Sprint21fter

I would have killed to be on the lake yesterday as this thing was coming in. I would think maybe it would trigger a big time feeding frenzy as long as the clouds stay around with the wind. I would live or die with a wiggle wart, blade, and jerkbait. Maybe throw a jig around every once in a while.

Run up Long Creek if you are fishing the dam area. Not a very far run by boat. The fish are shallow up there for most of the year.

Color does matter and for 4.99 with the help of BPS and those good colors we are getting a bargin.

Strike Kings, Lucky Strikes, and h2o's

I think it is funny that the Ozarks division is opening up in Okie country for the BFL's this year. Put a tournament on Bull Shoals in March keep it in the Ozarks region. Grand fishes similar to hear but it fishes shallower.

No dice on the docks either for me on Saturday. The places that I threw the buzz bait at around the docks would have gotten bit a few weeks ago when it was warmer and some of those bites would have been big ones.

I find alot of them in the river arms stuck on some stumps but I personally don't use except on lakes with some kind of grass. Fish a state tournament on Dardanelle a couple of years ago and caught the fire out of them nothing big but alot of fun. They would jerk the road out your hands.

Had a club fish out at Shell Knob under very favorable conditions for how I like to fish and cover water. Went straight to mill creek, the one that is towards Campbell Point, started flinging a buzzbait around some laydowns and for the first 30 minutes didn't have a strike, pulled out to the mouth of a pocket with the wind hammering on it and picked up a blade and instead of burning across the big boulders I decided to slow roll it over and in between the cracks of the rocks and instantly bagged by biggest bass of the day right under 4lbs, he flat clobbered the thing. Next cast threw right against the face of a small bluff wall and bagged my next keeper and thumper 17 inch kentucky 2 3/4lbs. I thought man I have figured something out if I could find the right wind and rock. However, that didn't pan out, I pulled into the back of another pocket in the same creek and caught another keeper black on a buzzbait, he was barely 15inches. Caught several smaller fish for the next hour. Then hit some mainlake stuff with out much luck. At 12:30 picked up the buzzbait again and threw it on a shallow bluff end point and caught my last keeper black solid 2.5 lber. Weighed 9.58lbs. Several of the guys had big fish heartbreaks during the day. I never had a big fish bite all day. Anything over 5lbs is a game changer right now. Big fish for the tournament was 4.11lbs. Team partner fished the Central and finished 2nd with 14.10 and had 2nd big bass. 1st place was 14.30 didn't find out what big bass was. He only had five keeper bites but boated them all. Fishing is very difficult and as like Mr. Babler stated they are very hard to pattern. Keep an open mind and cover water the fish are moving around right now.

Interesting, my team partner for other tournaments finished 3rd. 2nd place was 14lbs. He said that there were only 4 limits brought in. They fished from Campbell Point to 39 bridge.

X's 2. High Skies fish slower, reasonable wind cover water by chunking a winding.

Champ, X's 2 on the wart. They will bite that darn thing all year.

I don't understand why this spybait is getting poor hookups. To me it looks like a jerkbait which normally for me gets very positive hookups.

Fishrman, hoped you and your boy had fun yesterday and you guys can fish with us again.

Fished a club tourney out of cow creek yesterday. Tough deal for me being a bank beater the last few months having to find certain things in pockets and throwing one bait. After three heartbreaks on 3 big largemouths that slapped at the buzzbait and reeled 5-6 cranks only to have them come off I ended up having 7 rods on the deck throwing crankbaits, spinnerbaits, finesse worms, wobblehead, jigs, and grubs I never managed to bring in a keeper. I caught several shorts on the blade, crankbait, and jig. Shad was scattered but when you found them they were in the back of everything. Schooling action has died since the last time I was out but I will blame the weather and post-frontal conditions for this one. Good Luck.

I would leave it alone and fish the darn thing.

