The 2024 season has started for NSKA NWA and it began on a frigid day at Table Rock Lake. With a cold front, 37 degrees at lines in, and winds out of the NNW, it would be a good challenge for the mix of Arkansas and Missouri anglers hitting the water. The event was presented by Moments by Mandie photography – thank you for the support!
The other day I was telling a guy at work that we had a tournament coming up on Table Rock. “What’s it like?” he asked me. “Well, it’s a lot like Beaver Lake but with way more fish and bigger fish.” Beaver has actually really picked up as a bass fishery, but Table Rock was going to be a great place to start the season in pre-spawn conditions due to the large fish population.
Tournament Recap
Even with the cold, harsh conditions, 56 anglers signed up for the kickoff event. Kudos to the tournament director for launching us at 7:00, there was no reason to get out into the cold earlier than that! For a March event, it was a pretty prolific fish fest. More than 96% of registered anglers turned in a bass, with a strong 71% turning in a limit. Overall, a very high FPA of 6.18 dwarfed previous March tournaments over the past couple of years – 5.95, 3.95, 3.52, 2.99, and 1.72. (looking at you, Pumpback)
Jason Kincy took 1st place with 84.50″ in a tiebreaker with Micah Funderburgh who also had 84.50″ on the day. Corey Sims took third place with 84.00″ followed by Kyle Long with 83.25″ – Kyle did win Big Bass with a 19.75″ largemouth.
Top 10 Table Rock Anglers
- Jason Kincy 84.50
- Micah Funderburgh 84.50
- Corey Sims 84.00
- Kyle Long 83.25
- Stony Floyd 82.75
- Levi Schneider 82.50
- Terrill Standifer 82.00
- Trevor Motzkus 81.50
- Caleb Derryberry 79.50
- Jim Hall 79.00
Angler Roundtable
The top finishers from Table Rock 1.0 gathered to share how things went down on the ‘Rock on a blustery and cold March Saturday. Here is the 411 from Jason Kincy, Micah Funderburgh, and Corey Sims.
What part of Table Rock did you fish, and why?
Jason – I fished the Big M to Rock Creek area of the White River arm. Usually fish at Owl Creek or Holiday Island. This time around I just decided to try something different and I hadn’t fished there much before.
Micah – I put in near Shell Knob and tried to do exactly what I did to win last year but quickly figured out that it wasn’t going to work.
Corey – I decided to put in a Campbells Point and I was originally looking for warmer water in the coves to see if the fish were starting to move up. Big Bay is just north of Campbells Point and there is a cove just south of Campbells Point that had some shallow water with creek beds in them. When I got there the plan changed 100%.
Cold front came in the day before the tournament and it was COLD that morning. How did that change anything you were doing?
Jason – First of all, I dreaded getting out there in such cold temps and wind, but that probably hurts the fisherman more than the fish, lol. I expected any fish that had been super shallow to pull out a bit, or, for most fish to sit tight offshore. Because of this, I started fishing out deeper for the first couple of hours but only caught one that way. In reality, I only caught one keeper deep and my others came in fairly shallow water along the bank.
Micah – The water level and clarity was much different so I had to junk fish the whole are instead concentrating on two very specific spots like last year. The main pattern for me was main lake banks with chunk rock.
Corey – It was colder that morning than I though it would be, the wind was blowing harder than I though it would be. Right straight across the lake from Campbells Point is a bluff with timber and it sits right on the channel swing. The stars couldn’t have line up more perfect to fish that stretch of bluff than it did yesterday.
In general, what baits worked for you in catching most of your fish?
Jason – I caught about a dozen bass on the day, and as I mentioned above the vast majority were shallower than 10ft. My catches mostly came on a crankbait and a couple of jigs. In pre-fishing it was the A-rig that dominated, but that just didn’t work for me on tournament day.
Micah – The bass were relating to whatever wood could be found on those banks and I caught them on finesse jigs and jerkbaits. Unfortunately I only caught a handful of largemouth and probably 30+ spotted bass so it was hard to upgrade throughout the day. I’ll be uploading a video of the day on my YouTube channel in the next day or so.
Corey – I started the morning off chucking a crank bait, catching several fish around 15” or so. Then I switched to a shad color chatterbait and that’s when the two big girls decided they wanted to eat. I got to the end of the bluff and went ahead and motored down to the south cove to see if the water was warmer since by that time the sun came out. Threw a crankbait for about 10 minutes and turned around and headed back to the bluff. Fished the bluff side again changing to a spinnerbait and caught a few more. After that it was about 1 o’clock, so I decided to go north and fish the bluff side right before Big Bay. All I threw there was a crankbait and caught several spotted bass and at 2 o’clock I headed back to the Campbell Point bluff to see if I could pull a couple more inches out of it but just kept getting the 15” fish. It was an awesome day to fish.
How can anglers and fans of big bass keep up with you in social media?
Jason – Instagram: @kayakfishingfocus YouTube: @kayakfishingfocus
Micah – Instagram: @Micahfunderburgh YouTube: @Kayaknbass
Corey – Instagram: @notsoprofishin
AOY and Heavy Hitters Standings
Angler of the Year and Heavy Hitters races have begun. It is a long season and these current rankings don’t mean a lot. As a reminder, AOY is best six events and the Classic, so you don’t even have to count this first one if you don’t want to. It’s also not too late to sign up for a membership if you want to be in these competitions going forward – sign up before Tenkiller!
Here are your current Top 25 AOY rankings. The Top 25 make the end of season Classic Championship!
Heavy Hitters is off to a slow start without a giant. That means everyone is still in good shape to compete this season. Your five largest fish from each individual event will make up your HH limit – lots of time left to get going on this.
See you at the next event: Lake Tenkiller, April 6
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