raise the motor

Phil Would it be possible to video the talk, for those of us who are too far away to attend? Joe

Do you have a matching rod for sale?

"but they are experienced mountaineers and had planned this trip for a while" Proper planning for a winter trip would include provisions for difficulty. The risk of overturning and getting wet is very small for experienced boaters. They will have dry clothes for changing, and should make preparations for a quick fire start just in case (kindling, starter etc, in waterproof container). I would continue down to Pultute and try the roads. If they cannot drive out and cannot get into a buliding they should continue down to Pultite Spring to the vertical log house. The spring is enclosed by hills and I believe the house has a fireplace. Depending on food supply they could wait out the weather or continue down to Round Spring and the highway. This reminds me of an experience on the Current during a driving rainstorm at Pultite forty years ago in early October (early on a nine day trip). With all of our gear soaked (including a canvas tent put up wet) we floated down to the two caves below Pultite. We built a fire along the bluff and enjoyed a dinner of spaghetti with piineapple upside down cake. We enjoyed a dry eveniing in the cave and dried out all our gear. Very pleasant night except for the cave crickets staring down from the ceiling. That evening was one of our most memorable on the Current River. Joe

Kinkaid is a beautiful lake. Have been crappie fishing there a couple of times and also at Lake of Egypt. I understand they have Walleye in Kinkaid, but don't know if many are caught there. Almost all of our fishing on Bull Shoals is for Walleye.

Welcome to the forum. What lakes in So. IL do you fish? I live in Carbondale, IL but don't have an IL license. All our fishing now is done on Bull Shoarls in Arkansas, plus some fishing on the White River. I hope you get to use your new boat in the Ozarks soon. Joe

Nice fish. Was it 30 inches? It appears you were drifting a bait. Was it minnows or power bait? Joe

Sorry if I offended anyone, it was an attempt at humor. I have ridden the waves on Bull Shoals when a seat belt was needed to stay in the boat "because the fish are biting". From the results it is clear you are a group of experienced boatmen and anglers. I would never question your judgment. Joe

Thanks to all the fishermen who posted reports on the trip. I'm sure there are many others who have enjoyed this tread as much as I have. The strange weather and water compllications made for interesting reading. Ham's report about "sliding down the hill in 4 low" points out the risk of planning a fishing trip in the middle of a blizard. The thought of sliding down a steep wooded hillside with a 21 foot fiberglass boat following is scary. Someone must have thought "what are we doing" at some point. I gather two things from reading the posts. First, that jigs are the best winter trout lure, and second, that some river sections hold lots of fish and others very few. I assume many of the fish were caught with a flot and motor back routine in areas where you found fish. From my limited time on the White it appears that is the standard approach. Reading all this makes me want to order some of those zigjigs and consider winter trout fishing. The picture of three men standing in a narrow boat on a swift river is a little scary however. Congrats on a successful trip. Thanks for sharing. Joe

Thanks Flippin I will remove the pannel and check the float.

Thanks Fisinwrench. I have a voltmeter and will check it at time of tach failure. Thanks for the warning I will get the volt/regs checked. Where is the fuel sending unit located. There is a carpet covered rectangular pannel in the floor above where the gas tank should be. I assume that is for tank access and may be how I get to the sending unit.

I need help with two gauge problems on my Ranger Cherokee (115hp Johnson 2S). The first is a gas gauge that always reads full. It returns to zero when the engine is off, but shows full the rest of the time. Does the gauge use some type of float device that may be stuck? How can I correct the problem. The second is with the tacometer. At idle or slow forward the gauge will read correctuly up to around 1,000 RPM. As the RPM surpasses that level the gauge goes back to zero. It does work randomly, but not consistently through any day. What might cause this result? Help is appreciated since I do not have an owners manual with detail to answer these questions.

Hi Mike Will the shallower water be similar to the late spring levels from 25 to 30 feet? I assume the move would be from areas were they are now located to nearby water rather than up the creeks. Joe

Mike I appreciate your reports of location and methods. Thanks. We had good results from long lining crawlers in June in around 30ft of water. In September the same approach did not work. I gather from your reports that many of the fish had moved to a suspended position above timber in deep water. We saw lots of fish out in deep water but had no idea if any were walleye. What do you look for on the graph, or is a matter of knowing where they have moved in the past? I know walleye can be distinguished in shallower water by the way the lay right on the bottom. What do you look for in deeper water? When you troll along main lake point ends and coves do you follow the bottom contour or pull the baits down along the ledges? I read a recent report that indicated many bites come from BB rigs falling over ledges. Thanks

I would like to trade my fiberglass Monark boat for a fiberglass river boat. Monark 15ft fiberglass boat with a 55HP Evinrude, a Minn Kota Edge 40LB 12V trolling motor and trailer. I am the second owner of the boat which has been garage kept and wiped down after every use by myself and by previous owner. I have used the boat 3 or 4 times per year since I purchased it in 1987. The Evinrude outboard has low hours and is very strong and reliable. The outboard handles the boat well and planes with ease. The trailer was repainted 2 years ago and new trailer tires installed. The Minn Kota trolling motor is two years old and has about 15 hours of use. The seats are floor mounted and are in good condition. There are no casting platforms which results in a very family friendly floor plan. The boat has a center mounted cooler, a non aerated live well, a winch style anchor system, rod holders, a cover and comes with a Lowrance X65 fish finder. We rented a pull tube 2 years ago and the Evinrude handled it well. The boat and outboard look much like and perform much like they did when new in 1975. The tri-hull design is very stable but does not handle rough water as well as a V-hull design.

