Report Of Our Trip.

[Hunter53]

I want to thank those that offered any help for my wife and I's trip to bull shoals. It was very much appreciated!!

We followed some of the pros our first days there and went to the weigh-ins. That was a lot of fun.

As far as fishing goes I don't really have much to offer as we really struggled. We never got on any pattern so we only caught a few fish and most all of them were doing some thing different all the time.

We caught a handful of fish on warts shallow, 3 small buck bass sight fishing and a few on shaky heads about 30 feet deep. Just couldn't find a consistent bite to really stick with.

Our best fishing was in the cove where Christie caught his big bag on the schoolies. That cove was very close to where we were staying. We got out late the next morning after the Elite tourny was over as my wife did not want to fish in the rain. The fish were still schooling and we managed to catch a few before they quit. I did have a 7 1/2-8lb largemouth on a spook that got off right at the boat as I was reaching down to lip it. All the other fish we caught were 2lbs or less. The front moved in and the wind changed directions and we never saw the fish school in that cove again while we there. Tried finding them doing other things and never could figure them out there.

Even though the fishing wasn't great for us we still had an absolutely great time and are planning on coming back next year!!

Thanks again for the help!!

[Col Ron]

I would suggest coming back a month later. After the spring rains, and after the water gets into the 70's.

[Hunter53]

Thanks. We will definitely consider that for sure. We kinda planned out trip around the elite tourny as we wanted to see some of that. We also figured if BASS planned the tourny around that time they thought that would be a good time to be there.

I talked with the guy that marshalled with KVD on his last day and he said KVD told him he would loved to be there in another 6 days or so as the fishing should really be good then.

Sounds like we missed it by a week or so or should do as you suggested and come just a little bit after the spawn is over.

[mixermarkb]

Bull Shoals is fickle. I've been fishing it over half my life and I still get stumped pretty bad sometimes. Swimming a grub or dragging a tube on pea gravel flats has been good all spring, but that bite died pretty bad for me this last trip. Topwater and spinnerbaits picked up though-

The best thing I can say on Bull is don't be stubborn. Fish the wind, and fish the fish. Remember someone is catching them if you aren't, don't stay on a pattern too long if it isn't getting bites.

Yeah, I know, easy to say, hard to do-

Post Spawn topwater can be unreal though, come back sometime!

[Hunter53]

We are definitely going to be coming back as we absolutely love the area!! If not again this year we will for sure be coming down again next year.

[Fishin Hodge]

This year has definately been different from the past several. The bite has just started coming around a little for me. This winter and early spring were really pretty tough. I would think I was getting on to something and then it would go bust. Usually April is consistently good fishing. This year it was fairly good fishing, but it really has seemed to change drastically sometimes from day to day and definately week to week.