Yesterday

[snakem]

Put in at mill creek yesterday 9am. fished the big cow creek and a few other spots not one bite. talked to another guy when i was loading up at 2 pm same for him. should have went with babler down to B S at least i could have seen what a fish looks like ps water temp 39 to almost41

[Jason Essary]

bout the same for me. Flat calm water and no bites.

[Bill Babler]

Snaken, I believe it was just a tough old day yesterday on the Rock, if you were fishing a stickbait. Jig Bite seemed to be better. Talked to both Phil Stone and Tim Paige, both fishing the stick, and I believe they were working hard with not a ton of results.

They are for sure eating it on Bull Shoals however. As Phil Stone told me those fish just seem to bite better in that cold water. Does not seem to matter on the lake section. Just some huge bags coming in down there on water temps in the 38 to 43 degree range. Also heard of several 8 plus pounders coming in. Also heard of a very nice Wart bite on Bull Shoals, in the seconday pockets.

Those fish are just beautiful fat football LM. I was telling Phil and Bill yesterday, we used to call those old Green Back Yellow Belly River Fish Line Sides, cause they are just so colored up with all those pretty markings. Not a hook hole in them anywhere.

I believe a guy just needs to get down there in the next week or two. It won't take us long up here to catch up once we get started.

[snakem]

10 4 on that Bill may have to get the miss and head down that way.

Snakem Out.

[Sam]

Bill mentioned that surface water temp was 39 yesterday. While I was sitting in a car repair place yesterday instead of fishing like I'd planned, I learned something I didn't know.

I was looking at an old Missouri Conservation magazine with an article about lakes turning over in the fall. It said that water is densest and heaviest at 39 degrees - colder than that it expands, gets a little lighter again, and rises to the top. The article said that's why lakes freeze on the top and not on the bottom.

We all know ice is lighter than water, and I guess that process of becoming lighter starts just below 39 degrees and continues until the temp is 32 or less and it freezes. That should mean that when the surface temp is about 39 like now, then the lake is 39 degrees all the way to the bottom - because if the water at another level was either warmer or cooler than 39 then it would be on top.

Now, I didn't know that.