All Heck Broke Loose.

[Bill Babler]

Today, probably as good as Table Rock can get.   Started at 6:50 to 58 degree surface temps with fish busting off the long points. 

Looked all over and not a single bed yet. Surface temp at 3 pm when we quit was 63 degree 
Fished from SK to Emerald Point and not really much traffic. Only ones were folks that should know better that pulled in front of me and threw the trolling motor in. 

Guy in a Bass Tracker pulled in front of me less than 50 yards. I went around him and he just threw a total fit.  ?????????  Unreal. 

Fish were not up early other than the chasers and I had to work for about 3 hours. At 10:30 the water hit 60 degree and it was crazy stupid.

 I got on one location and it was literally shooting targets with the Garmin Livescope, at least 2 dozen staging at 20’ over 35’ 

Picked up Becky at noon, she brought lunch. Should have left her on the dock as she put a Bigtime Whipping on me with the little Keitech. 

Haul today was 1 short walleye a 1/2 dozen whites, 3 crappie and I’m guessing 60 plus bass with perhaps 15/20 fifteen inchers.  

Becky had a great time and that matters most.  We’re Retired. 😜😜😜😜

Good Luck


 

[m&m]

Bill, awesome for sure. Anytime you can fish with your best friend, have lunch on the water is a very good day.  Catching fish is the icing on that day. 
Mike

[Hawg]

Great day. Thanks for the pics.

[Quillback]

Ya'll did a lot better than I did.  I made the mistake of going early and going the wrong way out of Big M.  

I did catch a few crappie which was one of my objectives, one thing about catching crappie on the Keitech is that you don't need to worry about measuring them, they tend to be solid fish.

Weighed a white that went 2.75.

The bank across from Emerald Beach and upstream a bit has the biggest concentration of gar that I think I have ever seen.  There's a bit of a mudline there, murky green water, then it clears up about 40 feet from the bank.  Gar everywhere.  Saw several that were at least 4 feet long.  Had a couple whack the Keitech, but could not keep them pinned.

Going up to Cape Fair today with Dutch, never fished up there before, looking forward to it!

[DavidB]

This forum is such a great resource.  Can you talk a bit about the versatility of the Keitech?  Size of jig head?  Hugging bottom or steady retrieve for suspended fish?  It's not a method that we use very much on Toledo Bend or Sam Rayburn, but I would like to give it a try if it's likely to be productive the last week of April.

 

[bobby b.]

Had a good day yesterday (not as good as Bill's) out of Big M but good for sure especially as it was my first time in that area.  Found fish in 15 - 30 fow dragging SB or using the Ned on gravel points and some pockets and bluff ends.  All LM or Spots, no SM.  Caught nothing on the ban k but tried.

Bobby

[Bill Babler]

5 hours ago, DavidB said:

This forum is such a great resource.  Can you talk a bit about the versatility of the Keitech?  Size of jig head?  Hugging bottom or steady retrieve for suspended fish?  It's not a method that we use very much on Toledo Bend or Sam Rayburn, but I would like to give it a try if it's likely to be productive the last week of April.

 

Dave, for me the FFS has really improved my swimbait bite or for the old school, and there are many the C-tail grub bite. 

Folks were catching them here swimming that grub in the 80’s. 

I mostly use a 1/4 oz. head but at times will swim a 3/16. I prefer the quarter.  I like my Swimbaits to be 2.5” to close to 4”. 

2.8 to 3.2 you can’t go wrong. 
 

Your electronics will pretty much show you where to fish it in the water column. Bite on the swimmer is best when you can see them. You can however cover water like a morning fog with the little rascal so it is a good search bait. 

Back in the day we lost tons of grubs swimming them to either suspended or staging fish in trees on transitions or bluffends. With the FFS we can not only dodge these sticky locations but see if there are fish present just out of reach of the hang ups and lure them out of those hidy holes. 

As with everything on Table Rock the secret is always depth. I’ve never heard a guide ask another guide or person what he or she caught their fish on. The question is always how deep are they. 

Yesterday depending on our location, I had the boat in 36’ on flat or long run gravel and to bluffenders I was as deep with the boat as over 100’. 

Fish seemed to be 12’ to 20’ in either of those locations.   

On one location up near Big M yesterday I saw a couple of chasers and went out there. It was flat gravel. They were pushing Shad up depth was 50. I got to looking at the Garmin and there were tons of targets “wolf packs” 3 to 10 fish, just scattered.  I’m saying 15’ deep  suspended over that 50’ bottom  

It was really unfair. I’d get within 50’ to 60’ and toss the little swimmer and watch it drop just past them and slow reel it thru the group. I fished that location 2 hours and could not begin to say how many I caught.  At times I had a dozen swimming in with the one I had hooked. Livescope pictures would have been crazy, but that was before I picked Becky up. 

No camera person and I was busy🤪🤪

I pretty much don’t do much but wind it in. The C-tail or the paddle tail do all the work. I just try to fish where there are fish on the electronics. I’ll just swim it near them or if they’re on the bottom you can scrub or scrounge the bottom on a slow retrieve with it  

I like the Big Bite heads for my 3.2 inch baits and up and I like the Diichi heads for the 2.8. 

Another key factor when fishing this bait is to let the fish load on the rod. Your tip will start bending toward the fish and you will feel its weight. Don’t jerk or snap set, just lean back or pressure set.

If you snap set or jerk, you’ll come back with the tail or half the swimmer gone. Guys keep telling me that’s a walleye bite. Wrong.  Let’s just say it could be?

These fish will jump, most of the time, when they do, pull them toward you, don’t let them jump on slack line or bye bye baby. 

For rods I’m using a 7’ Falcon medium lite with a fast tip paired with a Shimano Stella or Stradic. 5lb. Maxima or 6 pound BPS mono. 

Hope  this helps. Good Luck. 













 

[dtrs5kprs]

That's an absolute seminar of a reply right there.

[DavidB]

Thanks as always, Bill.  That's a regular tutorial.  I'd bring you another Cajun basket if you hadn't run off to Shell Knob😊

[Bill Babler]

Dave, you need to move the South Boys operation to Shell Knob. Lots of places to stay as good or better than where you’re at excellent restaurants and the fishing is on a totally different level here. 

Not as many small jaws, but a lot less pressure on the LM and K’s. Same locations up here, only difference is there are fish on most of them. 

Harter House is never more than 20 minutes away.