mixermarkb

It hasn't been anything life threatening, but some of my time away has been due to my wife's health. She's needed help with the boys, and I've been working crazy hours. Special projects have been popping up just when I seem to have time to think about fishing, and when you are self employed you kind of have to take the work when the clients want it done, or risk them finding someone who will. It's the longest fishing drought I've had since I was maybe 12 though. Last week was a bust, my father in law had spinal surgery and is recovering at our house, and he wasn't well enough for me to leave my wife with him and the two boys. I'm hoping to hit it tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'll just drop in at theodosia to maximize my time on the water or drive over to buck creek. I saw something on Facebook about spring creek park being torn up, does anyone know if that means the ramp is un-usable? What ramps are fully functional with courtesy docks right now at this lake level?

Now it's not MN or Canada, but 100 fish days of 12-16" smallies with a few 18" scattered around happen on a regular at Bull Shoals in the spring. I'm not saying it's gonna be every day, but it's not someone blowing smoke when they tell you it happens.

It ain't good at all. We also moved into the STL burbs to be closer to my Mom, so I don't even have the little lake out back we had at Cedar Hill. Literally haven't made a cast since the last week of May.

Just a thought, depending on the size of the pond, but I sometimes see old (70's-80's) bass boats with blown motors on Craigslist for near nothing. One of those with a new troller and batteries would make a heck of a small pond/lake fishing platform.

Thanks Dave. I've been lurking around from time to time, but it's been a crazy busy year. Looking forward to getting some brain space back for fishing.

I'm a fan of winter fishing. I hear there had been a great crankbait bite all winter. Looks like life might be sneaking up on me again though, if I do get to hit the lake tomorrow I'll post up a report.

Hey Bull Shoals friends. Did the lake totally dry up yet??? Haven't picked up a rod since June. Work and dad life has been brutal on the fishing time this year- but I'm hoping to be on the water on Tuesday. I hope everyone has had a good winter so far.

If one super duty rig is still available, I'll take it and one of the spinning rods. I'm from STL, but would like to meet up and pick it up if possible. I'll try and call tomorrow or you can send me a PM if you are still up. Thanks!

I've heard that Honda is a great motor, solid and dependable, if a bit slow compared to a 2stroke. If I win the lotto and my wife manages to talk me out of the 21' Allison, rig mine with a 250xs. Night vision camera sounds awesome! I wonder if the dash lights have a dimmer switch?

Now I just have to get her to touch the fish without a rubber glove hahaha

She's a great kid, with a good future ahead of her, in spite of what has been modeled for her by her mom and the revolving door of "stepdads" she's been exposed to, and that's all I'll say about that, before my temper gets the better of me-

15 year old niece, who without going into detail has had a seriously rough way to go of it for the past 3 or 4 years. Never fished a day in her life, fished Bull with me Wednesday and Thursday evenings, 9 of these on Wednesday and 21 on Thursday. I think she had some fun Thanks to Dave for a great product and great information.

I've gone from 15 pound Big Game to braid with a big game leader for two seasons to the Defier Armillo. I'm sticking with the Defier. It's just the best of both worlds as far as I can tell.

Even with 50# braid you better retie full size spooks, sammys, whopper ploppers etc.. That line does get a LOT of stress on a hard cast. by the way guys, I switched from braid to the low stretch sunline Defier Armillo mono this year and really like it. For some reason no matter how I tweaked reel settings and no matter how careful I was with braid, I would get weird seemingly random backlashes a few times a day on hard casts. Prolly a skill level thing, although it only happens with braid. Problem solved with the sunline, and I don't seem to be giving up any hookset ability.

Given the size of the Plopper I can see casting one off if you didn't retie every so often.

