Bull for "First Timers"

[Phil Lilley]

As far as high water, the Corp is managing water differently than they did 20 years ago. Used to they’d pull the lakes down way below their power pool levels in the winter so make room for spring rains. Not sure of the exact year but they raised those pool levels so that the White River would get a higher minimal flow. Rain patterns changed and now we get flooded one out of 4 years on average basically. 

Will the rains go back to “normal” or swing the other way?  Probably. But until then I’m not getting my hopes up anytime soon. 

[Rwh46]

From what i have pieced together I think the power pool level was 654 until 2017-18 and then changed by the Corps to 659 or 660. This website is a really good graphic record of the lake levels on a daily basis from 2016 til now. Check it out http://bullshoals.uslakes.info/Level/ To get 2016-2018 data just click on that year's box below the graph. Then use your mouse to slide across it to get the date you're looking for

 

 

[Rwh46]

I'm posting this report on both Upper and Lower because many people from both Forums helped me out. Our club had a great tournament as a result

Posted just now

First off I apologize for the tardiness of this report. I hate it when someone asks for help, says they'll give a report afterwords and then never gets heard from again. that's NOT ME, but some unforeseen circumstances kept me from getting this report out in a timely manner.  A great number of people contributed to this thread and it really paid dividends for our bass club's 1st tournament on Bull Shoalls.

We fished April 23-25th with 2 days prefishing and  1 1/2 days of tournament. Our takeoff point was Lakewood Resort in Little Buck Creek near the 30 mile marker. A GREAT place to stay with good rates and extremely helpful owners (Mike & Sarah).

Now before the fishing details, my "unforeseen" circumstances. I got home and needed to have my boat cover repaired from a tear I put in it on the way down. Carrying it down a narrow set of stairs where I couldn't see my feet, to the sewing machine was not a good idea. I slipped 4 steps from the bottom and went down hard. 5 hours in ER, followed by appointment with Orthopedic surgeon a day later and surgery 2 days after that was the results. I tore my quadreceptic tendon off my knee cap. I'm just know mobile enuf to get down an other set of stairs to my computer. Yeah I'm out of boat fishing for a few weeks (probably 6-8). Good thing I had fun at Bull to keep me going til then

We had 10 boats fishing and everyone that could figure out how to fish thru or around the bushes caught fish. 

The lake was 4.5'to 5' high with temperatures in the upper 50s to lower 60s. There was current most days but the lake really didn't fall much

On Thursday and  Friday I fished Trimble, Shoal, 3 & 5 Fingers, Seed Tick, Buck and Little Buck. I started as far back as I could go and worked my way out with shakeyhead, jig, chatterbait and an A-Rig. Although there were some smaller fish in the very back most quality keepers came from secondary points halfway out of the pocket.  My biggest 18 1/2" was on the A-Rig. (I hate that bait). I caught keeper fish in all coves except 3 fingers and Little Buck.

Saturday I caught my 1st 3 keepers in Seed Tick on shakey head senkos and got my limit from Buck Creek. I culled up the rest of the day but the rain and wind certainly curtailed the good bite from Friday. The weighin was good with 4 limits, 35 keepers and 70 lbs. No one tells you what they were doing after the 1st day.

Sunday the FOG rolled in and it was not safe to launch at our planned time (7:00am), we finally let everyone "Trolling motor only" launch at 8:30. We fished for 2 hours and called it a day. Long trip back to St. Louis for everyone. The weighin still wasn't that bad. 1 limit, 20 keepers and another 33lbs. 

First place was shakeyheads and tubes on mainlake points, Second was weedless wacky rigged senkos on secondary points and third palce was shakeyhead magnum trick worms on secondary points and banks.

No one fished farther away than East Sugarloaf going up the river and Big Creek going the other way.

For our first time on the lake I'd say we did "OK" nothing great but everyone caught fish, the accomodations were great and it's a real pleasure to fish where there isn't 5 other boats in the same cove with you, and you don't have to flip docks all day.

Bad news for you who live there is "We'll be back" but probably only once a year for now. When everyone in the club is retired it might be a different story though.

Again, my apology for the lateness of this report, and I sincerely want to thank everyone who contributed to make our 1st trip a good one 

[rps]

3 hours ago, Rwh46 said:

I'm posting this report on both Upper and Lower because many people from both Forums helped me out. Our club had a great tournament as a result

Posted just now

First off I apologize for the tardiness of this report. I hate it when someone asks for help, says they'll give a report afterwords and then never gets heard from again. that's NOT ME, but some unforeseen circumstances kept me from getting this report out in a timely manner.  A great number of people contributed to this thread and it really paid dividends for our bass club's 1st tournament on Bull Shoalls.

We fished April 23-25th with 2 days prefishing and  1 1/2 days of tournament. Our takeoff point was Lakewood Resort in Little Buck Creek near the 30 mile marker. A GREAT place to stay with good rates and extremely helpful owners (Mike & Sarah).

Now before the fishing details, my "unforeseen" circumstances. I got home and needed to have my boat cover repaired from a tear I put in it on the way down. Carrying it down a narrow set of stairs where I couldn't see my feet, to the sewing machine was not a good idea. I slipped 4 steps from the bottom and went down hard. 5 hours in ER, followed by appointment with Orthopedic surgeon a day later and surgery 2 days after that was the results. I tore my quadreceptic tendon off my knee cap. I'm just know mobile enuf to get down an other set of stairs to my computer. Yeah I'm out of boat fishing for a few weeks (probably 6-8). Good thing I had fun at Bull to keep me going til then

We had 10 boats fishing and everyone that could figure out how to fish thru or around the bushes caught fish. 

The lake was 4.5'to 5' high with temperatures in the upper 50s to lower 60s. There was current most days but the lake really didn't fall much

On Thursday and  Friday I fished Trimble, Shoal, 3 & 5 Fingers, Seed Tick, Buck and Little Buck. I started as far back as I could go and worked my way out with shakeyhead, jig, chatterbait and an A-Rig. Although there were some smaller fish in the very back most quality keepers came from secondary points halfway out of the pocket.  My biggest 18 1/2" was on the A-Rig. (I hate that bait). I caught keeper fish in all coves except 3 fingers and Little Buck.

Saturday I caught my 1st 3 keepers in Seed Tick on shakey head senkos and got my limit from Buck Creek. I culled up the rest of the day but the rain and wind certainly curtailed the good bite from Friday. The weighin was good with 4 limits, 35 keepers and 70 lbs. No one tells you what they were doing after the 1st day.

Sunday the FOG rolled in and it was not safe to launch at our planned time (7:00am), we finally let everyone "Trolling motor only" launch at 8:30. We fished for 2 hours and called it a day. Long trip back to St. Louis for everyone. The weighin still wasn't that bad. 1 limit, 20 keepers and another 33lbs. 

First place was shakeyheads and tubes on mainlake points, Second was weedless wacky rigged senkos on secondary points and third palce was shakeyhead magnum trick worms on secondary points and banks.

No one fished farther away than East Sugarloaf going up the river and Big Creek going the other way.

For our first time on the lake I'd say we did "OK" nothing great but everyone caught fish, the accomodations were great and it's a real pleasure to fish where there isn't 5 other boats in the same cove with you, and you don't have to flip docks all day.

Bad news for you who live there is "We'll be back" but probably only once a year for now. When everyone in the club is retired it might be a different story though.

Again, my apology for the lateness of this report, and I sincerely want to thank everyone who contributed to make our 1st trip a good one 

Thank you for the report. I am tickled everyone had a good time until they got home. Heal fast!