FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

“SAVE OUR WATERS”

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The Wade Right Fishing Belt

Brought to you by

The Best Wading System on the  Planet.

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Bull Shoals and Lake  Norfork

This has been an interesting 2 days.  When I drove to Mtn Home to meet Clyde on Monday it was raining and blowing like crazy so I took it easy instead of trying to get there and fish a half day.  Monday morning it was off to Bull Shoals.  I put in at Oakland and headed to Mtn Creek, one I am really familiar with.   And Clyde was going to join me when he got his work done.

The first couple of places not a bite.  But on the perfect spot, which would be a flat point with cover, deep on each side, between 2 coves, back in a creek, and I caught 5 pretty quickly.  The first 3 came on the Knockin’ Tail white ice.

A good start, and the best smallmouth I have caught in a while.

One thing that has really changed since I moved is the amount of shad on Bull Shoals, and as a consequence the bass are really chunky.  After catching 3 I turned around and threw the louslures custom jerk baits he painted me and caught a couple of small ones.

It was slow but nothing wrong with these 2.

The water temp was in the low 50’s back in the creek, and try as I might until I went to pick up Clyde at the ramp, I could not buy a white bass in the back of the creek.  A sign of things to come the next day also.  Mind you it was pretty chilly that morning, did not break 50 until after lunch, and when the clouds cleared it basically went dead slick.  We kept throwing the louslures jerk bait and the  Controlled Descent Knockin’ Tail but it was slow the rest  of the afternoon though we caught a few.  But Clyde did catch one on the white ice Knockin’ Tail, which when you look at it you might understand why I spent to much time trying to find the whites.

That my friends is a beast.  What Bull Shoals is known for.

So not to bad, but time to give Norfork a try on Wednesday..

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 It has arrived!  Get the new Knockin’ Tail, it catches fish!  

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As soon as I pulled out of the drive at 7:45 it started pouring.  Big wind, thunder and lightning, it was ugly.  (Clyde’s house has been empty for 3 months so no internet or TV, can’t say I missed them.  But with no iPhone I was flying blind until I called the Boss and got the low down.)  So I headed to some breakfast and watched it blow through around 10:30.  I had a specific plan on where I wanted to fish.  First up was Walker Branch on jerk bait, then up to the 6B area to fish the Knockin’ Tail for anything that would bite.

My first walleye and another target species, a nice Kentucky.

The custom louslures jerk bait was the bait both days.  I downsized my line to 10lb. and used the one with the little bigger lip.  It seems to go around 6 foot at a jerk pause, jerk-jerk, pause pattern, and they hit it on the pause.  Both days they were hitting it really light.  But the first place in Walker Branch was ok, caught 4 in there, so I head up creek to the white bass stomping grounds.  The water temp was in the mid 50’s but somewhat colored up.  Other than a small bass on the Knockin’ Tail it was a strike out.  Around 1:00 Clyde called and so I headed to pick him up.

From there we headed to Float Creek, one of my old stomping grounds that I know really well.  Even though the water temp was in the mid 50’s we learned that the back ends, on both lakes are not the ticket.  At this point we fished another big cove where I caught a small striper on the jerk bait, and Clyde had one boil under his, but it just was not happening.

This walleye is a special order by the Boss and it is headed to Texas.

So what could the problem be?  Easy, they now have 4 flood gates open on Norfork, and they are running 6 generators at the Bull Shoals dam, and the water is dropping like a rock.  They don’t like that to much.  It was noticable on Norfork as they attempt to get the water level down prior to what they hope will be spring rains.  When combined with a mile high sky and dead calm it just was not happening.

Clyde has always been a light line afficianodo and loves fishing grubs, swim baits, and jigs, and try as we might they simply would not touch a plastic anything.  It stayed slow all afternoon.  It seems like they do not want to chase squat and that jerk bait sitting in front of the occasional fish will get a bite.  I did manage another walleye and a nice bass, but we finally called it a day.

So with possible storms this afternoon I will stick with Norfork today just in case.  At least I have a few spots with fish plus it is cloudy right now and will stay that way the rest of today.   Hope springs eternal and who knows, it might pick up.  So while this is an abbreviated report, I am sure I have forgot plenty, it is time to load up and head to the lake.  I sure like fishing here.  Will get more up when I can so keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines