BullShoalFisherman

I’m not sure he guides for bass anymore, but Gary Paris is one of the nicest and most experienced fisherman you will meet. Not the nicest equipment, but decades of knowledge and he loves it. Lee Livesay is the other that comes to mind but doubt he is doing much guiding anymore

Bull Shoals isn’t all rainbows and 5 pounders! I had to deal with 3 other boats fishing shoal creek Saturday morning! It felt packed!

If you're fishing for crappie, and like using spotlock, I highly recommend a separate pole. Also, if you crappie fish brush piles, separate pole, if you fish standing timber i would consider on the trolling motor. If you fish for bass, I would say on the TM. The difference is , bass never stop moving when suspending, however crappie stay attached to cover , making spotlock more useful.

After owning my current express with seadek, I will not own another boat with carpet. funny thing is, i did not want it or think I would like it when I got the boat. It is not hot, slick, and is pretty easy to clean.

I can attest to the hard strikes. Having 3-4 feet of slack knocked in your line on a fast moving bait. Fun way but not a predictable way to catch fish. Usually just something you can stumble across this time of year

Hey Bill, he uses a 5:3:1 reel, easier to turn. Don’t be afraid to take a chartreuse and powder blue 6XD to some of your smallmouth points and do the same, if it’s deflecting off the bottom, they will smoke it this time of year.

No one on the pond to the SE yesterday. Downright peaceful. Then again you get an extra 25 feet of water to sort thru to catch fish.

Report: started on a main lake point around 7 AM and caught a nice KY on a fluke the first cast. Proceeded to not have another bite for the next hour and half. Moved to a bluff wall and pulled in a 4 Lb LM on a shakeyhead but no other fish. decided to switch to crappie, run to some brush, find a big school on the livescope and catch 5 keepers and 50+ small fish. tried to find some bluegills but didn’t find any beds. Should I be able to see some beds on sidescan on Bull Shoals? good day overall. Water temp 67-69. Still cold for late may

Fishing out of diamond city with my brother in law Saturday, haven’t been on the pond about 2 weeks and 10 feet of water ago. Are there fish up shallow or time to fish the old shoreline on the points?

How do you recommend fishing it?

I bought a 2018 Xpress bay boat recently that had 2 interstate group 31 AGMs hooked to the terrova, it was rigged for serious crankbait trolling. When I went to look at it originally to purchase the boat, we discovered one of the AGM batteries has gone bad (about 1 year old at the time). It was under the 3 year warranty and it was replaced for free before he sold it to me. Now the other AGM battery has gone bad and the warranty (1.5 years old) will not be honored because it’s non transferable. My options are: 1. Buy a matching group 31 interstate AGM for $350. (Risking it doesn’t go bad, and these batteries were on different banks of an AGM approved MinnKota charger). 2. Buy a Duracell group 31 AGM from Sams for $180 3. Take both batteries out and replace with 2 group 31 lead acid Duracell batteries ($90 each). Does anyone have any guidance?

Fished East Sugarloaf and Elbow today and enjoyed a beautiful day on the water. There are some bass on beds and some staged off in cuts and guts. Hard to put the 2.8 swimmer down. It got bit with the most consistency but some shakeyhead and senko mixed in, never could get a squarebill bit going, not for lack of trying, but likely too clear and flat for much of that today. . Decent numbers and decent size today, but just feel lucky that its late April and the lake isn't 25 feet high.

Hey Phil, Used to work in the Styrene supply chain, which makes styrofoam. The biggest issue is rivers up north freezing and having ice preventing barges getting from the gulf coast to the styrofoam factories near Chicago.

I wish, I called the day they released them and left a message (multiple actually) and wasn’t granted one. Unfortunate as I would be willing to go that way. If anyone wants to donate their to me, let me know! Will share coordinates.

Does anyone know of a good source of river cane or bamboo I could use to build some brush piles this spring/ summer? the closer to diamond city the better. I would be willing to cut, haul, pickup, of course.

recent posts have inspired me to post reports (the good, the bad, and the ugly) Launched out of DC around 10 am, started out down the lake near five fingers , three fingers and shoal area, fished points , backs and secondary points and blanked on all of it. Didn’t find many Shad around any of it, rock crawlers, spinner baits, shakeyheads. Fished the bushes to about 12 feet, not too deep, probably the issue. moved back up the lake and fished bluff walls with rock crawlers and still no takers. We were around productive stuff with good wind on it. finished up moving back around DC to fish for crappie. Found a few willing to play, but a mostly little 6 inch black crappie. Nothing to write home about, not enough for dinner so they’re still swimming. not the best day productivity wise, lots of 51-54 deg water temp. Color was good most places, trash/ debris has cleared up. A couple weeks and it will bust loose for bass, crappie seemed to be even closer. Unsure how the dropping water will effect them.

I have put a lithium Ion battery into an plastic ammo box, and then wired a trolling motor plug female end to the outside of the box connecting to the lithium battery. I have the male trolling motor plug on my black box wires (not my graph) . I plug them up, and then can easily take this setup out to charge, it’s all contained in my front compartment. I am really happy with this setup as I don’t have to worry as much about draw on the battery, and have a 12v 12AH cheap mighty max battery I keep in the boat as backup in case my lithium ever runs out. So I recommend 2 things: keeping your black box and cranking battery separate. And go on Amazon and get a 50 dollar Norco jump box to keep in your boat in case your cranking battery does go down.