merc1997 Bo

i would suspect that some from roaring river make it down when we have flooding, and dogwood canyon has probably contributed some also. kelly williamson caught one fishing with me many years ago on a plastic worm. it was in the baxter area. bull shoals has many trout, and there are lots of people fish for them under the lights at night there. bo

had a chance to get out and fish a bit today. not the best day post front most of the time, but sometimes you just go when you can. needless to say that with the sun out after how many cloudy days, shallow bass were not to be found for us. so, we just started idling around out in the main channel until we would see fish suspended. occasionally we would see a very small wad of shad. those suspended fish were willing to bite a spoon. both chrome and white seemed to work equally well. we ended up with 8 keeps. 5 of those were lmg. all were 16 to 17 inch bass. nothing big. caught several small bass. the bonus was a 5 lb. walleye, and 12 big whites, 2 1/2 lb. plus size. strike zone was 30 to 40 ft. over at least 50 ft. of water. i am sure that some of these bass are the same ones that are up shallower on good cloudy windy days. moral to the story is to not be afraid to take a shot at suspended fish you see out in the middle of nothing. sometimes these fish just will not bite, but it is surprising just how many times they will. from what looking around that i have done, there are not the big shad schools packed up like normal, and this might be due to last winter's cold. seems as though the threadfin took a dead beat down. however, i have witnessed in past years when the threadfin were not very plentiful, that there was a very good jerk bait bite during the winter, and a good spring spinner bait bite in the spring. this lake is changing a lot, and to keep catching bass, it requires some changes ourselves sometimes. bo

www.ozarksfishin.com worked just fine for me. bo

really nice healthy bass! it is really good to see we have some really healthy bass coming along. looks like the jerk bait bite is getting better, but with a few days of sunshine that bite might change. really nice fishing trip. bo

that is really terrible. it is such a shame that we have all the stealing that we do. i can remember when two of us would show up at the ramp at the same time, both going by ourselves, and one of us would get in with the other and leave one of the boats in the parking lot all day, and never have one thing bothered. should still be that way. how many can remember not ever locking up your house?? i can. bo

very nice one! glad to see a bigger bass. bo

champ great point about "looking up or down" days. even when dealing with deep bass that are suspended, it is really amazing how far up above them you have to fish on some days. we have caught them many days where the strike zone was 20ft. above the bass. very great point though about figuring out how the bass are feeding. bo

Nice job! Also goes to show how clouds are most definitely helping a shallower bite. You also learned something valuable about not assuming that there are not fish where you are fishing because of not getting a bite. You just proved that a lot of times the bass are there, but we just have not put the right lure and presentation in front of them. That is a really nice mean mouth. Bo

sounds like knowing how to utilize the newer high tech equipment really paid off!! really nice job. bo

bill i think the eyes part is just because we are old . that is part of why i have disdain for the new electronics. to be able to see to read the directions, it requires me to get out the cheaters, and so does tying knots. . bo

bill since we are talking about being able to adapt, lets talk about how important trolling motor skills come into play when deep water fishing. from general observation, i see many fisherman struggle fishing deep, just because the boat is never in position to have a shot at catching a bass to begin with. boat position is just as important catching them shallow, but not as hard to do when staying on a spot out in the middle of nowhere and the wind is blowing. since you guide, explain how important that it is to be able to fish, watch the electronics, and fish all at the same time. of all the bassers i have fished with over the years, there are only two that i would fish back seat with any day, and they are mike sowders and kelly williamson, and i taught both of them. i have fished with lots of people that can catch bass deep without problems when i am running the troller, but it all goes out the window when they are on the troller. this is because they are either fishing or running the trolling motor, and never both at the same time. what would be some of your tips that might help others to learn the art of boat positioning. of course, practice rates right up there. guess this might make a whole other discussion. bo

champ you have just stated the key, and that is food. in the past, there always seemed to be an abundance of food (shad) up shallow, but that does not seem to be the case anymore. in the right areas, there were even deep and shallow shad, and when mike sowders and i found an area like that, we would work on the shallow source first, and then move out to work on the deeper bass. on good days, we could keep yo-yoing woking both shallow and deep. when you are not detecting much bait up shallow, that leaves crawdads, and unless there is a massive amount up shallow, there is just not a large enough food base to hold large amounts of bass shallow. a day like today, being very cloudy and windy is a day that shad will tend to come up shallow, but not always. downstream where the most brownies live, there is a better chance to find them up on windy banks because, in table rock, the brownies like to be shallow, and they are great crawdad hunters. just wish there were more of those brown critters on the upper end. it is nice to be able to target some shallow bass, at least part of the time. this is a great time of the year to catch bass, but sometimes you just have to adapt to different depths and methods than how we would prefer to catch them. bo

very nice salamander!! not too many bass around, or that baby would have gotten whacked on the way in. been a long time since i have seen one. bo

with all the wind yesterday, it almost dictated shallow fishing, but seems that the day has to be just right for the shallow bite to kick into gear. the way the wind is blowing at my house today, it looks like another chunk and wind day. wanted to get out yesterday, but it would have been trolling motor only for me, so i stayed home. it was just as well because i was busy stuffing packages all day, and have another pile to get done today. if you get out today, be safe with the wind. bo

hey, nothing wrong with whacking them on a spoon. not a bad morning of catching. bo

glad someone got out to fish. wind is your friend for fishing shallow. nice catching. bo

not much wind yesterday. a friend of mine fished in rock creek and got one keeper on a long bill rebel. guess the weather and wind has to be nasty to have a good bite. always seems that way at least. bo

sent you a pm. bo

sure seems that one should be rewarded better to brave the rain. the bass just seem to be scattered at a big range of depths. nice to hear of having a 4 lber. on. green critters that size seem scarce anymore. bo

i would have been happier if they had been on the bank biting wiggle warts. i love catching them up shallow, but sometimes it just is not going to happen. bo

the spoons that i use were made by battlefield wire, and used to be called a chime spoon. they were made off of a 3J mold, but are made with zinc instead of brass that the 3J spoons were made of. we started out using chrome, but i switched to a white to see if the bite was better, and the white got bit a lot faster. finished up with a chartreuse though. bo

got out a while this afternoon thinking there should be a good crankbait bite. wore the bills off of two old wiggle warts, and not one bite. started looking around out in the channel and would find an area with several suspended fish hanging around. started shooting at them with a spoon and BAM. started whacking them pretty darn good. we had at least a dozen keeps, with several in the 3lb. range. 7 or 8 big whites, and lots of little ones as well as non-keeper bass. biting range was from 20ft. to 40, with 30 being the most consistent. most fish were out over 50ft. of water. the real crazy thing was there was not any big shad schools around. many times there would just be a pod of fish weaving around. i am certain that these same bass are going to the bank with the right conditions. today being post front, just was not that type of day. goes to show to be flexible in depths and presentations. remember that champ the other day went through the gamit of shallow attack, and came upon the jerkbait bite and pounded them. it was a bit of a battle keeping the boat over the fish in all the wind. bo

a little trick to deal with ice, is to spray both line on the spool and the rod guides with spray silicone. have to repeat a time or two during the day, but will eliminate the icing issue. bo

you need to talk to hazbin about his neck. he needs to get some acupuncture treatments and get rid of all the pain he has been dealing with. bo

hazbin, that would be jim bryant. bo