Looking For A Little Perspective

[porter57]

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!

[Sam]

I fish upper B.S. a lot too, but not so far this year. The water's, I think, 41 feet above normal. To put that in perspective, in normal times I don't fish much in 41-foot water - too deep. Now it's that far down to where the boat usually sits!

The last high-water spring, in 2002 I think, I tried fishing with the lake about 33 feet above normal. I caught one or two short bass and couldn't find a crappie. I guess they were up in the trees and brush where I couldn't throw without getting snagged. I remember looking straight down under the boat at a good-size sycamore tree with green leaves on it.

In June of that year, though, walleye fishing was good on the "new" flats in 20 feet of water. Maybe that'll happen this year too. And as you say, this ought to make a good crappie hatch that we'll be enjoying 3 or 4 years from now.

In the meantime, I'm going to lakes where the water's high - but not that high.

[Forsythian]

Drove by powersite today... the water color was great. It really is amazing, the water (I'm guessing 4 units from TR?) is only dropping about 3 or 4 feet or so over the dam. Maybe even less. There are remnants of the splash boards still there, and they are all snaggled up. If they took em out, I would have no doubt somebody in a kayak or even a canoe could safely traverse it.

[Wayne SW/MO]

There is some new cover in Shadow Rock and River Run.. If the water stays up Swan should be a good producer with all the cover it has.

[Bill B.]

I have not fished Bull Shoals a lot, especially in the last 15 years. But in 1968, when I was a kid, the water was way up into the willow trees in May and June. My dad took me to K Dock the day after Bobby Kennedy got shot, and we spent three days trolling for walleye, up and down the channel in an aluminum rental boat rigged with my dad's 5-horse motor.

Way out from shore, you could look down into the clear water and see the tops of willow trees underwater. The hot lure was a shad-colored Thin Fin, which wiggled along just a couple or three feet under the surface. When you hung one in a willow, it was easy to retrieve. We caught walleyes, white bass and big crappie for three days, just doing that.

I have no idea how high the lake actually was. Probably not much help 40 years later.

[porter57]

I have not fished Bull Shoals a lot, especially in the last 15 years. But in 1968, when I was a kid, the water was way up into the willow trees in May and June. My dad took me to K Dock the day after Bobby Kennedy got shot, and we spent three days trolling for walleye, up and down the channel in an aluminum rental boat rigged with my dad's 5-horse motor.

Way out from shore, you could look down into the clear water and see the tops of willow trees underwater. The hot lure was a shad-colored Thin Fin, which wiggled along just a couple or three feet under the surface. When you hung one in a willow, it was easy to retrieve. We caught walleyes, white bass and big crappie for three days, just doing that.

I have no idea how high the lake actually was. Probably not much help 40 years later.

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!)

[Wayne SW/MO]

Actually Porter its always been my experience that when something like this happens the knowledge field levels. The cover and structure has multiplied to the point that I'm sure everyone is searching, including locals.

Its still the same game however, converting fishing into catching.

[porter57]

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.