Evening Report

[Phil Lilley]

Put in at River Run about 5. Tried the rock pile- nothing going on there. Tried the high dirt banks on the west/channel side- nothing. Tried the Willow Bank- nothing. Went down to Barker and fished the outside bend. Found some dirty water and caught 3 nice whites, a short crappie and walleye and then Tom hooked this walleye. About 24 inches. Just before dark we went up to the mouth of Swan and tried it there- Tom caught 2 more nice whites. All on either motor oil/red glitter or electric purple swimming minnows.

Hardly anyone out- on the banks or boats. Was surprised.

[rangerman]

Gorgeous fish Phil..She has some great color. Looks like she has quite the belly on her.

[Phil Lilley]

After the spawn, we usually catch walleyes with big bellies and find fat in them. Here it's the first of April and you wouldn't think you'd find a sow full of eggs on the main lake but we did and she was. I was surprised.

I'm not saying I would have released her if I knew she had eggs... it wasn't mine to release anyhow - it was Tom's.

Did catch a short walleye too- about 12 inches.

[Predator1]

Very beautiful fish.

[rangerman]

It has definitely been kind of a wierd spawn for them.

[Martin]

Phil, it looks to me like that walleye would go more then 24 inches....Of course, moot point now, but anyway you look at it, it's a beaut!! You can't catch them if you don't go, and I haven't been going...wahhhh...

[Sam]

That's a real nice fish. I'm wondering - do walleyes reproduce successfully, much, in Bull Shoals? I've read that they're a native fish that the old timers used to call "trout", so I guess there were a few of them in the streams before the lakes were built. I never caught one until they started to be stocked in the lakes, though.

With all the tagged ones I've caught out of B.S., I was under the impression that it's a put-and-take fishery of almost all hatchery fish. Do enough of them reproduce naturally here for it to make any difference whether females with eggs are kept or not?

[laker67]

native fish that the old timers used to call "trout",

They were called salmon, "jack salmon".

[Phil Lilley]

Phil, it looks to me like that walleye would go more then 24 inches....Of course, moot point now, but anyway you look at it, it's a beaut!! You can't catch them if you don't go, and I haven't been going...wahhhh...

Yea Martin but I bet you're hitting the fence rows later this week for those sh'rooms!!

[Sam]

They were called salmon, "jack salmon".

Thanks, I remembered wrong. I'm still hoping to hear from somebody who knows how much they reproduce naturally in B.S., and whether the walleye there are almost all hatchery fish.