Arkansas Lakes Fishing Report

Lake - Bull Shoals 10/19/06

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder and the cold fronts are becoming more frequent. We had days in the 50’s and nights in the upper 30’s this last week, which dropped the lake temperature down to 66.8 degrees in the morning, warming to 67.8 during the day.

Lake clarity is at 9 feet with some stain in the creek arms and in the upper lake areas. Lake level is at 647.79, 6 1/2 feet below normal pool and it is time to start swinging the points just a little wider than normal as lower units and rocks do not get along very well.

The thermocline is gone, the lake did not turn over (or flip), one day the thermocline was at 34 feet and the next day it was just gone. That means we now have the same temperature from the surface down to 48 feet and the game fish also have great oxygen down to 48 feet and they can feed and move anywhere from the bank out to 48 feet of water. This pattern along with the lake temperature should move us into the fall bite within the next two weeks.

Largemouth bass top water bite has fallen off this week and a few each morning is the best we can do. Buzzbaits and Spook Jrs seem to be the best top water baits. Keep your eyes open out on the main lake or in the middle of creeks for largemouth pushing shad to the top.

Smallmouth bass are using “do nothing” banks (pea rock banks), but it is hard to pinpoint how deep of water they are in. Best bet is to keep your boat in 40+ feet of water and fish toward the bank with tubes, football jigs, Spider Jigs and Hula grubs.

When the wind was blowing this week we were able to trigger a few nice smallies on Bandit and Wiggle Wart crankbaits and a few smallmouth even attacked spinnerbaits. Kentucky bass are back under the shad.

That is good because the shad are up on the surface. Frenzy feeding might happen at any time throughout the day and it could be on the main lake, in a pocket, cove or creek. Best baits on top are Lucky Craft Sammys, Pop R’s or Zara Spook Jrs. There are also Kentuckys in the 40 to 48 foot range, which will hit a spoon or football jig. They are located on deep structure, such as channel swing drop offs and in the tree tops.

Walleye were “so-so” this week and there were keepers caught in a wide range from 15 feet of water out to 48 feet of water. The only problem was numbers – one here and one there – not much of a pattern. Under these conditions it is better to graph the area you wish to fish and see what depth the walleye are in over the structure you are graphing.

Lead core still is the number one technique by most local walleye anglers. Best baits have been Deep Tail Dancers, WallyDivers, Glass Shad and Jointed Shad-Raps.