mrgungho

noaa.gov for sure..no other site is nearly as right.

Mini rattle trap is great for sure..but Here in about 5 degrees more water temp....go up into some bigger coves or pockets or up creek arms...this is the time to go as far as i am concerned. It is quite amazing action.

I would suggest the first Full Moon in April or May..this way you're gonna get spawn or post-spawn and you can fish all day and night is it's clear out. Plus you will be able to use a wider variety of baits that will all produce. Good Luck

Fished out of Pontiac on Saturday and had some luck. Caught a 15" Small and two 18" Largies using a Middle N in my new favorite color. The smallie came in the back of a popular cove in about 10 or 12 FOW and the others came in two different smaller coves, really not too much bigger than a pocket on ditch transitions in about 10-12 FOW as well. I was fishing this lure VERY SLOWLY bouncing off as much structure as possible and that seemed to be the key. Water temps started in the 43 range and ended up around 48.5. Beautiful day to be on the water and it really made me anxious for Spring. Looking forward to the precip we are sposed to get here the next couple days, time to start getting that water level UP for Spring. Gung

great..thanks for the info.

Going down this Saturday..Buck creek launch.... hoping that jerbait bite is still on. Just curious if anyone has ideas on what depths around brush piles...and what jerkbaits in particular? I love my Rogues..but sometimes the fish will be hitting Mcsticks or whatever and won't give the Rogue a second look. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks all

I think Bilfo is refering to the clear plastic piece as "the blade" and Bilfo, amazingly enough it's actually just a piece of very flexible silicone. I know when I was looking at these before I bought some, I thought it was a stiff piece of plastic like the lip of a crankbait, but it's not at all. It's very flexible and you can pop it right off if you wanted. The little lip basically forms a small cup around the head of the jig and this creates a wobble for whatever soft plastic you decide to put on there. I tell you what, for how much they charge for these things I think I am going to try to start making my own! It's like $5 for a 4pack of 1/4oz. or a 3pack of 1/2oz. Basically it gives your soft plastics that crank bait wobble and you control the depth with your retrieve speed. I am going to get out there Saturday and use some with some Jr. Flukes and some Kalins Lunker Grubs..I'll try to report on how it goes.

What color/size Fluke? I'm going down Saturday and have been dying to try the scroungers out Thanks for the reoprt...

I concur on the Pro Qualifier reel for sure..I have two of them and have fished the crap out of them over the past year and they are awesome. Cast a mile, can't even backlash them if I try. All I have ever thrown are reels under $100 so I have owned many different makes and models and this is by far and away the best.

BB...if you fish coves in the Spring or in the Fall you will defintely get on some Whites. Keep a rooster tail or a swimming minnow tied up on a little spinning rig and be ready. When you get on them they will get spooked and hyper and start freaking out all over the cove. When you see this just throw that little rig in the general direction and you'll catch a few at least. They'll turn on and off really quick and you may have to hit up mire coves to keep it going but this will defintely get the job done. This Spring up on the Shoals we were fishing 3/8OZ spinner baits for Blacks and Smalls and KY's and ended up catching a limit each of Whites...that was kind of cool because the larger bait was bringing the larger whites in and weeded out the little ones. If you get into them REALLY good then I believe they will hit nearly anything you throw. Anyways, think coves and have that spinning rig ready to throw in a heartbeat because they WILL turn on and off very fast. Good luck!

That sounds great! Just keep me posted. Thanks!

.

Hey all, I just got word that a new MO state record Striped Bass was caught last night. 58 LBS!!!! Shattering the old record of 51 LBS. When the angler was asked where he caught the fish he simply replied..."In the mouth" So I am not sure about that info yet. Just thought I'd try to break some exciting news. Gungho

Sir, this is why there are different limits for different types of game. If the STATE LAW says there aren't any lenght limits and the count is 10 fish per day then that is the way that State's DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION set it up..they spend millions and millions of dollars per year to study fish populations and habitat as well as all other types of game-- so I'm gonna go ahead and leave this one up to them. You know, alot of people still EAT fish and mammal flesh..because lets face it, that is it's most original purpose. To say that this is the same as 42 Deer laid out is just ridiculous..it's like comparing Apples to Spaceships.

We caught 3 GAR on Saturday. I caught 2 on a Rogue and my buddy (pictured) caught his on a Berkley Flicker...they were really attacking! Other than that, we put in at the Ole Honey Hole on Upper BS and had a really great day. Caught the first 17" smallie on a Razor minnow then shattered that bait on the boat motor the next cast! Switched over to the Rogue for the rest of the day and caught a 20" and a 22" Largemouth and several 14" fish.. My buddy got in to a 20" and a 21" keeper later with the pencil popper. We fished from 1:30 pm till 9PM. All in all we didn't catch an amazing amount of fish but we had 5 great keepers..total weight 16.5lbs. Fun day...and suprisingly little pressure up where we where.

You are correct..I should have clarified that it is good for any boarder LAKE that is formed by the daming of the White River. http://www.agfc.com/fishing/license-info-fishing/license-agreements-fishing.aspx

Get the Boarder Lakes add on.....add it on to your current MO license for $10. Fish any water that runs from MO to AR or vice-versa.

I like to use this jighead in a 1/4oz non-weedless http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_58631____SearchResults and this grub in a 5" smoke salt & pepper: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_13048____SearchResults Really any color of this grub works depending on the conditions. They last long and are in my opinion the perfect size.

I normally try a different color first. Then a different size if I have it. Then maybe a diferent type of topwater bait all together if that still doesn't work. Basically I start with the largest Spook I have usually in a light color, if that's not getting it done then I go darker color, same size. If that isn't working I'll go down a size and back to light color then to dark color. If that is still not getting the response i'm looking for, I will change baits all together and try 3 or 4 different color Flukes, a Buzzbait, a Torpedo, a Hula Popper...whatever else I have on me. I would say that whatever you do just make sure to consistently work the bait the same way time and time again. Whether it's my ole' favorite 4 jerks and a short pause..2 jerks and a long pull then a short pause...whatever. Think about it like morse code and try out different retrieves. I think that figuring out the rhythm that's going to work on any particular day is one of the most important factors when fishing, no matter what lure you are using.

I hear you...I was very suprised about the Flukes. We had just fished a tourney on Table Rock the week before and it was ALL Spooks and Flukes so we figured for sure the fluke would work on BS..but no such luck. I will have to say that I did not devote too much time to trying the Fluke since the crankbait bite was so good. But I did give it a good 20 or 30 casts. Anyways, I will post a report everytime we go out for sure.

The current BS record Walleye is actually the Missouri State record and it was a 21.1 pounder. Records are made to be broken, and I am confident that it could be broken in the next few years. The amount of folks fishing specifically for Walleye on Bull Shoals is only going to increase, hence the chances for a new record will increase as well. Walleye were introduced to these lakes in the late 40's and the record was caught in 1988 so I would say we are due up for a new record!!!

sorry to get back to you so late...the water was just a small amount stained for the most part..deeper water was clearer of course...the only grub we used were the Chompers Double Tail Hula Grubs...didn't even throw a topwater. Closest thing was the fluke and got no action on it.