whiteley.matt

Was a little slower this trip than it has been for me the last several weeks. Only had 18 keepers and had to work for them. We did have probably that many more shorts. We fished in the Sac river arm. Fish were pretty scattered. We did have 4 whites and 3 of them were right at 2lbs.

Got our limit today and had several over 14”. Caught fish scattered anywhere from 5’ to 20’. Most on jig. Had a handful on minnow. Had a hard time finding any big schools of fish where we were today. Water temp was around 47 everywhere we went and water was very stained.

A ton of shorts today. We brought 18 home and a bonus walleye. Also had some whites. Fish around Ruark have been getting hammered and they are acting like it. Very finnicky. Explored some new water and found fish that were much more aggressive and unbothered by us being around them. Found a bunch in less than 10’ of water. Was a beautiful day for February.

Haven't posted on here in a long time. Will start posting crappie reports as I go. The crappie have been really good this winter so far. This last trip on the 26th is the first time in a long time we haven't hit our limit. Up until this trip pretty much everything was relating to brush, but, they seem to be starting to group up in open water now. We fished main lake north of Mutton due to ice. Brought home 20 with 3 right at 14”. A mixed bag of fish on brush and suspended schools. The last month I have had a handful of deeper brush piles really producing good in this area and today they were completely vacant. No fish at all. I assume due to the extreme cold that hit us. Had to do a little searching. The fish we caught today were in spots that were not holding fish a few weeks ago before the artic blast. Best depth was around 25' and water temp was right around 40 every where we went.

Are there any places close to the lake around the dam/Lost Bridge area to get minnows? I will be down next week and was going to try night fishing with some lights to see if I could find some crappie or white bass.

What a difference a day makes. Fished both days from Piney down to around Aunts Creek. Friday the 9th - Fished from sun up to around 2:30, or whenever the storm blew in. Ended the day with around 60 fish with only 5 keepers. 80% of those came on jerkbait with a few mixed in on top water, jig, ned, and a-rig. Water temp was 59 when we started and we saw it as warm as 64 before leaving. Fished a lot of steeper banks. Caught several fish right up on the bank. Fun day, just wish we could have found something with some size. Saturday the 10th - Fished in the Joe Bass tourney and the lake let us know who was boss. Ended the day only boating 7 bass with 1 barely 15" keeper. The only highlight was finding a school of white bass that were angry. Caught several of those and had a couple that hit 3lbs. Kudos to the guys that caught em, because we sure couldn't. There were boats everywhere with the 3 tourneys going on and I'm sure that did not help our cause.

I never had any issues with any with anybody. But there were alot of guys flying around a little faster than I prefer.

Fished from a little after 10 until 1 or so. Got a late start and ended up parking in the grass by the road. Lot was overflowing with rigs. Main objective of the trip was to run the boat. Its been down for about a year and just getting her back up and going. That went well. The fishing was tough. For starters finding a spot to fish was difficult. Every point and cut in sight had boats on them. Found a few open bluffs and bluff ends and managed 2 on ned. Both were around 30 ft deep. Threw jerkbait, a-rig, and jig as well with no takers. Water temp was 41-42. Was a beautiful day and the boat is back up and running so no complaints. Talked to multiple guys at the ramp who blanked or only caught one fish.

Launched around 6 from the Big Indian (H Highway) launch across from Baxter. No issues and the parking lot is very easy to launch from. Only issue could be accessing it if the lake raises much more. The water was maybe 10" from going over the road that leads to the ramp. Topwater bite was very good for the first couple hours. Fish were chasing shad from the shoreline all the way out to 100'. We had a problem getting them on the hooks. I think we only landed 5 or 6 fish on topwater and easily had over 50 blowups. I tried just letting the spook set to see if that made a difference. Had several blowup on it just sitting dead in the water and no hook up. It was still alot of fun and was fast and furious action while it lasted. There were several 5+ lb fish that came up out of the water chasing shad so there were some good fish mixed in. The rest of the day we flipped jigs into the jungle for a bit, threw ned, small swimbaits, weightless fluke, wacky rigged senko, jerkbait and spinnerbait. Was pretty slow overall, just a few fish here and there. the jerkbait was the bait that seemed to work the best. We kept noticing suspended fish out in the main guts in the back of coves and creeks. Starting throwing a jerkbait and they were eating it. Most of the fish caught on jerkbait were largemouth. Never caught anything with any size though. Ended with over 20 total fish with 6 keepers and lots of near misses. No fish pics, nothing to special to show there. There is a pic of shoreline at Baxter and then a sycamore tree full of herring nests that were all full of babies. (I think they were herrings) I believe we counted 11 nests

Had the same type of top water action Sunday morning by the dam. Must have been turned on all over the lake. It was a blast. We had a glass surface as well when we started fishing around 615 but it was quickly broken with fish and shad activity all over where we were. I had actually debated on going to Shell Knob because I have been catching fish there pretty consistently. But, my buddy joining me lives by Chateau and so I figured might as well give the dam area a try. Sounds like it was good fishing in both places.

