Table Rock Lake Pig-fest 2012

With anticipation of the season opener of the 2012 National Guard College Fishing Central Conference opener on Table Rock Lake, The old F-150 was pointed south late Thursday night with a tuned up Ranger in tow and two eager passengers who were anxious to catch the first bass of 2012. This was more than just a glorified fishing trip however- we were on a mission, and were determined to spend every second of daylight we possibly could in pursuit of the lake’s largest bass, and the most productive patterns and techniques in order to try and make a dominating statement on tournament day, which was slated for March 3 out of Kimberling City, MO. Unfortunately, due to severe weather including reports of Tornados ripping through the area last night around 1 AM, the tournament has since been canceled, along with the Everstart event that was to begin Thursday and run through Saturday. When chasing the dream and trying to get by from tournament to tournament, it is easy to lose perspective on what’s truly important in life. Living itself is a blessing an I pray for those effected by these storms. Those who lost lives, loved ones, homes, time shares, and invaluable fishing equipment. I do not wish to be in their shoes, nor would I wish that upon anyone. I am saddened that we will not be traveling back to the beautiful Ozarks this weekend, but am happy that none of the FLW staff or fellow anglers were seriously injured or killed in the hairy situation that they were put in last night/this morning. With all of that said, I’ll get back to the fishing report.

After reading some local reports, it sounded like the lake was pretty much on fire. The warm winter, along with the alabama rig craze has given way to incredible fishing on all of the Ozark Lakes. I even heard Bull Shoals was kicking out 30 lb 5 fish bags, something you don’t hear of often! We arrived in Kimberling City just before noon on Friday after an all night driving escapade. Driving through the wintry weather throughout the entire state of Iowa Thursday night was scary to say the least! Lost feel of the boat a couple of times on black ice, and ended up driving 35 mph for about 100 miles! Needless to say, driving out of that and into the sunshine associated with Daybreak was nice! We hit the gas station and immediately got on the water. With the wind and cold front conditions I was unsure of how the bite would be, but the first day of practice sets the tone for the rest of practice, so I knew it was crucial that we work out the kinks and put some fish in the boat right away. Sam struck first with a pair of spotted bass on the first spot we fished with the alabama rig. We took a tour up the White River arm and found a creek with some nice secondary points that stuck into the creek channel, and this is where I stuck my first Alabama Rig fish- a stout little 3-1/2 lber. Feeling good, we immediately left that spot and went to a point across the way, where Sam caught a new personal best 4 lb 14 oz toad. I swung around and tossed a LuckeStrike jerkbait on the spot, just to see if we could catch something with a different tool besides the 5 wire wallet killer. I immediately caught a keeper smallmouth, and we were back on pad in no time searching for water that looked similar. We spent the rest of the day runnin’-n-gunnin’ secondary points and caught a mixed bag of spotted bass and largemouth to wind up with a combined best 5 of 15-1/2 lbs in our 6 hour "crucial 1st outing."

Day two came quickly after a much needed sleep session at the Kimberling Inn (since ravaged by tornado damage ). One of the keys to the success of the trip was being disciplined and getting adequate sleep, making sure to be up well before the crack of dawn, and on the lake when the ice still settles in the guides and worm gear. Facebook usage was at an all time low, and texts/calls received short replies, or none at all After locating some fish up the White on day one, day two was planned to be all about the James, Saving Sunday for another trip to the White and then looking around the further down lake sections near Kimberling City, and on down toward Indian Point. We put in at Aunt’s Creek Public Access and headed up the creek where we immediately found some hungry spotted bass that crunched a Luckestrike jerkbait in Stardust Shad. once the sun got up, the alabama rig shined briefly with a few more spots, before things got brutally tough. Though the A-rig is getting 5 star reviews, and some seem to think its like magic tied to 65 lb braid, I assure you, its still fishing! So many factors go into getting bit on this thing its not even funny. I’ll go into that later. The brite sun, high pressure, and no wind made for tough conditions everywhere we tried. If we didn’t have such restricting boundaries for our tournament, we would have definitely headed for dirtier water, further up the rivers and looked for a jig bite. Instead, we made the best of it and stuck to the gameplan, targeting more secondary points, and throwing in a few main lake points at the mouths of the larger spawning creeks. This plan paid off big for Sam, as he shattered his new personal best from Friday with a 5 lb 14 oz PIG on the alabama rig. This one came off the end of a bluff point that transitioned into a long, shallow rubble point/road bed. After that I’m not sure how long we went without a bite. The answer is too long. It was still good to pop a few big fish in the toughest conditions possible. I wish we could see how those areas would produce under overcast conditions with a little drizzle and chop to the water. Late in the day, hope glistened across the water, as a breeze began to blow in from the Southeast. Just like magic, it was like a switch came on at that moment just long enough for a 4 lber (first picture) to crush my alabama rig on a wind-blown main lake point. It was a good note to end the day on, though we continued to run and gun points without any more bites for another hour after that glimmer of hope. We came in with 18 lbs for our best 5 and looked toward Sunday with high optimism. It was good to improve in weight despite tough conditions.

