Mike Worley

For sale is 2 planer board or flat trolling rod & reel combos. The rods are BPS walleye angler telescopic 8 1/2' that will fit into a 7' rod locker. The reels are Okuma 15DLC (linecounter) filled with 15/4 Spiderwire Stealth........$150 for the pair. Local pick up only, will meet buyer with in 50 miles of Mountain Home, Ar. 870-321-3705

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I have a Remington 788 bolt action rifle in 308 win. Caliber. It has a Nikon 3x9x40 scope & a extra clip. I recently had a recoil pad, stock refinished and the receiver glass bedded and barrel floated by a professional gunsmith. $425.00 I also have 6 boxes of Federal 150gr 308 win. For $100. Or rifle + ammo $475. Winchester model 1300 vent rib pump shotgun 12 gauge with ghost slug & turkey sights, sling studs. $200. ................870-321-3705

Bull shoals lake boat dock 870-445-4166 is the only place that I know of that has crawdads. I bought some about a week ago for $3.50 a dozen. Theres been some rumor going around the bait shops that it's illegal to "import" bait fish. At least thats the story I got when calling around when I was looking for crawdads. Same thing happen with leaches a few years back. The game wardens at the AG&F office told me that wasn't correct and I'd bet the same is true about crawfish.

I fished Saturday in the pt.3-pt.16 area. We used bottom bouncers and could only find smaller walleyes in the 20-24' range. We moved out to 28-30' and found better fish with a couple of walleyes in the 5 lb class. I think they were feeding on crawdads and tapping the bottom bouncer weight on lake bottom did seem to trigger the fish to bite. Found crawdad parts in the livewell.

Water temps 72-77 which is down a few degrees due to the recent rains. Also the creek arms have some color in the water. Lake level has come up to 662'+ which is the seasonal power pool for June 15 - July 15. The thermocline seems to be setting up at about 25-28'. I've been having some results on jigging spoons around brush piles in about 30' mostly decent keeper walleyes with sunny afternoons seeming to be best. I fished yesterday in the pt. 3 - pt. 7 area and found walleyes about a mile or so in the creek arms where water clarity seemed to be less than 10'. I tried trolling crank baits and bottom bouncers the, bottom bouncers caught the walleyes for me in about 20-24'. I tried a few main lake points and bays but didn't have any bites.

What kind of crawdad were you using on the jig? I hear the Yum Crawbug has been working well.

Lake level 661 water temp 68-72 degrees. Bass are biting well in the back of creeks. Mostly largemounth with a few spots & smathmouth mixed in. Best bait for me has been a 5" Yum dinger in < 10'. Rogues & swim baits like Swimin minnows or 4" grubs are also working. On windy days spinner baits. We fished for smallmouth bass on main lake secondary points and caught them on 4" swimbaits on 1/4 oz jigheads along the outside of the brush line. The same creeks that we found the lmb in the back of also had walleyes suspended about where the colored water met the clearer water about half way in the feeder creek arm. The walleyes seemed to be about 16-18' down over about 22-30' we caught 4 on bottom bouncer / crawler rigs in about a hour and a half at the end of a very windy afternoon half day trip.

Bass & walleye fishing has really picked up. Walleye are being caught on jigs, crank baits and bottom bouncer / crawler rigs. The walleye are 10-20' on or near main lake rocky points. Jigs tipped with swimbaits or grubs seem to best in the morning with bottom bouncers or trolling crankbaits working a little later in the day, they are suspending over deeper water and not always easy to see on your graph. Bass are bitting on a verity of soft plastics like baby brush hogs, sinkos & lizards in shallow water in bedding areas about half to 3/4 way back in the creeks. White bass have been spotty but are showing up in the back of creeks and coves on sunny windy afternoons and will bite small jigs & swimbaits.

Ron, we found some walleyes yesterday in Diamond City area. They didn't show up very well on the graph for some reason. They seemed to be suspended about 12-18' over about 30'fow on rocky points. We caught a few keepers and a few shorts on bottom bouncers & crawler rigs. I think trolling crank baits would have worked better but there were way too many bass boats fishing everywhere for that. Maybe the suspended fish were moving away from the boat as it passed over.

Water temp 54-59. Lake level 659'. Fished Thursday pt. 7 - 18. Water temp was 54 degrees and the bite was pretty tough in clear cold water with no wind at pt. 7 in the morning. Moved up to pt.18 area and found 59 degree water with about 5-10 mph south wind. We caught walleye, Lmb & Smb. Friday water temps have improved all over the lake in the creeks & coves with the afternoon bite still improving with the warmer days. Bass are making beds and starting to bite on lizards, jigs crank baits & stickbaits. Walleye are still spawning in some areas but the bite is picking up about half way back in the warmer creeks on crankbaits, suspending stickbaits and bottom bouncers during the day. Suspending stick baits are working at night. White bass are moving into wind warmed coves & the back end of creeks in the afternoon and are on south facing points in the early part of the day.

