Ealy

Nice work. I'm curious about the Spin Jig. Are you talking about an underspin?

We stayed Friday/Saturday night at Lakewoods Resort in Protem. Good people and a great place to take a family. Somehow I ended up randomly staying in a cabin right next door to an old friend that I've known for over twenty years, and was able to catch up on old times. We actually began fishing together as kids tromping through fields and sneaking into farm ponds. I ran trotlines and noodles with him Friday and Saturday night and he ended up with a nice mess of channels, a couple of blues and a flathead. They made for an excellent fish fry Saturday evening with many of his friends and family. I dropped the boat in for a solo morning trip at daylight and fished in the rain till 12, coming in for lunch, and later out for a few more hours with the family in the afternoon. Most of my Bull Shoals fishing experience has been from Lead Hill to K-Dock, so aside from one specific spot, near Buck Creek, I had never fished the area before. It rained the majority of the time, ranging from a light sprinkle to brief downpours, with a pretty good wind blowing straight into Buck Creek. The lake was also about 14' high. First off, I ran halfway back into a major creek and picked a few deeper points to toss the Ned rig before working my way back into the pocket. Short walleye right off the bat with the Ned, followed by a couple of short smallies. The conditions looked right for a spinnerbait, but only managed one smallmouth with it. I spent about half the morning fishing in creeks and the other half on main lake points. I graphed a ton of fish suspended high in the water column and was able to catch several smallmouth and later blacks on a smoke grub.There was some random surface activity, but nothing that stayed up, and only managed one short smallies on a zara spook, I did have one 14.5" brownie on a fluke, but for the most part I alternated between the grub and ned rig all day with several fish coming from mouths of creeks on the steeper points. One point yielded a dozen fish, and is also where a lost a nice KY and walleye come off at the boat. I boated roughly 40 fish, mostly smallmouth, but never physically touched a keeper. The blacks I caught were back in a creek on a channel bank eating the grub as it cleared the outside brushline. I think those outside bushes probably are holding a lot of fish right now, but I couldn't figure out how to catch the bigger ones. Fishing out deeper actually produced some of the smallest fish for me with some coming from 22-24'. Right now, you can get bit on just about every type of point or creek channel bank, with the easy fish coming just out from the brush. I planned on taking out the family Sunday, but with the full day of rain heading that way, we packed it up and headed back home. We did stop at Fat Daddy's BBQ in Forsyth for breakfast, and had an excellent breakfast (strongly recommend the smoked ham. All in al, l a great time for a shortened holiday weekend.

I´m needing details on this as well.

I've ran into problems over the years, mostly with smallmouth swallowing the hook, especially in the spring. For years I worked as a mechanic, and as much as I hate to promote Snap On Tools (I think I paid my Snap On dealer's house payment), they make a set of long handled set of cutters that work great. You simply drop the pliers in and cut the hook. No reason to do any digging. I actually found a link here for a cheaper Blue Point version that would be just as effective. http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=all&item_ID=647211&group_ID=682642&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

I called Coffman Marina today to ask about launching. They want $5.50 to drop my boat in the water, followed by $5.50 to put it back on the trailer. They mentioned limited parking as well. I was going to practice that arm of the lake for the BBB, but I'm changing my whole game plan for the tournament solely based on principle. $11.00 actually buys a fair amount of boat gas these days.

Good to know. I don't really want any surprises Thursday morning.

I'm coming up Thursday and am curious about Brown's Bend. With the lake at 655.6 should I expect problems dropping in my BassCat? I put in there once about 6 years back and don't remember much about it.

We floated Wednesday from the dam at Lake Niangua to the end of Mother Nature's Campground, which is around 7 miles. There was plenty of water for our kayaks, and honestly not much dragging. I did have to get out once for about a 15 foot stretch of shoals, but other than that, smooth sailing. Fishing was tough. Lots of good looking stuff to fish along the way, but not many fish wanted to play. Never had more than a 13 incher, with a half dozen blacks and smallmouth. I would highly recommend this float this time of year. Another group complained of lots of dragging the previous week on the LITTLE Niangua, but the bigger branch proved to be just fine.

