Report 2-11-20

[mmirg]

I got to take 2 of my sons with me today. We had a ball. It took about 45 min to find the fish but once we found them it was on. 

The schools were constantly moving around so trying to stay on top of them was a bit of a challenge.  You had to be moving through them in order to get bit.  They weren't keen on just jigging while sitting still.  Live scope would sure be nice to be able to see which direction they moving. 

We all got a limit. Drop shotting minnows in 35 fow. One of my boys got a 14 ½" crappie and the other landed a 12 ¼" perch. I'm gonna send in for a Master Angler certificate for my son's perch. It was a dandy. Good times with the boys!

[Johnsfolly]

58 minutes ago, mmirg said:

We all got a limit. Drop shotting minnows in 35 fow. One of my boys got a 14 ½" crappie and the other landed a 12 ¼" perch. I'm gonna send in for a Master Angler certificate for my son's perch. It was a dandy. Good times with the boys!

Great looking fish especially that fat yellow perch! Congrats on taking out your boys and finding the fish! looks like a good time was had in sketchy winter weather.

[Bill Babler]

That perch is beautiful.  Does anyone know if the one that Vince Elfrink caught is still the record?

[liphunter]

I was reading an article just this week, talking about how tasty yellow perch were. It also said that in our region that northern Missouri was about as far south as you would see them in any abundance. Are they pretty common in the upper Bull Shoals?

[Quillback]

That is a nice perch for sure, lived part of my life in perch country and any perch 12" or better is a heckuva perch.

Very tasty fish, I've had walleye and perch together and thought the perch was a little better.

[mmirg]

7 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

That perch is beautiful.  Does anyone know if the one that Vince Elfrink caught is still the record?

The yellow perch state record was just recently broken.  1lb 14oz is the new state record.  That's a monster perch!

[Fish24/7]

If locals would stop eating state and possibly world records caught in Little Fork (they call it) it  would hold the MO record for sure. Back in 2017 every perch you caught there was over 10", some were over 15" and most of the people catching them didn't even know what they were. A few people thought they were walleye and were throwing them biggins back. That hasn't happened again since then. I saw a young guy with 3 perch on a stringer lying in the bed of his pickup., every one was over 2lbs each. They were bigger than the crappie  I had. I told him they might be record fish ,all he saw was food.

There has to be some gigantic perch swimming around in Bull Shoals now after all these high water years.

[snagged in outlet 3]

On 2/14/2020 at 4:28 PM, Fish24/7 said:

There has to be some gigantic perch swimming around in Bull Shoals now after all these high water years.

Sounds like a job for @Ham

[Sam]

I was in a situation like that once on Stockton - hard-to-find winter crappie in tight schools, moving around in open water.  The fellow I was with had been fishing this deal for several trips and he came prepared - he brought some toy balloons with him.

When we finally caught the first keeper crappie, he made sure it was hooked good, then he cut off about 25' of line and tied on a blown-up balloon.  He put the fish back and we were able to follow that balloon around until we eventually got limits, because the crappie went right back to the bunch and stayed with them.  The last fish that made up our limit was the "judas" crappie when we retrieved the balloon.

I guess that practice is legal - I don't know why it wouldn't be.  That was the only time I ever saw it used, but it worked real well in the conditions you describe.

[mojorig]

On 2/13/2020 at 7:41 AM, liphunter said:

I was reading an article just this week, talking about how tasty yellow perch were. It also said that in our region that northern Missouri was about as far south as you would see them in any abundance. Are they pretty common in the upper Bull Shoals?

Yellow Perch are more common after high water years. They are common throughout the lake however we hear of more being caught in the mid to upper end of the lake.

The Livescope is awesome for figuring out how the fish repositioned in piles.