I was a tough winter with cold icy conditions that everyone I'm sure already knows about. Lake water temps have been slow to rise and lake levels are steady as in not much warming spring run off. My lake boat was out of commission for the past couple of months due to the failure of the torsion suspension axle. The trailer is six years old. Ranger did furnish the parts for the repair for which I am grateful. I have been on the lake a couple of times in the past week enough to see that least some of the walleyes are post spawn and starting to bite. The best bait for us has been a 3"-4" swimmin minnow fished slowly on the bottom on a 1/4oz jig head. As expected water color was better in the Diamond City area and pretty much crystal clear down the lake in the Oakland area. White bass are starting to bite in the back of bays with warm south winds and the creek channels. Crappie fishing has been pretty good at times after a few warm days on minnows fished 5'-10' over brush piles mostly in the back of the creeks where the water is more colored. I cleaned a 22" walleye that was post spawn and had 3 baby crappies in it's stomach so at least some crappies & walleyes are post spawn. I plan on making up for lost time and spending as much time as possible on the lake and will really try to post what I find out.....(www.bullshoalsfishing.com)

I've caught a few blue cats in past years from Tucker hollow down to the Bull Shoals dam with most coming from the Diamond City to the dam area. Seems to me like blues travel more in pods or small schools out in open water. Lots of large blues were caught in the 1980's & 90's by jug fishermen mostly along bluff banks suppended in the main channel often 20'-30' down over 80'-100' fow. I know a few jug fishermen that know what they doing and they say the bluecat population is not what it use to be. On the bright side AG&FC has started restocking them in the lake. I know the blues that were raised in the Pot Shoals net pens near pt.16 in earlier years returned to cause trouble by ripping holes in the nets. It was quite a sight to watch these huge bluecats (some close to 100 pounds) tearing at the pens containing trout. I know for a fact that many of these large blues were trapped & removed from the lake.

No, I did not move to Benton. I'm still here.

Today Bill Struthers, Bob Paulette and I took some of the wounded warriors from Fort Leonard Wood that are staying at Lost Cove Resort in the Pontiac Missouri area out for half day trips. These guys put their lives on the line for the USA and we all owe them a debt of gratitude. Scott the guy in my boat was a master Sargent who did two tours in Iraq and lost most of his squad when their mine proof vehicle was blown 30' in in the air by a Taliban IED shortly after they were transfered to Afghanistan. He also brought his 10 year old son who was the guy who caught most of the fish best one was a 4 pound plus walleye and a 15" crappie, caught 7 or 8 other walleyes but only had that one keeper walleye. Bill's boat had 2 keeper walleyes and some spotted bass snd Bob 's boat caught a nice 4 pound flathead catfish and a several nice spotted bass splitshotting crawlers while Bill & I trolled bottom bouncers.

Lake level 659 water temp 78-80 degrees. Water clarity in the area fished (pt.13-pt.9) about 10'. Fished about a half day yesterday and found walleyes biting on nightcrawler rigs trolled on bottom bouncers and on jigging spoons about 30-40'. We caught about 10 with 4 being keepers up to about 22". Also talked to a friend who was doing well on spotted & SMB at this same depth on dropshot rigs.

Flathead can be a tad chewy if fried in very large pieces. I cut the meat in 1" strips across the grain or length of the muscle. Cut these into about 2" long pieces (thick pieces will need cut so the meat is 2"X1"). Dip in seasoned milk & egg and shake the well drained pieces in seasoned white cornmeal mix. I like to use a 4:1 mix of white cornmeal & self rising flour,1 scoop of plain bread crumbs about a large TBL of corn starch, paprika & Cavenders seasoning and about a half TBL of ground chipotle pepper and salt to taste (we don't use much salt on anything). Deep fry it in hot (400+ degree) canola oil. Be sure to shake off the excess cornmeal before dropping it in the oil. DO NOT over cook the fish, leave it in just long enough to float and turn a little golden brown and flakes when you break it.Chop up some green onions, celery and some bell pepper, mix this in with the left over cornmeal and milk & egg to make the hush puppies. Use a teaspoon dipped in the hot oil to drop the hush puppies in the oil. Cook the hush puppies longer intil the celery & bell pepper is tender.

Flatheads are dang good eatin'. The belly meat is the sweetest of all the catfish. Yes sir my grown childred (youngest is 38) still brag on my pop corn fried flathead catfish. I'm starten to feel like I've had a "craven flung on me for pop corn fried flathead catfish". Think I"ll take the grand kids out to catch some bluegills and do some jug fishing when this moon gets dark.

