porter57

i think i may have caught my first one there about 7 or 8 years ago in mincy,floating minnows under a bobber. wasnt real big but kept it anyway.

best ones ive seen were placed just outside of the first channel break provided it isnt too deep most of the time. when the waters as high as its been for the last couple years,it kinda screws up where the good places are.

kinda wondering,havent been down for a couple years now,ive seen that the brass lantern resort is under new managment. did jim quit? or fail? place always was kinda rough at the edges but have spent a good bit of time there. even considered buying it at one time with a group of friends.(glad i didnt considering how they turned out)

when i have trolled,ive also kept it as simple as i could. just drop a couple lines with either jigs,or jigs tipped with a minnow or a hook baited with a minnow with a bit of weight above a couple feet. for the most part ive tried to wind drift but have used the trolling motor but, i just cant seem to go slow enough and still keep control of the boat. its a light wieght aluminum bassboat with a lot of the front end out of the water. and my troller kinda stinks as well,an old evinrude with three speeds. but mostly i think its the front end catching air and getting pushed off course. works ok when there isnt any breeze(like that ever happens)

"Also I wanted to make sure of what you meant by "yellow perch". Are you talking about a panfish that is hugely popular up north? It is native so I guess they stocked it when they stocked walleye. Or is " yellow perch" a generic local term for some type of sunfish?" Quote from Ham. there are indeed yellow perch in the bull,the ones from up north. to the best of my knowledge,no one knows how they got in bull shoals,ive heard they werent stocked by any state dept,but i can say that they are there. ive caught them when crappie fishing.

i know that spot i think, its the big bend about a half mile or so above mincy. never really fished there,just passed thru on my way to other spots. but i have never fished the lake this time of year either.

one thing ive gotten used to is not too many folks reporting anything on bull shoals,fishing or otherwise. and maybe thats the way it should be. beautiful lake,uncrowded most of the time,with at times ,great fishing. not a whole lot of creature comforts around this massive impoundment,and on the west end,you had better make sure you have enough fuel to get where your going. perhaps this is a good thing. all the other lakes get the press and the bull gets left alone. i personally like the solitude i find when i visit there.

really couldnt say,as i havent been there in a year. but i gotta say,with the water being so high for so long, they are probably staging at the sunken brush near the original shorelines,not far off the channel on the main lake and not up the coves and creeks.with a good fishfinder and a map of known brush piles,you could stock up. look for old cuts on the map and try to find them with the depth finder. with the water being high as long as it has,i think they will be at the original first drop from power pool shoreline. these will probably be pretty far from shore right now and there wont be much other than what you can see on the depth finder to guide you. pretty tough job but when you do find fish ,immediately try to find landmarks to help you find it again. and beware using trees for such landmarks as they all ussually start looking alike after awhile. now would be a good time to use marker bouys as landmarks are kinda hard to find. tell ya something else,drifting might be a pretty good option. roll into an area and position your self so thewind will carry you thru an area. drop minnows down to the bottom and pull em up a bit when you feel the bottom. takes a lot of time and effort,but does pay off now and then.

cant go wrong with small live bluegill as bait. try to limbline near a creek entrance,somewhere with a little bit of current flowing in,doesnt take much to improve your odds. try to choose really springy limbs,something with a bit of give in em and still fairly green. dont know a whole lot about jugging,never tried it. one location i might suggest is the tiny cove across and a little above of yocum. theres a little cut about halfway in with a bit of water ussually running,on the shore side. cant really be to accurate with direction,but i think it may be the eastern shore. i lose all sense of the compass there but i think i remember the sun coming up on that side of the lake. the few times we tried limbling,that area ussually produced.

man.......... now you done went and let the cat out of the bag! but seriously, bull shoals is a very nice place to locate. you may have to haul your own fuel and bait as there arent a whole lot of places to buy it on the water(at least where i fsh anyway) but you really dont have the kind of lake traffic you find on tr or taney. it is where id locate if i could,probably gonna be 10 years or more before i can.

for me, the big ole topwater , blow a hole in the water type bite does it the most. when ya have to remember to let the fish get back in the water before ya stab it,thats the best. but i think its really cool when you cast at a boil,as i have done in the past,and then ee the line moving away from where it fell. gotta tighten up and slam it real fast,and ussually its a real big fish when you do. i probably pass on a lot of good fish with the tick tick bite as i ussually associate em with bigger bluegills trying for something they cant possibly get. probably dumb on my part,ill agree.

drain it and change the fluid. and unless you store it in an area that doesnt freeze hard in the winter, drain it before storage and refill. nothin worse then going to your rig in the spring and finding out the housing is cracked. doesnt take much water at all to do major damage in a hard freeze.

mine came tuesday but it was already spent ayway. now to pay the discover card bill!

true wayne,very true. but if they keep it high thru the spring and summer there are gonna be some real neat places to fish,mostly for bass,created. this kind of water makes crappie fishing a real challenge down there. i know, i have been skunked a lot during high water. i just have never seen it more then 21 feet high. this is double that. and if they keep it high long enough for the water to clear and all the flotsam to finally come to a rest somwhere,june or july could be a lot of fun. i typically only get down there in may. maybe a later trip would be something to think about instead of just writing the whole thing off.

actually,this is just what i am looking for! thank you! ive fished the lake when it was 21 feet over normal pool and i know how far it expands at that level. im thinking it goes much further into the woods now and i am doubting any shoreline isnt up in the trees. wishing i could just pack up and live down there but sadly,i gotta do some more time up here with the job. got too many years in to quit now. would be great if i could just tour the lake from time to time to get an idea what id happening,but he job keeps me pegged to the city(along with the high price of gas!)