Arkansas Lakes Fishing Report

Lake - Bull Shoals 10/02/06

Dam area to Lead Hill: The warmer weather has stalled the fall migration to banks in the dam area; small mouth continue to be caught on pea gravel banks with Jewel football or spider jigs in PB&J with green pumpkin Chompers jig trailers as deep as 40’ deep, Kentuckies are hanging on drops or channel swings around schools of shad try Chompers drop shot worms or spoons under the shad, Largemouth had moved shallow but the warm up has moved them back out to 15’+ with Jewel football jigs and Carolina rigs being the most effective patterns.

Lead Hill to Power site: Look for fish to have moved back out with the warming trend, rock piles, brush piles and standing timer are all holding fish. Flippin and pitching has been effective around visible cover, try brown Eakins jigs with green pumpkin Eakins’ craws for trailers as well as green pumpkin tubes. A few fish are being caught off the ends and sides of deep points and gravel roll offs on Jewel football jigs and Carolina rigged baby brush hogs.

Report #2

Sometimes Mother Nature likes to play games like waiting until the last week of summer and then dropping the temperature down to 47 degrees for a few nights or how about pushing a cold front through the Ozarks over the weekend creating severe storms with lots of rain, hail and high winds.

I guess that is our welcome to fall. Lake level is up a little with the 2+ inches of rain, we are now at 649.02 and that is not counting the 24 hour runoff still to come.

Lake temperature is holding between 74.8 and 75.8 throughout most of the lake. This weeks’ thermocline has made some changes. The lower lake thermocline has moved up to 28 feet and is 10 feet wide (28 to 38 feet). The mid-lake thermocline has dropped down to 40 feet and is 8 feet wide (40 to 48 feet).

Crappie moved back into the brush piles and are holding tight about 16 feet down. Crappie minnows do not work as well when the crappie are hiding in the brush piles. If you are having trouble getting bites switch to crappie tubes or Bobby Garland Swimming Minnows.

Largemouth bass still remain elusive except for in the mornings on top water in the back of creeks and coves. Buzzbaits picked up this week but Zara Spook Jrs and Lucky Craft Sammy’s still caught more 15 to 18 inch keepers. During the day a few largemouth can be caught but there are no schools or patterns. Spoons in 30 to 35 feet of water on the bluffs and around points will trigger a few, drop shot rigs fished in 30 to 38 feet of water in the middle of creek pockets will catch a few also.

Try Carolina rigs with baby brush hogs or Zoom trick worms in 28 to 38 feet of water over flats. Smallmouth bass continue to move up onto pea rock banks and points that have some transition chunk rock around or on them. They are using a zone between 18 feet out to 32 feet of water, so your best bet is to set your boat in 36 to 38 feet of water and work back to the boat. Tubes, Spider jigs, Mojo rigs with baby brush hogs or finesse worms and Hula grubs are all starting to trigger the smallies.

Kentucky bass are still at the ends of bluffs, middle of coves and off main lake points with balls of shad. Spoons and drop shot rigs with 4 inch finesse worms remain your best bet to trigger a few.The Kentucky top water frenzy bite is not there as yet, once we get the lake temperature down into the 60’s we will see the shad on the top and the Kentuckys will follow them.

Walleye are still on the flats in 33 to 38 feet of water, but they were a little picky this week. There was no technique that worked better than another; a few on spoons, a few on bottom bouncers with a crawler harness, a few on lead core with deep diving Tail Dancer, Reef Runners and Jointed Shad Raps and few long lining a Bill Normal DD22. We are in transition and will watch the development.