Day 1 is in the books and from talking to my buddies that fished yesterday the lake seemed to fish as tough as it always does this time of year, however surprisingly there were over 30 limits weighed on the boater side, and not at all surprisingly only 3 on the co side. Leading the boater side Jeffrey Smith out of...wait for it, Knob Noster, Missouri. I really hoped that the name was a play on Knob Monster and that there were tons of Bigfoot in the area, but alas Noster is Latin for "our", so it's "Our Knob", the hills in the area being the Knob, totally boring. Don't know  the guy, but he has a couple BFL wins, this year as a boater and a win at the Costa level as a co-angler interestingly on Dardanelle last year. He has a big lead but it's three days and Dardanelle will just get tougher everyday, will see if he holds up under the pressure. Surprising mixture of locals and guys that drove a ways in the top 20, couple KenSmithFishing notable buddies, Toledo guide and damn handsome man Stephen Johnston (running Humminbirds!)  in 9th with 12-12, George Clooney look-a-like and Lew's pro Dicky Newberry right there poised to make top 12 cut for tomorrow sitting in 11th with 11-15, BFL Cowboy AOY from Bossier City Nick LeBrun with 4 quality fish (hey, it's Dardanelle) sitting 17th with 11-0, and Okie stick, and unfortunately Oklahoma football fan, Chris Jones hanging around at 18th with 10-14. Like to see all those fishing tomorrow, so good vibes their way.

With the Ram Series coming to Texoma in a couple weeks I know a lot of guys will be heading that way soon. I spent the weekend up there and the fishing was pretty good. Water temp 68-72, which should trigger the topwater bite but I could not get one going. I was catching most of my fish on chunk rock banks where they start flattening out, and a good number of schoolers on sand drop points. Especially anywhere the wind was making a current. My go to baits were the Crush Mini25 mostly in the Citrus Shad color and on a hard head, however I have found trying both that I get more bites throwing an old school Yamamoto Hula Grub, the big one (5") on a 3/4 ounce head. I have trouble getting a hook in a lot of fish with the Biffle Bug, and I don't have that problem and think i may actually get more bites on the Hula. Been sticking with really subtle colors, mostly a couple variations of watermelon. The summer boat traffic is almost gone up there so the fishing is about to get good! 

The folks at Yamamoto are hard at work and bringing out some interesting new stuff. The newest bait just became available this week, the Sanshouo Salamander available at that link. One of the things I have really come to believe is that fish get to the point where they will not bite a bait that they have been caught on repeatedly before. I reaffirmed this recently with a trip to a clients private lakes where the first day the fish just crushed a YamaFrog, and then each subsequent day after the first they got harder and harder to catch on it. So I'm interested to throw something they have never seen before, which they absolutely have not with the Sanshouo. HOPEFULLY right behind this will be the Zako....which if you haven't heard of you have not been watching the Bassmasters on TV. A google search of Zako will show it was a player at Toledo, Cayuga, the Potomac, Hite designed it and has been whacking them with it, along with several other pros that are not Yamamoto guys, if you watched the footage you saw others quietly using it as well. Little birdie tells me it will be available to the rest of us within the next two weeks!      

Got to spend a couple of days on Texoma late last week goofing off, only the second time this year I went fishing to well, go fishing. Couple of observations, first, based upon the photo, can you guess where the baitfish are? You got it, dead in the middles of the drains, was interesting to watch, early in the day they were in the backs, then as the day warmed they backed out, you can see here late in the day they were all the way back out, the drain you see there is about 300 yards deep and they had backed to there as the water warmed.

The other thing, Texoma, I bet I have spent way less than 5% of in my fishing time on Texoma, yet in that time I have caught 2 fish on the same bait (other than an a-rig, had 3 triples in one day on an a-rig at Toledo) 5 times total, 4 of those at Texoma. I have had one owl come down and grab a frog I was fishing, Texoma. I have had one loon eat a fluke, Texoma. I have been pooped on by one seagull, Texoma. I have seen one bobcat swimming, Texoma, and I have caught one needle nose gar on a Senko, Texoma. Number five, one cast double, came Friday.