I plan on dropping the kayak in at the Lake Niangua dam, and float fishing down to the end of Mother Nature's Campground property. They say it's about 7 miles. I've never been on this river, and would like to know about the fishing. Are there good numbers of smallies, blacks, and goggle eye? I've been told the fishing right below the dam is decent, but haven't heard about the rest of the river. By the way, I did have the opportunity to drive on down into the Mother Nature's Campground yesterday, and would highly recommend this place for the family crowd.

A buddy of mine camps at Baxter on a regular basis, and would like to catch some catfish in that area. He's picked up a couple of trotlines, and plans on rigging them up with Bluegills and hotdogs. Any tips on structure this time of year? Flats, bluff ends, deep coves, gravel, chunk rock, etc? Also, do the vintage storm hotdogs hunt better on the trotlines than new redesigned Oscar Mayers?

I fished three days prior to the Oakley tournament and caught mostly largemouth and smallmouth. I avoided main lake gravel points, because I didn't feel that was where my best chance was for catching a big black. The few that I fished produced some KYs for me. During the tournament, I checked main lake bluff ends for post spawn blacks, and caught KYs at every one. The only fish I weighed in was a 3.48 KY that they mentioned was the largest spot weighed in. At that location we had a dozen KYs in maybe an hours time.

Spring: Fish Doctor--Grn Pumpkin Senko- Watermelon or Grn Pumpkin variations Zoom 6" Lizard-Cotton Candy, Grn Pumkin, or Watermelon variations Yamamoto Super Grub Smoke Trick Worm- Watermelon Grn Pumpkin variations Summer: Luck E Strike Original Ringer- Plum or Black Grape Neon Zoom Brush Hog Watermelon/Grn Pumpkin variations Luck E Strike Razor Worm Zoom Trick Worm Yamamoto Twin Tail Watermelon/Red Flake Fall: Ultravibe Speed Craw Smoke/Milky SP Grub Lil Critter Craw Zoom Finesse Worm Razor Worm

Yeah, apparently I've got this keen sixth sense that enables me to know the difference between catching a fish on a freak accident and a pattern. Luckily it always works and never leaves me second guessing.

Poppers still work at times. My first keeper today came on the Yellow Magic. It's funny, I caught it after 3 casts with it, and put it down about a dozen casts later. Why I lose faith in something so quickly after seeing it work is beyond me. I just didn't feel like it was the deal, yet.

Cool pic indeed! Is that the Chompers Stand Up Jig?

Our best time period was between 12 and 2. We fished other areas later that looked right, but didn't fare well.

We unloaded the boat today about 7:15 at Ruark. Fished secondary points and rock transitions in Sons and the Big Sac all day. Most of our early fish were caught on stickbaits (6 keepers) on rock transitions and secondary points. As the day warmed up and the wind we picked up 6 more keepers on spinnerbaits and wiggle warts.A brown jig with green pumpkin trailer was the most productive today along with several on a tube. We honestly had right at 20 keeper bass today and another 20 or so shorts. By 2:00 they had pretty much shut down for us and loaded back up at 3:45.

Like what, a crack pipe? Have you been in there lately? Are you really wanting to advertise your site in a head shop? To each his own, but i didn't feel comfortable taking my 7 year old in there to get a drink after fishing the other day.

Sorry to hear this. I drew him and his dog Suzie out at Beaver once in a Central Pro Am. Fishing was very tough, and he did really well on a Roadrunner. A great guy to fish with, and a really good fisherman.

If Guido Hibdon is the father of "fitness" fishing, then call me Joe Weider.

I listened to the audio earlier today and really enjoyed it. I've spent a fair amount of time between Powersite and K-Dock, and it's a very unique place to fish. I usually end up catching something, but usually not what I first set out to catch. It's a good place to salvage the day with a different species. I'm still gonna pester you all about the jerkbait colors. The colors must be something I don't have, because I can't seem to make my colors work anymore!

I had planned on going to this for weeks, but ended up with family obligations. Did anyone end up taking any pics of the baits that were passed around? I heard he likes to throw a rogue with a lot of red/orange/yellow.

The Chinese version has a fortune inside.

Thanks for painting that picture. I'm gonna go ahead and tie a spinnerbait on right now! Let's hope this spring produces for us this year.

That sounds pretty awesome! Were most of these caught bed fishing? I'm curious of what the conditions were like.