The lake level has came up several feet in the past few days and is expected to crest next week at 670'. Water temp is about 82 degrees. It took the walleyes a few days to adjust to this change but they seem to be in about 25-40' during the day and biting on crawler rigs & crank baits again. Water clarity seems to vary with clearer water further down the lake. I fished the point 16- 20 area yesterday and found clarity to be about ten foot. I caughf my walleyes on bottom bouncer and spinners w/ half crawlers and 25-30' the productive zone. A friend was trolling the same area using downriggers & Hot N Tots 40' down over about 60 fow and caught a fat 27"+ walleye, so we know thats working also. I got report of walleyes being caught in the bank brush by bass fishermen this past week at night. The. jigging spoon bite is also working now for walleyes & white bass with brushpiles. on the main lake points and also inside the creeks being good places to try.

Last week I fished several days in the Tucker hollow area and Bee Creek seemed to be loaded with gar. Not so much out on the main lake flat, but we hooked several inside the creek a couple points in on crawler rigs.

Ken, good question about the thermocline. I have been seeing something on the graph at about 20' that appears to be a thermocline also one in 25'-30'. I was a scuba diver for 20+ years and do remember seeing more than 1 thermocline at times. The deeper one always seemed to be more dense with a thicker mud line. I have been catching more keeper walleyes in about 28'-32'. It seems like shallower I'm getting more pumpkimseeds and short walleyes along with a keeper every once in a while, but the bait robbers are thick in the shallower water. Some days a bigger blade like a #3 Colorado or a #4 tomahawk works better around the balls of shad. But also I have been having good luck with just a 4mm bead and a #4 or #2 slow death type hook. I've been trying some of the other brands of hooks and the Trokar is definitely getting to be one of my favorites. I think when I'm in a area with a mayfly hatch the smaller lure seems to work better. Some days the flats are better and some days I've been finding them inside the larger coves and creek mouths. When I find them on the flats they always seem to be on some kind of structure like a ditch or a break line or a brush pile. In the coves they seem to be on fist size rock. Using a pretty heavy bottom bouncer on braided line will help to find different types of bottom on the flats.I try to find a patch of harder or rockier bottom out on the flats. That is another type of structure that holds walleyes.

Lake level 660' water temp 85-87 degrees. We have had a few cooler days this week and fishing has been very good. Bass are biting top water lures early in the morning and soft plastics & live bait during the day. Crayfish and night-crawlers fished on split shot rigs are working well on brush piles, points & drop offs in 25'-35'. Walleyes are biting crawler rigs trolled on bottom bouncers and crank baits in 23'-40'. The water is still very clear in most areas and and the better fish seem to be holding in and near the thermocline on main lake points and flats. Jigging spoons are catching walleyes, bass & crappies on brush piles and bluff ends in about 30'-40'. There are some nice size bluegills biting in 25'+ on worms and crickets........Mike Worley (http://www.bullshoalsfishing.com/)

I have a slightly used Minn Kota Powerdrive 48" shaft. 12Volt- 55LB thrust equipped with a Minn Kota Copilot remote control. Also included is the powerdrive foot control. I bought this trolling motor for my riverboat and only used it a few times.This a V-2 and will work with a I-Pilot (It DOES NOT have I-Pilot, but is compatible) $400.....870-321-3705

Yes, the walleye are biting. Crawler rigs on bottom bouncers as well as trolling crank baits and casting swim baits and catching. Walleyes. Try these techniques on rocky secondary points with the bottom bouncer fish in about 20'. We have been doing best in the creeks & larger coves. Steeper rocky points and banks are holding the better eyes. As of Wednesday they didn't seem to be on the main lake flats yet. Water temps are still mid 70's with the brush line in about 9' and we have been casting swimmin' minnows on jigheads along the brush line on cloudy days with a little wind and doing well.

Lake level is 663.5 water temp is mid-70's. Water clarity is very clear to slightly stained in the creek arms. Bass fishing has been great this week with small mouth bass biting in 5'-20' on soft plastics like swim baits, crank-baits lizards & tubes. Large-mouth bass are also biting these baits as well as top-water baits like Zara spooks and Flukes. Walleye fishing has really picked up with good catches in 5'-30' on crawler rigs fished on bottom bouncers, split-shot & trolled Carolina rigs. Jigs & jigging spoons fished vertically on brush-piles in 20'-30' are also working. White bass are still being caught in the back of the creeks and large coves. With the main channel water being gin clear look for the better bite to be in the back half of the creeks where the water is slightly stained and use as light of line as you can with 10# being on the heavy side............................Mike Worley (www.bullshoalsfishing.com)