Heading to Bull Shoals this weekend for the first time ever.  We'll be at a little cabin a mile or two below the dam - the plan is to fish the river constantly, although it'll be hard to fight the urge to drive up to the lake in the morning/evening for some bassin'.

 

Any tips for trout?  I've got a few light rigs ready to go, and from what I can tell, small pink plastic worms, black and pink marabou jigs, and little cleo spoons are safe bets.  I'll probably try to stay with artificial bait as much as possible, but any suggestions are welcome.

 

Thanks!

Take your bass jerkbaits, that's all I ever fish for them. They do really like jigs too but that seems to target the smaller rainbows for the most part and I'm always trying to target the browns. Vision 110's, 97MR slender pointers, and especially the Lucky Craft Spazz are my favorite trout jerkbaits. I know it's hard to do but if you can get yourself to fish with 6lb test you'll get way more bites. I've fished with 6lb ever time and caught several browns. My buddy can't get himself to fish a 110 on 6lb so he sticks with 12, he's caught 1 brown each trip.

They aren't all big ones either.

My crooked jawed 5.5 pounder right across from the state park ramp is my biggest brown to date. I watched him miss my Spazz 3 times before he connected, it was freaking awesome.

Those little Cleo's work well, they just have a big hook so they might tear up the small trouts' mouths. A couple spinners MUST be on that list. Silver or gold blade if the waters clear. Panther Martin's are some of the best.

Artificial is jerkbaits only for me on the white.  I fish there a couple times every year at least, specifically targeting big browns.  While I have caught some nice browns on artificial, live bait has produced the most consistent big brown bite, and with one particular guide in general!  He knows where the browns live!

 

 

Jeff