Jeremy Rasnick

We caught 1 Limit of very nice whites, no potato chip whites like we were catching. Yes, they were on a Slider, and yes, they were on the drop off of the flats. In this case it was best sitting in about 30' of water. Keep in mind on this roll off it was much more defined. They were acting crazy for January Whites. They were hitting it on the fall, hitting it on the bottom, you could reel it jig it, or whatever....just get it in the water was the key. The only problem with it was , it was a very big flat that was fishing very small. There could have been 20 boats on it and i'd imagine only a couple of the boats would have been catching fish. I had a couple of boats of buddies try it out today and they did do good at all. We may need to start a new thread on this but is there enough food in bull shoals to support all of the 8 inch bass? We caught probably 30 of those rascals all through out the lake and they were litter mates.

Rest assured, if you would have been out there today, and maybe you were, there were only 4 other boats @ noon, you would have found a parking place. I would have recommended being down their today. It was a great day out on the water. Keep in mind Sam, of the 543 views, i account for about 20 of them, I like seeing each new post. It was a great day to be fishing today and a really bad day to be a white bass, they ended the day with a bad case of sore lips. I never thought the day would come that I would leave biting white bass to try to catch something else. These were really nice ones today.

I've been fishing a lot of the same banks as Bill. If you're familiar the K-Dock area of Bull Shoals you can see that on one side of the Lake you have Steep Rocky Bank which is the channel, on the other side of the lake you have mud/gravel Flats. The Channel bank changes sides from one to the other as you meander up the lake. From the minute you launch your boat at K-dock you are basically on a Flat. Its typical to be in 7-8 feet of water when you are on the outside of the flat and if you move the boat 5 feet towards the channel you will be in 20+. I've had my luck on many of these flats keeping the boat in about 25 and casting towards the flat. If you get hung up a time or to or drag in a stick, fish that area hard, you're likely to get bit. If you have good electronics don't be fooled by all of the fish you see on your graph on the edge of these drop offs, im assuming these aren't game fish or atleast i haven't talked any of them into biting. Then again, these may be gamefish that are just moving on and off of these flats to soak up some sun or feed. Im sure Bill has his ideas of what the fish are and maybe he's been successful at catching them.

If its skin was really smooth, I would lean towards it being a "Mud Puppy" rather than a hell bender. I caught one on a minnow down at the barker hole while walleye fishing one nite. I took the hook out of its mounth and it bit the snot out of me. For them being endagered or threatened, it seems far fetched considering nearly everybody on this forum has had an encouter with one.

Champ and Don, You both bring up points that I haven't thought of, nice work. From a birds eye view, guiding and tournament fishing seems like peanut butter and Jelly. Keep up the good work and stay warm the next few days. JR

Quick Question? Why doesn't guiding and Tournaments mix that well? A Flexible Schedule, lots of time on the water practicing,? Sounds to me like a good combination.

I really enjoyed fishing the BFL. Its a good time. The fact that you can weigh in 5 fish as opposed to the hearland was appealing to me. Unfortunately i only did that a couple of times last season. Im sure for a co-Angler they are pretty much the same.

FYI- State Park is not a Corps of Engineers Ramp. You don't need a pass to launch there. One good thing about a Corps pass is that its good at any Corps ramp in the United States.

I am still catching several fish in the 8'-20' range. They are eating like I have never seen for the month of August. Catchem while you can. I am having my best luck on the gravel banks that you would generally imagine throwing a grub on in April. You can look back and mirror the grub reports of april and replace it with a PBJ Jig and have a good trip.

Talk about a good spot to pick up chicks or should I say "Fat Sows" if youre a male bass............I bet the local bass in the Ahoys cove mouths were watering as all of the new ladies came down the water slide fish pipe. Im sure some of those studs took those ladies under their fins and found a willow tree on some pea gravel. All jokes aside, I agree with Bill. Even comming from a guy that LOVES to fish tournaments.....an April Off Limits would be Amazing and I would be all for it.

3 Reason why the Weights were down. 1. Fishing Pressure all Week 2. Fishing Pressure all Week 3. A front went though, and there wasn't a cloud in the Sky. Speaking of something kinda embarrassing........Picture this: Fishing is tough, the boater and I have a few bass between the both of us in the live well. Its 10:00 11:00 am and I have to pee.........I begin to take care of business becuase my eyes are starting to float and for once we weren't surrounded by 10 boats only a couple. My boater hooks a fish well over seven, im not sure exact wait.....and yells "NET!!!!!! GOOD FISH!!!!!" Ever boater yells "NET!! GOOD FISH!! durring tounament time but this time he was right. Keep in mind im peeing at that exact time and quit mid stream........pants fall to my ankles as im shuffling for the net, and 5 seconds later my boater is giving me high fives with my pants down....to bad we didn't have a camera boat we could have won some money on "America's Goofiest Co-Angler" My boater didn't care, pants around my waist or around my ankles, the fish was in the net going on a one way trip to Kimberling City.

Fortunately for the fish population I caught 3 Scrawney males toping the scales,@ 6-11. Caught on a spinner bait.....if I had it to do all over again I would have threw more cranks and grubs. On a more serious note.....I think the fish have a better chance this year of making babies than they have for a while.....Many will be passed by due to the cover and water clarity, there are so many places for a bass to get that a spinner bait can't.

I was using the smallest size Huskey Jerk, blue back....orange Belly. It really made a difference, Same water same technique as a lucky craft I let phil borrow and the huskey was much more productive. These are a pretty common lure, you can get them at Walmart. Speaking of Byant Smallie and funny recipes......I heard bryant smallie ate a "Slick" boiled in a tuna can on the creek bank while fishing for walleye, that sounds about like a white bass with the scales and redmeat over the coals.......not sure which would taste better the white bass or the coals.....just kidding, i bet its good.

