Crappie very good using minnows

Stripers are deep using umbrella rigs and deep cranks and live shad

Largemouth Bass good using spinner baits and plastics 

White Bass No Report

October 11, 2004
We started this last week with sunshine and moderate temperatures in the 70’s. On Friday the rain came in and it is still raining on Sunday. We have had a little over 3" as of Sunday night. Lake level is at 651.68, about the same as last week. On a positive note – the rain has cleared the lake visibility and we are now at 16 feet. On the negative side the lake clarity has shut down the fall movement for bass and walleye and the bite has slowed. The thermocline is still at 33 feet and the lake temperature is ranging from 67 to 69 degrees. Crappie have been so-so staying around brush piles in 26 to 28 feet of water. Best baits have been crappie minnows on pink or white jigs and crappie tubes in black or pink colors.

Saturday and Sunday the Angler’s Edge Bull Shoals Open was held out of Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock. Clarence Phillips and Jim Roberts won this tournament with 16.86 pounds of bass for the two day event. Big bass of the tournament was a 4.58 pound largemouth caught by the team of Shannon Schroder and Hunter Duren. Congratulations to all of the competitors.

Largemouth bass are in the creeks holding on structure in the middle of the cuts and coves and moving to the banks when they want to feed. Buzzbaits, spinnerbaits and Zara Spooks or Lucky Craft Sammy’s will trigger a few strikes up on the banks. Carolina rigged brush hogs or finesse worms are working in the middle of the cuts along with football jigs. 

Smallmouth bass left the points and flats with the rain. They are now back on the drop offs in 30 to 45 feet of water hugging the bottom. The bite is slow but a few can be triggered with football jigs, Spider Jigs, Mojo rigged trick worms and Carolina rigged lizards or brush hogs. Look for some top water action in the bigger pockets this week, the shad have started to move in over the last few days. 

Kentucky bass were active on the ends of the bluff walls and off the large flats around the lake but they have shut down and left their holding areas. We can find a few here and there but there is no pattern, so lets see what happens throughout the week and maybe we can key into their movement.

The PWT will return to Bull Shoals on May 11 through 13, 2005 and entry blanks for amateurs are now available. The can be ordered by phone from PWT at 218-824-2542, or by downloading them from the PWT web site at www.professionalwalleyetrail.com. They will soon be available at Wilderness Trail. The PWT is a Pro-Am and this past June one-third of the field consisted of local anglers.

Walleye seem to be the only game fish not affected by the cool weather and rain. The bite has been great this last week around points and across flats on spoons, crawler harnesses and trolling Reef Runners. Walleye are in a depth range from 20 to 44 feet. You just have to pick the right technique for the depth you wish to fish. From 20 to 30 feet use Bottom Bouncers and crawler harnesses (chartreuse or red blades). From 30 to 44 feet you can use spoons and fish them vertically over the walleye or troll lead core line with Reef Runners, Bill Norman DD14’s or Rapala Glass Shad. The best bite is from dawn until 10 a.m. and 3 to 9 p.m.

Trout fishing on the White River has been good on Power Bait in yellow and Belgian red worms. Buoyant Spoons, Little Cleos, and Rooster Tails have been working when the generation is on. The fly fishermen have done well on olive or brown Woolly Buggers, sow bugs, egg pattern in peach and San Juan worms. Browns are being caught on Countdowns, Flat Fish and nightcrawlers.

}><(((º> Millwood Lake Fishing Report 10/11/04 <º)))><{

Millwood Lake Guide Service reports water temps 69º-74º, 4.5 inches above normal pool, heavy stain, & rising.

Largemouth bass, are slow to fair due to surface temps dropping 10-15º from recent rains, cold front passages, cooler ambient day and night temperatures over the last week. The schooling bass have diminished in the last week, are very random. During schooling periods, try Rat-L-Traps in chrome/black or white glitter. Cordell Crazy Shads in silver/black back and Johnson spoons with grub trailers in the lily pads along Little River, are taking a few solid bass at various times. Schooling activity is random, and greatly decreased over last week, but occurring during the warmer period of the day, around 11am-2pm. With the cooler days and nights, surface temps in the last week have dropped aprox. 10-15º and the schooling has become reduced in frequency and intensity, attempting to adjust to the cooler temps. The schooling bass are taking all sizes of the Rat-L-Traps from 1/4 oz to 3/4 oz. The larger fish are hitting the larger 3/4 oz Rat-L-Traps simply because it is fished slower & deeper, underneath the surface breaking 1-2 pound bass. Deep diving crankbaits are beginning to work better, for the larger bass, by working underneath the schools of smaller juvenile bass.

The White Bass are sometimes found schooling along and with the Black Bass and have been caught in the same schools as the blacks, but apparently, the Whites are still preferring the smaller crank baits like Speed traps or Hot Lips or Chuck-N-Spins, etc over the top water baits. Catches of 35-70 per afternoon of blacks, spots, hybrids and whites mixed in the schools, between 1-3 pounds have been common in the last week-10 days.

Carolina Rigging Lake Fork French Fries in watermelon/red or 5" Bass Assassin Shads are catching keepers along cuts and stair-step drops in Little River, at the 9 foot drop zones. Speed Traps or Hot Lips Crankbaits in pearl belly/blue back or white/blue back are catching keeper bass along points of feeding creeks in Little River. The crank bait bite has improved over the last week, taking better quality bass than week before, but slow it down more to entice the big bite in the same area. Don't be surprised if you pick up a few whites or hybrids with the cranks in the same areas along Little River, as well. Also, we have been placing / pinching a small 1/32oz or similar size lead weight 12-15" up the line to give the crank a slightly different depth and wobble for the larger black bass. Bass Assassin 5" shads, or Zoom Horney Toads in black or pumpkin/white belly, are catching decent bass in the lily pads, coontail moss and hydrilla.

No report for Crappie this week due to increased current, high wind and muddy conditions on main lake.

Long nose Gar are still relatively shallow in the backs of the creeks and feeding. There are some excellent bow-fishing opportunities on Millwood at present. While bass fishing, we have seen huge Gar, well in excess of 10 pounds each, in water less than 3 feet in depth, cruising the shallows and feeding on shad, or other baitfish.

}><(((º> Lake Fishing Conditions Report<º)))><{

Be advised the USA Corps of Engineers recently replaced many of the missing river buoys in Little River, although there are still some stretches along the river that are still being worked on. We have seen several of the buoys washed up onto the south bank, between Pugh Slough and Jack's Isle.

The lake level has slightly risen again this past week and as of Monday October 11, is approximately 4.5 inches above normal conservation pool at 259.57, and rising, with 778CFS being released at the dam. Water clarity in the river, is much worse due to high current and inflow, and visibility is approximately 3-4 inches. Clarity is somewhat better in Little River, than the main lake, due to the bank protection from the high winds, however, the overall clarity is worsening from recent rain and high winds over the last week.