I fished the Winter Series this year and from January-Feburary you had to have 23lbs to get in the good money or have a slight chance to win. Fished a Aia in feb. and only caught 4 fish for 8plus pounds and thought we would be at the bottom of the standings and tied for the last paycheck for 8th place. The week before was the championship for winter series and there were 4 bags over 20lbs brought in. No fish weighed over 6 3/4lbs alot of 4.5lb class fish showed up. After the march A-rig smackdown the weights in other springtime tournaments was 15-16lbs to win. The big fish are still out there but it is hard to get three 3.5lbers in the box with a kicker and keeper to get you into that 16-18lb range. I think they are spread out due what Champ said about the bait being spread out and the bait I have seen this year isn't as big as it was the last few years due to us not having a harsh winter until last year.

Fished a benefit night tournament for a fellow in need of money for medical bills. They raised 1100 dollars. I think there was close to 20 boats that showed up. Decided to make a run to KC and fish up there until it was time to get in at 1:00am. First spot before dark had two solid fish in the three pound range knock the topwater plug completely out of the water and not hook up. These two fish would end up costing us the tournament. After a couple hour lull we changed banks and caught some non keeper brownies on jigs and worms. Kept moving around and hit some boat docks on flatter banks and caught our two only keepers for the night that ended up weighing 6.86. We had a shot at big fish until another good night stick by the name of Tracy Floyd brought up a big bucket mouth that was just under 6lbs. Three small limits were weighed in and those took the top three spots at 10lbs each. Very slow overall, but just keep fishing hard and catch the fish that bite and you will have a shot.

Buzzards?

My experience for what it is worth. Late May-October is when I typically have a big plug tied on. I don't crank no deeper than 20ft. I make 5-10 casts on specific places over a brush pile, rock pile, drop, or standing timber if I don't get a bite I move on. If you come to a spot that they are on you can catch more than one fish off of it. If you are not bouncing it off of anything you won't get bit. However, you don't have to be on bottom either. If you find fish holding at a certain depth in trees you can run that crankbait into to the trees and slowly work it through the limbs and catch them. I have caught fish where I haven't hit anything but was close enough to where the fish was holding in a tree or off a drop. Retrieve: As fast as I can possibly reel once I hit something slight pause and then fast retrieve. Once you get the feel for what the bait is doing you will know what a bite feels like. Sometimes they will thump it but most times they come up behind it like a wiggle wart bite and it gets heavy. Most of the time when that happens its a BIGGUUN! Deep Crankin requires alot of work and patience. Normally the quality is the payoff so throw the numbers game out the window. A good day of deep cranking is 5-15 bites with 5-8 being solid fish 3lbs or bigger. Baits: Norman DD 22- Perch, Rainbow trout. Strike King 5-6XD- Gizzard Shad, Blue Back Herring, Sexy Shad, Chartreuse Sexy Shad, Powder Chartreuse. Bomber Fat Free Shad- Rootbeer, Gizzard Shad, Citrus Shad Line Size: 12lb Flourocarbon

Besides being very snaggy and cutting line with bottom baits all the zebra mussels do it clear the water clarity up. Lake Erie was hit with them and we all know what kind of small mouth fishing they have up there now. Before they were infested with them the locals up there claimed that Lake Erie wasn't a very good fishery. I am a shallow water fisherman but am used to the clear water so if it hits Table Rock we will have to make yet another adjustment to the always changing conditions that she throws at us.

Throw a jerkbait and you will catch all the Eye's you want with bass. Bull is awesome but its just like our other highland impoundments if there is a negative weather change she will humble you in a hurry.

The last three weeks with big tournaments has made an impact. However, the tournaments will slowly dwindle down as the summer heat wears on.

Prayers are going out. Sadly, cancer knows no names but it seems like it comes to good people.

Moon phase, cool fronts slowed this thing down for the day fisherman I believe. Early morning til the sun gets up is your best bet to catch a fish over 4lbs right now. They are pulled out hanging out and don't want to do nothing but suspend right now. My dad fishes more at night now and him and his buddy are catching them real good from 11pm-1:30am. It isnt a problem for to catch keepers but for tournament fisherman that 4lber is gold right now. After this warm week it will be topwater extravaganza and the fish will do their thing and go to eating.

Not on Tuesdays, but on Wednsdays there is one out of 39 bridge.