bferg

Nice report- as always. I am off work next week and headed over for a few days- first time in a while. Hopefully I can get there without injuring my truck or any wildlife and the water temperature will be down to get some fished grouped up a bit!

Dodged the weather for a couple hours on the water. Put in at the Eagle Rock parking lot at 7:15. Was sitting under a boat dock from 7:30 to about 8:30 while the rain and lightening pounded. But was good to fish after that! We didn’t venture past Viney just in case more storms rolled though. We were off the water at noon to avoid the next big band of rain. So, not a long day but the fishing was good when we were able to have lines in the water. It was cloudy and a good set up for top water and we stayed pretty committed to that (an Arashi top Vibe and Surge Shad were best) and a jackhammer. Fished Eagle Rock to Viney- caught 15 or so between the two of us with a lot of keeper sized K’, couple of nice smallies, and some LM. All our fish were on main lake stuff- we didn’t spend much time in creeks or pockets but when we were back there we just didn’t get bites. When we caught one on top water 3 or 4 fish followed it to the boat. Each school would give up a few fish then be gone- but it wasn’t too difficult to find another. Great time of year to be on the water of the weather would cooperate. Lots of ways to catch them right now. Also- my buddy had a rainbow trout follow his jackhammer all the way back to the boat. Wish we could have caught it.

Thanks guys. I think I will just launch at Eagle Rock.

Heading over to Big M Saturday. I assume the lake is high enough that I would be launching from the parking lot/road. Has anyone launched there recently? Can you get a boat in?

Got over to the Rock for the first time in a couple of months. Today was beautiful- even though I was wishing for some clouds. On the water at 7:15, off by 11:30. Caught 9 fish- smallie, meanie, a LM and the rest spots. Nothing big but all fat and healthy. Photo doesn’t do it justice but one of the spots was a fatty. WT was 47-49 degrees this morning. I caught one fish on a jerkbait and one on a crank early- but as soon as the sun got up that felt like it was over - there wasn’t much wind where I was. I moved down the lake cranking and throwing the jerk- trying to stay on windy points. Threw a swimmer some too. Finally found some fish and they all came on a Ned rig in 12-18 fow in main lake points leading into little pockets. And if I caught one I would always catch another. I am no ned expert like many on here- and I really didn’t want to fish it but after getting no bites on a jerker and swimmer in places I thought there should be staging fish I decided to give it a try and caught 7 that way. Shady areas seemed to be the key. Never caught a fish in a sunny spot today. Also the bite was so soft you never felt it. I actually just spooled up some high vis braid on ned rod and if I didn’t have that I wouldn’t have caught most of the ned fish. I would see the line jump and reel set on them. Never felt them. Feels like good things are happening and we are days away from stuff really braking out.

nice report... Interesting on the topwater walleye. Probably one of the bigger walleyes caught in my boat at Beaver was caught on topwater one evening in July- right in front of PC. Was the last thing I expected.

FWIW: I was able to find shallow fish on Saturday- look for wind blown banks BUT (and this was key for me) it wasn't on points. Main lake banks, first 1/3rd of creek arms on the crank bait. Basically, once I abandoned the points and just committed to cranking any wind blown bank with mixed chunk rock, I started finding shallow fish. WT was high 50's.

Haha! I actually only used that because BPS (or Cabela’s- whatever it is now) in Rogers was out of my REAL juice.

I love fishing during deer season- you can have the whole lake to yourself. Got on the water at 7. Off at 11. Never went more than a mile from Big M. Found a little bit of everything. Found a small school of fish on the first main lake point I pulled up on. Caught two out of this group- one on a swim bait and one on a drop shot. Main lake point had fish between 32 and 40 feet… I stopped messing with the deep fish because I wanted to crank. Caught a few in the front 1/3rd of a creek arm on the Rk and one on a spinner bait (wind was blowing into the creek a bit). Found a few more deep fish on a secondary point- they were a little too scattered but managed 1 on a swimmer. Finished my morning on a wind swept main lake chunk rock bank. And that was the best deal. They were chewing the crank pretty good. Better quality fish were out on the main lake for sure. Felt like you could have run that all day. I think you can catch them a few different ways right now depending on the weather. WT was high 50’s. Any day you catch a smallie on a crank bait is a good day.

Do you mind sharing what section of the lake were you in?

Do you have a white Vexus? I was there at the same time Saturday in a red Ranger…. Anyway- I had a few blowups on top water in front of flooded bushes early but nothing would stick. They were throwing my spook and surge Shad 2-3 feet up into the air. Wouldn’t hit a follow up bait at all. I tried the frog deal with no luck… Finally caught three on a steeper bank using a 8 inch bull worm and Biffle head. Slow hot and sweaty morning for sure.

The entire supply chain is a train wreck. Shortage of shipping containers...lots of ships stack up outside ports waiting to get unloaded. Once stuff gets unloaded trucking is a major problem. End to end there are issues... its going to take some time to unwind it all. Bass Pro here in Rogers has hardly any fishing rods in stock.

Looking to buy a membership lot in BV.

Closest boat ramp to downtown Rogers area is Prairie Creek. From there you can run up or down the lake. If you are a river rat you could launch from Hickory Creek further south.

Thanks guys... important follow up question: how was the fishing?

Sorry to post this here but the Bull Shoals thread is a little slow. Heading over next week for my first time on the upper end of Bull. I know some of you guys fish over there- is the ramp open at Kdock?

I have learned so much from the advice and experts on this forum.... but nothing is better than this! Thank you sir. Will absolutely make this a part of my routine from now on because the first cast curse is not a superstition- is is a FACT

We are headed over to fish upper bull next week. Launching from k-dock. Kind of an open ended question but any advice for a first timer over there? Targeting mainly LM and SM bass...

We were out today to Quill- fished from Eagle Rock down to Viney and just got our butts absolutely kicked. We were looking for deeper fish and just couldn’t find anything grouped up. The one decent group of fish we found wouldn’t bite anything I had in the boat. Zeroed today and only had 2 bites. Frustrating day from a fishing perspective but Thankful to be able to be out on the water. We saw water temps in the 52 range when we left- was 48 at Eagle Rock when we put in at 7:15.

Love it when a hunch works out!

Great fish!

The drop shot deal would be pretty cool if they could put a live feed of their live scope on the screen. Other than that- I’m with you, it isn’t super exciting .

I keep thinking one of these leagues will figure out a way to do multiple different formats over the course of the season. You could have MLF style total weight events, BASS style 5 biggest fish. What about just biggest fish? Different fisheries could have different tournament styles- like NASCAR having short track, road races, and restrictor plate.... I think that would be a fun season to watch.

Opening day of deer season and a lot of rain is a great recipe for having the lake to yourself! On the water at about 7:00 and fished from Eagle Rock down to Big M. WT high 50’s... and sporadic rain. Ended up piecing together a decent day. Started the day cranking creek arms. Our best quality fish came on the crank- but you had to cover a lot of water to get bit. After the rain stopped and it was slick calm we found fish scattered chasing Shad off of main lake points. It was frustrating because it felt like no matter where you were they were juuuusst outside of casting range. BUT with a little patience they would come up around us and it was steady enough to keep us interested and ended up with some nice spots. Everything we caught today was caught on either a crank bait or a little swimbait. Ended the day with 15 or so fish. One thing we did NOT see: Shad grouped up tight in the creeks or main lake. Everything seemed to be spread out.

Nice smalls!!