Day 3 came abruptly after a much needed full 8 hours of sleep. It was hard to believe that we were packing up the truck and that this would be our last excursion on Table Rock for the weekend. A final check of the weather and a coffee run and we were back at the boat ramp in Kimberling City. We started our day heading down lake and had minimal success to start the day, save for a couple of 2-1/2 lbers on secondary points. We fished a lot of really "sexy" looking stuff that the fish simply did not agree with. Finally, we struck pay dirt on a main lake point of the long, tapered variety, where a pack of hungry smallmouth were feeding just as the wind started to blow hard out of the Southeast. Finally! Some weather that makes you grunt when you run the minnkota! Those fish were some of the hardest hitting smallies that I’ve ever caught. To catch them on the A-rig was truly a treat. After seeing enough of the cleaner and colder end of the lake, and having 12 lbs in the boat on my best 5, we decided to head back to the west side of Kimberling City Bridge and focus on anything and everything that we hadn’t already hit in the previous days. This proved to be a good move. One of the few Large creeks that we had yet to fish quickly showed us that we shouldn’t have been so quick to drive on by. I caught a 2-1/2 lber on the main lake leading into the creek, and the first secondary point we fished in that creek yielded my first giant of the trip. I told Sam I wanted to get some net practice in on the trip, and i thought this one would be a good one to get it in on. Being an impatient man, I couldn’t wait much longer than the 1.2 seconds it took him to get the net, and by the time he turned around he almost had a face full of a 5 lb 7 oz largemouth! I swung the beast in, gave a hollar, took a couple pics and turned her loose. We fished to the very back of the creek with nothing, then went back toward the mouth and caught another 2-1/2 on a point adjacent to the big fish spot. That was enough for me! Back on pad we went. It was at this point when things started clicking. We were really starting to realize that the big ones hadn’t quite yet gotten up into those creeks. They were either hanging on the outsides on obvious main lake points, or just inside, within the first 1/4 to 1/2 of the creek on some of the major secondary points. Anywhere a creek split into two was a good place to look. We headed back up toward the White/James split and came upon an awesome looking main lake point leading into a creek that we had yet to throw an A-rig in. I jokingly set down, and turned to Sam and said: "Since this is the only cove on the whole dang lake we’ve yet to fish, this cove’s gotta be chalk full of 7 lbers!" We shared a laugh, and then it was time to get a line wet. I made a long bomb cast up toward the bank, and in about 5 slow turns of the real I felt a godly thump. I set the hook and fought the fish. I told Sam it felt like a good one, but then again it seemed like I said that on every other fish. Not sure if its because I have been jigging for bluegills and crappies for months, or if Table Rock fish just fight that hard, but in the clear water it quickly became evident that my lofty joke from before might not be so far fetched, as the behemoth tried to get some air. I told Sam to get the net, and this time it was put to good use. It was my turn for a personal best, and there was not going to be any arrogant swinging in the boat going on with this one! I caught a 6 pounder in Minnesota just a few months ago, but this one dwarfed that in length! At 6 lbs 6 oz, it was my new personal best! After a couple of pictures, the beast was back to where we hoped she stay for the week. We finished out the point, probably because I was still high from catching such a slaunch, and Sam proceeded to catch a 3-2. That was enough of that. We fished the rest of the day with a few more bites, but overall the bite got a heck of a lot tougher after noon, even with the wind providing a nice power fishing chop to the water. It was fine with me though, we had our best day by far, coming in with a combined 5 fish total of 21 lbs, and I had 19-1/2 lbs personally anchored by the 5-7 and 6-6. Those big bites are the kind we knew we would need in a tournament where we thought it could easily take 25-28 lbs to win. Heading home, it was good to have a good practice and spend it with a great friend. Sam was great all around, from traveling through the diciest roads I’ve ever seen in Iowa, to mentally and mechanistically breaking down the lake. It was a great experience. I only hope that they reschedule the event and keep it on Table Rock so our hard work and good fortune can pay off for us down the line. We certainly paid our dues in the form of lost Alabama rigs, gas, and a ticket after speeding while driving after being awake for over 24 hours with only 4 hours of sleep before that. All in all, it was an awesome time, awesome lake, and can’t wait to get back!

