Missouri Lakes Fishing Report

Lake - Bull Shoals 03/17/06:

BULL SHOALS LAKE fishing report in the Southern section nearest to Bull Shoals Dam. This message is sent as a community service by SPRING CREEK ENTERPRISES

Mother Nature dealt us a mixed bag of weather this last week with some T-shirt weather in the mid-70’s and some much needed rain. Spring is just around the corner even though we are going to have a cool down in the upcoming week. The rain was a warm rain, which really jumped the temperatures in the lake and back in the creeks that had run-off.

Main lake temperature is now 49.2 degrees with temperatures as high as 52 degrees in the back of northern creeks. The lake level came up almost a foot and we are at 644.87, 9 ½ feet below normal pool as of Sunday morning. White Bass, which we haven’t talked about in six months, are already moving back to shallow water in the northern exposure creeks. A few are being caught in Howard Creek, Sister Creek, Spring Creek, and Big Creek on Roadrunners and Lucky Craft Pointer 78DD’s.

Crappie continue to be slow except in the upper lake areas above Lead Hill. Dragging a crappie minnow will trigger a few around brush piles and points in the mid to lower lake and in the upper lake tubes, crappie jigs and a jig and minnow are the bait of choice around blow downs and brush piles.

Largemouth bass made a major move off the main lake into the creeks and coves this last week. The big largemouth haven’t shown up yet but there are plenty of 15 to 16 inch males that are in. Jigs are great, Crankbaits (Bandits and Wiggle Warts) are even better, but suspending rogues are HOT!

Smallmouth bass are showing up on transition banks and points and holding in 26 to 30 feet of water from the main lake to three-quarters of the way back into the creeks. Spider jigs and tubes are primary baits and on windy days, Wiggle Warts and Bandit crankbaits are also triggering some nice strikes. Suspending rogues are working on sunny glass water conditions, best colors are blue black and black back/orange belly.

Kentucky bass are still with the shad but the shad have moved into the pockets and creeks and so the Kentuckys have moved with them. Spoons are still taking a few but the best bite is on grubs and rogues fished off the banks that have some large chunk rock present. Other baits that are worth fishing are Lucky Craft Pointer 78’s and Junior X-raps.

Walleye have been rumored to have already spawned. This not the case, they are just now moving to the chunk rock banks on the main lake and in the creeks. It is true that there were walleye in the back of some creeks in the upper lake areas a few weeks ago when we had the big warm up but that was a short-lived deal. Start working the entrance points and banks to small pockets or coves in the northern creeks with rogues, Lucky Craft Pointers, X-raps, Shad Raps and Glass Shad.

Fishing for trout on the White River has been up and down depending on the generation. With low or no generation Berkley Power Eggs in yellow and white have worked well along with a floating Rapala. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, Little Cleos and Countdown Rapalas are the baits of choice. The fly fishermen have done extremely well with little generation on olive Woolly Bugger, Zebra Midges and caddis dry fly. The Brown trout are being caught on Countdowns, Jointed Rapalas, suspending rogues 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. For more information call Rick or Sue Culver at Wilderness Trail at 870-445-2703, e-mail us at wtrail@bullshoals.net or check out our web site at www.wildernesstrail.com

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