mixermarkb

Nope. The bite was on and we didn't stop for pics and weights for most of the fish. I'm guessing we had a solid 17 pounds for our best 5, maybe a little more.

Still couldn't find any white bass, crappie or walleye. Meant to fish yesterday as well, but life happened and I had to leave and come back to STL to deal with a business emergency. I know some big crappie are being caught, and I saw a few whites are being cleaned, walleye seem to be MIA at the moment from guys I was talking to.

High Skies, water temps 55-57, bass on fire! My friend's dad and I smoked them on Monday. There are a million north facing pockets on the lake, so I won't say exactly where we were, as I do have a tournament on Saturday, but we were staying at Theodosia Marina Resort, where I have been going for 30 years. If you want to fish Bull, TMR is a great place to stay, with cabins, hotel rooms, Marina, and Cookies Restaurant, for good food without having to drive anywhere. Fish were mostly caught on keitechs and Arigs, which is also not a secret, as everyone is throwing them and has been for months. I actually saw a few males building beds. I'm pretty sure nothing is actually spawning yet, but they are moving around and thinking about it hard.

Hey river guys who like shorter rods-great little rod here-

Hey Guys- Good St. Pats day on Bull Shoals. Started the day with a half dozen fat spotted bass in the 13-15" range, all on a C-rig, transistion banks in the Theodosia Arm. Took a lunch break at Cookie's, and then back out where we ran into some nice smallmouth. We had 9 keepers and a few more shorts. I won't tell the bait, but we were fishing with spinning tackle in the Oakland area. Water temps were 55-58 most of the day, saw a few places where it was 60. I've been looking for crappie and white bass for my father in law and kiddo to eat, but I haven't had any luck finding any. I'm hearing that they are being caught, but I'm new to those games and just haven't figured it out at all. It's getting pretty good though- hopefully what I've found the last two days holds up for the little tournament I'm planning on fishing Saturday. Weather change coming... We will see what the fishes does

Congrats!

I love green Sunline Sniper flourocarbon. It's a confidence thing, but I'm convinced the green dissapears better than clear underwater.

Man, I had work come up or I was gonna show up with my Bernie Sanders sublimated jersey with all my pro staff logos and put a whuppin on y'all- lol seriously, looks like a fun time, wish I could have made it down.

I'd start my shopping at the lews outlet (sportsmen's) in Springfield. Good folks, who won't steer you wrong. but also an impossible store to get out of without spending at least $100 hahahah that place is seriously like a legal crack dealership to bass fishermen.

+1 for the falcon bucco, but I'd try and skip eating out until I could afford a used Cara or Loomis IMX or better for my main jig rod. Really one 7' medium heavy casting rod and one 6'6" to 7' spinning rod will do you well for bottom contact. I'd look used and buy the best from Falcon, Loomis or St. Croix. As for ultra bargains, I've been impressed with the Okuma rods I've picked up, lews have some good rods in cheaper price points, and academy sports house brands are pretty good too.

Check out the "rods for sale" page on BassBoatCentral. Your dollars will go a lot farther on used rods than new.

Prayers for those where it did flood. Floods are devastating.

We can all find common ground in the middle... Or in Springfield at the Lew's store...

What Champ said, except that I'd argue that once you get past a $150-$175 price range, performance stabilizes for the most part, and what you are paying for after that is mostly weight savings.

This little 14 month old guy is my excuse. Not like I was setting the world on fire before, but since we got pregnant with him, my lake time went way way down. I'm just now getting back at it some- all worth it though!

I'm thinking it would concentrate the wakeboard boats and jet skis all in one place- wouldn't have fishermen eating there, we are too tight with a buck as a rule, but it would make some coin!

That's a great idea, and with cell coverage and social media, could make a heck of a good amount of $$. Like a food truck for party cove-

One of the things he told me was that even if he's fishing cold water, and has to retrieve slow, when pre-fishing, he doesn't spend more than 5 minutes on a spot without a bite. He also said he never makes more than 5 bite-less casts without changing retrieve, or lure or color. He doesn't camp out in any one area for long unless he's catching keepers. That is hard advice to follow, but I catch more fish when I heed it. And to those who don't think bass fishing is a physical sport, yank a trolling motor up every five minutes, run through waves like they had at Grand, cast a whole lot, and rinse and repeat for 8 hours straight and tell me how many ibuprofen you pop when you get out of bed the next morning!

I'm fixing to pick up a couple of refurb Pro Qualifiers myself to keep in the boat for guests. The dual braking system is the way to go for beginners. The centrifugal controlls overrun at the beginning of the cast, and the magnetic controls it at splashdown. If you click all the centrifugal switches on the spool, set tension as Bill suggests, and then dial the mag on a little, you should be good to go. As you get more used to it, clicking centrifugal brakes off will give you more distance. Lots of the more "fun" power baits like cranks, topwaters and spinnerbaits really need the power of a baitcasting rig to function right!

It was 16 and change like fish said. Most of the guys ran a good ways though, I don't think any of the top guys were actually fishing in the Theodosia arm. I was in it and had one 4 pounder, lost 3 more in the same size class, because, well- I suck at fishing now. If the rain doesn't mess everything up, it's getting really good really fast-

I met E2 at a BPS seminar here at the St. Charles location. It wasn't very crowded, and he was very nice to me. He doesn't seem to be an outgoing, gregarious personality type, but he sat and talked Bull Shoals with me for at least 15 minutes, and gave me lots of good advice about time management while pre-fishing and on tournament day. I know some knock him as having been rude and unpleasant, but I found that far from the case. From following him on Facebook, he seems like a guy who is seriously intense and focused on fishing and his family, and maybe just a little bit of an introvert. I can identify. Making friends and talking to folks in public is a challenge for me. One on one, I'll talk your ear off. In a group, I'll stand around and look at the floor a lot. I'm a fan, and happy he won him a classic. He's one of the very best of all time in my opinion, right up there with KVD and some of the others, minus some of the marketing skills.

You kicked my butt Quill. I had 4 short spots. One might have kept, might. I was poking around the white from the Kings on up, trying to do a little looking for the Joe Bass on Saturday, as I'm a bull shoals guy. Was my first time on the white river arm of the rock, I've put in at State Park the other 3 times I've fished it. If you saw a light gold and black champ with a 225 and a clueless looking guy bumbling about, that was me. Oh, and what I managed to catch came on the Jerkbait, chunk rock channel swing stuff. Did some looking in the backs, no casting. It's a long boat ride up there from Kimberling.

Maybe a weak test, but at least they are reading the rules of the water. Better than turning them loose on the rental jet skis with nothing but "here's the throttle, here's how you steer, go have fun" like it used to be!

Up until I got married, I never kept any fish. I was happy with the occasional white that slammed a spook on top. I'm starting to learn to pattern them a little more now that I have someone who likes to cook and eat fish, I'll spend a little time looking for them and crappie.

Ham- pretty solid white run up the Theodosia arm most years- 24/7 knows more, I never chase em.