Well the fishing is starting to break loose.  Lake temperatures have warmed up quite a bit in the last week. Main lake is now around 60 degrees with most of the creeks and coves in the upper 60s. lake level are on a slow rise and just right for good fishing, about 4 feet above normal. 

Bass fishing has really turned on with the small mouth on your gravel points being caught on tube jigs and grubs fished slowly and tight to the bottom any wear from 10 to 20 foot of water. With the higher water level this year is some brush in the water and the largemouth are using them as cover for there spawning beds and as ambush points.with some very nice fish coming from less than 2 feet of water on spinnerbaits and jerk baits. Crappie fishing this year is the best it has been in many years with many fish be caught by bass fisherman on anything that looks like a minnow, I have seen many fish come in  well over the 2 lb range.

Walleye fishing has be a little slow and not real consistent the last few weeks as one night you might catch one or two and the next night zipp. But the last few night I have caught a few more consistently for this time of year , once again trolling my old standby, a deep diving rouge. fished slow and tight to the bottom in 12 to 15 foot of water . I can definitely see more fish showing up on my locater every night I go out and see the fishing to get better every day as the water warms.

So until next time Good Fishing and have fun

Chuck

The 12 th. Annual Promise Land Area  Bass Tournament was held April 23rd and 24th. And with mother nature cooperating this year with beautiful 75 to 80 degree air temperatures with mild wind.All this leading up to some great fishing for the attendees.  Many better than average fish were brought in to the weigh in this year with Dale & Bev Cisco's Big Bass of the tournament at 5 lb. 4 oz. Way to go Dale !!!

Results are

1st. Place           Gene Thomure & John Helmke                     23 lbs.3oz.      $300.00

2nd. Place          Fred Crawford & Rick Ellebrectit                  21 lbs. 9 oz.    $180.00

3rd. Place          Jim Dillmaid & Dick Dietz                                6 lbs. 14 oz.    $120.00

Big Bass             Dale & Bev Cisco                                           5 lbs 4 oz.       $150.00

Thanks To the many sponsors that make this tournament a sucess , this year they donated over $1500.00 worth the cash and prizes

And a special thanks to Rich from Battys Resort for once again cooking up a great awards dinner again this year

Well its that time of year again to announce the 2008 Fishing Contest winners...  As we all know last year was a tuff year fishing on Bull Shoals with the record  high water and all the trees !!!! But like usual
people always manage to catch some nice fish.

The Winners Are

Largemouth Bass        3 lbs.2oz.       Fred C.
Smallmouth Bass         3 lbs.6oz.       Shirley W.
Kentucky Bass            3 lbs.9oz         Rick
White Bass                  3 lbs.0oz.       Fred C.
Walleye                       6 lbs.10oz.     Bob
Crappie                       1 lbs.9o.         Rick
Rainbow Trout            4 lbs. 3 oz.     Larry W.
Striper                         32 lbs.0oz.     Phil W.

Good going folks!!!!!!!

The past week has brought us some very nice weather. It's been in the upper 70's to low 80's every day, low temperatures have been in the 50's and 60's. We have had some fog early in the mornings but no rain. The lake temperature is still at 75 degrees. Lake level is 680.1 still 26 feet higher than normal.
Chuck and I were out Wed. night fishing for about 3 hours. We caught 7 Walleyes and 6 Smallmouth bass. The Walleyes were between 15 and 17 inches and only one Smallmouth was over the 15 inch keeper size. We were trolling along the flooded tree line with shad raps and glass shads, keeping the boat in about 30 feet of water. Most of our fish came when the lure bumped the bottom or a tree branch of one of the flooded trees. We were using leadcore line to get us to the bottom. We were trolling at about 2.5 mph which meant we had anywhere from 250 to 275 feet of line out. The fish stopped bitting after it got dark.
I went out  Fri. evening with one of our guest. We fished in the back of one of the creeks for a while to see if some of those small bass were still active. They were, we caught several 6 to 10 inch Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass. After about an hour or so of catching little guys we decided to try for some Walleyes. We made our way out of the creek to one of the islands that was close by. We started out trolling shad rap rapalas, walley divers, reef runners and tail dancers. We ran the shad raps and walley divers on leadcore, getting them down to the bottom or just off the bottom in 29 to 30 feet of water. The reef runner and tail dancer were on flat lines some 150 to 200 feet back so we could get them down to there maximum depth, 20 to 25 feet. We were trolling at about 2 mph, so we were able to get the leadcore lines to the proper depth at 130 to 140 feet back of the boat. We caught 2 - 18 inch Walleyes and one about 14 inches. We also caught 3 Smallmouth Bass, only one over 15 inches. All our fish came on the leadcore lines.
Our guest went out again on Sat. and caught 8 Walleyes, only one over 18 inches, using the same leadcore method.

