bferg

Susquehenna River! Also, FWIW: If I was going to fish one of these fisheries - any of the those mentioned here- I would certainly plan on getting a guide for at LEAST the first day of my trip. That would at least give you a clue as to what it happening on that body of water at the moment. The few additional few hundred $ on top of what you already spend on a trip like that is well worth it in my mind to not be out there blind. If you are going to do a trip like that go all the way and make sure you do everything you can to make it a trip of a lifetime...

Caught a few smallies by the dam Saturday AM. Saw a few stripers hitting the top but they were VERY scattered in the spots we were- could not get them to eat anything. Talked to another guy at the ramp who had a similar report. There was a tournament Saturday so a lot of the points I wanted to hit were covered up with boats by 7:00 AM- which made moving around much difficult. That sunrise is pretty early right now! Left the house at 4:30 to get there on time. You have to be somewhat crazy to try to fish this time of year...(and according to my wife I am).

Put in at 5.30 and off the water by 9:00. Water temp 80. We fished gravel points and islands close to deep water. Ended up with 1 smallie, a short Walter (both on Keitechs) and 2 spots (on a drop shot). Walleye was in less than 5 feet of water which kinda blew my mind. Really disappointed we didn’t see much topwater activity at all. Fish seem very scattered- never saw a big group of shad/fish all morning. But, it was beautiful this morning. Going to the dam for a short trip tomorrow AM. Taking a guy with me from Texas that has never caught a smallie or seen a striper- hope to find some schooling fish.

Drop shot a live night crawler on a gravel point is probably you best bet to find some spots. Use your graphs to try to find fish and drop it on them....

Some friends and I fished Bull Shoals for the first time ever last weekend... and we were the ones getting beat down! It wasn't pretty. Friday we put in at dam site at 5:30 AM. We had never been on the lake before, only going off of youtube videos and past reports we set out to find some fish. It would prove to be more difficult than we imagined. They had started letting water though the dam spillway (which we would hear from a couple of locals later has a negative impact on fishing). We fished for 14 hours with only 10-12 fish to show for it and nothing to brag about. And we fished HARD. The Dam areas is STEEP and DEEP. We tried topwater, flipping bushes, fishing offshore on points, docks, back in creek arms, on the main lake. It was brutal everywhere we went. The few fish we did find were 12-14 inch SM, on ned rig and neko rigs. Went back to the house with our tail between our legs. Post spawn with +30 feet of extra water is a tough way to figure out a new lake. Saturday we drove more to the mid-lake area around Peel and did much better in a shorter morning of fishing. Fished from 6 to noon with more success. Caught lots of SM on Neko and Ned- better fish came in deeper water (20+ feet) and around some docks. Still only a couple 15+ inch fish, but lots of action. My brother caught one very nice LM pushing 4 lbs. Saturday there was NO wind, NO clouds, and when the sun got high it got predictably tough so we called it a little after noon. But, after the butt kicking on Friday, Saturday felt like a really good morning. Best part of Bull, especially the mid-lake area, was the complete lack of development or people. Very few boats on the lake, not much development in that area and it was beautiful. On the way home I drove across the 86 bridge on Table Rock and you could have walked across that lake on all the boats that were our there. Complete opposite of Bull. I would say Bull got the best of us this time, but showed a few things that made me want to go back for sure.

Thanks Quillback! This working from home has put a damper on my Tackle buying. All my TW orders used to ship to my office. Now when the FedEx truck pulls up to the house I get an eye roll!

Nice! cool that they are still up top. Mind if I ask what Poper that is you have on there?

Man that sucks... I have a Merc but grandpa had a 1978 Ozark tri-hull with an 85 HP Evinrude. The sound of that engine is the soundtrack to my childhood. That thing ran like a top with no issues at all until the transom rotted out of that boat in 2014. RIP Evinrude.

Thank you- this is helpful. We will be there early!

Headed over next week for my first time to fish bull. Are the boat ramps open? I think the Bull Shoals Boat Dock is the closest to where we are staying... Maybe Jimmy Creek? Are these both accessible?

I was around Coppermine yesterday- very little striper activity. No striper guides there... which makes me think they might be in the Rocky Branch area...

Sad story about a missing boater at Beaver.... https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/authorities-search-for-missing-boater-last-seen-on-beaver-lake/527-88e5f990-af0e-4b5b-9044-cb31df40e133 I was out there yesterday afternoon- it was blowing hard and very rough. Know your limits and wear a lifejacket!! Especially if you are by yourself!

Yeah man, Twin Bridges is not ideal if you have a larger boat. Blue Springs is down that way but it is kind of janky also and it does not have a courtesy dock. I think War Eagle Marina might be your best bet for the facilities.

