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AGFC correspondents spill the tea on North, East Arkansas honey holes
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AGFC correspondents spill the tea on North, East Arkansas honey holes
By JIM HARRIS
Arkansas Wildlife Editor
When Lou Gabric sent in this photo (pictured) of a whopper striped bass in late June, he said the ongoing striper bite was awesome on Norfork Lake, with other species biting, too. Lou has featured a series of great striper photos on his Hummingbird Hideaway Resort website over the past few weeks. Last week, the hybrid striped bass bite and white bass bite were both on, with Lou and his daughter seeing fish in 70-80 feet of water near a creek channel swing and landing them in 5060 feet. They were jigging Binks Spoons for the whites and White Trash Tater Shads for the bigger fish. Like everywhere else we’re hearing from these days, you’ve got to start early (by 6 a.m.) and you’ll be wrapped up around 8 a.m. fishing on Norfork Lake, if you follow Lou’s recommendations.
BANK, N.A.
By: Renee Price Timothy D. Padgett, P.A. 415 North McKinley Ste 1177 Little Rock, AR 72205 (850) 422-2520 24-004218
North Arkansas fishing reports
■ ■ White River – Cotter Trout Dock (870-435-6525) said Bull Shoals Lake elevation measured 660.91 feet msl Wednesday, below the targeted power pool of 661 feet, with generation continuing its schedule of minimum flows in the morning, raising a little earlier than it has been, to almost 12,000 cfs (four generators). Hurricane Beryl brought one day of steady rain, but the impact on the water levels in our lakes and rivers was minimal. The recent rain did provide the trout with a bounty of food, so look for something shiny to catch their attention. Rainbows are hitting gold spinners and pink and white PowerBait mouse tails (scented manufactured worms topped with white PowerBait). The ever-popular red/gold hammered Thomas Buoyant Spoon is living up to its reputation by adding to the creel count. As always, keep a cup of nightcrawlers or redworms on hand during the late afternoon rise in water and play them close to the banks just a foot or so below the surface. Early morning is the best time to be on the river casting crawdad tails or crawfish crankbaits near the bank. Browns have been hiding in the remaining deep holes and biting on sculpin and crawdad tails. Wouldn’t hurt to cast a Rebel WeeCraw or TeenyCraw and watch for a chase. “Treat yourself to some time on the river.You’ll return home refreshed, revived and thankful for all the great outdoors The Natural State has to offer.”
■ ■ White River – Dave McCulley, owner of Jenkins Fishing Service in Calico Rock, said, “This week we have seen an almost daily repeating water level with depths as low as 3 feet in the morning with a rise to a depth as high as 7 feet. During higher water, using Uncommon Baits UV eggs in neo pink and corn with or without silver inline spinners worked best while drift-fishing. When the water was low and clear, quarter-ounce Thompson Colorado Spoons in nickel/gold worked very well. We also saw success using Rapala Countdown CD5 in silver/black. “Although we got a lot of rain Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon, the Buffalo River didn’t rise too much. By Wednesday morning, Calico Rock was seeing dingy but definitely fishable water. As of Wednesday Norfork Lake was about 4 feet above the power pool while Bull Shoals remained below the power pool level. Norfork Dam has been generating daily during the work week between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. while Bull Shoals Dam has been generating in the afternoons into the night.”
■ ■ Bull Shoals Lake – Fishing guide Del Colvin at Bull Shoals Lake (815-592–
BANK, N.A.
By: Renee Price Timothy D. Padgett, P.A. 415 North McKinley Ste 1177 Little Rock, AR 72205 (850) 422-2520 24-004218
4302) said Thursday night that lake level has fallen to around 660 feet msl, now a foot below the listed summertime conservation pool. The Army Corps of Engineers has continued running some big water through the dam. Water temperature is around 85 degrees, give or take. Bass are set up on summer areas and patterns. Shad are spread out from the back off the creek out to the main lake. Check deeper water points, ledges, dropoffs and channel swings and saddles. “Get up early, or if it’s cloudy, rainy and windy hit the surface with topwater. Smaller sizes are working best for me, a Zara Spook, Pop-R, Lucky Craft Gunfish, wake baits in shad patterns. As the sun gets up, try a 2.8 swimbait, especially if there’s wind, or a Flutter Spoon. That will keep the bite going. “Once the sun gets up, a lot the fish will move out over deep water. You can follow them out there – try a drop-shot, Robo Worm or shad-shape worm or Tater Shad. If we get rain, I’ll powerfish covering water. Try a buzzbait if it’s windy and cloudy, or a frog/ toad if it’s sunny, over submerged flooded bushes. You can still catch them on points with a small Jewel Peewee Jig in green pumpkin orange or a tube or a shaky head in 10-20 feet early, then 25-30 feet. Keep the boat out for deep long casts.”
