SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Sometimes, before competitors even hit the water for official practice, they have a pretty good idea how a tournament is going to be won. As the 35-angler field prepares to take on Table Rock Lake for Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Presented by Mercury & Lowrance, that is decidedly not the case.
Table Rock offers all three black bass species (largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass) living in a wide range of habitat. When the fishery makes its tour-championship debut this week, pros should be able to find those fish in all three phases of the spawn.
Local anglers could see any number of scenarios (and possibly a mixture of multiple patterns) earning the $300,000 top prize. The only thing they know for sure: There’s going to be a lot of bass hitting SCORETRACKER®.
“It’s going to be an absolute catch-fest,” predicted Table Rock guide Eric Olliverson. “They are biting anything and everything that you want to throw.”
The lay of the lake
Covering close to 45,000 acres with roughly 750 miles of shoreline, Table Rock is a huge playing field, especially for only 35 anglers. Olliverson, who won a Toyota Series event on Table Rock in the spring of 2019, thinks just about any section of the lake could produce a high finish. Which area anglers focus on will depend on what they’re looking for.
Table Rock is comprised of three main river arms – the White (which represents the main body of the lake), the James and the Kings. Olliverson broke the fishery down into three distinct sections. There’s the lower end of the lake, which extends from the mouth of Long Creek (just south of the dam) about 8 miles to Kimberling City. He considers Kimberling City to Aunts Creek (in the James River arm) and Baxter (in the Kings River) the mid-section of the lake. He said the lower and middle sections both offer steep contours and prominent points, but one of the two usually has cleaner water than the other.
Then there are the river arms. The upper section of each of Table Rock’s major tributaries (the White, James and Kings rivers plus Long Creek) set up similarly, with dirtier water, flatter contours and more wood cover in the shallows.
Usually, Olliverson said anglers looking to target largemouth, which run bigger than the lake’s smallmouth and spotted bass on average, target the upper rivers, while the latter two species are more prevalent on the main lake. However, this is a unique time of year in which anglers can catch all three species in just about any zone.
“Right now, we’ve got fish in all three stages (of the spawn),” he said. “So, the mid-lake and the dam areas, although they are known for their smallmouth and spotted bass populations, right now is probably one of the best times of the whole year to really be able to target those largemouth in that clearer water.”
One of the biggest variables that typically dictates which area produces best is water level. Table Rock has been known to flood in a hurry. But so far this year, the lake level has hovered around winter pool, and given the forecast, Olliverson doesn’t expect that to change. While that might make for less flooded cover and dirty water in the lake, Olliverson said the stability has helped the fishing as a whole.
“Normally this time of year, we’re used to having a lot more water in our lake,” he said. “We’re used to having those spring rains that bring it up, color the water all throughout the lake and be able to have a lot of that shoreline buck brush and a lot more cover that’s actually in the water. And we’re really not seeing that right now. I haven’t seen it this level in quite some time. So, it’s been a very stable lake. Stability is always a good thing. It’s been just a very consistent bite.”
Plenty of ways to get bit
Even more than the number of areas in which they could target bass, anglers will have numerous options for how to get them to bite. Pick your favorite bait, Olliverson said, and chances are good you can catch a scorable bass with it on Table Rock right now.
Missouri pro Cole Breeden said technique choice will depend on the situation anglers choose to exploit. Like Olliverson, he thinks there should be fish in every stage of the spawn. Bedding bass (either sight-fishing on the lower end of the lake or targeting spawners anglers can’t see), fry-guarders, staging fish and schools of pre- and postspawners chasing shad offshore could all be viable.
“I think there’s going to be a couple different patterns in play,” Breeden said. “Obviously, spawning fish is going to be a really big one. Throwing like a wobble head around, just covering water on the bottom, that usually catches a lot of fish. And then they might be schooled up a little bit. The fish at Table Rock like to be on shad. Right up until they spawn, they’re feeding on shad, and then as soon as they’re done, they’re right back on the shad. So, there’s going to be groups of fish that are doing that.
“And then another thing that I’ve seen do good, if they do get postspawn and you find a little bit of water color – so you have to go a little bit up one of the rivers for that – is throwing like a topwater or swim jig around big docks.”
Other techniques that Olliverson expects to produce include weightless stickbaits, finesse worms of all kinds (Ned rigs, shaky heads, etc.) and swimbaits. Reaction baits like squarebills and bladed jigs could get a workout around shallow cover, too.
Both locals expect to see most anglers catch all three species of bass. They mix together so much at Table Rock that it’s hard to target just one. Given the every-fish-counts format, Breeden thinks spotted bass stand a good chance to represent the bulk of the winning total. But Olliverson said not to count out the smallmouth.
“The smallmouth spawn is going to be dead on,” he said. “It’s literally that time of year where a guy could catch 100 2-pound smallmouth in a day.”
Perhaps the biggest tactical question pros will have to answer is whether to stick with one pattern and area or mix and match, particularly given that they’re only allowed to use forward-facing sonar for one of three periods each day.
Table Rock is known as a prolific forward-facing sonar fishery, but given the time of year, Olliverson doesn’t think an angler necessarily needs to turn on his transducers to compete. Breeden, on the other hand, thinks it would be wise to have both forward-facing and non-forward-facing programs.
“If it was me, I probably would go target fish outside of those spawning areas during the ‘Scope period and try to find numbers of them,” he said. “Especially schools of spotted bass on brushpiles or timber or around shad. And during my non-‘Scope period, I’d be focusing a little bit more on those spawning areas or fishing docks up shallow.”
Both anglers think there’s a real chance the REDCREST title comes down to pros doing different things in different areas of the lake. However the competitors opt to tackle Table Rock, they better rack up some serious weight.
“Those guys are going to be catching fish all day,” Breeden said. “It’s going to be a pretty active event, for sure.”