T-RockJaws

Thanks guys! By the way, she is still swimming where I found her...

Fished for about 4 to 5 hours out of Eagle Rock last night. Put in and headed to the Roaring River Arm. We had a few shorts in the River before dark on a PB&J jig with watermelon candy trailers and/or salt craws in the green colors. Picked up 2 keepers right at dark on a 10 inch black/blue worm. All of these fish came off secondary points. After dark, the bight seemed to pretty much stop. Came out of the River and decided to fish one or two last banks. We had just decided one last cast and call it good. About that time I had a bite and my partner picked up 2 fish with one being a solid keeper. Needless to say, we continued to fish that bank a little longer. A few casts later I said: Okay, going to catch me an 8 pounder then we will go home. That is when I caught this last fish of the evening, not quite 8 pounds but just shy of 6.

Bill, once again you have gone above and beyond... Your knowledge and willingness to share it are greatly appreciated by many.

I fished out of Eagle Rock last night and saw a few surfacing in RR arm late.

No problem, hope it helps! Good Luck!

Yes, but you will need to be out fairly deep. Try to keep the boat in about 30 to 35 foot of water. Will likely be a good 2 casts off the bank.

Have been on some good deep fish the past 3 weeks or so, but Friday night was tough for me. Not sure what the problem was?

With the weather as hot as it has been, you are probably going to have to go deep to get into the bigger fish. Try a drop shot rig with a watermelon red chompers worm or a PB & J football jig. For the night time bite, I would go with a black and blue jig or texas rig a 10 to 12 inch worm. The litte 4 inch salt craws have been working for us as well. Work your jigs off pea gravel to chunk rock points keeping the boat in about 35 foot of water. Texas rigs have been working for me in the chunk rock to bluff transition areas. Hope this helps a little, good luck!

Sorry for the late report! Fished a small tourney that went out from the Shell Knob Bridge last Friday night. Partner and I had been on fish in that area for 3 weeks and were really looking forward to the tournament. Started out by running up Kings river to a spot just above Viola. Had a couple of shorts and partner had one keeper in the boat before dark using jigs and a 4 inch salt craw. At this point, it had been a little slow but we thought it was going to be a good night. Started working our way back towards the main lake. Partner pulled another keeper off a point just below Viola (both keepers came in about 20 foot of water with boat sitting in about 30 to 35 foot of water) and another short fish or two. This was right at dusk and we got excited thinking it was going to be a good night. We are much better at night fishing than we are with big orange glow high in the sky. Boy, were we wrong! That was our last keeper and almost our last fish. After dark we had very few bites and only 1 or 2 more short fish. All of our deep banks we had been catching good fish on just did not produce for us. We mainly stuck with big worms, salt craws and jigs. The jig probably had the most action. Winning bag for our tournament was in the 16 pound range.

Thanks for the info!

Maybe that is why RRV and I do not catch very many fish, to busy site seeing!

If you get out in the dark hours, Texas rigged craws and big worms are working pretty well too.

It may have been a little different if these had been a bunch of good looking 20 something year olds, but....... they were not and you deffinately would have rather seen them in a swimming suit (or maybe cover alls)!

Fished for about 4 hours last night out of the Shell Knob bridge. Started out by running up Kings river throwing some jigs up in deep docks, no success with this approach. As the sun started to set, we started working our way back to the main lake fishing banks that had chunk rock to bluff transitions. Used some small worms and 4 inch craws, but seemed like the best bite was on a 10 inch worm. Picked up several shorts and 3 keepers on our way out of the river, then 2 more keepers on the main lake fishing the same type chunk rock banks. Keepers were all good solid 2 pound fish with all 5 going around 11 pounds or so. The highlight of the night had nothing to do with fishing... When we got back to the ramp to load out, we had to try to maneuver around some skinny dippers swimming right on the boat ramp! You would think they would have looked for someplace just a little more secluded.

I know that not everyone trout fishes, but trout season opens on March 1st. I just try to go by that, easier for me to remember if I think of it along with the opening of trout season.

White river above the 86 bridge still gets some big boat traffic. There are a few nice deep coves that hold fish and kind of protect you from the big boat wakes though. This time of year, you simply cannot get away from the big boats unless you fish the "dark" hours.

A buddy and I went up in a creek arm that has a tremendous amount of stick ups and trees in it. We were thinking maybe the big boats and jet skis would stay away from this area. No such luck, we had not been there 20 minutes when we heard the buzz of jet skis coming around the corner. they just zipped in and around all the stick ups. Seems to me like a death wish, but they did it anyway. They were followed shortly by a multitude of bigger boats pulling skiers. There truly is no place to get away from them. Your best option is to fish the darker hours, just before sun down to just after sun up!

Fished for a couple of hours Saturday morning up towards the RR arm. There were several fish surfacing on just about every point you looked at. I stayed away from them as I was looking at a few different banks I was wanting to fish later that night. Did manage several short fish on 7 inch worms. Had several real nice bites on big worms, but no takers... Went back out after the rain Sat. night for a few more hours. Started out with big worms, but could not get any good bites. Ended up switching to some 4 inch craws with much better success. Caught several fish in the 10 to 14 inch range with a couple of nice keepers. Best one went just over 2 pounds, but the fight was as good as any 5 plus pounder I have ever caught! Most fish were coming out of the 12 to 20 foot deep range, boat sitting in about 30 to 35 foot of water.

Bill, just wanted to say thanks for all of the great reports you post! I have really learned a lot from reading your posts along with several others on here. You provide a lot of good information and it is greatly appreciated!!!

I have fished the area from the Eagle Rock bridge up to the Arkansas state line for the past several years. I really enjoy fishing shallow more so than having to go deep to get the fish. It seems that it is easier to find some water that is a little cooler which allows for the more shallow fishing. Plus, the big boats do not come that far up as often. Don't get me wrong, they are there, just not in the large quantities you find from Big M on down!

Fished out of the Viola ramp last night for about 4 hours. Never really got out of sight from the ramp. Top water bite wasn't very good as we only had a couple of shorts with the spook. Fish were really stacked up on the main channel side of the points, but could not get them to bite very well. Only tried the drop shot for a short time though... Moved into a couple of deep coves and had several shorts with about 3 keepers mixed in using primarily 10 inch power worms and 4 inch craws. The craw in electric blue color seemed to be the best bite we had and most of our fish came in about 15 to 20 foot of water with boat sitting in the 28 to 35 foot range. Probably should have worked a jig in the same areas, but did not take the time to tie one on.

I have thrown a few deep divers in the last week or so, but not much luck from my end. However, there is a large amount of small perch cruising around the shallows. Some smaller crank baits in the perch family colors should produce a few fish for you.

That is crazy!!! Most of the time, I would be thrilled over a 15 pound stringer!

Cast another vote for early April... Would truly hate to see 300 plus anglers possibly jerking fish off nests. We care more about our fish than the scheduling variables for all the partners! Besides, your best chance at a trophy sized bass is before the spawn. On another note, I was out fishing this weekend (not part of the KVD Big Bass) and was pleasantly surprised that most of the anglers I ran into seemed polite and well behaved. Not like the typical cut offs experienced when some other large tournaments have been held.

Last Saturday with air temps at 90 plus and water temps in the low to mid 80's, we had 5 fish in the live well pretty much all day long. All survived just fine without having to do anything extra. Since some of those fish did come from fairly deep, we did open the livewells several times to check and make sure the fish were doing okay. I would tend to agree with Lilley that it was most likely a low oxygen level in the water within your livewell. I would also add that running your aerator pumps continually instead of on timers might help as well.