Fish Catching Travel

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Weather

Low 46  High 78  Wind out of SE 5 – 10  Increasing mid morning to 20 – 30 mph  (It blew every bit of that.)  Partly cloudy.

Solunar Times

• Best Times:  10:34A – 12:34P
•                         10:55P – 12:55A
• Good Time:   4:23A – 6:23A

Tide

High   4:48 AM     0.4       (The tide I like – falling all morning.)
Low  12:18 PM     0.2
High   7:49 PM     0.4
Low  11:59 PM     0.3

Coleto – The Towater Bite Continues

I took yesterday off to be with the Boss after she finished an 8 day stretch of 12 hour days, and of course it was fairly calm.  Today not so much.  Knowing that the winds were forecast to hit up to 30 mph it was definitely a lake day.

On arriving at the lake it there was a little wind, and the wind did not wait that long to really start blowing.  The lake is still coming up and there is more cover with a little more color in most places.  I wanted to keep the topwater thing going, so I mainly concentrated on that.   It took a little while to find some, buy I finally did.  After I put the first one in the boat I managed to lose the next 4.  Even though I changed the 3 smaller hooks on the Rapala to 2 bigger ones, they were still tearing off.

As the day warmed so did the bite.  The second one was a good fish.

The one that hurt the most was one an easy 6, maybe 7, who hopped out of a bush and smoked it, and then pulled off.  I really do need a Bang O Lure, more on that later.  I kept hunting and pecking.  Many places had some run off so they were a little murky, so I stuck to anywhere with at least some clearer water.  Even with good polarized glasses they were awfully hard to see when they roll over on it while it is under water.

Remember folks,  I am just twitching it along with short jerks, barely pulling it under.  It is so critical that you keep visual contact with the bait, and my fit over Cocoons were mandatory today.  It seemed they were just a little tentative with this cold front.  And it really did not help that the water temp was down almost 10 degrees from what it was last week, in fact it was 65 – 67 in most places, down from 75+.

The best bite was in the middle of the day.

I stuck with coves that were as least a little out of the wind.  Besides messing up half the lake the wind makes it real tough to throw that light Rapala, another reason I want the Bang O Lure.  It is heavier and casts well, and having 3 perfectly matched hooks would have increased landed fish today for sure.

I did not completely stick with topwater, but I did not have a bite on buzzbait, Swim Jig, and only lost one on the watermelon stick worm.  But other than that it was definitely topwater.  And once I kind of figured out how they wanted it thing started looking up.  Incidentally the bite really was during a best time today.

These were caught back to back.  To bad both of the bigger fish I had on today got off.  I need my Bang O Lure.

Of the 10 or so I caught today, and I missed at least that many,  about half took it off the top.  A couple even blew up on it, and I saw every stinkin’ one of them, hooked up or not.  It really does hurt to have them pull off like that, I went to a real soft rod and looked like one of those big shot tourney guys as I played them way out before I tried to land them.

So it was definitely a win today, given the howling wind and a bait that is almost right, but not quite what I needed.  I think that little bigger bulk, and definitely the bigger hooks, on the Bang O Lure really make a difference landing fish out of bushes.  It sure would have helped the casting with all that wind.  Almost all of the fish came from cover, in maybe 3 foot, and I did see several that rolled on it who did not eat.  Coves were the ticket, and if the water was clear enough it was a guaranteed fish or two.   And when I got a bite another one soon followed.  Isolated cover off the bank was the ticket.  And do not give up on it, work it all the way out as several hit it close to the boat.  You can never tell when one will come out of the depths and eat it.  With around 20 taking at least a pass at it today it was not to bad for a 6 hour trip.

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Update on the Bang O Lure Search

The Mighty Bang O Lure

I want to thanks those of you who either texted or emailed me a couple of places I might find the Bang O Lure.  One of the comments I got I wanted to share with you, and maybe share a little more information to go along with it.

Well kind sir – THANK YOU!

I read your post while shopping in Academy…… for new fishing baits….

I’m glad that Strike King sponsors you (in whatever capacity) and you share the baits that work best for you. I’m really glad you don’t stop there.
I just spent $24.40 on two Bang O Lures (with free Amazon Prime shipping, of course). Like with most lures I haven’t tried, I’m quite excited to give these a shot. But I’ll have to exercise patience. You made it very clear about the waters of NW Arkansas. What about SW Missouri? Every other year our family takes a week long vacation to Table Rock Lake for some slightly competitive fishing. I won’t go into detail about my love of Table Rock Lake – because I could….. Its just so awesome.