I don't know- I do know that Lews and Abu share at least one OEM. Pfluger might be made in the same place as well, I really have no idea-

I'd be a little suspect of the Revo spin reels, because the Lews baitcasting reels and the Abu Revo baitcasting reels share some OEM Asian manufacturers, although they have different QC and design specs. I can't help but be a little worried that the Revo spinning reels share the same OEM and maybe some of the same problems the lews spinning reels have, although I stress that this is just a theory. I'd stay with the diawa and pflugers that seem to get pretty consistent good reviews here and elsewhere, but that's just my opinion-

Wonder when the Lew's gang will get their head out and make a good eggbeater? They are leaving money on the table...

Did you try dragging the metal stringer with all the hooks open idea?

That's highly likely. Since the BASS guys have done so well, the sugarloafs both get pounded!

Guys, if that older weibe grip IMX MBR-783 hasn't been broken, it's a steal at $75. That's the rod that put G.Loomis on the map, and you would have to spend at least three times that to get an all around 6'6" that would perform any better, and I'm not sure there is a better rod made for Spinnerbaits. I don't know the seller, but I know that rod and it's a fine piece of kit.

I'm not at all impressed with the whopper Plopper hooks either, it is a fish losing machine. I'm changing them as soon as I can, but I didn't have anything with me big enough. Have you guys tried the spro split rings? What brand spilt rings do you trust?

Howdy guys. Got down Tuesday and Wednesday. Spent the first half of the day Tuesday working on the boat while the troller batteries charged. Hit the water about 2pm, and fished till about 7. Caught fish on topwaters and keitechs, including my first Whopper Plopper fish, a fat 17" smallie that looked to not have spawned yet. Fished a lot of secondary points, in coves, and a few main lake flats. Never found a mother lode in one spot, or a magic lure, but had steady action all afternoon. Wednesday was more of the same, junk fishing delight with maybe a little stronger topwater action than on Tuesday. Had lots of followers coming back when one would hit on top, fish (mainly bucks) seemed to be running in little wolf packs of 4-5. Lost a big LMB (5ish#) at the boat on a keitech, was fumbling with the net (fishing solo cause 24/7 had some excuse like needing to work for a living) and let some slack in for a moment. Fished from 7:30am-4pm and caught fish on Whopper Plopper, two sizes of Sammys, Gunfish, Yamamoto grubs, 3.3" and 3.8" fat swing impacts, 4"swing impacts, green pumpkin tube bait, carolina rigged baby brush hog, and 3/8oz double willow spinnerbait, with the biggest fish of the day (4# LMB) coming on the spinnerbait. Probably had somewhere in the 50 fish range for the day, with a best 5 in the 13-14 range. Had a stud smallmouth straighten the split ring on the back hook of a LC Gunfish and swim away with a dressed treble in its face. Really wanted a pic with that one, but oh well. Water temps were 66-67 most everywhere I was, which was within a couple miles either way of the Buck Creek ramp.

Tourism Instrument? No, that would be the seasonal approximate pattern video ummm I mean fishing report Eric Prey puts out. (Only kidding, I like watching it as well) All joking aside, this forum here is the single best fishing education tool I've found on the internet. It takes a lot of time on the water to apply the knowledge that can be gleaned here, but short of private Ozark area fishing lessons, I don't know of a finer resource. Many thanks to Phil for the effort in hosting it, and Bill, Champ, Bo, Dave, Quill, 24/7, Mojo, Bluff, Ham, RPS and all the others I know I'm forgetting that share regularly on here. It's an even bigger help to those of us who live a little farther away than you guys probably realize.

I can see both sides of this, but generally side on giving a little more away. Maybe it's arrogant on my part, but I have been fishing bull 30 years now. I know how long it's taken me to learn how to do so many of the common techniques. Most of what I'll share, I'm not sure anyone could really do effectively without a lot of time on the water. I'm talking to guys here who fish bull and know the techniques, and I'm sure most of them are not meat hunters, and most of them have their own locations in mind when I say bluff end or flat gravel. I share here hoping others will share here, because A: I live in STL and accurate report traffic helps me eliminate water gives me a heads up on patterns to try with my limited fishing time, and B: because I am hoping to develop more friends who fish on Bull. If my stuff all gets fished out, then I guess it means I'll have to find new stuff.