mojorig

As of Today (5/19), the USCOE is predicting the lake to crest at 669 on May 31st.

Here are the new levels after minimum flow was implemented. I am like Ham and Fish 24/7, I still go by 654 for a few more years. Top Power Pool: Jan 01 to Apr 30 659 Apr 30 to May 01 659 to 660 May 01 to May 15 660 to 662 May 15 to Jun 15 662 Jun 15 to Jul 15 662 to 661 Jul 15 to Sep 30 661 Sep 30 to Oct 01 661 to 659 Oct 01 to Dec 31 659

I don't know if this will help the conversation any. Here is the daily water level readings for Bull Shoals Lake since impoundment through 2014. 2011 was the highest (696.28 MSL) that Bull Shoals Lake has ever got and 2008 was the third highest (694.76 MSL). TR and BS Pool Elevs POR-1.pdf

All, I have attached the AGFC D-2 Fisheries 2015 First quarter newsletter. If you would like to be added to the newsletter email list, feel free to email me at Jeremy.Risley@agfc.ar.gov Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. Feel free to contact us with an questions. Thank you for fishing Bull Shoals Lake!!! Thanks, Jeremy D-2 - 2015 First Quarter Newsletter.pdf

All, I have attached the AGFC D-2 Fisheries 2015 First quarter newsletter. If you would like to be added to the newsletter email list, feel free to email me at Jeremy.Risley@agfc.ar.gov Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. Feel free to contact us with an questions. Thank you for fishing Lake Norfork!!! Jeremy D-2 - 2015 First Quarter Newsletter.pdf

You all might be thinking of the spotted bass length limit for Table Rock. For Arkansas sections of Table Rock, spotted bass only have to be 12 inches to keep.

We (AGFC) haven't bought any of the property. We have been in discussion with the family that owns that property.

There probably are some big ones down there but the likelihood that they would been near the bank shallow enough to sample them is low.

No, the biggest was around 26 inches. We very rarely see the big fish down by the dam.

It is interesting to hear all these sighting of paddlefish in Bull Shoals. They are a very mobile fish. Ron Burgundy, We did a lot better than we were expecting based of the fishing reports from 2014. We sampled 119 walleye in less then one hour of pedal down time of EF.

While sampling walleye at the Bull Shoals Lake dam on Monday Night (3/23), we collected and released a paddlefish. This is a rare sight on Bull Shoals Lake. Is it earth shattering... no but it was unexpected and cool to collect one on Bull Shoals Lake. The AGFC has only saw a couple of them while sampling over the years. It likely came from Table Rock so it had to swim 75 plus miles and go over two dams. Again, it was something I thought was neat and wanted to share with you all.

Those some good looking 2008 year class fish!!!

The gentleman that caught this was a avid bass angler but this was his first or second time fishing for trout.

We weighed that fish on Friday night at the Agfc office in Mountain Home. The fish was caught on an artificial lure from the bank by a gentleman that was fishing for trout for the first or second time in his life. He was not on a guide trip.

Yes we have had reports that the walleye fishing in Bull was down in 2015. We are continuing to stock walleye into the lake. The walleye fishing was great for several years. The walleye fishing is starting to get good at Lake Norfork with a lot of fish close to the 18 inch mark.

Typically, smallmouth do better in stable to low water conditions. That doesn't mean they can have a good spawn during high water years. This is how I look at the spawns and water level on Bull Shoals and Norfork: High water is better for largemouth bass Normal or low water is better for smallmouth bass Spotted bass like any water level, lol!!

I definitely think the anglers are catching a lot of smallmouths. I don't really have an answer why besides they seem to have had several good spawns in the past few years. We saw age-1 smallmouth bass everywhere diving last summer. Sorry, I don't always have good answers, lol!!

Ham, There still is a good population of redear in both Bull Shoals and Lake Norfork. We saw some slab redear during our annual spring and fall bass electrofishing samples in 2014 on Lake Norfork. All the yellow perch that I have heard of being caught or have caught myself have cam from Peel (125 access) down to the Dam. The last reported caught that I have heard of came from the Howard Creek area.

Yes, currently we are benefiting greatly from the 2011 high water year. Most of the 14-16 inch largemouth bass being caught now were from the large 2011 year-class. Once they starting leaving the system over the next few years due to natural and fishing related reasons, the number of keeper size bass will not be as high as the next few years. Ham is absolutely correct!! Hopefully, we will have another high water year in the next couple of years and this will be a mute point. Again, the bass populations in Bull Shoals and Norfork are driven by high water event. The high water event are like a baby boom in humans. I have attached our length frequency for largemouth bass from our 2014 Bull Shoals Lake samples. You can see the large 2011 year class at 13 -15 inches.

2015, 2016, maybe 2017 should be great, if the weather is stable!!! Enjoy them while you can.

Every one of the pre-rapala warts that I have had Tim Hughes custom paint have had eyes like the above picture.

MDC and AGFC doesn't have exact numbers of natural reproduction and recruitment number for each year. Walleye are hard to sample. However, there have been several studies to look at the contribution of stocking walleye on the walleye populations in Bull Shoals and Norfork. While these were conducted well before I came into this district, I can summarize the results. The results suggested that stocking has a bigger impact on the walleye population during low water years. During high water years, stocking has little impact on the overall population numbers. This suggest that recruitment (not natural reproduction) is greater during high water events. With any sport fish fishery, recruitment (number of fish surviving to a defined age or size) has a bigger impact than spawning success. You can have a year with great spawning success (meaning many fish were spawned) but have a poor year class development due to poor recruitment. Poor recruitment could be do to environmental impacts, physical impacts, or food availability. This same impacts of high water will effect most sport fish in Bull Shoals. These fisheries are very boom and bust unlike more fertile waters such as Tennessee River reservoirs. Finally, remember fish that prey on fish will do so whenever they are hungry. They are going to try to eat anything they can get their mouths on. It doesn't matter if it is their brother or sister or someone's favorite sportfish. I've seen bass dead because they tried to eat a bass the same size as them. I've seen crappie eat bass and bass eat walleye. We have to release the nursery ponds with walleye in them when the fish are 2 inches because they start eating each other. Thanks Jeremy

Yes, they are now from one end of the lake to the other. We have received calls from citizens that have found them as far down as Dam Park. The guys at Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock have found them as deep as 80 feet below their docks. Unfortunately, the adults can de-attached from rock and move deeper during falling water, if the fall is slow. Ham is correct that for now they are here and we must figure out a way to live with them. Right now, I wish I had a better answer right now but there are more questions than answers. Joe, We really haven't got many reports of yellow perch being caught in the lake, this year, so we are unsure what their population numbers are at this time.

All, I have attached the D-2 fourth quarter newsletter. If you would like to be added to the newsletter email list, feel free to email me at jtrisley@agfc.state.ar.us Is this something you guys want me to continue to post? Thanks for everything you all do for Norfork!!! D-2 - 2014 Fourth Quarter Newsletter.pdf

All, I have attached the D-2 fourth quarter newsletter. If you would like to be added to the newsletter email list, feel free to email me at jtrisley@agfc.state.ar.us Is this something you guys want me to continue to post? Thanks for everything you all do for Bull Shoals!!! D-2 - 2014 Fourth Quarter Newsletter.pdf