Slow

[vince]

Fished trophy area drifting scuds and sand juans, no bites. Went below fall creek and picked up a few trout on night crawlers and power bait. A slow am.

[Phil Lilley]

Some of the guides found some rainbows drifting from Scotty's to Bass Pro using gulp orange and chart. Said they were nicer sized fish.

[FRENZEL]

SUNDAY>>>>>>>>>>>>We started the day drifting the entire upper lake from the wire clear to fall creek. One full float yielded only 3 rainbows and a couple swing and misses. One on an egg pattern, one on a 1/8 sculpin jig and one dragging a small crankbait. At fall creek we switched to bait mode. Best was a minnow and a gulp or power egg. 2 fish in the next half mile.. Picked up and headed to downtown. The best water was from 65bridge down past the landing. Slow for us.. Our boat 15 fish give or take. Everyone else about the same. Wind blowing directly against the current made for a hard bit detection on the drift. High water after the trip had us wading at Cooper creek ramp. May change gears tomorrow.

[Phil Lilley]

My boat only had 6 rainbows this afternoon. My guys couldn't get the bite and the bite was short to boot. Minnows from Scotty's down past Bus 65. Babler did better with his crew but it all died after 2 drifts. We headed to anchor in some eddies at Short Creek and several places above. They did better buy still missed more than they hooked. Mini fronts all afternoon didn't help at all.

Wind and short bites... nothing worse.

[Bill Saenger]

I fished Tuesday through Friday last week mostly trolling a gold F4 Flatfish on 4lb Vanish with a small swivel and three split shot just below the swivel. Most of my fishing took place below Fall Creek and above Monkey Island. Fish were far and few between but I did catch enough for three of us to enjoy a good fish fry Saturday night along with a few throw backs. The best area was from Fall Creek to the for the College of the Ozarks pump house . I did get into a few fish in the sunken logs above Monkey Island one afternoon. I did go up above the old KOA campground in the trophy area once and trolled down without success. Slow, slow, slow.

I did hear of a possibly knowledgeable person who claimed that MDC had not released any fish this spring. I take comments like this very lightly until I can confirm them. Has anybody heard anything about this?

This was my fist time on the lake since November and I observed that a lot of the sunken logs that had been around for at least a few years previous are now gone or at least moved on. I am hoping that my next venture out in a few weeks will come with reduced water flow and I can better see where the logs now are.

Bill Saenger