No whites. We did catch a huge crappie and a small walleye that I forgot to mention.

That was my first top water action this year. Put the spook on with hopes of maybe catching a couple and was pleasantly surprised. The boat is actually an 85 Ranger 395V. Its a very close friend of mines boat that he is letting me use while my boat is out of commission. He picked it up from the factory when it was finished and it has been babied ever since. Had a new Merc put on it in 2002 I believe. That and the trolling motor and graphs are about all thats new. Everything else is factory. He doesn't use it so I am working on him to pass it on to me... (The 02 outboard doesn't even have 50 hours on it)

Minus the small break we had to take to ride out the storm, yesterday was a great day on the water. Launched at Moonshine at around 6 and didn't have to go far to find a whole bunch of surfacing shad and active fish. The pics will show you right where we were.... lol 1st hour or so: This was the first morning that I had a top water tied on and I am glad I did. On my second cast it got blew up on 4 times. The last time being a clean connection on a nice keeper smallie. For the next hour it was non stop blow ups. Fish and shad were surfacing all over the entire cove. I ended up catching 17 on the spook which made for a great start to the day. As usual, the two biggest blowups I had were missed. One was probably a 5.5 to 6lb largemouth that flew out of a dock and crushed it. With the water clarity we got to see her come out and sit under the spook for a second before blowing it up. We also got to see her make a quick dive and then turn and open her mouth and spit it out like there wasn't a single hook on it. The other big miss was a very large smallie that flew out of the water multiple times but never connected. The fish that were caught were spitting up shad all over the place. Rest of the day: After the top water extravaganza was over I tried a jerkbait for a bit and managed one good kentucky, but, they were not having it. Also tried a small kietech and nothing there either. Went to the Ned and it was on again. Normally when I fish Ned I don't notice much of a difference in results with different colors of Ned's. I normally throw a green pumpkin variation. But, this time, they wanted something with purple in it. It was crazy the difference it made. Experimented a couple times just to confirm it. Another note, we did not have to work the Ned slowly today. They preferred it hopping and bouncing around a bit more. Not just the let it sit and soak. Caught fish the rest of the day doing this. Most of the fish were around 8-10 ft and were really stacked on secondary points. Caught them on pea gravel and chunk rock banks. The breeze didn't seem to matter a whole lot, but, there were a few more fish stacked together on the spots with wind. Overall just a great day. Minus the quick storm the temp and overcast skies were perfect. We ended up with over 50 total fish. What amazed me was that out of all of the fish we caught I would say that maybe only a dozen or so did not hit the 15" keeper mark. It was by far the most keepers I have ever caught in a single day. None were big by any means, 15-17", but were keepers. It was also a pretty even mix of all three species. I generally do not catch that many LM around the dam on Ned. If only these days would happen more often....

Enjoyed the beautiful day yesterday trying to catch some crappie. That did not work out too well, but, the bass were there and were willing to cooperate. Fished from 7ish to about 430. Headed up the Kings and looked for crappie until around noon or so. Only managed to find 4 keepers, and 4 shorts. It just was not happening for us. Decided to head back down to Shell Knob and see if we could find some bass. I am glad we did. Fishing main lake and secondary points yesterday afternoon we lost count of the number of fish we caught. Some good K's were definitely stirring. We ended with well over 40 fish with probably 12or so keepers. 6 of the keepers were big spots. I don't know that I have ever had that many keeper spots in one trip. Most of the fish came on the Ned. I did have 7 or 8 on the Hot Mouse War Eagle SB. These fish came back in some wind blown cuts. All of the spinnerbait fish but 1 were largemouth. They were 14"-16" males. Saw a lot of the fish we caught on the graph, but, could not get them to take anything but the Ned for some reason. Tried Kietechs and jerk baits but they were not interested. Did also catch a nice 19" walleye on the Ned as well. Went well with the handful of crappie. Only got a couple pics with two of the good spots. Ned never ceases to amaze!

Ya, it was slow. I know a few people that were down Tues and Weds and had 40+ each day. They said most were males and were in the 8-10 foot range. We were hoping we could find some of those, but, I guess the cool front that came through slowed them down.