Bull Shoals Smallmouth Bass

Bill Beck and I hit the mid-lake section of Bull Shoals yesterday at about daylight, launching out of Tucker Hollow.  With simi-clear water conditions and surface temps in the 42 degree to 44 degree range it was classic Stickbaiting conditions.

Reports had been good about catching Largemouth Bass in the major Creeks, on transition swing banks at the rear end of some of these major pockets. 

We were looking for locations where the channel swings in toward the bank with deep water and where the channel starts to swing away from the bank and causes the water to shallow up in a big hurry.  Some of these locations were bottom depth of more than 50 ft. but within casting distance of  water shallowing into the teens.

Bull Shoals Lake Largemouth Bass

Baits being presented were proto-type and custom painted suspending megabass, and spro McStick suspending stickbaits.  In this water temperature we wanted the bait to ride netural or have a very slight sink.

Baits were fished on 8# test fluracarbon and 8# test Maxi mono in moss green.

Action occured quickly on our first location, with a very nice Smallmouth Bass hitting the suspender.  Presentation, was two or three rapid jerks and a pause of up to 1 minute.  All our presentations were taken on the pause.  Due to the extreme cold water, we let the bait soak and it seemed to work out really well for us.

In  our mornings trip we caught 6 Largemouth Bass, 1 Smallmouth Bass, 1 Spotted Bass and 2 Huge Crappie.  Our best 5 bass were at 19 pounds and we had a 7 1/2 pounder to anchor the string.

Strikes were not slow swim-offs, but were really very hard, which suprised us due to the cold water.

Bill’s Hog Mama, Trophy  7 1/2# Largemouth Bass belted the bait as it suspended in 15ft. of water.

7 1/2 # Trophy Largemouth Bass