I'm fishing Table Rock Lake this next week and dont have a boat. I have to shore fish on these hot days..Any Advice on what to use in Mornings or during the day when the sun comes up..Its gonna be mostly shollow water any advice on how to get the bait out there farther what to fish what to look for what baits to use what colors and when...Please Help THANKS!

Early in the morning I'd go with the old standby, a black Jitterbug. If that doesn't get anything, try a buzzbait. Later in the day switch over to soft plastics. As far as getting your bait out there farther, try bigger baits(musky jitterbug).

Fishing from the shore on hot days, you need to find areas that have heavy vegetation, or good amounts of shade. Fish don't like to just sit out in the sun. It's bad for camouflaging when trying to feed and the water is cooler in the shade and weeds.

Hey, MoFishing, how's things? A few things I hope are helpful to you.

As far as getting longer casting distances, you can increase the size of the bait as mo65 suggests, but you can also add weight to smaller baits to get them out a little farther. What I usually do with spinnerbaits is pull the rubber out of a rubber core sinker, then crimp the lead to the straight part of the hook shank. Doing this means you can also fish the thing at faster speeds and still keep that bad boy in the water. It'll also go deeper on a slow trot (for when you fish the deeper water). As far as crankbaits, putting extra weight on these requires delicacy, cuz you don't want to affect the lure's action. What I do to weigh down a crankbait is wrap electronic solder around the shanks of the treble hooks, and try out the action by pulling it through the water close to me with the rod tip to make sure it still acts right. I add or subtract solder from each treble hook shank as needed to keep the lure in balance and running true.

Another thing to get longer distance casts is let the lures be, and use spincasting or spinning reels instead of baitcasters to lob those things out into the drink. A lot of old farts like me can put a baitcasted lure out there pretty far, but if you don't have an educated thumb, this can be disastrous. Switching to spincasting or spinning will increase your distance without any turret-syndrome-causing backlashes. True, baitcasters are the best reels to use for most fishing (IMHO), but you have to be flexible, and if that means using a Zebco 1 or a Penn 440 SS instead of a baitcaster, this is what we do.

As far as lure colors, it depends on time of day, sky conditions and water clarity. Mo65 is right on-the-money about using black and other dark colors on the surface in the early AM or in the late PM. You'd think it wouldn't work, but it does: the dark color sillhouettes itself better when the fish sees it from underneath. Black (or other dark colors) also works on overcast days. As far as bright days, let the water conditions be your guide. There's all kinds of color suggestions in this forum and in the magazine the Club sends us, so give both this forum and the mag's back issues some perusal.

Another thing about fishing shallow water close to shore: cast passed your target area, then reel your lure through it. Letting the lure hit the surface right on top of the fish you're trying to catch usually spooks them more than it attracts them, and casting passed them means the lure's splashdown won't scare your quarry. They'll still get an eyeful of it when you retrieve it.

Post some "Polaroid Proof" of any big ones you get, Mo. Go get 'um!

jig fisher is dead on target about gaining casting distance. A good spincast reel can get a tiny crankbait out 40yds., where a baitcaster is going to go about 10yds. and spin off the other 30yds. in your face! A quality spincast will even out perform the spinning reel at this task. When I say quality I mean something in the caliber of my Zebco Omega. It is a 6 bearing, all aluminum reel...it ain't no 202! The only drawbacks are it is heavy and slow. If you're used to reels with a 7:1 gear ratio, a spincast will feel odd at first...but if you want distance with light baits...there is no better way to get it.
                                                                     

I'm not familiar with the Zebco Omega, but my experience with spincasters is that they rarely hold enough line to deal with a strong fish after a long cast. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Another idea is to use as light and limp a line as possible. I prefer a fused braid for this but don't know how well it would work with a spincast reel. If you are fishing lighter tests, Nanofil might be an option if you can tie it.

Well...you're right PG...the spincast holds less than 100yds. of line. But, I thought we were talking shore fishing, trying to get more distance with a little 1/4oz. crankbait. Nothing you're gonna hook in this situation is going to run off with you. I caught my biggest bass to date(6.5 lbs.) on a spincast with 10lb. test, casting a weightless wackyworm. I can't think of any fish that I would hook in this style of fishing(the author was shore fishing Table Rock lake) that would run off 100yds. of line. Anybody else know one? I haven't tried Nanofil on my spincasters yet...but I can assure you...braid IS a no-no!
                                                                                                                                                                    

Hey guys...thought you might like a look at the reel I'm talking about. This little dude is the "flagship" of Zebco's fleet. It carries a price tag of $65, and I can assure you in this price range, you'll not find another reel(baitcasting or spinning) built any better. I can also assure you that regardless of price, you'll not find anything that will cast a light lure farther. Like I said earlier, it is heavy(10.1oz.) and slow(18 inches of line per turn of the handle as opposed to a 5.4:1 baitcaster at 22 inches per turn) but that speed has become quite popular in recent years for crankbaits. I think the line capacity is 85yds. of ten pound mono. I have this reel paired with a Quantum Alliance HSX44 6'6" graphite rod.

I am surprised no one said a longer rod. 7-6 to 8' Think of casting as a lever the longer the the rod the more leverage that gets applied to the lure .

I have always thought of Spincaster reels as one for "the kids".  I guess I should maybe give them another look.

When re-spooling the few spincasters I own, if I don't just let the tackle shop do it, I strip the old line off until it stops at the end. I then cut the line leaving a 10" tag, tie the new line on with a uni-uni and crank away. To return to the original post, I wonder how that trip worked out. Last time I checked, shore fishing access is severely limited on Table Rock.

Well...the original post was in July last year...the guy probably wouldn't even remember!

yea he will probably look at this later and say "oh i remimber that post, thats the one that helped me catch fish."