Mike Worley

Husky28 Thanks for the post. I hope the walleyes filled up your livewell. I will be working on posting pictures and upgrading my website in the next couple of days and will send you some photos.

The bite on Bull Shoals continues to be good. The Walleyes can be found on the main lake points as well as the creek channels and larger deep coves. Most are being caught on crawler harnesses with a whole crawler or a half crawler on a plain slow death hook or slow death spinner rig. The most productive zone seems to be 35'-50'. Walleyes & spotted Bass are still being caught trolling deep diving crank baits. Jigging spoons are still working with 1 once in white or silver working best on deeper brush piles. Largemouth bass are bitting in the back of the creek arms in 20'-30' and are hitting top water at first daylight.................Mike Worley (www.bullshoalsfishing.com)

The Slow Death hook also works well when used with beads & a #3 spinner (Indiana or Colorado) blade. You can put a float on the rig instead of beads to help keep it up a little off the bottom. The slow Death spinner rigs have been catching lots of walleyes for me. With walleyes biting it about 90 percent of the time when fished in the "zone" which right now seems to be 32'-40' on bottom bouncers.

It was a balmy 102 today (LOL) I prefished for a couple of trips this weekend in the lower end of the lake. I found many of the better walleyes in the back of the creeks and in the middle section of the deeper coves. Some of the creeks are loaded with shad and walleyes again. I expected to find they had moved out to the main channel but instead I found them about 2/3 of the way back in 30-35fow bottom bouncing slow death spinner rigs caught'em today.

Despite the HOT weather the walleyes are still biting with the best bite being on bottom bouncers & slow death crawler rigs about 30' deep. The water level continues to fall with the inceased generation at the dam, this seems to have positioned the fish on the inside of the creek points near the mouth of the creeks and larger coves. Many of these fish are suspended at the 30' level out in the middle of the creeks and coves. The brush piles in these areas are holding fish also and a jigging spoon is still a good option...................Mike Worley (www.bullshoalsfishing.com)

I've been fishing out of Hwy 125 (Peel) for the last week or so. I found it to be a great area to fish. Yesterday we trolled crank baits early, switched to jigging spoons about 10AM and spent the rest of the day bottom bouncing with slow death spinner rigs. We trolled 800 Reef Runners till the water skiers & jet skis got out. We caught lots of fish mostly bass with a few walleyes mixed in. Lure color didn't seem to matter too much but you had to get deep 30'-40'. We moved to a main lake brush pile and caught about 12 walleyes in about 1 hour on jigging spoons. It was about straight up noon so we we took a boat ride a few miles up the lake and found some fish about 30'-35' foot deep inside a cove at the end of a bluff. Chartreuse & orange slow death spinner rigs with half a crawler seemed to work best for us. We caught about 25 or so walleyes during the day most of the walleyes we caught were shorts but we ended up with 4 keeper walleyes, 6 spotted bass, 1(close to 5lb) LMB, 1 crappie and about a dozen bull bream. It's almost August and the fish are doing what they normally do this time of year, seek out cooler water. Water temp was about 90 all day and the thermocline seemed to be about 30' with most of the fish at or below that level. Again we found the productive brush piles to be the ones loaded with bass fingerlings and 3/4 - 1 oz spoons to be the best size..................Mike Worley (www.bullshoalsfishing.com).

kwall I just got some of your pictures up today on my website. I really enjoyed fishing with you and eyeman.

Walleyes, Spotted Bass & Crappies are in the 25'-40' range with the larger fish being suspended near the outside of the brush piles about 25'-27' deep. The best bait for those fish seemed to be jigging spoons fished vertically and nightcrawler rigs. The deep water trolling bite is still going pretty good in the 30'-40' range over the submerged forrest with Reef Runners catching Walleyes & Spotted Bass during the middle of the day. Schools of White Bass are in the back of some creeks and also bitting spoons. Bass are also being caught on bluff ends & drop offs with split shoted nightcrawlers 30'-50' deep...................Mike Worley (www.bullshoalsfishing.com)

I would (and do) use braid instead of mono. The stretch in the mono is a big factor in getting hung up in brush and standing timber. With braided line the lack of stretch helps the lure rip out of many snags before the hooks get embedded while not always it will save you enough lures to pay off. I recommend using fairly heavy braid like Stealth 15/4 I use the green colored line attached directly to the lure with a stout cross lock snap. It will not spook the fish and often times it will straighten out the light treble hooks on a Shad Rap or Flicker Shad before it breaks and you can re-bend & sharpen the hook in just a few seconds and get it back in the water. Also the braided line will allow the lure to run 10-25 percent deeper which means less line out and that is also a factor in avoiding snags and getting that lure to run right where up want it over or near the targeted spot.........(www.bullshoalsfishing.com)

Yes I do but mostly in the spring time. The smaller size Flicker Shads seem to work pretty good for me.

lonkm we have been catching a few keeper sized crappies on the bruspiles using 1oz jigging spoons. Pretty sure minnows would catch'em there also. Been markin'em 12'-20'deep over the brushpiles.

