BIG BASS (cont.)
that black bass are very good. Jighead/Texas-rigged Brush Hogs and floating worms are working and the topwater bite is good.
Walleye are very good and being caught on Shad Raps and jerkbaits over points on the river channels. Stripers are very good. These fish are being caught on topwater C-10 Redfins and jerkbaits in the central part of the lake. Bream are still very good and can be caught on worms and crickets. Crappie are good.
Try a small jig or minnow near brush in 8-15 feet of water. Catfish are good and being caught on limblines and trotlines with live or cut bait. Water temperature Wednesday was ranging 65-70 degrees. Water clarity is clear. The lake level was 577.98 feet msl. Call the Mountain Harbor fishing guides (Mike Wurm, 501-622-7717, or Chris Darby, 870-867-7822) for more information.
Capt. Darryl Morris of Family Fishing Trips Guide Service said crappie are doing great. “We’ve caught them as shallow as 6 feet and as deep as 15 feet. Live bait works best, but jigs do their part, too. We’ve also seen large schools of white bass and small striper surface- feeding on threadfin shad early at first light.
Spoons and 3-inch swimbaits landed a single limit in short order.”
Greeson Marine, hometown dealer of the Arkansas-born-and-bred Xpress all-welded aluminum fishing boats in Hot Springs, reports lake levels a touch over full pool due to heavy rainfall lately.
Water temps are in the high 60s to low 70s throughout the lake, with visibility fair to good with some color to it. Lake Hamilton has been fishing really well this year and that trend continues!
Bass are finished spawning. This means fish will migrate out to the summer haunts of shade, food and current. Cover and food are the two major factors right now. The bass are really feeding heavily on small baitfish, which is very similar to the fall conditions.
Swim Jigs with plastic fluke trailers, Zoom shadcolored flukes fished weightless and nonsuspending jerkbaits are getting smoked in pockets with good cover and docks. The floating worm has been replaced by these presentations.
The bass simply want baitfish and it seems like nothing else will do. As night falls or early in the mornings, a Whopper Plopper or a Spook in lighter colors do really well until the sun comes up.
Crappie reports have been very good! Brushpiles and bridge piers in 20 feet of water are producing with a slip cork and live minnow.
Bream are good everywhere on worms but especially deeper docks with wooden pilings. A worm and bobber work great!
Catfish have also been good everywhere but especially in deep creek channels and drop-offs next to
— For weekly flow releases from Carpenter Dam, visit www.entergy.com/hydro Shane Goodner, owner of Catch’em All Guide Service, reports that water temperature below the dam is 50 degrees with stained conditions in the tailrace.
Entergy has scheduled a 7,000 cfs generation schedule beginning Friday, May 14, and continuing through Thursday, May 20. This pattern will run 24/7 and is a very fast flow of water that can be dangerous to boaters and wade fishermen alike. Anyone attempting to navigate the Carpenter Dam tailrace is advised to use extreme caution. With more rainfall expected early next week, this flow pattern will likely increase to maintain area lake levels. Lake Ouachita is nearing flood pool and all generation efforts will be devoted on area dams to prevent the big lake from rising too high into flood stage.
In the big picture, fishing below Carpenter Dam this year for rainbow trout has been a dismal failure.
Record low catches of trout from professional guides have dominated the season in an area known for excellent trout fishing. Last year was marred by constant flooding that ruined the majority of the season. This year has surpassed that in low catch rates with no concrete reason for the slow bite.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission completed the trout stocking schedule for spring and no more fish are to be stocked until late November when the water cools.
The crappie and walleye spawns were uneventful in catch numbers mostly due to area flooding that brought on very fast flows of water below the dam for weeks that prevented anglers from accessing areas that held fish.
