Catfish are biting river worms and shrimp

Bluegill good on crickets waxworks and river worms

Crappie fair to poor on minnows

Bass fair top water early am

Fishing Report by:     Wilderness Trail      

ANGLER'S EDGE 3RD ANNUAL TEAM BASS TOURNAMENT
OCTOBER 15-16, 2005
Entry Fee $200.00 plus $20.00 Big Bass (100% payback - optional)
Each team will receive 2 Free Falcon Rods and a Free Buffet Dinner at Mario's
Entry forms can be picked up at Wilderness Trail - Entry fees can be paid at Wilderness Trail also
For more Information call us at 870-445-2703

We did not have much of a change in this week’s weather pattern, except for a few pop up storms that dropped about 1" of rain, otherwise the daytime temperatures stayed n the 90’s with 70’s at night. Lake temperature came down a little and is at 85.6 degrees in most areas. Lake level this week is 649.26, five feet below normal pool. Compared to Norfork Lake (9.5 feet low) and Table Rock Lake (8.4 feet low), Bull Shoals is in pretty good shape for as hot as this summer has been. The thermocline dropped a foot this week, which puts it at 31 feet and if you think that is shallow, you are right. 

Crappie remain slow and in deep water. Points and pole trees along the cliffs are good holding areas. Crappie minnows are the best bait fished on a colored jig head (red or chartreuse). Catfish were very active this week in main lake pockets and coves. Best baits have been chicken liver, Magic Bait, nightcrawlers and frozen shad.

Largemouth bass have slowed down in the mornings and the top water bite has become a real hit and miss situation. Secondary points in the creeks and main lake points are your best bet. Fish these areas with Jig and Pigs, tubes or Carolina rigged finesse worms or brush hogs. Most of the largemouth are holding close to the thermocline at 30 to 31 feet. 

Smallmouth bass are also using points and this week we saw some action with the smallies pushing shad to the surface in the mornings. Zara Spooks, Chug Bugs and buzz baits trigger some nice fish during early morning frenzy feeding. Spider Jigs, tubes and drop shot 4" worms are working in 30 feet of water around points during the day. Best bite is early morning and from 2 p.m. until dark. 

Kentucky bass are still hard to find as they are traveling with the shad, which they have done all summer. Every once in a while you will see a school of frenzy feeding on top but its not a pattern you can count on. Best baits on top have been clear Pop R’s or Chug Bugs and Zara Spook Jrs. Spoons and drop shot rigs are working the best on the Kentuckys under the shad. Check the ends of the bluff walls and over the channels in the creek arms for schools.

Walleye must love the heat because the best bite is in the middle of the afternoon. A number of baits and techniques are catching keeper walleye in 30 to 32 feet of water along the elongated points and main lake transition banks. Some of the techniques and baits are crawler harnesses or leech harnesses with bottom bouncers, long lining with Reef Runners, long lining with lead core line and blue Glass Shad, vertically spooning with ¾ to 1 oz white or gray spoons and dragging a shiner on a split shot rig.

NIGHT TIME UPDATE: The bite is picking up on the bluff walls and on the channel swing ends. Best baits continue to be Texas rigged worms (8 to 10") in red shad or cherry seed colors, pigs and jigs in brown/orange or blue/black colors.

LAKE RATING: This week the bite has been tough, except for the walleye. The rating is Fair.

Fishing for trout on the White River has been good on Berkley Power Eggs in yellow, pink and orange and Belgium red worms. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, Super Dupers and Little Cleo's are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen did well on olive Woolly Bugger, soft hackles, and olive scuds and sow bugs. The Brown trout are being caught on Countdowns, Flat Fish and nightcrawlers.

Remember to keep only what you can eat and release the rest for another day. Rick Culver of Wilderness Trail does the research for this report and the writing of this report.

Concordia fishing is really good now. the lake is full. 

Catfish excellent up l4 lbs. a 54 lbs cat was taken on perch minnow by rod and reel. 

Bass are excellent near the banks. I saw a 6 lb bass brought in using minnows. 

Crappie is good pan size about 6 to 8 inch a few larger but mainly pan size. 

Happy Holiday and Good Fishing. 

Art

Catfish are biting river worms and shrimp

Bluegill good on crickets waxworks and river worms

Crappie fair to poor on minnows

Bass fair top water early am

Channel Catfish GOOD

Largemouth Bass GOOD

Bluegill Sunfish FAIR

Redear Sunfish FAIR

Crappie FAIR

Cottontail Lake will be closed for physical renovation for the next couple of years. The lake has refilled and the stocking of small fish will occur this summer. After they reach a harvestable size the lake will reopen for fishing.

Honker Pond will be closed through the end of August for some renovation work.

Date: 9/1/05
Lake Level : 601.5
Normal Lake Level : 606
Water Condition: Clear
Surface Water Temp: 82 - 85

This weekend will be the last major holiday for this summer. Have fun, but more importantly have safe fun. Happy Labor Day.

Crappie remains the same, there are lots of crappie being caught, just not lots of size to 'em. Expect to go through a lot of small crappie to get your keepers. The most consistent reports of better size crappie are coming from about 20 feet of water, near bluffs with lots of structure. Keep on the move. Jigs tipped with minnows, or jigs tipped with crappie nibbles.