Awesome report...Awesome fish...Awesome tradition.

I went out to Rocky Branch yesterday looking for some Striper and saw NOTHING... I cant figure it out- had cloud cover and 62 degree water. I thought it would be on for sure and I saw NOTHING hit the top. 4 Striper guides at the ramp at PC when we launched- they were working the islands by PC. That makes me wonder if the stripers are still in the mid lake area. Really odd year. I did catch a couple of Spots flipping bushes in the PC area.

As someone who works in the food industry and has in the past worked for a meat company: It isn't as simple as "opened" or "closed". It is all about through-put and a shortage of finished goods vs. raw goods. All food companies are dealing with the following: - Labor shortages as some laborers call in sick or don't show up out of fear. - Significantly higher downtime. If someone who works in a plant is diagnosed with COVID or even reports contact with someone who has been diagnosed there are significant protocols in place to clean the manufacturing facility. This can mean facilities that are "open" are taken offline for production purposes as deep cleaning is completed. - Packaging... It takes a lot of components to get your food to the shelf. Not just the food. Take bacon for example: you have to have plastic to wrap it in. You have to have labels. Our company was able to quickly get ingredients for a lot of our food. But we had to get some packaging components. Well guess what? Every other company needed packaging too. So the suppliers for packaging suddenly were short as well. Imagine the food company going to the packaging store and seeing shelves empty like you saw at the grocery store... that was happening. All of that means that even though plants are open they might be days/weeks where production through-put is lower than normal. Meanwhile demand continues to be very high. That equals lots of empty slots on the shelf. That isn't stuff I saw Don Lemon say on CNN- it is reality at my company (a major food supplier). And it is happening all across the industry. Keep in mind, this is happening at a time of significant demand- so just "catching up" to demand is even more of a challenge because supply is more complicated than ever. I don't know what has made some of the meat processing facilities more susceptible to COVID cases. But they are major hot-spots. Over 600 cases linked to one Smithfield plant in South Dakota. I cant remember the exact number but I think it was like 70% of the total cases in the state. Maybe the meat companies didn't have protocols in place early enough, maybe there is something about the nature of their work that impacts it... the point is: this isn't made up and it isn't fake- it takes a lot more to sell bacon than just pigs. There are very real challenges in the food supply chain. No one is going to starve to death or even go hungry (unless they were before this started). But, if you want St Louis style pork ribs on Tuesday, you might not be able to get them on that day. Or that week even... But you will be able to get them at some point.

Based on what I am seeing- it varies by the day as to what is available. If you really want a tomahawk steak and see one where you are you should buy it. It might not be there tomorrow. I haven’t been able to find chicken wings in 2 weeks!

Bill... where do you get 5lb maxima? I can't seem to find 5lb line of any brand ANYWHERE..

I am by no means an expert but I don't think they have spawned yet. I know of a lot of people catching lots of fish but mainly similar experiences that you have had- lots of bucks up shallow. I think the full moon this week could get them really up shallow... Beaver is a mysterious b*** that is for sure!

Thanks Bo... you might convert me to night fishing! I am an early morning guy right now but even that gets tough here in a month or so. I love that this form has so many experienced guys who fish different styles. I learn a ton.

Woof... I can't speak to either but I can confirm Striper and Stripper are not the same thing. I would anticipate someone here could answer the question on both accounts.

Awesome day!! We fished on Friday and saw a little topwater activity but it was spread out and pretty mellow- I could tell it was just days away from blowing up and based on a couple of reports looks like it did over the weekend. Great report. I am no Fish ID expert but that does look like a mean mouth to me. Curious about your big swim-bait. I am kinda just getting into the bigger swimbait game. Do you mind sharing what you were throwing?

I don't know how it was years ago but getting a raise does not result in bringing home less money (annually) due to taxes. The US operates on a marginal tax rate system. So, if you jump from a 10% tax bracket to 15% tax bracket, you only pay the 15% rate on dollars earned ABOVE the 10% tax bracket threshold. Most people don't understand how marginal tax rates work.

If you want to catch them topwater get over here in the next 2 weeks. Big old school pencil poper. Send me a message if you make it over and I can draw you a map of a starting point or two.

Seeing the lake so crowded is conflicting to me... On one hand I hate the ramp chaos and pulling up to people on my spot... On the other hand- most of my best memories as a kid were at the lake. Hopefully more kids are getting those memories now (and less screen time). Friday I had to wait for a couple and their two teenage daughters to launch their pontoon at Eagle Rock- it was obvious the Dad was gonna have to do it all. Luckily it wasn’t his first rodeo and he was pretty handy with it all... but I was glad to wait and hope my daughters will still go to the lake with me when they are older.