Fish'n Report

[Paco]

8/25/11 Fished from Tucker to Fine, tried it all: The "Slow Death", jigging spoons, and trolling the long bill Thunderstick. Buffy and I fished bluff ends, flats, mouth of coves, back in coves and creek channels. NOTHING, not a single walleye, (did catch 10 big bull blue gills on the slow death).Fished from 24 to 50 feet of water. Marked lots of shad and fish in 26-29 range. Not a cloud in the sky, a nice riffle on the water, however a NE breeze. Water temp was 84 when we got there (8:00 am) and 87 when we left (3:30 pm).

[Col Ron]

Thanks for the report, no surprise.

With the high water, a HORRIBLE year, don't listen to any of the B.S. Hopefully we can start all over again next year with a couple of more inches on our targets.

Col Ron

[Mike Worley]

I think 2011 has been pretty darn far from a "HORRIBLE YEAR" overall. With most days seeing some pretty good catches of walleyes, really large bluegills, white bass , yellow perch & striped bass. Bull Shoals Lake is loaded with fish right now. It also is a lake that changes almost everyday and can be a real challenge to stay on the fish. This past week we saw walleyes drop into the 40' range and come back up into the 20's. Tuesday we fished in the point 16-18 area and started the day out with a nice 20+"er on a 42' brush pile on a jigging spoon and found that the fish just got shallower as the day went on. We caught about 12-15 walleyes and a couple dozen half pound bluegills had two fish hooked that broke off after hard runs and ended up with 6 nice keeper walleyes up to 25" and a overall sack of fish in the 25-30 pound range. The 25"er came on a B/B crawler rig in 24' FOW and most of the fish we caught were in about 26'-28' FOW. We found some really large schools of walleyes that ignored the crawler rigs but would just clobber a jigging spoon in the middle of the day and other schools that went the other way and attacked the crawler rig. Not every spot we fished was holding walleyes but the points that had the current on them were the better areas to fish.

[Col Ron]

I guess two people think it has been good, Mike and Red's-for all the tackle he has sold from all the snags, break offs and lures lost in the trees. I should clarify my remarks, I don't fish for perch, bass, white bass, brim, bluegills, catfish. Considering all of those I have hooked up with I guess this has been a Great year too.

Ron

[packersooner]

I think 2011 has been pretty darn far from a "HORRIBLE YEAR" overall. With most days seeing some pretty good catches of walleyes, really large bluegills, white bass , yellow perch & striped bass. Bull Shoals Lake is loaded with fish right now. It also is a lake that changes almost everyday and can be a real challenge to stay on the fish. This past week we saw walleyes drop into the 40' range and come back up into the 20's. Tuesday we fished in the point 16-18 area and started the day out with a nice 20+"er on a 42' brush pile on a jigging spoon and found that the fish just got shallower as the day went on. We caught about 12-15 walleyes and a couple dozen half pound bluegills had two fish hooked that broke off after hard runs and ended up with 6 nice keeper walleyes up to 25" and a overall sack of fish in the 25-30 pound range. The 25"er came on a B/B crawler rig in 24' FOW and most of the fish we caught were in about 26'-28' FOW. We found some really large schools of walleyes that ignored the crawler rigs but would just clobber a jigging spoon in the middle of the day and other schools that went the other way and attacked the crawler rig. Not every spot we fished was holding walleyes but the points that had the current on them were the better areas to fish.

Mike,

Have you messed much with the cranks this year, or have you mostly stuck with the B/B's and spoons? The reason I ask is that I haven't seen you mention the "deep" creek channel bite for awhile.

Looks like you all can't keep the bluegills off your B/B's either. You'll feel that familiar "peck peck peck" just in time to mark a nice walleye on the depth finder. Frustrating at times

Jason

[taxidermist]

I was underwater on Bull SHoals yesterday, did three cylinders of air. There are not any fish under the thremocline except stripers near the dam. NOne zero every fi8sh we found was in 16-27 feet of water.

[packersooner]

I was underwater on Bull SHoals yesterday, did three cylinders of air. There are not any fish under the thremocline except stripers near the dam. NOne zero every fi8sh we found was in 16-27 feet of water.

Taxidermist,

That is very interesting. Thanks for the info. Did you see many walleye?

I am new to fishing Bull Shoals, but I was under the impression that if the thermocline set up, it was usually deeper than this. Perhaps a combination of the high water and heat? Regardless, it sounds like the oxygen quality has just gotten too poor below the thermocline.

Jason

[Ham]

With as much water as they are running thru the dam on BSL, I'm sure the thermocline was impacted in some way. I look forward to cooler air and cooler water in the near future. In a week or so, all the ramps should be at a usable level. I'll be cautious though.

[cabinman]

Here is some information I located on the Corps web site concerning thermocline.

http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/WCDS/Reports/Profiles/do1.txt

[Col Ron]

I was underwater on Bull SHoals yesterday, did three cylinders of air. There are not any fish under the thremocline except stripers near the dam. NOne zero every fi8sh we found was in 16-27 feet of water.

I concur, eyewitness is the best proof. Maybe there are a few blue gills in the 30 foot range to fill out my limit!!! Com'on Man, this year is not a good year, hopefully, next year will return to our normal fishing pool and water level.

Get ready for deer season.....

cr