BIG BASS (cont.)

due to high water and current. Current along Little River decreased this week with discharge release at the dam, and river clarity ranging zero inches visibility depending on location.

Muddy current was rolling through Clear Lake this week, and it is typically the most clear water you will find on Millwood Lake.

Visibility in Clear Lake can be 5 feet or more when stable pool conditions are present. “Muddy, fast current was almost class 3 rapids in Clear Lake this week,” Mike said jokingly.

As for fishing specifics:

• Catfish: Improved last week and again this week with the increased current along Little River.

Limblines, trotlines and yoyos have been working for some nice blues and channel cats over the past couple weeks with the increase of discharge at Millwood Dam. Cut shad, buffalo and soap have been working.

No reports from largemouth bass, white bass or crappie. From Mike’s most recent report on those fish:

• Largemouth bass: Most of the largemouths up Little River in the oxbows are post-spawn, even though a few straggling female bass still are in spawning mode, and fish are scattered.

Brazalo Spinnerbaits in Millwood Mayhem Bream, River Shad and Spot Remover continue catching roaming bass from 2-3 pounds each on flats and creek channel swings from 3-8 feet deep. Chatterbaits in Sexy Shad or bream patterns – using a thumping Bass Assassin Boss Shiner 4.5-inch swimbait trailer in Bluegill Flash, Mama's 14k or Chico's Red Ear – picked up a few healthy 3-4 pound largemouths this week. Bass continue randomly roaming shallow on full sun and bright skies in 3-6 feet depth of flats adjacent to deeper drops into 7-10 feet depth creek channels. The best period for the past couple weeks was during the afternoon.

Anywhere a slightly deeper creek channel swings in near spawning flats with vertical structure nearby, and where stumps are present near creek mouths drop, have held some decentsized bass over the past few weeks. NUMEROUS largemouths over 10-11 pounds each have been weighed over the past several weeks. Several bass from 5-8 pounds were caught and weighed in tournaments over the past two weeks.

Bass Assassin Shads on a light wire Owner Rig'n hook continue to draw good reactions in the grass and lily pads, with best reactions in pads and grass lines using Electric Shad, Golden Bream or Native Shiner colors. Best colors of 4-inch Bass Assassin HPC (Heavy Punch Craw), Texas rigged, have been the Black Grape/blue glitter, Chico's Red Ear or St John's Special the past couple of weeks, fished near stumps and lily pads from 5-9 feet deep. Custompoured Senkos and Trick Worms continue working on stumps and cypress trees in 3-8 feet depths.

Best colors in Trick Worms have been the black/blue, Blue Ice and Watermelon Candy. Magnum bulky lizards in Blackberry, Blue Bayou, black/blue tail and Watermelon Candy continued taking a few good bass this week on flooded cypress trees, stumps and along vegetation lines in ditches, creeks and flats from 3-8 feet deep.

Topwater Horny Toads and hollow-body Live Target Frogs are beginning to snatch a few topwaterexplosion bass from 2-4 pounds each near buckbrush, overhanging limbs from cypress trees, and in lily pad and alligatorweed vegetation.

• White bass: They have pretty much finished their annual spawning run upriver, between U.S. Highway 71 at Wilton Landing and Patterson Shoals near Cossatot inflow ditch and are beginning to migrate down Little River.

Numerous white bass have been caught over the past 3-4 weeks along the river, in the 3-plus-pound class, on Rat-L-Traps, Little Georges, Chuck'n Spins, Rooster Tails, spoons and Bomber Crankbaits. The white bass began scattering in large schools downriver following the spawn over the past week or so.

• Crappie: Continue to improve again this week and are staging near 2-8 feet deep close to cypress stands, ready to move in for the spawn. Over the past week, these prespawn crappie have been best on minnows and jigs in pockets along the main lake sections near the golf course along South Hickory Creek and near Beards Bluff campground, and in oxbows of Mud Lake and McGuire up Little River.

Crappie continue holding in the 2-4 feet and 8-foot depth zones this week, and are staging to move shallow over the next few days or so. Best color of jigs over the past week or so have been black/red, June Bug, white/red and white/orange. Blakemore Road Runners in white/chartreuse and SK Rocket Shads in white/yellow heads have also produced nice 2- to 2.5-pound sab crappie over the past few days.

Todd Gadberry at Mountain Harbor Resort and Spa (870-867-2191/800-832-2276 out of state) reports 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.