As promised, here’s a break down of the Alabama rig. It really is simple to fish, but takes some practice to get used to. First- you need a good, stout rod to handle the weight. I chose a 7’6" St. Croix Mojobass pitchin’ & flippin’ stick. I rigged up with 65 lb braid on a 6:3:1 shimano citica. We ordered a number of rigs online and got some prototypes from Lethal Weapon as well (3 wire rigs). Unfortunately I did not get a chance to test out the Lethal Weapons. I had too much confidence in having the extra baits on their. The 3 wire rig will be an asset to anyone’s tackle box on the river, or anywhere else in the midwest, for that matter. The rigs I liked best were ones that had an epoxy head making the overall rig weight significantly lighter. Most of the points we were fishing put the boat in 30 ft while casting into 5-10 feet. With the heavier rigs like the BOSS model, the rig would rake the bottom on a slow retrieve and inevitably get hung up on just about anything. It doesn’t help that Table Rock is covered with pole trees that were anxious to eat our Alabama Rigs. The rigs I liked best were the Yumbrella rig (Yum) and the Picasso School E Rig. Once we established the lighter rigs were best, we needed to establish what we put on the rigs. We quickly realized that smaller swimbaits were the deal. The threadfin shad that we saw dying and getting pecked off by the gulls were very small, and of the 3-4" size. Zoom swimmin fluke juniors, Lunker City Swim fish, and reaction innovations skinny dippers trimmed down to size all yielded quality bass. we rigged them on 3/16 and 1/4 oz lead head jigheads or swimbait heads with the longest and heaviest shanks we could find. The Bass Pro Shops Pro jig (gammakatsu hooks) in the 3/16 size were my favorite jighead for the price. Since the Missouri Law states you can only fish with 3 hooks on an A-rig, we needed to figure out what to put on the 2 extra wires. With our "dummy" baits or "teasers" we utilized the top two wires. We didn’t experiment in this department as much as we would have liked, but we found what we were confident in, and that was enormous. Sam quickly gained confidence in having 2 No. 4 spinnerbait blades affixed to the top two wires, with 3 swimbaits running on the bottom two and middle wires. I tried different stuff, including running 5 identical swimbaits (top two attached with hitchhiker screws) which seemed to work well. I also tried running identical baits on the outside wires with the middle wire (the one they hit 90% of the time) having a different standout color on it like a white/black back. That worked equally well. My favorite rigging of the weekend that produced the 6-6 and 5-7 included two zoom fat albert smoked grubs on the top two wires, a full 5" Reaction innovations bad shad skinny dipper in the middle, and 2 Lunker city swim fish in a smoky shad color on the bottom two. Most of the bites would come on a very slow, steady straight retrieve, but if you got a short strike and immediately dropped the rod tip, they would come back and crush it! That deal was pretty neat when it happened. Overall, it was an awesome trip that I’ll always remember. I hope this info can help someone on their next big fishing trip, whether its to the south, or anywhere else. It was great to finally break my southern curse and put some big fish in the boat somewhere besides WI, MN, and the great lakes!