Arkansas Lakes Fishing Report

Lake - Bull Shoals 03/05/06:

Dam area to Lead Hill: Still a couple of good patterns on the main lake; both rogues and pointers are working on bluff ends and flat windy banks, chrome / black, clown, American shad and chartreuse shad have all been effective patterns. When the wind is not blowing back out and throw Jewel spider jigs in PB&J or brown / purple flash with a Chomper jig trailer and work it slowly across the bottom paying close attention to any cover you run into.

Lead Hill to Power site: The bite above Lead Hill is starting to really turn on, both jerkbaits and crankbaits are starting to produce nice limits of fish. A rouge or pointer will work in this area, the same colors as on the main lake fished close to isolated piece of wood and rock cover. Wiggle warts, deep little “N” and bomber crankbaits are all producing fish on windy 45 degree chunk rock position your boat in 6’ – 8 of water and parallel the bank to be successful.

Lake - Bull Shoals 03/06/06:

The weather this week started out on a great note, with temperatures reaching the 70’s during the day with sunshine and only going down to the 40’s at night. Mid-week the lake temperature had reached 50 to 51 degrees in some areas of the lake. Then came the end of the week with a cold front coming through cooling the water temperatures back to the mid to high 40’s. The game fish had started to move earlier in the week, but the cold front has stopped them in their tracks. We will now have to wait until next week to get the warming restarted and game fish starting to move again. 48 to 52 degrees water temperature is the magic number. Lake level remained steady this week, now at 644.04, at about 10 ¼ feet below normal pool. Crappie have been caught in some of the brush piles that are in 25 to 30 feet of water with a minnow and jig head plus Bobby Garland’s Swimming Minnow fished on a very light jig head (1/16 oz) close to the top of the brush piles.

Largemouth bass are still close to the banks in the upper lake and in the Theodosia arm. Spinnerbaits and suspending rogues remain the best bait. In the rest of the lake the largemouth are holding on the bluffs and main lake points. When the wind is up, small crankbaits or suspending rogues are working, otherwise fish jigs and tubes in brown/green colors. Smallmouth bass were showing up on secondary points in the creek arms this week but that movement will be halted for a few days, waiting for the lake temperature to stabilize again. Spider jigs, tubes and grubs are still working well along with Wiggle Warts and jerk baits on breezy days. You should still begin your day by fishing the 35 foot depth and then move in from there.

Kentucky bass are still with the shad. The shad started moving up out of the deep water, but again they have stopped that movement. Look for the balls of shad in the main lake cuts, cliff wall ends and creek channel swings. Spoons and drop shot rigs are still your best bet except along the bluff walls with pole tress where the Kentuckys will bite grubs, tubes and Spider jigs fished through the trees. The Kentucky will follow the shad, so the key is to find what depth the shad are at and the Kentuckys will be underneath them.

Walleye had begun their migration to their spawning areas (48 degrees water temperature is when they start). Walleye are being found anywhere from 45 feet of water to 10 feet of water. At this time of year a Lucky Craft Pointer 78DD will work on the walleye that are shallow and deeper diving baits such as Deep Little Ripper or Bandit Walleye baits will work the best. Trolling a Hot’N Tot in 20 feet of water will work on those walleye that are suspending.

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, white and chartreuse have worked well. Also with low generation try a floating Rapala. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, and Countdown Rapalas are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen have done extremely well with little generation on olive or black Woolly Bugger, San Juan worms, Zebra Midges and trout crack. The caddis have just started to hatch, so the caddis dry fly will be a good choice this next week. The Brown trout are being caught on Countdowns, Shad Raps, Jointed Rapalas, suspending rogues and nightcrawlers.

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