mixermarkb

If only I could have had this weather yesterday. It was a touch windy on Bull Shoals.

Ham, I caught all of them next to windy docks, tossing in the lee of the wind. I don't know if it was just the one series of docks, or if it would have worked elsewhere, as it was so late when I figured it out. I'm suspecting that a guy could have pitched a jig around the same docks and caught a few more, but I didn't try. Was also a megabass 110+1, but I don't really think that had anything much to do with it.

Well Ham, I don't feel so bad now. My report is about the same as yours, I started around 8:30am and didn't get a bite until after 2pm. Water was a little warmer I think where I was-

Finally got on the water for the first time this year. Put in at Spring Creek, fished Pontiac area to Theodosia. Not a lot to report, water looks good, little bit of color in the Theodosia arm and in Spring Creek, main lake is clear. Only had 2 short LMB and a keeper spot, all on the Jerkbait. Had the feeling a ned would have torn them up today, but with the wind just couldn't keep anything going slow enough to fish the bottom. Also had the feeling deep bite would have been good main lake, again, wind messed it all up. water temps 45-47 won't be long guys, it's fixing to get good!

I've got a friend who would probably use Talons on the rock, but he does things a little out of the box like put his boat shallow and work his baits back uphill. I laugh. Until it works and he outfishes me. doh!

Ok, I'll say it. Thats what she said.

I say it on every line thread, but Sunline Sniper in the green color is the best line I've ever used on spinning tackle. Handles like mono, sinks, sensitive, etc etc-

Surface temp gage is pretty vital

It does blow around, and it's not braid exactly, but I do like nanofil on the crappie rods where casting distance is important on 1/32 jigs. I also like it on the spinning rigs the wife and 8 year old use, because it has zero twist. Other than that, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go away from braid and try the new Sunline defier armilo on the topwater rods. I love the hooksets of the no stretch braid, but my skill level with it just leads to it catching on itself and blowing up my reel too much on walking baits. Can't seem to keep it wound tight enough, so I think I'm gonna try something else this year.

I wussed out this morning. Snow and too darn cold. May try to run out to LOZ Thursday

Lol, at least 10,000 of those are mine. Dave Barker is somewhat of a hero of mine. One of those guys that every time I picked up a Central Pro Am magazine or Heartland magazine at the marina his name was almost always among the top tourney finishers on any of the Ozark lakes. Heck of a fisherman.

STOP GIVING AWAY THE GOOD STUFF CHAMP!!! shhh!

My boat just isn't worth it. If it drifts off, I'll go recover it when I can and get whatever is broke fixed. That's why I pay insurance. I've tried to get into it while messing around with tubing with the family. It's not an easy task in warm water, wearing a lifejacket. I have no delusions about doing it wearing winter/early spring clothes.

Thanks Bill.

I can't go with you there Champ. No doubt it works, but I just have a 3 or 4 colors of lipless, square bill, warts, rock crawlers, and 2 kinds of deep cranks. I've caught fish on all of them, so I'm confident in them. If I don't get bit on one of the ones I'm throwing, I just put down the crankbait stick and pick up some other kind of bait, or pull up the troller and move on. I don't doubt that subtle differences in wobble or color can get a lot more bites, but I'd rather eliminate the variables of too many lure choices and try another type of bait or another location.

Finally got to drive down to fish- but all I have to report is my own stupidity. I forgot that I had loaned the keys to the storage locker for the boat to my friend and his dad. When I got to Theodosia at 2AM (couldn't leave until after work Friday night), I didn't have keys to get to the boat to plug the troller batteries in. A couple hours nap in the back seat of the SUV, and I was on my way to Home Depot at Mountain Home for a big red key and a new lock. Got back around 7:30, got the boat out, got it plugged in, and started rigging up. Found the batteries were really really low. Another short nap, and at 9:30, saw they weren't taking a charge at all. At this point, I walked down to the dock and caught a solid keeper on an Arig. Debated running back to Mountian Home to get new batteries, figured that noon was just too late to get started, so I pulled the batteries and headed home by way of Springfield, since I wanted to hit Sportsmans and Mexican Villa. Perhaps the dumbest thing was that I left a perfectly good bass boat with fully charged batteries in the driveway at home, because I didn't want to tow it that far that late at night, since it hasn't moved in 4 months. I was too lazy to pull the batteries and bring them with me, even though I had that thought. Soooo, now I get to fish in the cold on Tuesday instead of in the nice weather we had yesterday. I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer.. p.s. saw a white nitro working channel swings around Theodosia, looked like he caught at least a couple, although he was moving pretty fast.

I've been using both- for me my (good) warts seem to be a little more erratic when they bounce off the bottom, but they really only go 8-9 feet down. The rock crawler is more like 10-11 feet. I switch back and forth pretty often, as the structure needs. I'm also more willing to throw a rock crawler into brush, just because I can replace them.

Hey Bill- what weight heads are you throwing with that Mob Jr?

It all depends on how tuned into certain presentations you like your gear to be. I have a big collection, listed on another thread, but I've built it over years. I like having finely tuned setups for what I use them for. A great mechanic could do a lot with a Gerber multi tool and an adjustable wrench, but if you look at someone who has been working on cars for years, they are gonna have a lot more in their tool chest than that. Just because you have them, doesn't mean you are gonna use them each time out. I'm headed to Bull Shoals tonight. I just have tomorrow to fish, so out of 30 or so rigs, I'm taking 5. One spinning rod for a Ned rig, a Jerkbait rod, two crankbait rods for warts and rockcrawlers/DT-14 if they want something a little deeper than a wart, and a big rod for A-rigs. With limited time, those are the patterns I'm going to be looking for, and if I can't get a few to bite on those, then I'm just SOL. I don't want all the other choices to think about. That's plenty of options to get bites with if I can find some biting fish, but if it was June and I was fishing LOZ, I'd have a different set of options picked out.

Weeklong arguments never happenhere on our social media...

I'd bet you are right Champ- 18 year old white kid just arrested for it-

Was it a case of an attempted theft or was it a shouting match that got out of control? In the links I've read I haven't seen any details surrounding the sad event of the stabbing.

The brunette Mandrell was the hottest.

72 pound flathead from Bull Shoals on a jig, 10 pound line.