Welcome to Shell Knob at Table Rock Lake. The lake is receding at 914 ft and the surface temps are in the low to mid 40’s.

    It looks like more anglers are taking to the water once again to try their luck in finding the catch of a lifetime, now that the weather has taken a turn for the better. There have also been several pleasure boats on the lake during the past couple of weekends.

    With the warm sunny days and day light savings time going into effect for the year, the water temps will begin to climb to degrees that make the fish more active and easier to catch. I heard from a few fishermen that had marked water temps in the low to mid 50 degree range on the Kings River.

    There has been a moderate to good jerk bait bite all over the lake, as well as a pretty decent grub bite. The places to throw the jerk bait will be points that are close to deep water and have submerged trees on them. These points will be located at the mouths of coves where the bass will be spawning. If you find a keeper on a point right now, don’t move from that area until you have spent some time there to give it a thorough working over. Fish the point from the main lake side, then work it from the cove side, you can also try casting up shallow and working your lure back to deeper water. I know of one angler that will position his boat in shallow water on a point and cast out to deep water and work his bait uphill if he is not getting bit doing the opposite.

    When throwing the grub, the best places to look for are going to be pea gravel main lake points. I like to throw a 4 inch single tail in a smoke with salt and pepper flake on a 3/16 oz or ¼ oz ball head jig. When the bite is some what slower I will downsize to a 3 inch grub. Other colors to look for would be green pumpkin, watermelon with red flake or any natural color. The brand of grub does not really matter as long as you are using a brand that you have confidence in.

   Be safe out there and practice catch and release whenever possible.

 

Dennis has been fishing bass tournaments since 2001 and is sponsored by Tournament Force Tackle Systems www.tfbass.com. He is also a member of the Aurora Bass Houns.