An Excellent Spring Fishing The Ozarks

[fishfishfish]

Hello All,

I have been an occasional reader on this forum for several years but never a post-er. I have learned a lot from reading the posts. I think it's a great service to anglers-- thanks to those who have taken the time to make it such a quality resource.

This has been another good year fishing the Ozarks. I have done well on Truman L., Fellows L., LOZ, and now Bull Shoals. I went yesterday on Upper Bull Shoals & floated in my canoe, pulling a shallow-running crawdad floater-diver. I caught fish all day long . . . the biggest bluegills I've caught in years . . . redear sunfish . . . jumbo black crappie . . . & quality largemouth. I would cast the lure out and paddle-troll it behind the canoe or just drift a plastic jig with the current, along the edges of the flooded treerows. Can't wait to do it again.

[FishinCricket]

Glad to see your report.. I have yet to see a poor report from these past couple days.. Must be the weather.. (that, or we are all much better at this than we imagine)...

What size were those gills and crappie?

[Phil Lilley]

Wow- and yesterday was a blue-bird day. Sounds like alot of fun- thanks for sharing!

[tippett7]

Welcome to the forum.

[fishfishfish]

The bluegills were 8-9" and the crappie were 12", black crappie. Everything I caught was very plump. Went back out last Thursday & had another decent day-- 20" largemouth, a few sub-legal smallies, gobs of jumbo perch, a few channel cats, and an 18" walleye. I paddle-trolled a chrome Wally Diver or a small Rebel Crawfish about 10-15 feet out from the flooded trees. It was fairly steady action. The bigger fish came on the Wally Diver. I didn't get any crappie; I could see them on my fish finder, balled up around the flooded bushes, but they weren't feeding apparently. It might have been a situation for minnow fishing, but I have been having too much fun keeping moving & going after the eager biters. Hope to get out there again in a day or two!