Dog Days ?

[Stump bumper]

Hey welcome to the forum Rman! Glad to see some are catching something! Haha. I got a new perspective today, spent the day actually below the surface of the water snorkeling around in rocky branch. Swam with some nice smallies and spots. Noticed they are all down around 15 feet or more, absolutely dead up shallow. At least during the day. These were cruising down along the bottom off of small shelfs. Got into a school of striper off of a main lake point towards Rambo creek. Down around 30 foot or so. Nice and cool down there. Haha. But now I have actually seen with my eyes what these fish are relating to now. Pretty cool stuff.

You dove 30 feet without air ? That is a heck of dive ! I need to break down and get contacts so I can see under the water, I can see about two feet without my glasses. But I don't think I could get down to 30 feet and back up alive. lol

I am always amazed as to the number of crawfish and the size of some of them when I swim in that area.

[bc23champ]

Hey guys, new poster here as well. I'm new to the area and to beaver. But I agree and second everyone's thoughts right now, horrible conditions too many big boats too hot to try and mess with it lol. I'm a fire fighter locally and plan in fishing quite a bit on my days off. I've only been out a handful if times and haven't had any luck. I do t really know the patterns on thus lake in general, much less with flooding and tempos messing everything up lol. Was gonna try and figure out how to drop shot hoping that might trick a few or throw some deep crankbaits. I'll keep talking posted. Thanks BC

[J-Doc]

A) Thank you for your service. Police, Firemen, etc are service providers. Just like the military.

As for patterns, dropshot can work but well....let's just say you have to feel the bite. If I had not checked for weight, I would have missed my last fish. Super subtle bite.

The deep crank bite can wear a man out. I've got a big crankbait rod and deep diving cranks. But I've never produced enough fish on them to keep chunking and winding all day. After about 10 casts I'm ready to swap. Lol! If you're an efficient and effective cranker, Champs advice above sounds about right. Best thing is to watch your graph. If you're not seeing fish and covering water, you need to either change depths or location. Right now, the thermocline is pushing most fish around the 23-25ft mark as noted above. Hard to get cranks down to that depth and stay there for very long. Long lining can be effective I hear. Dropshot and Carolina rig are your best options. So is night fishing.

[Champ188]

Current changes everything ... stirs the water, therefore breaking up the thermocline and redistributing temps and oxygen levels. Recently, we have had lots of fresh water entering the upper (south) end of the lake and moving throughout the lake down to the dam, where it is dumping into Table Rock. Because the lake is narrower at the upper end, the current moves faster. There is also the turbidity factor, and dingy water never hurts a crank bait bite.

So unlike the lower two-thirds (north) end of the lake, the river fish are more evenly distributed from top to bottom, there isn't as distinct of a thermocline and the fish are more active because the water is more oxygenated.

So ... you can get a crankbait down to these fish. As for it being a lot of work, that's just fishing. Catching them consistently takes starting early, staying late and working like a dog every minute in between.

[RyanG]

You dove 30 feet without air ? That is a heck of dive ! I need to break down and get contacts so I can see under the water, I can see about two feet without my glasses. But I don't think I could get down to 30 feet and back up alive. lol

I am always amazed as to the number of crawfish and the size of some of them when I swim in that area.

I can hit 30 without air just cant stay long! lol. I was mostly around the 15ft maybe 20 when I was on the bottom and thats where I was seeing the bass. The striper were in the 30 foot range but we werent around long, I had some friends that were scuba diving so they got to spend more time with them. Haha. I did find a bunch of crawfish and some good size too. It is a lot of fun, just always carry something to cut line with cause getting caught in some mono around a tree down there without air would be a messy situation.

[Stump bumper]

As far getting started with drop shots I think the biggest mistake beginners make is setting the hook. You have to think more like a crappie fisherman or you miss most of your bites and just like J-Doc said most of the time bites are just weight then you reel. The worst thing about drop shooting is when you get used to it then throw a jig you will forget to swing on the jig.

[bc23champ]

Thanks for the advice guys. I live in Springdale. Just down from hickory creek so that's my home base if you will I don't know a thing about this lake. And with the high water it makes it even tougher trying to figure out where the structure is. I'm new to the high tech graphs as well. The last boat I had a lowrance x85 was top notch if that tells ya anything. On this one I have a helix 5 si/di kvd at the wheel and a lowrance elite 7hdi on the troll. So I've been trying to learn how to use these better to find fish and narrow my search but I feel very poor at distinguishing what I'm lookin at.

Fished tonight out o hickory. Finding water temps around 91-93. Had a few bites on top water right at dark but missed both but that's all the action I could muster Not sure when I'll get out again. Hope you guys have better luck. Be safe

[J-Doc]

Try starting here. I started this after upgrading from anow Eagle fish finder to a Lowrance Elite 5dsi. Which is not a bad unit, but a far cry from my current HDS units.

I have learned a ton since starting this. I think it will help you and give you some confidence. The only way to get the most from your graph is by understanding what sonar is, how it works (the signal being sent on a cone or oval shape and received back as a signal), what you're seeing on the graph in relation to signal information/data, and a little homework. Oh and a Doctor Sonar training DID is a big help too. ;-)

Yes Stump. Dropshot is more about feel and watching the rod tip. Sometimes you don't feel it but see the rod tip twitch. Had that happen several times before.

I've caught up to 25+ in a day on dropshot. Some of which were big fish. But you have to have patience and learn to watch the graph and fish an area that is holding fish.

[Chillfish]

I went out yesterday evening from 12 bridge and dragged crawlers on a bb on a couple points. It was both the best bite, but the worst trip I have had in a while. I had quite a few solid bites on points around 25', but every one got off after a short fight. I was also pulling a flicker 100' back, and had a good fish on that let go just behind the boat. Another fish on the bb felt great until my knot failed. I managed to get one good spot in the boat and several bluegills. I marked lots of fish and had plenty of bites, but everything I did right, I did wrong. The only thing that made it ok was that the weather was great and there weren't many pleasure boaters out mucking things up for me.