roy_eros

Big girl looks a bit thin for this time of year? Really appreciate the report Bill. Great info for those of us stuck at work! Looks like a fun day.

So how about that ice.....haha

Should we bring the ice augers? Tournament is 20 days away, what do you think the odds are of the lake de-icing by then?

I have a Mercury lower unit housing that came off of a 2005 150hp XR6. It is in great condition. I believe the part number is #219727 and it costs about $650 new. Text 870 six eight eight 217six if you are interested. I am located in Flippin, Ar. Make me an offer!

Fished in the same area Tues. and Wed. evenings from about 6-dark. Caught a bunch of short fish like you mentioned along with 2 solid 3 pounders each night. Don't give up on the spook!

Has worked for me twice! Great tip!

Just a reminder!

They missed a good bite today!

Today has been canceled due to storms. They have not announced any details about the format of the rest of the tournament yet.

I saw a ton of 3-4 pound fish moved up into the backs of pockets yesterday evening. They were pretty finicky, but i'm sure a few of these guys have a trick or two for that. Thursday is going to be interesting, it could be a home run or it could be very lousy...

They may find some good ones bedding but I think it would be tough to find 5 good ones each day on a bed. Last year the whole lake had a good color to it with 2-4 foot visibility. That brought a ton of fish up to the bank to feed and many of the fish were already postspawn in some parts of the lake. That colored water is very important for getting on a good reaction bait bite. Therefore I believe the few areas that do have some color right now which is the extreme back of some of the rivers and creeks will get pounded. There are some good chances for rain this week so that may play a very big part in the fishing this week. Like Bill said the CPA tournament has some very good sticks and for them to struggle the way they did I would expect the elites to average similar weights. Of course there will be a few bags in the 18-22 pound range, too many big fish for somebody not to have a good day sometime.

The lake is setting up to fish much smaller than it did last year, I also don't think you will hear many reports of catching 50+ keepers a day as we did last year.

Well they are in town again. What do you guys think is going to be the story this year? My impression is the lake is quite a bit stingier this spring compared to last year.

They were not allowed in this one

They were not allowed in this one

Took 16 and change to win today, weights fell off pretty quick to about 10.5 for the last in the money spot. We finished less than a tenth of a pound out of the money with a 10.49 limit. Covered a lot of water today and caught plenty of fish just no size. Water temps we saw ranged from 54-62. Water clarity also varied from 20 ft + clarity to less than 2 foot clarity. As you can tell we fished the lake from one end to the other. Saw several males on beds and a few were pretty locked on. Most were pretty skittish though. The tournament had close to 300 boats and it speared that less than 40 teams probably brought a limit to the scales.

I snagged a big carp in the belly on a c-rig yesterday, guess they missed at least one! Also had me excited for a few seconds before I realized it was way to big to be the species I was after.

Our FFA Fishing Team is hosting a benefit tournament out of Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock May 4th. Our sponsors have donated some awesome prizes. If we get 30 boats we are guaranteeing $500 to first place. Entry fee is $50 and big bass is $10. Our big bass prize is an Abu Garcia MGX and Villain combo! I have a flyer with all the specific details. If you would like a copy shoot me your email address and I can get it to you.

Our FFA Fishing Team is hosting a benefit tournament out of Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock May 4th. Our sponsors have donated some awesome prizes. If we get 30 boats we are guaranteeing $500 to first place. Entry fee is $50 and big bass is $10. Our big bass prize is an Abu Garcia MGX and Villain combo! I have a flyer with all the specific details. If you would like a copy shoot me your email address and I can get it to you.

I've been seeing water temps closer to 60 than 50.. Especially later on in the day

Glad this tournament wasn't a few weeks later with the bass in the shallows.. I've head the bow hunters can pretty frequently accidentally shoot a bass.

Fished the lower end and as everyone already said lots of traffic and not to many bites to be had. Got a 4.61 in the boat on day one for a 2nd place check, had one other nice fish break me off on Sunday..only quality bites I had in two days.

I lost interest in this thread as soon as someone started quoting lakes off the BASS top100... That list is a joke some guy at a desk pumped out in a hour because he didn't have any material apparently..

http://www.bassmaster.com/blog/heart-land-take-care-our-own Should he turn off the sunshine and bubble pump for this one? Thanks for the good writing DB! Keep it coming.

Talked to Brandon just before weigh in yesterday. He said he had found a few "small" spots on a big spot that were key to getting big bites.