Back to the Bull.....2-6-24

[Steve McBasser]

Ron and I had so much fun last week at Bull Shoals we just had to go back. We put in at mid lake again at about 10:45am. Water temp when we arrived was 45.44* and at the end of the day it was 49.22* The air temp was probably mid 30's when we started but probably got up to 60*. Water color was stained but not muddy. Perfect really for mid to late winter fishing. We hit several of the banks we normally fish but without much luck. Last week most of our fish came on the bright, sunny, secondary points in 3-12 feet of water. After these bright beautiful days we have been experiencing we were hoping for a repeat and really expected it to be better than last week but just couldn't make it happen. We took a lunch break about 1pm and had caught 3 fish all morning with just 2 of them being keepers. So.... we decided to change tactics a little bit after lunch and went to the shady side of the lake, in the dark water and slow rolled an umbrella rig along the steeper and deeper channel swing banks. This turned out to be a good plan. Several times we found big schools of bass tearing up the bait fish at about 18-24' deep. I should have taken a picture of what we were seeing on the graph, but I didn't do it. It looked like big blobs of spaghetti. Needless to say, there were lots of active fish everywhere. We were able to pick off several of them with an umbrella rig, and they were clobbering it.... Good day for numbers and size. Can't wait until next week.....Hope ya'll are getting to go too. 

[gotmuddy]

Looks like yall had a great time. 

[Steve McBasser]

yes we did....

[navery]

Caught this on upper Bull Shoals while walleye fishing. What causes this? My guess is it's leftover from a fungal infection?

 

[Quillback]

It's some kind of pigment thing.  

Melanosis (Black Spot, Blotchy Bass) | Missouri Department of Conservation (mo.gov)