Finally Headed to Bull Shoals

[Bearetta]

Owned my boat now 3 years and never have gotten over to Bull Shoals.
Shame on me!
Finally getting the grandson out for a 4 day trip hitting the road Thursday.
I started fishing the lake when I was 5 in 1961 with my Dad who was a bass fishing fanatic way before bass fishing was cool.
We stayed at Cedar Oaks resort with Warren and Marilyn Beaman and their daughters Linda and Suzy.
We fished there a lot until about 1974 when Rayburn and Toledo Bend got hot and I moved to Austin for school.
I am super excited to be back again finally.
I just wish my Dad was here to go back too!

[Cestratton]

Hopefully I'll be able to get out there on Sunday.

[Bearetta]

Sunday should be better.
But today was pretty good for us at least.
30+, smallies and spots. 2 crappie one of which was a 2lb. + whopper!!!
It fought like a hybrid!
Cold wet rain moved in about 4 and we called it quits.
Forecast has soured with more rain Saturday and Sunday.
Won’t stop us! May slow us down a little though.

[Bearetta]

And went by Cedar Oaks which is no more.
Dang.
I needed to show my grandson where I threw rocks at floating wood all day and became a pretty good baseball player!
We had a really good time on the Bull. It was like a welcome back to me. He loved it.
He spent the evening fishing the white river for a bit.
It is indeed purdy down here.

[Cestratton]

I've been up here for 8 years now from South Arkansas where 20ft was deep so it's definitely been a huge learning curve for me but I love it. I can be on Bull or the Rock in about 35 minutes either one or the White in about an hour. Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip and are able to make it back more often.

[Bearetta]

I've been up here for 8 years now from South Arkansas where 20ft was deep so it's definitely been a huge learning curve for me but I love it. I can be on Bull or the Rock in about 35 minutes either one or the White in about an hour. Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip and are able to make it back more often.

Thanks.
You are lucky to live here.
I tried to get her to move and almost had her here.
Oh well!

[Quillback]

Hey Bearetta, hope ya'll have a great trip! I have not fished Bull at all myself, but have fished Table Rock and Beaver quite a bit. Bull is the best of the three for sure by all accounts.

[Bearetta]

Tough day out there today.
Cold, windy, long day, but fish were still on.
We caught a couple of dozen and my grandson caught a good smallie, largie and spotted bass and got his pictures with all three.
Water temp actually dropped from the day before.
Hopefully it will get better tomorrow.

[CowboyRulz]

Check out the Del Colvin fishing report for tips...he's got a pretty recent video out.

[Bearetta]

Tried to hire Del this weekend when my trailer repair dragged out.
But they got it out of the shop on time to make my trip.
We had another tough, windy, rainy, sunny, warm cold day! 21 fish was a blessing!
We had fun most of all.
I am feeling great for my 3rd day and look forward to our finale tomorrow which is supposed to finally be a good day.
I have loved coming back to Bull Shoals.
Saw maybe 4 boats out today total!
Won’t be that way in a month I am sure.

[Bearetta]

Buck brush in Bull Shoals is thick.
I am sure that it helps the fish and baitfish.
Big challenge to fish it at all depths with light line and plastics but fun.
We have fought several smallies that took us into it but we got them out.
But they were 1 1/2 lbers. I would hate to think what a 3 plus would do to us.
Spinner baits work but only touch the top 3 feet.
We have clear water, 56 to 59 degrees, sunny day coming up this morning so it will be a challege for us to catch fish, but it will be a nice warm sunny day to enjoy being on the lake.

[CowboyRulz]

21 fish, 30 fish...you guys are really crushing it! Thanks for the updates. It's a beautiful Monday and I hope they keep up the bite for you.

Any more details you might like to share would be greatly appreciated...

[Bearetta]

We busted today. Cold start at 38 degrees this morning. Water temps were down again. But bright and sunny had the fish off. Caught one smallie right off the bat and thought game on. Wrong. 2 more in the next 5 hours and we packed up and headed home. We moved out deep and had tried all different colors of plastics, but bright sun and colder clear water had us fooled. We traveled some to look for stained warmer water up into Missouri but found the opposite-clear and colder. By one p.m. the temps were starting to rise into the 60’s in some spots but no fish active in those areas like we had for 3 days. Should have gone trout fishing on the White.
But we had a great trip, some great food, people were all friendly and helpful. We will be going back.
4 days of solid fishing was just almost too much. Held up better than I thought and got stronger each day.
This comes after unable to walk without a cane and couldn’t drive my truck 6 weeks ago. I am grateful for what I got to enjoy and share it with my grandson. He loves to fish and got plenty of it.
Hip surgery next week so my fishing will be done for a while.

[Bearetta]

Most of our fish were smallmouth. Fun to catch and fight. Very few largemouth had me puzzled.
Our best bait was an orange/brown Ned rig rigged weedless.

[Quillback]

Most of our fish were smallmouth. Fun to catch and fight. Very few largemouth had me puzzled.
Our best bait was an orange/brown Ned rig rigged weedless.

Don't know where on the lake you were fishing, but in general, the closer you are to the dams on these highland Ozark reservoirs, the more smallmouth there will be.

Hope your hip surgery goes well!

[CowboyRulz]

Thanks for sharing the experience. The sunny days are tough for bites on the Bull. It's so clear the fish tend to shy away. I think your bait choice was right on!

You're a good Grandpa...hip replacement surgery can be a real game changer. Watch out smallies!!!

[Sabre1]

I may head up there on Saturday. I've been able to fish a lot of good lakes, but Bull Shoals is my favorite right now. The only other lake that can compare is Pickwick. There are few places that you can catch largemouth, spots, and smallies all day long out of the same stuff like you can at Bull.