We had a husband and wife team in this past week who are die hard fisherman. They fished a lot of open water without a lot of luck. They caught 4 white bass and a kentucky that were big enough to take home. They caught a few smaller fish but they had a tough week. They were trolling open water using downriggers, dodgers and spoons.
We have a couple of guys in this week who are also doing some trolling. They are trollimg crankbaits in close to the flooded trees. They caught a 3lb. smallmouth bass their first trip out and 3 more keeper size smallies their second day. These two are trolling shad rap rapalas in close to the tree line and having some success.
We have another group of guys that are using the pontoon boat to troll from. They were out for a couple of hours yesterday and caught 1- 19 inch walleye and 2 kentucky bass.  They said the fish stopped hitting after it got dark. They plan on getting out eariler today. They were also trolling crankbaits in closer to the flooded treeline.
As for me I have been going to the backs of the creeks and finding all kinds of first year bass. Largemouth,  smallmouth and kentuckies all mixed together. Yesterday I caught quite a few panfish mixed in with the first year bass. Only a couple crappie the rest were sunfish.
The weather has been stable, temperatures in the upper 70's and low 80's, cool at night with low's in the 50's to upper 40's. The lake level is on the downward trend. It has come down about a foot and a half this past week. The lake level is at 683 ft. above sea level. 654 ft. above sea level is normal. So it is still 29 ft. higher than normal.

Looking forward to fishing improving soon                       .

I decided to get out for awhile by myself and try to find some white bass and black bass. I went to the back of one of the creeks hoping to find some schools of shad and bass. I tied on the trusty grub, the number one bait for bass. Went back into the creek until the water depth was about 20 ft. where I began casting to the tree line. The lake is still some 30 ft. over normal so there are plenty of standing trees in the water. I discovered the lake is absolutely teeming with first year fish. As I ran my grub in and around the flooded trees I got a hit on nearly every cast. All the fish I caught were 6 to 12 inches long, I quit counting at 25. I think Bull Shoals is in for a bass explosion and within the next two years may become one of the best bass lakes in the US. I can only imagine all spieces of fish in the Bull have had the same kind of reproduction. High water for a complete fishing season may be the best thing we could of asked for. I'm sure the next few seasons will be awesome.
The lake level began showing a downward trend as of 1 o'clock this morning. If we don't get a lot of rain for a while the lake level may get back to normal in short order. There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow but is suppose to be nice the rest of the week. Tomorrow's rain is going to bring cooler temperatures though. High temperatures are perdicted in the upper 60's to low 70's, with over night low's into the 50's and maybe even the upper 40's. I think this will turn a lot of fish into the feeding mood.

The weather has been great this week. High's in the mid 80's, light wind and no rain. Bull Shaols has been on the rise but finally has stabilized. 654 ft. above sea level is it's normal level, we are now at 686 ft. which means the lake is still 32 ft. above normal pool. Will it ever go down?
Mike a guest in from Kansas this week has been catching a few small bass, a few short walleye's and some panfish on nightcrawlers. He was doing some trolling but said he had no luck. He was on one main lake point were he noticed some fish right on the bottom, he dropped his crawler rig down to the bottom and managed to catch 3 blue cats, about 4lbs. apiece.
Tha weatherman says, more nice weather to come.

Rich a guest in from the Kansas area had a little luck this week. He caught a few small  walleye's and some panfish. He did have one nice 21 inch walleye during his stay. He also had an unsual catch of 3 yellow perch. All year I have only seen one other perch, a small 6 incher, caught early this spring. Rich's perch were 12 to 13 incher's, nice keepers. He caught them on crawler harnesses along the flooded tree line.
The weather this week has been nice, high's in the low 80's and no rain. The lake continues to rise due to the rain we got last weekend from hurricane Ike. Water is coming into the lake because Tablerock Lake is being drained to protect their dam. We will see an increase for a few more days, until Tablerock is back to close to normal. All in all boat traffic is at a minimum and light wind makes the lake a beatiful place to be.

We went out at about 6:00 pm and were in by 8:00 pm. Caught two short walleyes, one about 15 inches, the other about 17 inches. Also caught 2 white bass, both keepers. The 1st walleye came while trolling 25 feet deep off a main lake point. The second walleye and the 2 white bass were caught  45 feet deep, using lead core line. We had 450 to 500 feet of lead core out to get us down to the 45 foot level. Both walleyes were caught on glass shads and both white bass were caught on hot n tots.
The weather has been nice for the past couple of days. It's been sunny and warm with temperatures in the low 70's. The wind has been light since hurricane Ike finely got through the area. Because Ike did bring rain to the Ozarks the lake levels are on the rise. We have moved the dock in a few feet in the last couple of days. Hopefully this will be short lived and the levels will start down again.

Hurricane Ike has come and gone. Ike brought us about one and three quarters of an inch of rain, along with some 50 mile per hour winds. No damage to any boats or the dock. It was a little nerve racking for awhile, but all is well. The hurricane did change our wind direction, it's now from the north and considerably cooler. The high temperature for today is suppose to be in the high 60's. Not sure what the water temperature is right now, but we plan to get out for awhile later this evening, so we'll find out. We have a guest in now, who caught a 20 inch walleye this morning, using bottom bouncers. He had a walleye Saturday as well, on bottom bouncers. Sunday  was raining and windy because of hurricane Ike, so he could not  get out. At this writing he is out fishing now and hopefully he has a good afternoon.