As someone not familiar with fishing on Bull Shoals Lake, this forum has been most helpful. But hiring a guide for a day did more to improved my success than anything else. Guides in the Ozarks area are very generous in sharing specific tips and information here, as are many other experienced Ozark anglers. To any for whom this may be unfair criticism, I appreciate your enthusiasm for fishing, the sharing of your knowledge and experience and the great time you so often produce. Thanks from one of the 20%.

Hi to all BS walleye fishermen. Finally got a chance to sample the BS walleye action last weekend. We got to fish on about half of the 4 days while there. We fished with guide Jim Roberts (thanks Jim) on Friday afternoon and evening. He taught us his spoon and crawler trolling methods. With Jim we caught 12 walleye (two keepers), 2 white bass, one LM and several smallies on Friday. Saturday afternoon resulted in 12 walleye (four keepers - largest 22"), a 18" kentucky, a few smallies and 7 large bluegill. Sunday was slower with 6 walleye (two keepers) a 15" kentucky and a couple smallies (shorts). Monday AM was slow with only 2 kentucy and no walleye. All of our fishing was in around 25' of water on bluff ends around points. Thanks for all who shared info about walleye. We are enjoying catching them. Joe

Nice fish. What was its length. What is the BS walleye record and could it be broken in the next few years. Joe

This is becoming an amazing year at Bull Shoals. It will be interesting to see what the next few years will be like. I am looking forward to learning how to catch all those species. What do you think will be the most outstanding fish in the years to come. I would be interested in knowing what all the BS regulars think of the current fishing and what they expect. Will a lot of big fish records be broken by local anglers?

Nice fish, you seem to be having exceptional success. I assume it comes after years of learning and trial and error. From what fishermen are reporting it sounds like mid day trolling is the working best for both worm rigs and crankbaits, with stick baits working well at night. Are the fish concentrated in favored areas or are they spread out over the lake? We will try some day time trolling the weekend of May 15 in the 25 to 30 ft depths you suggested at around 1.8 to 2.0 MPH. I believe my 24V trolling motor should achieve that speed. We will try long-lining or may see if we can pick up some clip type sinkers that can be removed when landing a fish. Thanks for sharing what you have learned about BS walleye, it sounds like it is becoming a premier walleye lake. I assume you are fishing the lower lake. A guide just told me they are fishing about 8 miles from our location on Gulley Spring Branch. I assume that would be out on main lake points though he did not specify. Continued success and enjoy the good eating. Thanks, Joe

W.W. were you fishing the shoreline? I understand the bass are tight to brush in shallow water. I though the walleye would be farther out. Thanks, Joe

Thanks for the information. I assume the sinker plus speed produce the depth you want. What are your thoughts about downriggers or planer boards for BS walleyes? We will try some night trolling on the weekend of May 15 with B/B set up you suggested. It will be fun to catch the fish even if they are not keepers. Could you suggest a guide we could use to learn more about walleye in the Gulley Spring Branch (north of Oakland) area where we camp. We spend way too much time using the wrong approach in the wrong areas. Thanks for sharing from your experience with walleyes. I assume they are your favorite and you have studied their BS routines over many hours of fishing. Keep hauling them in. Joe

I wanted to give a report on the sinking brush project. The project was interesting and we learned quite a bit in the process. Our first attempt was to build a structure similar to a flower arrangement with limbs sticking out at various angles. They looked great but when submerged they all pointed straight up since they were buoyant. Made for a much smaller (3 ft diameter) structure. Our next attempt was to build on the same with most of the brush lying horizontally around the outside. This seemed to work better but still most of the limbs tried to float to an upright position. We lost one pile when we dropped it on a severe slope and it tumbled to 65 ft. Our final attempt was with an entire dead tree (7 inch diameter). This seemed to make the most attractive structure but sinking it was a chore. If I ever get another permit I will tie on all of the rock in shallow water on the shoreline, then pull it out to its final position and add more weight. Attempting to tie on weight from the edge of a boat is difficult. Since we could only use wire and rock for weight we built rock cages with wire which we placed at the center of the brush. The entire structure floated so we could pull it to its position, then add rock to the wire cage. A five gallon bucket of rocks would sink around 25 6ft limbs tied together. It may have required less but we kept adding rock until it went down well. With that we ran out of time and had to call it quits. I understand they may issue more permits in two years and permits for Norfork will be available next year.

Sounds like you are doing very well ar walleye. We fished evenings on Saturday and Sunday. I caught one 16 inch eye but lost a much larger one when he went under the boat. I made the mistake of using my rod with 4 lb line so I could not control him very well. I was using road runner with curly tail on the bottom in around 8 ft of water. I tried a spinner/bead crawler rig with no success. It that the type B/B rig you suggested? We will be back in two weeks. I understand a the moon makes night eye fishing better (no moon on Sunday). We fished until around 9:30 after dark on Sunday but did not get any bites. All of our bites were from before and at dusk. We gave up thinking it was too dark and they had stopped feeding. Perhaps we should have switched to stick baits for the suspended fish as you reported. Catching 4 walleye (no keepers) was a thrill. I did not think of it until you posted, but all of our fish were on a south bank near deep water. Sunday we fished the south side of the island on the Gulley Spring branch. Will this spring pattern continue, or will fishing drop off or bait and presentation change? Thanks for the help, there is something special about walleye fishing. I am learning at a slow pace and appreciate any help.

Thanks for the info AR Walleyes. I caught three 16 inch walleyes on road runner with curly tail on point at about 8 foot late one evening. How deep would you fish the suspended stick baits and in what areas at night. The bait had to be on the very bottom to get any bite for me. I will fish there again this weekend.

I'll take you up on that one. I will have to find out how to use the message feature of the board.