Bass fishing has been fair. Plastics off of main lake points, in about 3 - 10 feet of water.

Cat Fishing has been fair. A lot of channel cats have been caught on rod and reel. Trot liners have been slow.

Crappie - No Report

Bass - No Report

Black bass fair on plastic worms early in the morning

White bass fair trolling on the flats using rooster tails

Crappie fair on minnows around trees and structures

Catfish fair on shad and worms

Bluegill fair on worms 12 to15 of water

Walleye/Muskie slow.

Bass slow using spinners near the brush piles

Crappie (good) try above the thermocline from 4-12' down. try minnows or tube jigs under a bobber around timber

No Report

GENERAL COMMENTS

Water still off until 11:00 a.m. earliest, 1:00-2:00 p.m. latest.

Water Conditions: Pattern has been pretty consistent. Water off until 11:00 a.m. or noon then one generator on for a short period then ramped up to four until 8:00 p.m. earliest or 10:00 p.m. latest. Monday and Tuesday, however, they turned on one generator at 6:00 a.m. on Monday and 3:00 a.m. Tuesday. Kept these on until 1:00 p.m. each day they turned on the remaining generators. Today it was off until 1:00 p.m.

FLY FISHING TROPHY AREA (dam to Fall Creek)-SHALLOW WATER-WADING-

Sunday was one of those perfect mornings....overcast with a light fog on the water. As I walked down toward the river, it was very calm and saw very little activity. Stood there for a moment then put an intermediate sink tip section on my fly line with 5-6 feet of 5X tippet and a size 8 black, unweighted woolly bugger. First cast, missed a hit, but the morning just got better. Caught a nice 21-22 inch Brown, a couple of 18 inch Rainbows and lots more in the 13-15 inch range. Passed this info on to one of our guides out that morning and his guest also had a great morning. Monday they had one generator going and we had out a couple from California who have fished with us before. They had hoped to wade and we could have with the level staying around 703.8, but we decided to drop in the drift boat and away we went. Best fishing was the stretch in front of the KOA camp ground. We drifted through this area several times with the size 16 red tunghead midge and picked up fish all morning. They were glad they had only booked a half day as they were tired when they got off the water. Nothing big, but probably 30-40 fish between the two of them. Another boat out Tuesday with the one generator going. They had a great day on the Ugly zebra midge and the tan flashback scud. With the one generator, they had their best time at the Lookout Point Island fishing the nice riffle created by one generator. No boats on the water today, but everyone coming into the shop had caught something. Size 16 tan scud is what most of these folks caught their fish on. Don't forget if you are out fishing with the water off. If the horn sounds, don't roll it up. Get yourself to a safe place from the water rise and change to a larger, weighted scud (12) or a San Juan worm (worm brown was really good this past week), add some split shot, a large indicator set pretty deep depending on where you are fishing, and fish the rise. You don't have to cast out very far. Look where the fish are sliding in toward the back and fish those edges.

STAN'S TIP: Everyone has had it happen. You put your rod pieces together and can't get them apart. If this happens, and you have tried all the other techniques to get them apart, try putting ice around the joint. Let it cool down for a bit then try to get them apart. This usually works after everything else has failed.

Up and down is the word out of Truman. After the heavy rains we went up to about 708.50 and are coming back down already. The good thing about a rise in the water is the fact that the COE is going to run water and when they do that the fishing picks up. With the holiday weekend coming we are looking for some real good white bass fishing. The water temp is holding in there and the water clarity in our area is good.

BASS: The bass fishing is up and down like the water. One day its hot and then like last night it got real tough. Larry Wright and Ron Taddeken took first place with 4.38lbs. They also had big fish of 2.62lbs. Second went to Crist Fanning and Terry Close with 2.37lbs. 3rd. went to Doug and Ozzie Wallace with 1.88lbs. The best bite was off flat points in 4' to 6' of water. Main lake points seemed to work the best. Big worms in watermelon red and black and blue jigs were the best baits.

CRAPPIE: We have been seeing crappie come in all week. The pattern that is working the best is isolated trees on the flats in 15' to 20' of water fished with minnows. Big and Little Tebo are the better areas right now. There are a lot of little fish being caught so take lots of minnows. I did hear of some crappie coming off the weir in front of the dam drifting minnows. Steve Blake had limits this week off the brush piles in 15' to 20' of water. These fish also came on minnows.

WHITES & HYBRIDS: We have had quite a few good whites come in this week off the airport and O-3. Jigging spoons seem to be working the best. Some of the fish are coming as deep as 20' off the humps. Have had reports of the hybrids starting to surface in the same areas but not staying up for any long times. The 4" sassy shad is still the top bait on the hybrids.

CATFISH: In talking with the white bass fisherman they say they are catching catfish on jigging spoons off the humps. Might not hurt to drift a night crawler around the humps, who knows you might even catch a walleye.

With the holiday coming this weekend please drive carefully in the lakes area. The kids are back in school and there are a lot of deer starting to move in the early evenings.

That's it for this week from Sterett Creek Marina

Fishing for Cats was real good on Monday caught 12-15 per hour using cut bait in 4 to15 feet of water on the flats 'no big fish'2-12lbs tops lots of fun

No Report