Comparing Bulls Shoals and Norfork

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — After two days with the 108 Bassmaster Elite Series anglers fishing two closely-located Ozark Highlands there’s an opportunity for a unique comparison between Bull Shoals, which many of them know well from previous tournaments, and Norfork, a relative unknown, half the size of Bull Shoals.

However, it must include a significant asterisk, kind of like Roger Maris’ 61 home runs in 1961’s 162-game Major League Baseball season breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs set in 1927’s 154-game schedule: The anglers didn’t get the same length of time to fish Norfork on Thursday due to a fog delay of 1 hour, 45 minutes.

                                            Norfork            Bull Shoals

5-bass limits                        88                        94

Bass weighed-in                 500                     506

Ave. wt. of bass                  2.25 lbs.            2.62 lbs.

Big bass                             6 lbs, 1 oz.        5 lbs., 6 oz.

There are two schools of thought on the differences between the two lakes right now: 1) Bass are keying on different types of lures on the two lakes; 2) Bass are biting the same baits fished in similar shallow cover on both lakes.

Chris Zaldain, who had the third biggest bag of 16-2 on Norfork and is the tournament co-leader after two days with 30-14, is a strong advocate of the first theory. Zaldain can’t wait to get back to Norfork for Sunday’s finale, provided he stays in the top 12 today. Zaldain believes he found a “moving bait” pattern at Norfork that’s non-existent at Bull Shoals.

“I’ve built a network of West Coast guys I trust,” said Zaldain, who is from San Jose, Calif. “We kind of work together. All of us like fishing fast. The common denominator was Bull Shoals – slow, slow, slow; Norfork – wind, wind, wind.” (That’s “wind” as in winding a lure quickly with the reel.)

“In two days of practice (at Bull Shoals) I kept testing it. The wind is blowing on a beautiful, long sloping point with a drop-off on it. It looks great for a reaction bait. I just couldn’t get bit doing that.

“Back home, where the weather is similar, the full moon in April means slow down and fish flats, bedding areas.

“It’s weird. That does not apply to Norfork. It’s the complete opposite.”

Then you have Randall Tharp, who finished in fifth place on Norfork with 15-8 and stayed in fifth place yesterday (29-4 overall) with 13-12 at Bull Shoals.

“I knew if you could just pattern the fish it would work at both lakes,” Tharp said. “They’re real similar. I really discovered how I caught them (at Norfork) at Bull Shoals (during practice).”

Tharp caught a lot more fish Thursday on Norfork than he did Friday at Bull Shoals. But he said he would have had a bigger bag at Bull Shoals if he hadn’t lost a five-pounder that was halfway to the boat Friday morning. Tharp said he had only 12 bites at Bull Shoals versus “hundreds” at Norfork.

“I caught every one of them (Friday) doing the same thing I did yesterday,” Tharp said. “Same setup. Same bait. Exactly everything is the same.”

By Sunday afternoon, the differences in Bull Shoals and Norfork, or lack thereof, should become more obvious.