Things are getting back to normal as far as the Walleye bite on Bull Shoals Lake. Yesterday we found the Walleyes to be in the 25'-40' range with the larger fish being suspended near the outside of the brush piles about 25' deep. The best bait for those fish seemed to be jigging spoons fished vertically and Wally pop type lures with a whole night crawler dead sticked on bottom bouncers. The slow death rig was also working but the larger Walleyes came on the Walleye pop for us. The better fish seemed to prefer the brush piles located near the points and mouths of the coves. One thing I would like to mention is that many of these brush piles seem to be loaded with this years bass fingerling's and the most effective spoons were the ones that looked like them (snagged up several of these baby bass while spooning) The bite seemed to be on pretty much all day with the largest Walleye being a 25"er caught at noon on a half day trip. We caught lots of 17 1/2" Walleyes on the sides of main lake flats on the drop offs and not much for us out on the flats. But we spent most of our time on the brush piles. We did not get to try trolling any crank baits but I'm pretty sure that a Shad Rap type lure fished in the 25'-30' zone outside the brush piles would also be productive. We also caught lots of big bream (sunfish) and some keeper sized bass on the brush piles and I think crawfish split shotted there would be a great way to load up on the Spotted Bass.......Mike Worley (www.bullshoalsfishing.com)

We have had 3-5 inches of rain in the past few days which caused some changes in the water level(up 2'), water temp(down 4-5 degrees) and clarity(reduced). This seems to have moved the walleye shallower and narrowed the productive zone. For the past few weeks with the water level dropping and the weather being hot & drier the zone was about 25-35 foot. We fished in the Peel to Diamond city area and found it hard to get a bite deeper than 28' with the best zone being 24'-26'. The best areas to fish were smaller coves that contained brush piles and main lake flats with ditch's or drop offs. The best bait for us was still bottom bouncers & slow death rigs with 1/2 crawler and wally pop type lures with a whole crawler fished over the tops of the brush piles. We also caught some walleyes on jigging spoons on the brush piles. We tried the deep water trolling bite that has been producing some 21"-27" walleyes nearly every time out and caught a 4LB+ LM bass on a white 800 Reef Runner but no walleyes. We also caught a few spotted bass on the brush piles. I would still rate the fishing as very good........................Mike Worley (www.bullshoalsfishing.com)

The biggest change in the Walleye bite is that the better(keeper) walleyes seem to have moved from the back of the creek arms & larger coves to the main lake points that have a defined drop off or ditch they seem to be holding in the 30'-40' zone on the cove side of these points. There are still some larger walleyes suspended over the submerged forest about 30'-50' deep in 60'-100'fow with the best bait for me still being the 800 series Reef Runner in just about any pearl white color. I fished this afternoon starting with slow death spinner & wally pop crawler rigs and switching over to crank bait baits while the wind was blowing. I will try the morning bite tomorrow and see if it's any different. This fishing report is brought to you by Mike Worley's Guide Service (www.bullshoalsfishing.com)

Jason, the precision trolling book really helps as a starting point, it holds many of the answers about the lures depth curves but it can also make things confusing. For example it says to get a 800 series Reef Runner down to 28' it takes appox 200+ foot of 10 pound mono at 2 MPH. Then you have to factor in different things like are you using braid instead of mono? what can you gain by adding a snap weight. For the past few years I have only used braid (Stealth 15/4) for pulling crank baits. After all the +/- we came up with 125' of 15/4= 31' a larger size (H07) Hot N Tot will run about 22' @ 100' add a snap weight and get down a few more feet per once. If you are serious about trolling then set-up a second set of rods with line counter reels for this with braided line and be sure to take the time to check and tune each lure. I also use lead core but pretty much only to get smaller lures deep at slower speeds. Lead core is much more speed Dependant than braid.

I fished Wednesday a little further down the lake. The walleye bite was slow for us on the main lake flats (no bites) but the larger coves and creeks were still fishing well. I think the lindy rig with half a crawler would be just a tad too suttle for the walleyes right now. And the same for the DD22 fished at less than 20' deep. We had a 50 fish day with 5 keepers up to about 26". We found the active walleyes 20-25 deep over 30-40 FOW in the morning and near the bottom in 30-35 FOW in the afternoon. We only fished bottom bouncer / slow death spinner rigs with half a crawler in the afternoon. Chartruse & orange seemed to be the best color with silver & blue best for the suspended morning fish. I have been having good luck with the bigger wilder running baits like Reef Runners & Hot n Tots fished 20-40 foot deep but no bites when I tried Deep Little N' or DD 22. The walleyes are very aggessive this year but you have get something down there with'em that will get their attention, bright colors like pearl white and firetiger or blue seem to be best for me with the crankbait.

