Arkansas Lakes Fishing Report

Lake - Bull Shoals 11/01/06

Dam area to Lead Hill: Still a real strong topwater bite in the dam area early and late; spooks, sammys and redfins are all producing allot of fish even though most are non keepers. Once the sun comes up you will need to back out on pea gravel points, flats and roll offs and throw either Jewel spider and football jigs in PB& J with green pumpkin jig trailers or mojo rigged finesse worms or french fries. Both presentations need to be fished out as deep as 30’ deep, pay close attention any rock or wood cover you find on the bottom as most of the fish will be holding close to it.

Lead Hill to Power site: The topwater bite has been strong early and late above Lead Hill as well early and late. There is also a decent spinnerbait bite on windy days as well, try white or mouse colored War Eagle spinnerbaits and work them on windy flats and around wood and rock cover. The best bite through out the day continues to be with a Jewel football or spider jig in either PB&J or brown / purple flash matched up with a green pumpkin Chompers jig trailer. Fish either jig from 10’ – 35’ deep on pea gravel points, flats and roll offs paying close to any wood or rock cover.

Report #2

Fall weather has started with three days of temperatures in the 50’s and rain this past week, although this weekend we have had sunshine and temperatures in the 60’s. If you like the fall colors now is the time to spend a day on the lake looking at the beautiful fall colors and you might also see some Bald Eagles as they have already arrived here at Bull Shoals. Lake temperature has dropped to 60.5 and this week’s pool level is 647.82, 6 1/2 feet below normal. The fall bite still hasn’t taken off but the lake is now at the right temperature and we saw bass and sunfish on the banks Saturday afternoon.

Crappie are hard to find on the brush piles as they have moved to the middle of the cuts or coves away from the brush piles and they are suspended at around 28 to 32 feet. Slip bobbers with crappie minnows work the best when the crappie move out away from the brush. Pole trees are holding crappie on the bluff walls, they are also suspending in the 28 to 30 foot range. Crappie tubes, Bobby Garland Swimming minnows and crappie grubs work better than live bait along the bluffs.

Largemouth bass have moved up some and a few can be caught on spinnerbaits and crankbaits during the day. The best bite is still in the early mornings on Zara Spooks and buzzbaits. There are some largemouth that have moved to docks and you can trick a few flipping tubes or Spider Jigs around them.

Smallmouth bass are still using “do nothing” banks (pea rock) and there are numbers of smallies in those areas, but the nicer smallies are on banks that have some ledges from the bank out to 28 feet of water. Spider Jigs and tube baits remain the best baits at this time. Early morning finds some smallies up on the banks and they can be triggered by slow rolling spinnerbaits and Lucky Craft Pointer 78DD jerk baits.

Kentucky bass have become scattered this week. There are Kentuckys under docks, along chunk rock banks and channel swings, under shad in 30 to 90 feet of water and frenzy feeding on top out in the middle of “nowhere”. A number of lures and techniques can produce some nice fish. Spoons on deep fish, drop shot on suspended fish, tubes and Spider Jigs around docks and chunk rock banks and spinnerbaits or crankbaits over points or channel swings.

Walleye anglers are targeting walleye in the 38 to 42 feet of water off flats but the bite is slow. The anglers that spooned this week had better success than the long liners. The walleye went down on the bottom early in the week and are still sitting there. With a little sun and some stabilization in the weather weshould see them move off the bottom and move into a shallower zone. Meanwhile keep pulling Deep Tail Dancers, Reef Runners and Jointed Shad Raps over the flats.