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

November 8, 2004

This last week was a typical fall week with a few days of rain, a cold front moving through with temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s and a few days with blue bird skies and temperatures in the upper 70’s. Whatever type of weather you like it was there sometime during the week. Lake level this week is at 652.63, holding about 1 ½ feet under normal pool level, this is pretty good for this time of the year. Lake temperature is still very warm, 63 to 65 degrees, not fall like conditions to start the good fall bite. Starting this week we will be rating the fishing conditions on the lake from fair to good to excellent. The bass, crappie and walleye are confused and so are the shad, roaming from the shallows to suspending off points over deep water. Rating: It is tough so will give it a "fair" for this week.

Crappie are not holding on the brush piles, but they are around them, you just have to hunt for them. Crappie minnows, tube jigs and Bobby Garland Swimming Minnows are your best baits. Fish early in the mornings and stay in 20 to 30 feet of water.

Largemouth bass continue to roam in and out of the pockets and backs of creeks and right now it is hard to pattern them. If the wind is up work the banks with buzzbaits, spinnerbaits or Wiggle Warts. On low wind conditions fish secondary points from the entrance of the creek or pocket to the backs with Spider Jigs, Carolina rigs (brush hogs or trick worms) or Hula grubs. Stay in 35+ feet of water and work your baits really slow. 

Smallmouth bass seem to be on do nothing banks and points, at least the ones we can get to bite. Stay off straight banks and point jump using Wiggle Warts and Bandit crankbaits when the wind is up. On blue bird days, back out to 40+ feet of water and fish Spider Jigs, football jigs, Mojo rigs with finesse worms or Carolina rigs with brush hogs or Senco's. 

Kentucky bass are still traveling with the shad pushing them to the surface every once in a while. Pop R’s and Chug Bugs will trigger some strikes when the Kentuckys are frenzy feeding. Use your locator to find schools of shad and drop silver or white spoons down through them during the off feeding period. This spooning technique will trigger a response and you will be able to catch a few.

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 are now available at Wilderness Trail. The PWT is a Pro-Am and this past June one-third of the field consisted of local anglers. This week the Bull Shoals PWT tournament from June 2004 can be seen on The Outdoor Channel, Monday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday 3:30 p.m. and Thursday 11 p.m.

Walleye are extremely shallow for some reason. They are in 12 to 18 feet of water along chunk rock points and banks at night and during the day. Remember what you were doing last spring? Well go back to that technique at this time. Cast Lucky Craft Pointers, Suspending Rogues, pull bottom bouncers with nightcrawlers or just fish a nightcrawler on a split shot rig. The trollers must pull shallow running baits that stay above 20 feet if they are going to have any luck. Walleye, when not up on the banks, are suspending around 20 feet and can be over any depth of water.

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

}><(((º> Millwood Lake Fishing Report 11/08/04 <º)))><{

Millwood Lake Guide Service reports water temps 66º-70º
5 inches above normal pool, muddy, & steady with current. Release rate at dam: all 13 gates = 7,046CFS.

Largemouth bass are fair to good with periodic schooling activities continuing on Rat-L-Traps in white shad, chrome (sunny days), or smoky shad colors. 10" Berkley power worms in blue fleck and medium diving Bagley Balsa B's crankbaits are taking some decent size keepers up Little River, in the clearer oxbows away from river current. The schooling bass continue chasing shad in remaining lily pads and grass. The cooler surface temps over the last few weeks have increased schooling activities. Catches of 25 to 30 bass per outing have been common in the last few weeks as the fall weather temperature & water cools. This is an excellent time, probably the best opportunity of the entire year, to take a youngster fishing for a few hours. The action can be fast and furious, now and for the next few weeks, catching numbers of juvenile bass, in a relatively short outing. Youngsters just want to catch "something/anything", and this time of year fishing with an authoritative figure in their lives, can get kids hooked on fishing for their entire lifetime ( I remember it sure did it for me, fishing this time of year with my Dad ! :) .

During schooling periods, find the black bass, spotted bass and white bass up and down Little River, back in mouths of creeks dumping into Little River, and away from current or muddy water influx due to recent rains and incoming fresh water. You will find the bass chasing shad and busting them in the grass beds and remaining lily pads. These aggressive feeders are are excellent on 1/4oz to 3/4oz Rat-L-Traps in chrome/black back or white glitter and various shad patterns; white Rocket Shads, and War Eagle Spinnerbaits in blue glimmer or firecracker color patterns in the lily pads and grass along edges of Little River. If you see shad busting to the surface, or stranded on tops of lily pads and vegetation, lightly pitch in a small 1/4oz War Eagle spinnerbait in firecracker or blue glimmer or a white/chart Rocket Shad and just "Let It Rip" back through the remaining vegetation. Many of the strikes are occurring just as the spinnerbait rips free of the grass. Schooling activities have remained good over the last week, only slightly reduced with the incoming fresh water from last week's 3-5" rainfall and run-off. With the cooler days and nights, surface temps in the last week have dropped again slightly, this week. The larger fish continue hitting the larger 3/4 oz Rat-L-Traps since it is typically fished slower & deeper, underneath the breaking 1-2 pound juvenile bass. In addition, if you can get a 1/2oz to 3/4oz hammered spoon, through the schoolers, be ready for the big bite just underneath the schooling bass. Tip: put on a white bucktail on the business end of the spoon. Medium to deep diving crankbaits are beginning to work better as well, for the larger bass, by working underneath the schools of smaller bass.

White Bass are sometimes found schooling along and with the Black Bass and have been caught in the same schools as the blacks, but the Whites are still preferring the smaller crank baits like Speed Traps, Hot Lips, and small spinners like Chuck-n-spins or white rocket shads, over the top water baits. Catches of 25-50 per afternoon of blacks, spots, hybrids and whites mixed in the schools, between 1-3 pounds have been common in the last few weeks.