The bite on lower Bull Shoals is still pretty much red hot with lots of keeper fish being caught if you know where to look. The lake level has been dropping for a few weeks now and this has affected the larger fish more than the smaller ones. You can still catch lots of walleyes & bass in the shallower depths along the banks with a few keepers mixed in. If you want to catch a higher percentage of keeper walleyes move out off the banks and target suspended fish in the larger coves, deeper creeks and main lake points that have a defined creek channel or ditch in them. These fish are suspended from 20' - 40'down in 30-100 fow. My tournament partner (Al Denninger) and I prefished for the MSW walleye tournament last week and caught 4 fish limits that weighed in the 12-15+ pound range on most days. The most productive big fish lure was the 800 Reef Runner in any kind of white color. Another good lure was the larger size Hot N Tot's in several different colors ranging from Fire tiger to gold. Lead coring shadrap type lures will also work with white or blue being the best colors. But most of the fish we caught were caught with either slow death spinner rigs or whole crawlers on wally pop type lures dead sticked in the 20-25 depth range over 30-40fow. also caught some real nice sized KY's, crappie & catfish on this pattern. I haven't had much time to target bass lately but a good friend of mine Bob Pauletti who guides mostly for bass tells me the Ky's are really biting crawfish & crawlers out on the main lake points in 30-40fow again look for defined drop offs..............This fishing report is brought to you by............Mike Worley's Guide Service (ar.walleyes@yahoo.com)& Al Denninger (www.point-12.com)

Bull Shoals walleye are still on the bite and the fishing can only be rated as excellent. We fished the Mid-south walleye tournament out of Oakland marina yesterday and finished in second place. The keeper fish weren't really too hard to find but the thunderstorm kind of got in the way of us catching the kicker fish we needed to win. But thats the way it goes some time. We had a great time. The weather really cooled down after the thunderstorm blew though but the walleye bite continued to be good all day. We caught keeper walleyes on crawler / spinner rigs, slow death spinner rigs and large Reef Runner crank baits. I'm sure many of the members of this forum are aware of the fact that I recently retired from my full time job. I now have plenty of time to spend on the lake and since I really enjoy teaching people the things I have learned over the past 30 years of fishing Bull Shoals Lake I am starting a guide service. If anyone is interested in the details please send me a email.

I'm mostly using 1 1/2- 2oz depending on if the rod is rigged with braid or mono. If your question is related to depth I've been catching walleyes anywhere from as shallow as 14' to as deep as 40'.

I fished this afternoon (no real reason to get up early , and the walleye seem to biting pretty much all day long) once again found the keeper to short ratio to be about 3/1 caught about 12 walleyes with 4 keepers plus about 6 large white bass and 1 short smallmouth and about a 2 pound rainbow trout. Left the house at about 2:30PM and was home before dark. I'm really starting to get into this retired thing. Every morning I sing this little ditty " He-He-He I'm a retiree Haw-Haw- Haw just me and Ma!!! Oh yes life is good at 60.

Martin, we caught about 1/2 of our keepers on BB & crawler rigs and the rest trolling cranks. The bite wasn't nearly as hot as the day was. We fished about 7 different spots all of which we could mark lots of fish but in a couple of them we couldn't even get a bite or maybe only 1 or 2 shorts. We only caught about 12 or so walleyes with 7 being keepers.

Martin, glad to hear your trip went well. I fished Sunday also and it did seem that the early morning bite was slower than expected. But by noon we found the same thing that you did, the walleyes had moved up to the 15'-18' range. Also the keeper to short fish ratio had improved to about 2/1 with the late afternoon bite back in the 22'-26' range.

I have been out every 2-3 days for the last couple of weeks. Mostly in the afternoon - evening time. The walleye are still biting well but the larger fish are tough to pinpoint. Some days they seem to be in the 25'-35'range and some days much shallower. I've been able to scape out a limit on most days but it is mostly 18"-20"er's. On the plus side the walleyes are biting just about anyway you want to fish for them. There still seems to be plenty of fish in the creeks & larger coves as well as on the main channel the best plan still seems to be to use your graph to "mark'em then get something down there with'em" they will bite. Bottom bouncer & crawler rigs, trolling' crank baits, jigging spoons are all working well.

I think the mast system would be better on larger water with a large boat and a bunch of rods. I have seen it done on Bull Shoals a couple of thimes but not often. It really takes up a lot of water and with the summer time boat traffic I think you will be happier with the regular boards IMHO.

I find that with 800 Reef Runners the flag will stay pretty much 1/2 way down.( I use braid most of the time with the big snapper clips) When a fish is on the board often it will cause the line to slip thru the rear clip and the flag will come up. The tattle flag really works better with smaller lures with the 800's you really just got to watch for any kind of change in the way the board is running. It helps to run the same size & brand lure on both the port & starboard boards for comparison till you get used to using them.