Arkansas Lakes Fishing Report

Lake - Bull Shoals 03/19/06:

Dam area to Lead Hill: Jewel 5/16 oz. and 7/16 oz. spider jigs in PB&J or green pumpkin / green flash matched up with a 4” Chomper jig trailer fished on secondary chunk rock points and flats continue to be effective. Fish continue to hold tight to over so maintain bottom contact throughout the retrieve and pay close attention to any rock, wood or other cover you may come in contact with. In addition several fish this week have been caught swimming grubs on windy pea gravel points and flats.

Lead Hill to Power site: Wiggle warts and other crankbaits have come on strong this week above Lead Hill, look for windy chunk rock or mixed rock banks on the main lake as well as in the major creek arms. Effective colors have been brown craw, natural green craw or watermelon all fished from 5’ – 8’ deep, make sure to hold your boat 10’ deep or less and parallel the bank on your retrieve. Shaky head finesse or needle worms fished on calm pea gravel points and cuts will also produce several bites.

Lake - Bull Shoals 03/20/06:

Fishing Report Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas in the Dam Area. Submitted by SPRING CREEK ENTERPRISES as a community service.

If you don’t like the weather, wait a day or two and it will change – last week we had spring and it looks like this week we are back to winter. Temperatures dropped back into the 50’s and cold rains started Sunday and are predicted for the first part of the week. We have already lost water temperature in the back of the creeks and the main lake has dropped to 49.6 degrees with around 50 degrees in the backs.

Lake level is up from last week, we are 646.32, which puts us at 8 feet below normal pool. The lake is still dangerous to run in some places, so be careful and swing wide around points. There is a little stain in the back of Jimmie Creek , Big Creek, Howard Creek and East and West Sugar Loaf creeks, the rest of the lake has 12 to 14 feet of visibility.

The White bass have held up on their spawn run with the cool down, but they are still close to the back of the creeks holding in 20 to 30 feet of water. Roadrunners, small silver spoons, Junior X-Raps and 1/8 oz. Rat’l Traps have been key baits this last week.

Crappie are not doing their thing as yet but live bait anglers are having some success outside of brush piles and around docks that have brush with crappie minnows on slip bobbers or a minnow on a crappie drop shot rig.

Largemouth bass have been active on secondary points and in the back of northern pockets, coves and creeks. Crankbaits, suspending rogues, Lucky Craft Pointer 78DD’s and grubs have all been working well along with spinnerbaits when the conditions are right. Will the cold front push them back out this week? If it was a normal year I would say yes, but it’s not and I think they will stay and just slide off the banks.

Smallmouth bass are not as far back as the largemouth. They are staging on points from the mouth of the creeks and coves to half way back. Transition areas around the points and down the banks are holding areas. Best baits are Spider Jigs, hula grubs and Bandit crankbaits.

Kentucky bass have followed the shad into the small pockets and toward chunk rock banks. Tubes worked fairly well last week but the key baits have been rogues fished with a dead stick technique. As the lake warms back up you will need to speed up your return.

Walleye did move in and cruise some points and banks during the night hours last week but the bite was slow and spotty. The day bite is here and there on Lucky Craft Pointer 78’s, suspending rogues and Lindy Munchies fished on the Max Gap jig in 25+ feet of water. We probably won’t see any movement until the lake warms back up to 52 degrees and the weather patterns stabilize.

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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