Missouri Lakes Fishing Report

Lake - Table Rock 02/20/06:

Kimberling City Area: With the exception of deep fish, the bite has really slowed around the mid lake with this latest cold front. While there are still fish being caught on an Eakins’ jig and craw combo in PB&J / Cinnamon / Purple, you will need to slow your presentation way down to be effective. The more consistent bite has been fishing a finesse or drop shot worm around the schools of shad. The fish have been holding very tight to the bottom and won’t even show themselves unless bait is in the area so you will need to find bait to be successful.

James River: Prior to this cold front the stickbait bite was getting really good up the James; multiple fish were starting to show up suspended in the trees and other cover and we had gotten down to pausing the bait as little as a couple of seconds to draw a strike. Now the stickbait bite has gotten to be more of a traditional Table Rock pattern where long pauses and short sweeps of the rod are necessary to draw a strike. Table Rock shad, Nishiki, and American Shad have been the best colors and a Staysee has been out producing a Pointer.

White River: The Kings river has got a lot more color than the rest of the lake right now; snow run off from Northern Arkansas has colored the water and actually dropped the temperature into the upper 30’s. With this in mind your best bet is an Eakins’ jig and craw combo fished on channel swing and bluff end banks or a stickbait fished on mixed rock windy banks with isolated cover. The best color in the Eakins’ jig continues to be Missouri craw with a green pumpkin craw trailer, fish it slowly around any cover on channel swing banks in both creek arms and on the main lake. Flashy colors like American shad or Nishiki have been very effective stickbait colors when fished around isolated cover.

Dam Area: The dam area was affected the least by this passing front; the deep bite continues to be the most productive way to fish in this area. Much like in the mid lake area you will need to locate shad in order to locate active fish right now in the dam area, long points, bluff ends and island saddles are all holding fish but without the presence of shad getting these fish to bite is almost impossible. Once shad are located fish a drop shot rigged finesse or needle worm around the edges of the bait watching closely for any fish, once you locate a fish work it hard until it bites or you are convinced it won’t.