Big M area, Dec. 7

[Quillback]

Been 10 days or so since the last time I was here with Dutch, the water has cleared a bit and some of the fish have moved.  

Caught some little 10-12 inch spots on top in the Big M cove early, they were chasing shad, but didn't see any bass of any size.  That bite lasted about 15 minutes, then shut down, so down the lake I went.

The spot where Dutch and I got them, still had some fish, but not as many as last time and they were out a bit deeper - 30 feet or so.  I think I caught 15 in that spot on 3.3 swim baits, the average size was good, 5 of them were keepers with some largemouth mixed in with the spots.

I had a plan to throw cranks, and I threw them for a couple of hours, worked a lot of bank.  I caught 4 LM on the cranks, a couple of fat keepers that were caught on back to back casts to a shallow rock pile.  But I tell you they were fish of a thousand casts, a lot of work for meagre results.

Fished another deep spot before heading in, caught another 5 spots in 45 FOW.  

Also caught a couple on the Ned rig including my only smallmouth of the day, a whopping 12 incher.

Very few boats out there for a warm December day, saw 4 or 5 total.

Caught 28 with 7 keepers.  WT 55

Took some pictures but unbeknownst to me, autofocus was turned off so they were all blurry.  Here's one for Pete.  

 

[Quillback]

Forgot to add, they have been running water, level has dropped a foot and a half in the last week.

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

Forgot to add, they have been running water, level has dropped a foot and a half in the last week.

I just got here.   I’ll trout fish tomorrow but I want to fish tablerock at least a little this week.  

[Bearplane04]

Thanks for the good report. We got to go yesterday afternoon in the big M area and managed 9 on Ned in 25-35. 7 spots, 1 SM, 1 LM. Caught 18 spots on Ned last Friday but couldn’t report that behind the 90+ report!  

[cheesemaster]

Well done Quillback - I always appreciate your reports!!!

[Quillback]

10 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

I just got here.   I’ll trout fish tomorrow but I want to fish tablerock at least a little this week.  

Heck yeah, you gotta get out there and get those smallmouth, they ought to be biting.

[Champ188]

Water level dropping 1.5 feet in a week will sure pull them out to those deeper places. 

[Quillback]

Looks like they have stopped the drop.  I thought they might once it got down to 915.