Missouri Lakes Fishing Report

Lake - Table Rock 01/01/06:

Kimberling City Area: The deep bite is still your best bet in the mid lake area; spoons and drop shot rigs with finesse worms, needle worms or 3” meat heads have been the top producers. It is still a matter of finding the bait if you are to be successful. Look in the normal winter areas; points, bluff ends and deep tree tops and if you find bait off of the bottom you should be able to catch a few. The jerk bait bite is starting to turn on; while there hasn’t been a ton of fish caught on it some better fish are coming on pole timber on secondary points. Pointer 100’s & 78’s, X-Raps, and rogues in table rock shad, silver / black and chartreuse shad.

James River: The jerk bit bite is much better up the James right now. Look for mixed rock points to be holding a mixed bag of fish; crappie, whites and bass are all on these points chasing shad. A little bit of wind will help this bite allot. A good back up pattern is a Missouri Craw Eakins jig and craw combo fished around boat docks and other cover, if it is a sunny day make multiple casts to the shady side of the cover and work the jig from the bank to 20’ deep.

White River: Baxter to Shell Knob still has a pretty good deep bite, just like in the mid lake are the presence of shad is crucial. Find the bait and you will find the fish. For some reason there seems to be more fish in the trees in the White river than in the mid lake. Look for tree tops around 30’ – 60’ to be the most productive, regardless how deep the overall depth is. The Kings River is pretty treacherous, but if you know how to run it there is a decent jig bite up the Kings. Fish a brown or brown / purple flash Eakins jig with a green pumpkin Eakins craw trailer on channel swing banks with wood cover from 5’ – 15’ deep.

Dam Area: Much like the mid lake area the best bite in the dam area has been deep; drop shot worms, spoons and single tail grubs are all effective when you find the bait. Jerk baits have been producing a few fish on windy mixed rock points; look for the areas where rock changes from fist size rock to bigger rock to hold most of the fish. There are also a few fish on the bigger boat docks, pitch and Eakins’ jig to the center walk way of the first few stalls to be successful.