Recent Observations

[Ham]

*** Caution-Full of small sample size error and the desire to see Silver Linings ***

2017 has been a year of highs and lows fishing wise for me. The rain event of Spring 2017 caused be zero hardships property wise and I feel a little bad complaining about it, but it derailed my fishing in Bull Shoals, Norfolk, and the White River.

it literally kept me from catching 100's of fish. Sad really.

but of late, I have made a couple of trips to Bull Shoals and I have been Happy with some things I have seen.

1) The fish I am catching are Fat and look very healthy 

2) I'm seeing lots and lots of small bass of all three varieties cruising around eating and eating and eating.

3) Catching Big Bluegill. I bet they are giving the walleye guys fits. I'm catching them in 20-23 FOW while drop shouting for bass.

4) some of the flooded brush and trees survived being flooded for months and the banks are not total moonscapes.

5) Zebra mussels seem to be less of an issue. I don't think they are ever going away, but the fluctuating water levels seem to help knock the numbers back. 6 years of steady water is gonna be bad though. I had zero breakoffs on my last trip to Tucker Hollow. That's encouraging. And zero ZM breakoffs on a lower lake trip where I have had a few before. 

Water temps are coming down. Fish populations are good. Air temps will be cooling. hopefully, I will find the time to get after them a little bit more frequently this Fall. I owe my Bass Cat some trips that I missed in May/June. 

 

[MoCarp]

1 hour ago, Ham said:

*** Caution-Full of small sample size error and the desire to see Silver Linings ***

2017 has been a year of highs and lows fishing wise for me. The rain event of Spring 2017 caused be zero hardships property wise and I feel a little bad complaining about it, but it derailed my fishing in Bull Shoals, Norfolk, and the White River.

it literally kept me from catching 100's of fish. Sad really.

but of late, I have made a couple of trips to Bull Shoals and I have been Happy with some things I have seen.

1) The fish I am catching are Fat and look very healthy 

2) I'm seeing lots and lots of small bass of all three varieties cruising around eating and eating and eating.

3) Catching Big Bluegill. I bet they are giving the walleye guys fits. I'm catching them in 20-23 FOW while drop shouting for bass.

4) some of the flooded brush and trees survived being flooded for months and the banks are not total moonscapes.

5) Zebra mussels seem to be less of an issue. I don't think they are ever going away, but the fluctuating water levels seem to help knock the numbers back. 6 years of steady water is gonna be bad though. I had zero breakoffs on my last trip to Tucker Hollow. That's encouraging. And zero ZM breakoffs on a lower lake trip where I have had a few before. 

Water temps are coming down. Fish populations are good. Air temps will be cooling. hopefully, I will find the time to get after them a little bit more frequently this Fall. I owe my Bass Cat some trips that I missed in May/June. 

 

I wonder..and expect..high water events do several things..not the least of which keep harvest down...less people on the water = less fish on someones dinner plate....more biomatter in the water...usally that means more food for YOY be it shad, bluegills or bass...blue cats, common carp...red ear sunfish and drum all munch on those zebra mussels like to see the state stock red ears to that end...turn zebras into slab shell crackers would be a win win

 

as a note..common carp spawn better on high water events...blue gills feed heavy on the eggs and larva..one of the best bio controls of commons is healthy bluegill populations..one of the factors I look for in a water that produces larger commons (over 20#) and places where commons don't recruit many YOY seem to produce slab gills..(providing they are not a primary angling target) 

[Ham]

I'd love to see more Redear Sunfish in BSL especially if they could get BIG on Zebra Mussels. Like > 2 lb big!

I thought of you last Thursday. I saw a giant carp in BSL in a small main lake pocket. It was truly MASSIVE. 

[MoCarp]

anywhere I fish that has red ears they get huge.....I'd bet 3# in lakes with zebras....they would do well in our lakes......but its hard to get the state to do anything but lmb...crappie....walleyes.....I think Stockton should have more management for SMB meshes with walleyes......yellow perch as well they are in BS and its only a matter of time till they are in TR and Beaver

 

I have fished BS with good luck on big carp....I'd like to hit up Beaver some this spring..never fished it for carp...still working on my health..getting stronger every day....

 

[Quillback]

I remember reading a couple of years ago that AGFC stocked a bunch of redear fingerlings into BS.  Don't know if it made a difference in overall population, haven't heard anything since then.  AGFC revamped their website recently and it just doesn't have the info that the old site had. 

[Ham]

Mojo Rig said they were working on the red ear stocking, but it might have been a one time deal with some Available fry or some such.

it seems like there was some hitch in the giddy up. I might text him today and ask about it. 

The Yellow Perch are in Bull Shoals because of a "Bucket Biologist". I don't support or encourage that behavior. I hope they don't end up in the other lakes, but I do wish I caught them more on Bull Shoals.

[mojorig]

Yes, we stocked 408,400 RE sunfish into Bull Shoals Lake in 2015/16. We plan on raising a crop of RE every third year in the Nursery Pond.  In the past, AGFC stocked Norfork Lake with lots of RE but they really never took off. RE really do well in lakes that have some vegetation. 

Ham had a good review of the year. We have received several comments like Number 5 about the lack of zebra mussels. We will hold back our opinion until the lake gets back to normal pool or even below it. ZM really love that 25 to 30 ft range.

High water does great things for Bull Shoals Lake. We realize it makes access difficult and even makes fishing tough. However, the long-term impacts benefit us all.

Here is a graph showing the number of LMB per acre collected in old rotenone samples on Bull Shoals Lake. You can definitely see the high water years in that graph.

[mojorig]

Here is another illustration of the benefits of high water. Yes, I cherry picked this from a presentation. The first graph shows the hydrograph from 2000 through 2002. As you can see, 2002 was a typical high water year. Waters goes up in the spring and doesn't come back to normal until the fall. We believe strong year classes of most sportfish are produced when the water stays in the bushes until the end of August. The second graph shows the results from rotenone samples for those 3 years. This graph shows the estimated number of Young of the Year (YOY; spawned that year) largemouth bass (LMB). You can see in 2000 (low water year) and 2001(normal year), approximately 205 and 220 YOY LMB per acre were collected and they ranged in size from 1-3 inches. You can see that the majority of the LMB in the low water year was smaller than the normal year. This likely resulted in lower overwinter survival of LMB for the low water year. During the high water year of 2002, approximately 12,197 YOY LMB (55 times more LMB) were collected ranging in size from 2-4 inches. The larger size means overwinter survival was likely higher.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

Ive seen some absolute monster Red Ear in Norfork when diving, they had to be pushing 3lb

[Fish24/7]

thanks Ham, mojorig