I did happen to pick up a couple of my favorite artificial baits – Strike King Red Eye Shad lipless crankbait. I needed another silent crank as well stocking up on a couple colors I’ve found most effective.

Its March and I cannot wait for our trip in June. Especially now that I have a bait recommended by a seasoned fishing veteran.

Thanks for sharing valuable information.

Evan

Thanks for the compliment and there are a couple of things I wanted to comment on.   As far a seasoned veteran, ripe old timer might be a better description.  Strike King has given me a small lure sponsorship but it has been a policy around here to tell you like it is as far as baits go.  I hope you know that when I talk about where, how, and with what I am fishing it is what it is, good or bad.  Of course I play favorites, as I said before, the Lunker Lure, the Redfish Magic, the Swim Jig, and the Bang O lure are favorites, no matter who made them or whether I buy them off the shelf.  I play favorites with lures that catch fish, otherwise why throw a particular bait?

When I referred to NW Arkansas it is because I had almost 30 years of fishing on the highland lakes every spring with the Bang O Lure.  But that is not the only place it works.  I went back and looked at some old Florida trips from the 90’s and I have a couple of pictures of trout, a shark, and several snook, all caught on Bang O Lure years ago.  And Snook really like the one with the spinner tail.  We would also add a suspend dot to the Bang O Lure and catch lots of speckled trout using it like a classic jerkbait.  It did not dive as deep as regular jerk bait and you could work it over the top of submerged grass and potholes.  Good clear water is the ticket, and there are few game fish that won’t eat a Bang O Lure, but the toothy critters are just a little to hard on them.

And when you are at Table Rock rest assured you are in the right place.  How effective it will be this trip will depend on how late the spawn was and what the weather is like.  Get a nice cloudy day and you will be in business.  And don’t forget they will hit that thing on Coleto for a couple of months yet.  As a side note, Table Rock is part of the White River chain of lakes.  First is Beaver, in NW Arkansas, where I practiced law and fished for 10 years, then Table Rock, in Missouri, then Taneycomo, then Bull Shoals, and finally my home lake, Norfork Lake, coming off the North Fork of the White River.   They are peas in a pod, and fish basically the same give or take a little.

Hope that added a little more to what I wrote the other day.  Good luck on your trip and we will be looking forward to hearing how it goes.  And of course thanks for keeping up with the blog.

Stop the Presses!

Welcome Aboard!  Check out their full product line.  Click on the logo of the best balsa baits on the market.

I dropped a note and link to Bagley on the post I wrote about the Bang O Lure and they have come to my aid.  A few are on the way, just in time for when I get back from Arkansas.  One thing I did after contacting them was to look over their catalog and there are some additional baits that I know will work like a charm.  One I am particularly interested in is the Minnow B.  Made of durable ABS resin it has the same Bang O Lure action, and should be tougher and great for those saltwater fish.  And I have been using the 1/32 jig head on the trout since last summer.  They also shared some information that I will pass on to you next time I blog.  There is lots more to come about the Bagley Bait Company.  A big thanks to Bagley President Don Hultstrand for his help and consideration, I really appreciate it.

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When I first started the blog I watched the readership numbers all the time, now I check occasionally, it is not the priority it was.  It was kind of like watching a pot boil.  Now as long as there is one or two of you out there reading I will keep writing.  But I did check the other day and we just topped 475,000 visits since we started.  In the next couple of months we will hit 500,000 visits.  The numbers keep in the 10,000 visits a month, and I can not thank you regular readers enough.  That is crazy!  The day I top 500,00 I just might tip a cold one to all of you.  Thanks.

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Today is last call day.  Time to get everything I need for Arkansas out, put line on stuff, grab some spare everything, the usual.  With the possibility of catching everything from crappie, rainbow trout, bass, walleye, to stripers, there is no such thing as to much stuff.  Kind of like dressing for winter fishing, if you have it on you can take it off, but if you don’t have you don’t have it.  The fishing will start in earnest on Saturday and will go on a week or so.  It will definitely be fish on!  I have a few more things to get to in the next couple of days so keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines