taken photos. All 3 totally different in size. From dime size to 4 inches. 

And yes, to your other point. I made 10 stops  in 4 and a half hours. Bass seem terribly spooky, and why shouldn't they, they're under siege 365, it's relentless. 

I'm pretty sure I had 14/15 keepers out of the18 bass I caught. Don't know if that's worry some or not. No weight however. Maybe 11/12 pounds at the high end. 

 

[seabass03]

Nice report.. I agree, bluegill are everywhere...not a bad thing I guess

[dan hufferd]

17 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

White River Outfitters Guide Service. 

Got on the water at the Knob at 6:15 to a fantastic morning, just glorious. 

Air temp at launch 58 degree. Surface temp main lake White River 58 degree. Creek arms and pockets 54 to 57 degree. 

Started looking in the creek arms and started looking at about 70'. Really got an education watching the bait this morning.   When I launched the bait was all over the ramp and service dock. Millions of shad. In the creek mouths the bait was right on the surface, with some chasing.   Just like Doc said. 

Minute by minute as the day brightened the shad kept getting deeper and deeper.  By 11 AM they were down to the 60' mark. 

Now for the fish catching. Been so long I just about forgot how.  Caught 6 LM early swimming the Keitech thru the shad from surface to about 30'. 2 nice keeps and 1 more skinny borderline. 

I will tell you just like Doc said, these fish want plastic. Never caught a fish on hardware, Ice Jig and Spoon. 

Best bait for me was a 3" Yamamoto C-tail on a 3/8 head and a drop shot with a shad shape worm vertical. 

Bluegill nearly ate me alive at any depth till I got on to the buggers.  When I was swimming the Keitech early the kept biting off the tails. 

All those are Gills. 

Lots of whites around the mouth of the Kings, probably had at least a dozen. 

Ended the day with a dozen K's most all like the one in the picture 15" to 16.5", the whites and the 6 LM. 

 

Lake and ramp absolutely packed. Really good morning with a lot of action. I will again reiterate what Bobby and Doc have said, If you see 2-3 or more you can catch them, but a single is not having it. 

Had 4 out of this group all K's. Only location I caught over 3 except for the whites. Majority of my fish came 46' to 62' with 55' being the best number.   Don't you just love seeing them worm up and do that silly stuff?

Good Luck

I love that kind of bite, I would like to fill the cooler with some of those fat tablerock bluegill !

[Bill Babler]

You could go out there NIW with worms or maybe better, some small crappie minnows and fill the boat. 

Good thing I have a nice deal with Keitech as they drove us crazy again today, tail after tail. 

[Champ188]

16 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

You could go out there NIW with worms or maybe better, some small crappie minnows and fill the boat. 

Good thing I have a nice deal with Keitech as they drove us crazy again today, tail after tail. 

I have a deal with Keitech, too ... I pay and they smile. 😁

[Bill Babler]

Most baits I like to give a little extra so I feel like I'm doing my part. 😂😂😂

[Bill Babler]

Guided the same area I fished Friday yesterday. Totally different bite with the wind and cloud cover. 

Took me about 3 hours of a four hour trip to figure if out but landed on a nice set of LM and K's. Had about 15 with with a couple of good LM. Broke off a big one on a drop shot that was pulling hard. I'm thinking now it may have been a walleye. Really strong fish and I never or very, very seldom have a line part. 

48 to 52 feet for us and not stacked but scattered.  Just singles on a big hump. Huge balls of shad were off the sides in 60' to 85' but no fish around them. All the fish were scattered on the top of the hump. 

I have my electronics dialed pretty well in  and my  2D sonar screen looked like a fescue pasture,  the live scope picked them up better but they were absolutely stuck to the bottom. Normally I don't spend anytime if I can't see them. That would have been a huge mistake. 

For you Garmin usesers, have you noticed this?  Perhaps better bottom detail on the live scope than the 2D?

Good Luck

[bobby b.]

5 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

better bottom detail on the live scope than the 2D

Sometimes Yes - I can definitely count the number of fish better on the Live Scope but sometimes I can tell fish hugging the bottom versus something lifeless in part because the image comes and goes as the fish moves