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!)

but how long has it been since they got it all? come on , i know you know.

well, im an occasional fisherman of upper bull shoals,mainly from bee creek to just below k dock. i can remember in years past with the water high(probably not this high though). with the water this high,i would imagine you can go way back in mincy past the rock wall and fence? and i would imagine yocum goes back a long way now. i can remember years ago when the water was high and had been for quite some time that it got real clear and you could actually see bass around deadfalls and keep throwing topwaters at em till they bit. does anyone think they will keep the lake real high for long or do you think they will drop it just as soon as they can? it would be real neat to be able to recreate that scenario. couldnt find any crappie at that time though might be worth it for me to schedule a trip in early june or late may. i also remember a trip when the lake was just full of flotsam and i wound up plugging my new boats plumbing up with little bits of bark and leaves. didnt have a screen on it at the time,got one now just because of it. seems like everyone is staying off the lake and i cant say i blame em. not much fun trying to pick your way through logjams. gotta think the driftwood guys are gonna be hitting the lake pretty hard this fall. ill bet i couldnt even launch where i ussually do.(brass lantern) oh well ,probably wont make the trip this spring,maybe in the fall. i just hope they hold enough water long enough for the spawn and resulting fry to survive. will make some killer fishing in a couple years!

i havent had a jet for a few years but regardless,replacing the impellar every year seems a bit excessive to me. unless you use it one heck of a lot,i dont see the point. just be very aware of you tattle tale and keep an impellar on hand in case your motor quits spitting a steady stream from it. i may be wrong and wont be mad if someone can dispute it,but to just replace the thing every year seems like throwing money down the crapper.i check my boat every year before i take it out and fix whatever needs fixing before i hit the water.i ve only replaced my impellar once in 15 years and the motor is stronger than ever. i suppose the use that a jet gets may dictate more wear and tear on an impellar but i dont think id just replace em carte blanc every year. maybe some of the regular jetters could shed some more light on this

troutenhausen i lived on the 4400 block of vista till about 15 years ago and while i respect your opinion of the nieghborhood,i dont totally agree. granted you probably live in one of the better blocks,but its not totally safe around there. one would most likely be safe in the park as would thier vehicle,but i wouldnt leave anything in plain sight or in an unlocked or unprotected area of a vehicle. and while the diversity of the area is somewhat desirable to some(the park,central west end,and of course the proximity to the HILL) persons visiting the area do need some street smarts and be aware of whats around em. sure you could get mugged anywhere but a little awareness goes a long way towards preventing that. ive lived in this town 50 years and i used to walk anywhere i wanted to go. i dont think id want to do that anymore even if i could. i understand the area has gone thru a bit of a rebirth,but i would still advise if nothing else ,a bit of caution.

is this the place off of 185,past meramac st. park? near woodland lakes? or even in that area? kinda wondering as the is a pea ridge ore company there.

at one time,areas on the big river were weekend destinations for many less affluent st louisans. i spent much time at detgens grove(near cedar hill) just lolling around in the water ,camping on unimproved site for a nitely "parking" fee. there were many small mill dams but i think most of them are gone or have had holes blown in them. didnt really seriously fish the river much then,but a few years ago, i did float a stretch and managed a fair number of smallmouths in jefferson county. wasnt exactly the most scenic float tho. its not unusual to find old cars dumped along the river banks,i suppose as some kind of makeshift bank stabilization project. many people had and still do have weekend getaway cabins(or shacks) along the river,and i imagine the river gets its fair share of kids looking for an out of the way place to party.ive floated some areas far upriver that were more pristine,but anywhere near st louis ,its kind of wrecked.

spend the money!!! this is one area where i wouldnt skrimp. not worth the risk and you never really know how worn out used parts really are.

i had just happened to make one of my occasional forays to bs during the great migration. was amazed at all the roadkill and live squirrells seen either crossing the road or the lake itself.we were on the east side of the lake staying at nolands point for that trip. didnt give any a ride across the lake, but did see many far from shore swimming thier little hearts out. never seen anything like it.

food for thought what would things be like if there was no such entity? sure there have been a few mistakes but there have been many successes and they do more than stock fish. turkeys for instance,were restablished by them,as well as otters(mistake). thier management has produced record numbers of deer,as well as increasing the size of crappie available in many lakes. the list goes on and on.not all good but not all bad.

i agree dutch,one of the best things you can do is make sure of your ground. i drilled a small hole on the trailer andattached the ground to a self tapping screw. made a huge difference!