Missouri Lakes Fishing Report

Lake - Table Rock 07/24/05:

Kimberling City Area: While the lion's share of fish are still being caught in deep water over drops, saddles and trees, there have been a few being caught on some of the larger docks in the area. The deep bite has been primarily a drop shot bite, most of the fish need to be "worked" in order to get them to bite, the best bait has been a Chomper needle worm or drop shot worm in sand or watermelon seed. As far as the dock bite, most of the action has been fishing the shady areas in empty stalls 10' - 25' deep with a brown / purple flash Eakins' jig matched up with a green pumpkin Eakins' craw.

James River: A couple of patterns up the James as well; the deep crankbait bite has come on strong over the past week or two, both DD-22's and Fat free shad have been producing fish, make long casts parallel to deep drops and humps trying to maintain as much bottom contact as possible through out the retrieve. There are still a large number of fish being caught on a Jewel 5/8 oz. football jig, brown / purple flash has been the dominate color with a green pumpkin Chomper 5" jig trailer. Look for the areas on drops that transition from pea gravel to bigger chunk rock to hold most of the fish on a given point.

White River: Still allot of fish being taken on Jewel football and Spider jigs fished on points and drops, a PB&J jig with a cinnamon purple / jelly Chomper jig trailer has been your best bet to put a few fish in the boat. Closer to Campbell point and The Baxter area a drop shot rig fished in tree tops at 30' - 45' deep will also produce fish but you will need to "work" the fish for a while to get them to bite.

Dam Area: Most of the fish being caught in the dam area continue to be deep. A drop shot rig on deep points or saddles will produce some nice Kentucky's, the best bait has been a Chomper needle worm or drop shot worm in watermelon seed or watermelon red, locate the bait suspended on the point and work the bait in a and around the bait until you get bit. A Jewel football jig is also producing a few nice smallmouths right now, look for deep drops off of points to hold most of the fish.