What I heard...

[Hellbender]

Hogwild, they probably used this, although it seems its subject to change at times. SWPA Generation Schedule

[Shannon Woods]

Thanks HB if now I could only understand how to read it. They have a phone number think I'll stick to it, for the one's that don't know it here it is 870-431-5311. If anyone is ever below the dam trout fishing listen to what the recording says "don't use this message to predict safe water" I almost had to swim a few years ago, that would be a pretty good challenge with waders on!

[coyotewhacker]

About the giant catfish....remember these are TEXAS CATFISH that I was talking about...not the little 100 pound fingerlings, but real big TEXAS CATFISH. They eat full grown Long Horn steers, and whenever one is caught by some means, the lake level drops a couple of feet after the fish is removed on an 18 wheel flatbed trailer.

[Hellbender]

Hogwild, number 14 is Bull Shoals Dam (BSD) and hour 1 is from midnight. So today (Sat.) they expect to generate between 2PM and 5PM.
I agree its not perfect, but for your fishing it would tell you when you might expect current on the Bull.

[Ozark]

A side note: I haven't fished many tournaments, so I've never heard of a rule against using cell phones. Is that true?

I guess it makes sense. Someone in a tournament could have friends in other boats out, calling him with information when they find fish. I just never thought about that.

It seems kinda harsh that you can't be in contact with your family, though.

[Shannon Woods]

That clears up my confusion HB and about the cell phone Jim and Johnnie can gives us the correct answere but I'm pretty sure I remember my pro's saying they could not use cell phones during tourney hours, I may be wrong though. But this year in fact it may have been Johnnie that let a local that had run out of gas use his to call for help there may be exception's to the rule. Me and my day 3 guy run into this local that had run out of gas but John had left his in his truck but he was going to let him use it if he had it with him.

[Johnnie Candle]

That is correct, we are NOT allowed to use cell phones during tournament competiton. The exception is for emergency use. I felt on Day Three that allowing a local or tourist to use my phone was not in violation of the rule. Upon weighing my fish, I reported to the tournament director what I did, just in case some one else saw it and did not know the whole story. The director thanked me for helping and told me to not worry about anything.

As far as current generation goes and how do the pros know. It is amazing how tuned in we get to the situation around us. Gerrick is from Pierre SD and fishes the Missourri River Reservoirs a ton. I am sure he could "Feel" the current.

We notice line angles, speed chagnes, how much line it takes to hit the bottom. When this stuff changes, it means the current has changed as well.

If you aren't thinking about it, you will never notice it.

[coyotewhacker]

Some of you guys sure have short memories.....back in January, Feb, and March when we were all (well...almost all) getting beat up something fierce in our get togethers, didn't we all agree at the time that "the bite" on upper Bull Shoals was highly dependent on how much water was being released at Power Site? There were other factors to be sure, but if we came in off the hill and there was no signs of power being generated, there was almost a certainty that there would be little or no walleye bite. A current flow did not guarantee action, but it certainly did up the odds.Granted that upper BS is more like a river than a lake anyway, but go back in the old posts and look for comments on current....betcha find a lot of them. When TR and I prefished with Big Foot and Juls before the FLW, we were desperately hoping the current would show up. When it finally did, it was time to come in and we never had a chance to take advantage of it. From what JC is saying, that same current, although diluted and spread out over many miles of lake, also has a big effect on the fish down at the dam end of the lake. If that is a truism at BS, and if walleyes is walleyes is walleyes, it is gonna be the same deal at Stockton....probably more like the lower lake bite at BS. Heck, I may be way, way off base on this, but it certainly makes sense if you think about it. CW has thought about it....now maybe it's time for practical application......field testing.....empirical data collecting, etc. etc.

[powerdivehome]

Check your back issues of Walleye In-sider--maybe 3 years ago--my pard wrote an article on precisely this topic that was strongly based on Stockton. Title was "Generation Next."