It’s never ‘too cold’ to wet a fish hook, right?
Get ready for winter fishing
By JIM HARRIS
Arkansa Wildlife Editor
The recent Thanksgiving holiday brought families together, many from long distances to visit Arkansas for up to several days. Lou Gabric, who operates Hummingbird Hideaway Report and appears in the Weekly Fishing Report, had a large contingent of his wife’s family on hand for celebrating Turkey Day, and a few of those nieces, nephews and cousins got on the lake.
Lou’s nephews Lane Floyd of Johns Island, South Carolina; Kenton Luff of Austin, Texas; and Cameron Luff and John Creighton from Spring, Texas (see photo), got into the hot striper fishing last week. Lou then got out on Norfork Lake earlier this week, bundling up to catch a full assortment of fish, including some nice catfish. He checked out of part of Norfork he had no been to lately and found lots of white bass, four keeper-size largemouth and two big cats (in the photo right) on a large flat. “This is why I really enjoy vertical-jigging on flats in the fall;” Lou said, “ you never know what you are going to catch. At one time or another and sometimes in the same trip, I have caught every species in Norfork Lake fishing this method at this time of year.” Lou said it was all he could do holding close to 50 fish for the photo, taken by Chad Bleeker. After hosting 33 relatives, then catching these monsters, we can understand.
East Arkansas Fishing Reports
■ ■ Lake Charles — Shelly Jeffrey at Lake Charles State Park (870-878-6595) said yo-yo fishing for catfish is going nicely. Stink bait on the yo-yos is the go-to. Otherwise, the other fish seem to have moved into deeper water. No other reports. Clarity is turbid. The level is low now with water being used in the nearby Shirey Bay Rainey Brake WMA for waterfowl usage. Temperature of the water is 50.3 degrees. Shelly says good fishing days based on moon times are expected Dec. 5-11. Best days for December, she added, are Dec. 20-26.
■ ■ Lake Poinsett — Seth Boone, the superintendent at Lake Poinsett State Park, reported had nothing new to report from Lake Poinsett. Remember that bass and crappie are catch-and-release only as the lake’s sport fish build back up after Poinsett’s renovation work. Bream and catfish also abound.
■ ■ Crown Lake — Boxhound Marina (870-670–4496) is closed for the winter and will reopen in February. They are taking reservations on their answering machine for spring.
■ ■ Spring River — Mark Crawford with springriver fliesandguides.com (870955-8300) said water levels have been at 300 cfs (350 cfs is average), and water clarity has been clear. The river has been low and clear for a while now. With the low and clear conditions, the trout can be very picky on the nice sunny days. Slowing the presentation down with a Hopper Dropper has worked well the last few weeks. A Y2K below the Hopper about 2-3 feet has been really hot. With White Lightning as a dropper can get you more bass plus trout. “We are getting hits on the Hopper and that is always a blast!
Fishing guide Lou Gabric’s family had quite a haul during a Thanksgiving fishing trip. Bundle up this winter and get in on the cold-weather fishing.
Photo courtesy of AGFC
