Bull Shoals

Pre-fished the evening of 4-20-06 and had the sense that it was going to be tough. After looking at a topo map with fishing hot-spots marked we decided that Jimmie Creek had more documented bed areas reasonably close to the launch site than the other creeks. Lots of gravel banks. Water temperature was 67 degrees that evening in less than ten feet of water at the very back of the creek. We found almost no fish shallow and caught no fish that day. The fish I did mark on the graph where in 30-50' off steep banks. I threw spider grubs, baby fries, crawlin fries, power worms, single twist tale grub and got not a hit. Also no hit on small spinner bait, wiggle warts or jerk baits

Saturday morning we started in a large twin cove on the east side of Jimmie Creek throwing top water baits near groups of docks. All of the fish were non-keepers. We then started in mid morning to fish soft plastic very slowly in 10-20 water off the gravel banks where there appeared to be isolated suspended fish. We caught one keeper spot. After 11:00 AM we did not get a bite.

Lake is beautiful, but very hard to fish if you don't have a technique for 30 feet and below.

Fished Bull Shoals with Sooner Fish and had a great time in spite of the lack of action. I tossed everything in my box at those fish but had no luck. Despite the mid to high 60 degree water temp there did not seem to be any shallow fish. Very early there was a top-water bite but that turned off quickly. Like Sooner Fish said they all seemed to be suspended in at least 20 feet of water.

We finally got ahold of a spot that bumped, caught on a spider grub in about 15 feet of water, and spent the rest of the day making sure our one keeper stayed alive for the weigh-in.

I don't have alot of confidence fishing deep water fish so I had a tough day all day. After the tournament it looked like those fisherman that went North had better luck than those of us that stayed at the south end.

Well, I got pretty lucky, admittedly, but I caught all of my fish at the first creek north of the dam (Howard). Top water fish in about 15-20 feet of water, and the smallie and kentucky in water less than about 6 feet.

Go figure, huh? http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/eyes.gif

My son and I started in Noe creek and caught one small keeper spot. About 9:00AM we went to Sister creek to a point that I had fished in the past, and got into the small mouth. Caught 3 smallies up to 3.5 lb and lost 5 or 6 more. Had a good time fighting the smallies. Caught all the smallies on a 6 inch Zoom liazard in about 14ft of water.

Larry