Crappie good using jigs around the brush piles

Stripers very good using live bait

Largemouth Bass fair in the morning using Carolina Rigs and at night with spinner baits or soft plastics

White Bass at night using minnows and shad

January, 2004 - updated every two weeks, or when fishing conditions change

 GENERAL CONDITIONS

Lake Level: 650, staying steady

Surface temperature: 50's on surface and dropping

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Not many changes from last report. The water temperature is dropping with the cold temps we have had this last week. What a change!! Saturday January 3 it was in the mid 70’s, by Tuesday night it was in the single digits. Not may people fishing this week. With the water temp dropping, the fish should be in their winter patterns. They should be schooled up and slow to react. It seems that the largemouth are shallow as usual, the smallmouth are ranging from 10 to 30 feet, and the spotted bass are 40 to 60 feet. If the lake temperature gets down in the lower 40’s then we should have a good shad kill this year. I don’t expect the fishing to change until this happens. I will keep you posted on the water temperature.

From what I am being told and have heard the best patterns have been spinner baits and crank baits for largemouth bass in shallow water. For smallmouth bass use a jig-n-grub combination, crank bait, or plastics in 10 to 300 feet of water. For spotted bass drag night crawlers or jigs in 40 to 60 feet of water. The rest of the patterns below will also work as they do every winter.

Recommended Baits 

-SPINNER BAIT- good pattern to use on a cloudy or windy day. Mostly around the brush piles or chuck rock banks, anything with cover on it.

-LIVE BAIT- Night crawlers are catching fish in the 35 to 60 foot range during the day. Main lake bluffs, bluff ends, lake flats, drop offs, timber and brush piles are the best places to look.

-DROP SHOT- This pattern is working well with night crawlers in 35 to 50 foot of water. There are several places to look- bluff ends, timber bluffs, brush piles, channel swings, and main lake flat points. I know this is a lot of places but the fish are really moving around to find the quality of water they need.

- SPOONING- This pattern is working well in 35 to 55 feet of water on the flats, drop offs and brush piles. The best thing to do is to try to locate the shad balls or bait fish and then drop your spoon around them. If there are any hungry fish around they should not be too far from the bait fish. The other thing to do is to look for bigger fish on your depth finder then entice them to bite by jigging a spoon in front of them.

-PLASTICS- The old grub, gitzit, tube jig, hula grub and any other variation of these are producing fish. Also, the lizards, french fry, salt craw and small plastic worm. Especially the bluegill or crawfish colored ones. Drag these in 10 to 60 feet of water depending on where the fish are on your depth finder. This has been the hottest pattern for smallmouth bass especially on the gravel flats and chunk rock banks on the main lake.

-JIG-N-FROG This pattern is working in the 15 to 25 foot range for smallmouth bass and 40 to 60 foot range for spotted bass

-CRANKBAITS- This pattern is producing fish esp. on cloudy windy days around the brush piles. Any perch-bluegill-sunfish color is working.

-TWIN SPIN- this pattern should also start to work on the timber bluffs any day.  

Recommendations for Specific Species 

WALLEYE - With the water temp increasing and the thermocline dropping the walleye are moving down past the thermocline. The old time fisherman will go way out on the gravel flats this time of year and look for the walleye hanging out there. They will look for shad balls and spoon around them or spoon around the blips on their fish finder screens.

1. Spooning in 35 to 55 feet of water on the main lake gravel flats.

2. Dragging a night crawler. This can be done with a basic split shot and hook rig, or with bottom bouncers. The walleye seem to be in the 35-45 foot range.

3. Trolling with chartreuse crankbaits. Flat trolling with deep divers is producing fish later in the day when the sun goes down and the walleye come up.

CRAPPIE- The crappie fishing is good. They are still coming in on small minnows, small jigs and small tube baits. Look around the sunken brush piles or standing timber in 30 to 40 foot of water.

CATFISH- The catfish are being caught on jug lines and trot lines off the main lake pockets and coves around brush piles and stumps. They are mostly feeding at night, however some day fisherman are catching them on night crawlers in 30 to 40 feet of water.

TROUT- There was a lot of trout caught on Bull Shoals Lake this last week. They are trolling spoons around the bluffs and deep water in the Bull Shoals Dam area and doing quite well. Most of the trout are in 55 to 65 feet of water.

White River- Fishing has been good. All of our guides are reporting good catches and activity. Same baits as always- worms, salmon eggs, power bait, night crawlers, corn, for live bait. Rapalas, spoons, spinners for artificial. 

TROUT SEMINAR
March 13th 2 to 4 p.m.
Al Boland of Al B's Guide Service will be the guest speaker
There is no charge for seminar but seats are limited
Call 870-445-2703 for reservations

February 16, 2004
We are one week closer to spring and last week’s snow is almost gone. Temperatures have been running in the lower 40’s with 50’s projected for this week. The lake temperature jumped up to 43 to 44 degrees as the winds pulled warmer water to the surface. Lake level is at 650.73, 3 ½ feet below normal pool. All we need now in the next four weeks is some rain and we will again have a great spawn for the third year in a row. Crappie showed up around some the brush piles and docks that have brush around them this last week. They were slow to bite as they were just roaming around but it is a good sign as cool as the lake temperature is. A few crappie are biting on the bluff walls along standing trees. Best baits are Swimming Minnows and crappie minnows. Fish them on 4 pound line with a slip bobber set at about 30 feet for the best results.

Largemouth bass were hard to find up on the banks where they were last week. They shouldn’t have been there to start with at this time of the year, so we will call that pattern a winter surprise. The middle of channel swings and deep side of points are still holding largemouth. The best bite is on jigs or spoons in 50 to 55 feet of water.

Smallmouth bass are also still in deep water off transition banks, channel swings with large rocks and points on the main lake and at the entrance of some creek arms. They are not as deep as the largemouth bass are and they move up into 35 to 40 feet of water to feed. A few different techniques are working. Drop shot rigs with smoke grubs, Swimming Minnows, drop shot worms and Beaver Tail grubs is one technique. Spider jigs in purple/brown or Peanut Butter and Jelly are also triggering some strikes along with tube baits in shad or watermelon purple colors.

Kentucky bass remain hard to find since they have left the bluff walls and moved out under schools of shad over 60 to 70 feet of water. It takes some time to graph the main lake and middle of the creeks looking for big schools of shad, but when you find them you are going to have some action. Most of the big schools are suspended around 40 to 45 feet and a silver or white spoon will trigger the bite.

The walleye bite that was turned on in the upper lake has slowed down some. Walleye are still moving up on flats to feed and crawler rigs or Suspending Rogues will still catch a few over 25 to 35 feet of water. The mid-lake and lower lake areas remain slow and the walleyes remain in deeper water over the flooded forest and creek channel drop offs. Best bite is in the morning on ball jigs with shiners and spoons fished vertically over the walleye.