The bottom line of my original report was to give a head up as to what to expect on the water conditions. Hope everybody got a little piece of the pie. It has been a great year for whites and will continue. Things were really hot in swan tonite. I will leave it to phil to post a more detailed report......Speaking of crappie eggs and to change the subject a little bit.......I love to eat crappie eggs, lets talk about eating crappie eggs

Caught 4 Keeper Walleye in Swan above the Casey bridge this AM. Water is getting pretty clear and will probably be awesome this afternoon for whites. We packed up went to Beaver in persuit of whites and ended up catching 11. Among the eleven were some very nice sows....all good fish and no dinks. Also caught about 10 gar and landed about 5. I hooked one that would go close to 5 Feet long. When you think you have ran out of water on beaver keep going up till you find the fish. We were about a mile above the tea tables. Beaver was still very dingy.........I would say tomorrow will be the day to be out. The females we cleaned were still chalked full of eggs....dispite of some rumors that the females have dropped their eggs isn't completely true....there are still several. White Sliders were the bait of choice for the whites and a little bit of everything for the walleye.....shad raps, slider, swimming minnow and possibly a gitzit, i can't remember. Good luck

Fished Swan this week a little bit....right above casey bridge which to my supprise tonite it is now backwater......My dad an I caught 10 Whites this evening only 3 of any size. With my boat in the shop bank fishing was pretty tough......did catch 5 nice smallies on a jerk bait while persuing walleye. From what I can see there are very few spots to access by land with the water so high. Tomorrow may be another story. The clarity was marginal this evening as well tomorrow will be much better. As far as where we fished.......it was the access right above the Casey Hole Bridge but like I said finding a place to stand was fairly tough.

Fishing was very tough on the lake as you may see from the Tounament Results.......There were many jerkbait, Spinnerbait, and Jig Stories. I caught my fish very shallow i'd estimate in aprox 2 feet of water. I was pitching finesse baits, jigs, worms, tubes ect. No real pattern. Some of the Larger bags I believe came off of jerk baits which i guess was anticipated. Tough day for many anglers, but i was fortunate to team up with a great boater, Todd was a great fisherman that I learned a lot from and he had a very nice Z20 Ranger. All in All....A great time.

Hey Phil, I was going to grab your hat as it flowed over the dam at powersite but a 20 pound walleye swallowed it.

It has been my experience durring high water that the ramp below the hatchery is pretty good, especially if you plan on fishing the trophy area. I'd say there we be a few people up there that may be able to take a look at that. Seems like when the water is high there is slack water at that ramp. I hate to lead you astray....i'd wait for some better feedback but keep that in the back of your mind as an option.

Speaking of Smallmouth I hope you all enjoy this picture. Disregard the backdrop and erase that from your mind. I caugh this rascal in January, to be honest with you, i had better luck in January than I have in the past few weekends. I didn't have a scale with me, it helps me lie about the weight when I tell my buddies. Feel free to give your opinion on what you guess its weight to be..........keep in mind Im 8'4'' and weigh 430 lbs. I hope the attachment comes through. Good luck to all this spring

Gabe, You know whats funny is that us missouri boys sit around this time of year and plan trips to the Spring River in Oklahoma to suffice our rod bending urge of catching something........in Oklahoma's case its white bass or local terms...."Sandies" We are lucky to live on or around TableRock, but the grass is always greener or the lakes are always clearer on the other side...........Oklahoma is a very fertile state for fish, you are lucky as well.

For those up you heading to Cricket Creek/Long Creek, I was up there on Saturday right below Youcum and Long and the water was chocolate Milk. It has probably settled by now but don't be supprised if it hasn't. From the Cricket Dock North the water began to get very good color with several Dying and Dead 2'' shad.

Just a heads up on the water conditions, they are about as predictable as the weather. I have been Walley Fishing about 5 times in the last 3 Weeks, and have caught 3 Walleye between my dad and myself with only one keeper. We have fished the Bank and and out of the boat. The water has been running off and on durring the week and is very hard to predict. You may go over to Forsyth on the coldest night ever with the ice frozen to your guides and they are not generating. Last week there were several guys fishing form the bank while i was in the boat, it looked like they were doing alot of tying on, im not sure about catching, its seems to be pretty slow right now. I spoke with the game warden and I don't think they are going to shock for walleye this year until the very end of Feb or beinging of March. No fish are going to be tagged only the brood stock are going to be taken temporarily and used for the stocking program and released. Lets all cross our fingers that this year, the pot hole will get back to the way it use to be. I have heard that the pot hole was named the "pot Hole" because you never know what you are going to catch. It has been my experienc this year that the name "Pot Hole" refers to all of the holes you hit while driving up to the dam on the River Run Side, holy cow..........one axel seal later I have decided to slow down a little bit on my relentless pursuit of 1 walter per thousand casts. Good luck to all.

THE SATURDAY TOURNAMENT FOR THE WINTER BUDDY CIRCUIT WAS APROX 18 LBS. I FISHED THE SUPER BASS ON SUNDAY AND IT TOOK 12.XX TO WIN. WE HAD 6.1LBS WITH 2 SMALLIES. I CAUGHT BOTH SMALLIES ON A GRUB. THOSE TWO FISH WERE THE ONLY TWO MY PARTNER AND I CAUGHT. IT WAS A TOUGH DAY OF CATCHING BUT A BEAUTIFUL DAY OF FISHING.

The only walley I have caught at Tecumseh on purpose was on a clown roge after dark right above the bridge and below the shoal. If it were me i'd have some live bait handy, preferrably some creek slicks "chubs" whatever you want to call them. I hear that is the ticket.......but Im not an expert, i've only been down there a few times, mostly for white bass.