New Bullards Bar Reservoir
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New Bullards Bar Reservoir Fishing Reports
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Species
Spotted BassSeason
Winter
Technique
Crankbaits 7'-12'
Structure
Points
Forage
Shad
Water Temperature
57°
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Winter
Technique
Drop Shot
Structure
Points
Forage
Minnows
Water Temperature
55°
Anyone who has read one of my Bullards Bar reports knows I'm in constant search for the elusive monster spotties that are in this lake. Thank goodness we get to catch tons of their smaller cousins while we're out huntin' the big boys... Today, it was a drop shot in about 20 feet of water that was working. It seemed like the most productive spots were on the upwind side of points. I love those VMC Drop Shot hooks. Makes the rig so easy. And the Strike King Baby Z's are amazing.
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Winter
Technique
Drop Shot
Structure
Points
Forage
Minnows
Water Temperature
58°
Finally got my car out of the shop...again. That meant an immediate run up to my favorite lake to go big Spottie hunting. I really focused on using a drop shot in 30-45 feet of water off submerged points. The elusive monster Spottie is still lurking out there. Best one of the day for me was a 3 pounder. I really had to slow everything down. With the water and air temps dropping quickly, their bites were very subtle. Sorry, no pics this time around. I left my phone in the car.
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Winter
Technique
Spybaits
Structure
Stumps
Forage
Minnows
Water Temperature
73°
Took the W on this pond. Never fished it before but was rather easy to figure this place out. Right now the pattern is changing daily and throughout the day so you just have to adapt and keep moving. Start out on points, Move to secondary points, cuts, creeks, ditches, clay, isolated rock etc. Try it all until you find the better bite. Right now there is not a lot of fish up shallow. Most fish are deep or suspended. Getting a fish over 1.5lbs is very hard. 1-1.5lbs is good. You can even still get a topwater bite going if you want. Your best bet to get a big bite is to fish dangerously (to the fish's health) deep 50-80+ or to target suspended fish in open water. That being said I targeted my fish in the mornings with moving baits. Cranking with a 10-15' diver, X-Nanahan +2 and throwing a spybait or small swimbait when I saw fish suspended. Once the sun came up and the fish pulled out I decided to keep fishing the 0-30' range with a hula grub. As the day progressed I switched to isolated stumps with the hula grub and occasionally would mix in the spy bait and neko rig. The biggest fish came on the spybait. My rods of choice were a variety of ALX rods
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Winter
Technique
Trolling 20'+
Structure
Baitfish
Water Temperature
46°
Finally! After 3 weekends in a row that got wiped out by heavy rain storms we've had in the area, the sun came out and we went fishing! Went to New Bullard's Bar Reservoir in search of some of it's massive Spotted Bass. And although we never hooked into one of those, check out the "Pink" bass that grabbed a spoon at about 70 feet deep. Anyone out there ever seen anything like this? The photo has not been altered (or I would have gotten rid of the grumpy look on my son's face) and it truly was a bright pink color.
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Winter
Technique
Drop Shot
Structure
Points
Forage
Minnows
Water Temperature
48°
Beautiful day out on my favorite lake. It was a little tougher to pull them in than I thought it would be. But Bullards doesn't disappoint. I had some pretty good success with a drop shot. The 6th Sense Glitch is amazing in the water. I was focusing off shore from points in about 20-30 feet of water. I think I could have caught more if I had moved closer to shore....but I'm still hunting some of those elusive monster spotties and I'm told you need stay in a little deeper water this time of year to hook into one of those.
Norcalyakin
Bronze Ambassador
2/4/23
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Winter
Technique
Soft Swimbaits (Sm/Md)
Structure
Boulders
Forage
Bluegill
Water Temperature
48°
Find rock piles with your side scan and set up as far away from them as possible but still be able to cast past them. Cast past them and let your bait hit the bottom, slowly reel in the bait while maintaining contact with the bottom.
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Fall
Technique
Shakey Heads
Structure
Humps
Water Temperature
71°
In my never-ending quest for a Big Spotty at Bullards, I forced myself offshore using techniques I'm not super confident in. But this day, I made some progress. No monsters, but had some fun pulling in fish at 30-40 feet using a shakey head, loaded up with a Strike King bullworm. When I got that first hit, I was so pumped!!! I spent the day using my mapping to fish extended points. It took some patience for my shakeyhead to get down to the bottom. But once it was there, I hopped and popped it, and when those spotties hit it, what a blast getting them up and into the boat! Ya just have to give it a try!!!
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Winter
Technique
Carolina Rigs
Structure
Points
Forage
Shad
Water Temperature
47°
Had a tournament at bullards today, super tough bite, i managed to place 8th in california bass nation kayak and 10th in wild west kayak. I was working long tapering points up hill with a Carolina rig, every time i felt the rig go over a good size rock i would pause my retrive for 5 seconds.