■ ■ Bull Shoals Lake –
Southern Walleye Guide Service (501-365-1606) says walleye have slowed down but are still being caught. “We’re pulling nightcrawler harnesses in 25-30 feet with 2-ounce bottom bouncers on primary and secondary points with gold or orange blades with orange bead patterns. Also, just a No. 4 split shot and No. 2 Aberdeen hook and nightcrawler, work slowly around groups of fish, will catch some. More small fish in the 16- to 17-inch size are being caught than legal- size (18 or more inches) fish. Spooning with a threequarter- ounce white spoon in deeper water off main lake points in 40-50 feet will also get some fish. “Here’s hoping the lake will stabilize soon and fishing will improve around the thermocline.” Crappie seem to be moving deeper and are definitely pickier, as the jig bite has slowed down a lot. Minnows and 4-pound line help, but they are still finicky. Just keep moving until you find fish that will cooperate.
East Arkansas fishing reports
■ ■ Lake Charles – Shelly Jeffrey at Lake Charles State Park (870-878-6595) said earlier this week that the water cooled off a bit over the last weekend. She received reports of small bream and other species of sunfish (like bluegill), as well as a few black bass being caught, and also catfish were being caught on lines. Bream are good on worms and crickets and are relating to brush piles, stumps and rocky points. Fished the shaded areas. Black bass are fair on soft plastic worms. Find them around brush and rocky points. There were no reports on crappie. Water temperature on Sunday morning was 79.8 degrees. Lake Charles is regularly murky, and the water level is normal.
■ ■ Lake Poinsett – Jonathan Wagner at Lake Poinsett State Park said that even with the heat and rain left over from Beryl, Lake Poinsett has had numerous anglers out and about. Bream are still biting pretty well, according to reports. Anglers are mostly using live bait of crickets or worms. Bass and crappie continue to be catchand-release, but reports of catches have been decent for the crappie; bass, not so much. Anglers have reported several-pound crappie and have expressed excitement for them eventually to be able to keep them. Primarily, anglers have been fishing early mornings and into the evenings (even with the mosquitoes).
■ ■ Spring River – Mark Crawford with springriver fliesandguides.com (870955-8300) said water flows at the Spring are at 390 cfs (350 is average) and water clarity is mostly clear. Over the last month, a lot of rain had messed up the river the previous two weeks. It is looking great this week, however. Hot, dry weather has river flows back down. Note that conditions can change with heavy rains. “With the river looking back to normal conditions, we are having a blast with Hopper Droppers. We’re still using cicadas for the Hopper with lots of Hopper action. Best Dropper this week has been a pink worm and Y2K. There are plenty of rainbow trout with weekly stockings. Streamer action on overcast days might get you bigger fish, but our last 20-inch brown last week was on a Woolly in the middle of a hot day. The browns are there, but not liking this weather. Smallmouth are biting great when the river isn’t high and murky. Catching a bunch on Woollies and sculpin patterns fished slow and deep. You’ve got to be committed to the slow, deep presentation and they will bite. As the river drops out, the smallmouth action should be hot for the rest of the summer.
■ ■ White River – For the Army Corps of Engineers’ real-time gauge level and flow from the White River stages at Batesville, Newport and Augusta and all other sites within the White River basin in Arkansas, visit the Corps’ Little Rock office website.
■ ■ Horseshoe Lake – (updated 7-3-2024) Kent Williams of Oxbow Guide Service (870-278-7978) says the fishing has been unchanged for a couple of weeks now. The water looks good for this time of year and is a little low. “For crappie, it’s the same ol’ song,” he said. “The fish just don’t seem interested in any bait. LiveScope shows fish, but it is difficult at best to get them to bite. One trip this week we had 12 fish over 10 inches caught. The pads seem to be the same. Smaller fish are biting, but just a few of them. Hopefully things will change in the upcoming weeks.” No reports on bass, catfish or bream.
■ ■ Cook’s Lake – The AGFC’s Wil Hafner at Cook’s Lake Nature Center (501404-2321) says the lake level has held steady for the last week and has begun to clear up. Water temperatures are around 90 degrees. “Fish catching has still been slow at best, but we are hoping stable conditions will increase the bite soon. “I would focus on hollow trees and laydowns for all species. For bass, I would flip a Texas- rigged black and red plastic or green pumpkin jig. For bream and crappie, I would jig a 1/32-ounce black and chartreuse jig in the same areas. I have heard that the action is starting to heat up on several White River lakes in the area.”
Norfork Lake is seeing some good bass fishing this summer. While it gets hot by the early afternoon, morning fishing has been tolerable. A little rain and a mild cooling trend for the weekend could make for some fine fishing opportunities.
Photo courtesy of AGFC
