Arkansas Lakes Fishing Report

Lake - Bull Shoals 06/12/06

Dam area to Lead Hill: The dam area continues to have a great smallmouth and Kentucky bite; Carolina rigged french fries, shaky head finesse worms, Jewel 3/16 and 5/16 spider jigs all fished on long pea gravel points out to 30’ deep. Schools of Kentuckies have been working over groups of shad through out the day and can be caught on top waters early and late when they surfacing and on drop shot rigs in the heat of the day when they are suspended below the schools of shad.

Lead Hill to Power site: Most of the fish have moved out to deep points, roll offs and deep ridges; target these fish with either a Jewel ½ oz. heavy cover finesse football jig, a Jewel 5/8 oz. heavy cover football jig or a Carolina rigged lizard or baby brush hog. Fish all of these bait from shallow to deep paying close attention to the bait as it falls off a ledge or drop.

Report #2

Fishing report for BULL SHOALS LAKE home of the record Largemouth Bass.
Submitted as a community service by SPRING CREEK ENTERPRISES, Don and Judy Schnable 417 273 4859 schnabs@webound.com

SPRING CREEK ENTERPRISES http://www.maout.com/springcreek is sponsored by HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS Mountain Home Arkansas http://www.hiexpress.com , SCHOCKEYS BOAT and MOTOR http://www.bullshoals.com/schockey/

June 12, 2006

Hot days and warm nights sum up the weather pattern this past week. 90’s during the day and upper 60’s at night put a damper on the amount of time one could stand out in the heat and fish, but if you could bear it, you could catch some nice fish. Lake temperature has pushed up to the 80 degree mark with warmer water in the back of the creeks and coves and the game fish have definitely moved to their summer haunts and into their summer patterns. The pool level has come down a little over the week. There has been some generation daily with the warm weather. The new level is 653.91, ½ foot below normal pool. Crappie picked up this week in the upper lake areas. Flats that have crappie cribs and brush piles are holding numbers of nice crappie. Live bait (crappie minnows) have been working better than artificial this past week. Bobby Garland Swimming Minnows and tubes or grubs are still great to use as search baits, then switch over to the live crappie minnows once you find a school.

Largemouth bass are surface feeding in the mornings along the bluff walls and in the middle of cuts in the creek areas. Zara Spooks, Sammy’s, X-raps and buzzbaits are all triggering feeding largemouth. After the sun is up move to the drop offs around points and fish a Carolina rig in 30 to 40 feet of water. Best baits are baby brush hogs, Yum Wooly Hawgtails, finesse worms, trick worms and 5” Sinko’s. Smallmouth bass have been spotty with the smaller Smallmouth up on pea rock banks in the mornings and the bigger Smallmouth holding out in 30 to 35 feet of water until night time. Tubes and Mojo rigged centipedes or finesse worms are working in the mornings along the banks. Carolina rigs and football jigs are starting to trigger the nicer Smallmouth in the deeper water. Kentucky bass have moved to the balls of shad and are suspended in 30 to 40 feet of water in the pockets, creeks and coves throughout the lake, Spoons are already starting to trigger Kentuckys that are under the shad. Also fish a drop shot rig with a 4” worm or the new shaker heads with swimming worms. There is some frenzy feeding going on in the mornings but you have to be in the right spot at the right time.

Walleye have moved to the flats and channel swings but they are still in shallow water (18 to 30 feet). Crawler harnesses and leech harnesses on bottom bouncers are working well and starting to catch numbers of small walleye and some nice keepers. Trolling with lead core has started to pick up across the flats but you need to troll with your trolling motor when you are inside of 30 feet of water. Best baits have been Hot’N Tots, Reef Runner Ripshads and #7 Glass Shad.

NIGHT TIME: Bass are moving up on the points and into brush piles a few hours after dark. Jig and pigs, brush hogs and Gene Larew worms are the key baits. Twin Spins and Single Spins are just starting to trigger night time bass. As we move into the summer these baits will become dominant. The new Chatter Bait should be a hot night time bait also. Night time walleye are up on the flats feeding. Points are okay to fish but the numbers are now on the flats. Fish 20 to 26 feet of water with White Glass Shad or crawler or leech harness with red or orange blades.

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

For stories and info in the our Ozark area and data on recreational activities in the midwest log on to one of the nations largest and most complete Internet magazines Don and Judy Schnable 417 273 4859 schnabs@webound.com

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