Thread: Crappie Tournament

How is the fishing during the winter down on Bull Shoals and Norfolk? Does the lake freeze over? And are they any resorts open during the winter?

This sight http://www.anglersfishinginfo.com/fi...orts/mo/mo.htm has a good report for bull shoals, I wish all reports where this detailed.

Originally Posted by TAE73

How is the fishing during the winter down on Bull Shoals and Norfolk? Does the lake freeze over? And are they any resorts open during the winter?

This sight http://www.anglersfishinginfo.com/fi...orts/mo/mo.htm has a good report for bull shoals, I wish all reports where this detailed.

Bull Shoals does not freeze over not saying you might not find ice in some pockets. We have a favorite resort we like in Pontiac area, own by a Bass fishing guide, Pontiac Lodge, you can call Tony any time and he will tell you how the fish are biting, on what and where. He does a radio call in fishing show on KMOX radio in St. Louis every Thursday night. His lodging rates are good also.

Norfork we found a nice resort last year that is open all year. Blackburn's Resort - Mountain Home, Arkansas. The owner Steve Street is a driver and has made some wonderful brush piles on Norfork for Crappie fishing. He will gladly show you where and let you mark your map. Rates are little bit higher than Pontiac Lodge but not bad.

We are going to a resort on Bull Shoals this weekend in the Hwy 125 area. Will let you know how it is, next week.

Sounds good.. good luck this week. Also for anyone that wanted to know fish at LOZ wasnt to bad. Fished Sat & Sun caught 15 and 10, had one fish sunday that was over a pound. Fished the purvis area, water is still dirty but fishing was good. Will be back down sat for a club tournament out of purvis.

Good luck on the tourny Ted. I wish I was down there to fish with ya. I might be coming down that way in a few weeks. I will let you know. Maybe we can hook up then!

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That would be good if I could get ya in. This a the capital crappie club out of jefferson city, we chose a weekend once a month and have a tournament. You get paired up with some differenct every time in the club. Then you take your best 15 fish out of both of yours. And go up against the other teams that are fishing that day. Then each person has yearly weight that gets added from you and your parnters weight from that tournament. And at the end of the year they pay out for overall weight, top 3 combined weights and then big fish. Its all about having a good time. Only cost 40 bucks per team for each tournament. And then 90% of that is payed back at the end of they day. Usually pay out at least 1st and 2nd and then big fish. They payout maybe more just depends on how many boats are entered that day. We do have a open tournament each year on LOZ in the fall. That anyone can get in, cost 50 per boat. When that does get decieded I will post on here so if anyone is interested. Rules follow crappie usa closely, with a honor start and stop but we weigh 15 fish.

Let me know Tim when you do come down.

I haven't seen bull or norfork freeze over since the early 80's. It does'nt happen very often. Winter fishing on Bull Shoals is usually really good. I do more fishing in the winter than any other time of the year. I have caught most of my bigger fish in Jan. and Feb. including a 6lb 4oz kentucky I caught in Spring Creek. In the winter we usually go to ultra light setups with light line and fish deep. This usually produces the best fish. Duane, we'll have to get togather sometime, right now I am without a boat but will be in a new one around Feb. or Mar. hopfully. I also work second shift which allows me to get some fishing in of a morning when I manage to get up early enough. I'm only 15 to 25 minutes from the water depending on which lake I go to. It will be after the first of the year before I will have any free time on my hands. They've been working us alot of overtime the last couple of months. My dad was at lake of the ozarks this past week and said the crappie fishing was great up there. I think him and his partner caught several and said that most of them were caught in 2 to 5 feet of water. Let me know when you might want to go and I'll see if I can get away.

What part of LOZ was your dad fishing? I am guess that he was fishing in the back of the coves.

I think he said he was in the Gravois mill area and the fish they found were out on the steep rocky points. They were fishing the coves but found them when they fished around one of the points and caught all of their fish in one spot. He said they had several around 11 to 12 inches. I'll talk to him today or tomorrow and find out where it was. I wasn't paying very close attention to details since I never get to fish LOZ very often. I'll let you know what he said.