senile1

The posts by others in this thread touching on lures that work, and fish orienting themselves to cover in shallow water, are spot on. I would make an additional point about accurate casting. When visibility is less than a foot as stated by the OP, unless one is very familiar with the lake he or she is fishing, normal to long casts to underwater cover can be difficult. When you can't see the edges of the cover it is easier to hang up, or not cast close enough to prompt a reaction from the bass. To avoid these issues you could use lures that can be pitched into the cover, but if you are like me you may want to fish the edges first before you pitch into the middle of it. When on unfamiliar lakes with low visibility I will often cruise close to the cover to eyeball it and get a feel for where the edges are and then come back to it after an hour or so. Before I employed this method, I can't count the number of times I threw a lure into productive looking cover and blew up a spot by hanging up.

I think this is a great point. I still use 2 Curado E7s and 2 Citica Es in my rotation and they just keep on tickin'. Are they the very best reels in terms of casting distance, braking, drag performance, etc? No they aren't, but they do all things well and they are reliable. They are simple to maintain and parts have not been difficult to obtain when needed. The reels I have seem to be as smooth as they were when I purchased them.

This statement and the one by @SpellCaster remind me of one quoted often by mountain climbers: "Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment."

@Susky River Rat @Kayak Koz From the Flux Jet Kayak website: Orders shipping January 2026 thru October 2026 are now sold out. New orders scheduled to ship in November 2026.

@scaleface Nice fish, Dane! Edit: I checked your figures. 8 lb 1 oz is 8.0625. Missouri's record fish is 13 lb 14 oz or 13.875 lbs. Then, 8.0625/13.875 equals a score of 58.11.

Expanding on "the grind," as @A-Jay describes it, you go to a lake and you find likely places where bass may hang out using your electronics and your eyes. These places may be drop-offs, channel swings, underwater ditches, grass and weeds, docks, brush piles, combinations of these, etc. Not every place is going to hold bass. In fact, many will not. Your task is to cycle through these based on your knowledge of conditions and bass behavior to find which areas the bass are using today at this particular time. This, then, is the grind. After visiting a lake numerous times you develop a sense of which places are used at different times of the year and what lures and techniques to use. But once you reach this point the worst of "the grind" is over. You know the lake and you can quickly determine where bass are going to be located on a lot of days. And once you reach this point with a particular lake, that is when the intuition that @Swamp Girl talked about comes into play. You look at, or think of a spot where you think bass will be and, like Babe Ruth, you call your shot. Those are the good days. Of course, there are days when even what you have learned about that lake simply won't put too many bass in the boat. Bass are independent creatures and we can't always know their motivations. That's fishing.

@Scott F Although you will be fishing less I hope to continue to see you pop in on these forums. I have always appreciated your posts.

In the past my answer to this would have been topwater. However, over the years the jig has become the most fun lure for me. I like setting the hook and the excitement of when I realize that whatever is on the end of my line is heavier and bigger than usual. Yet, I haven't seen the fish yet, so the thrill of anticipation comes into play waiting until that fish surfaces to see its size. I guess any bottom dragging bait has this effect for me though.

That is correct. It isn't a secret, but since you chose not to name it in your original post I chose not to name it either out of respect to what I thought was your desire in this thread. I see now that I was mistaken.

I would include a jig and craw. Btw, I love that lake though I won't name it either. 🙂 I need to get back down there.

@RHuff I fish Table Rock Lake a few times a year and in the hotter months I often find the fish to be down in 30 to 40 feet of water. As some have suggested, the dropshot is my main technique to get to these fish especially when they are on the ends of gravel points. However, I have also found that dropping a spoon down to trees that top out at 30 to 35 feet of water can be the ticket as well. I can use a dropshot for these as well but since the dropshot is not touching the bottom the wind and current tend to have their way with the bait. Also, I can often find tree tops holding fish around underwater channels that are closer to the edges of the lake where the pleasure boaters and skiers usually don't go.

@CDMTJager Since you are just starting out with jigs, I hope you stick with it and give them a chance to work for you. They are one of the better big fish baits IME, but like any bottom dragging bait you have to learn what the feel of the bite is and isn't. Do I like Siebert jigs? Read the posts in the link below. They go all the way back to when his screen name was GMAN. https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/search/?&q=siebert&type=forums_topic&quick=1&author=senile1&nodes=8&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy

Good for you! I am glad you stood your ground and got what you should have received in the first place.

This is a great thread! My wife and I moved out of Kansas City three years ago to a house with country acreage and we have enjoyed the number of birds we have encountered at our feeder, in our yard, and in our woods. This thread was started before I returned from my hiatus from the forum so I am just now seeing this. We really enjoy recording the birds we see and often sit in our backyard just to watch the bird activity up close. We have quite a list of birds we have seen at our feeder, in our yard, and even trying to make nests on the house (barn swallows). This is our list: Crows American Goldfinch Robin Tree Sparrow Baltimore Oriole Barn Swallow Black-capped Chicadee Blue-Jay Brown Thrasher Brown-headed Cowbird Carolina Wren Grackle Dark-eyed Junco Downy Woodpecker Eastern Bluebird Starling House Finch House Sparrow Hummingbird Indigo Bunting Mourning Dove Northern Cardinal Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Purple Finch Red-bellied Woodpecker Red-winged Blackbird Rose-breasted Grosbeak Summer Tanager Tufted Titmouse I often hear an owl around 5 - 6 AM but I have yet to see it.

Over the next winter I will be replacing my bassboat carpet as well as refreshing a number of other things. I am debating EVA foam versus carpet and have researched it incessantly. For those who have used foam, I assume you use hook wraps to prevent damage from the hooks on your rods that are lying on the deck?