Bullards Bar Report
By James “Big Ed” Everhart
April 5th 2016
Water Temp…58-59
Water Clarity…Clear to Stained
Air Temp…79
Wind…10 to 15 mph
Started today at around 11am, launched from dark day ramp. The bite has been more of an afternoon bite hence the late start. Started in the flooded willows that were adjacent to clay banks on the main body of the lake, had my clients throwing tubes and shaky heads with 7 inch worms. I was throwing a 4 inch swim-bait, got a couple bites but never landed a fish today on that bait. On the other hand the clients started catching fish almost immediately but the bite was really peculiar as they never caught anymore than one fish per area except on a steep clay bank up the main river arm, the key to it seemed to be the shaded area. I was marking fish all the way out to 25 feet but those fish were not active at all. All the fish we caught were in the 4 to 8 foot range with the clay banks that had no rock on them being the best producer. Unfortunately we never hooked up with any of the Bullards Bar giants that the lake is so well-known to produce this time of year. Today was a rat fest, the biggest fish caught was 14 inches. We caught a lot of fish today but they were just small ones. With the water rising almost a foot a day still, the big girls haven’t moved up to spawn yet. The water temp and clarity are perfect but I searched all day and never found a single bed. With the weather starting to warm and hopefully the water beginning to stabilize it should only be a couple more weeks till the spawn kicks off.
Hope this helps, see you on the water.
BIG ED