Fishing in the Ozarks (MO/AR/OK/IL/KS) all 12 months! even winter! what is working, what is not working, new ideas and photo's of great fishing experiences. Kayak Angling is spoken here with a heavy emphasis on Kayak Fishing and paddling!
Showing posts with label fishing Arkansas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fishing Arkansas. Show all posts
Palarm Creek close to the Arkansas River near Little Rock
Here are the first (2) kayak fishing trips of the year. Did not have a lot of success, the kayaking was excellent. Was using the Feelfree 14' Atlantis sea kayak (yes, you can fish off it!) First stop of Palarm Creek/Arkansas river. This is the water that comes from Lake Conway and drains in to the Arkansas. The current is fairly swift with a lot of "shubbery" in the water. Bummer thing happened on this trip- my rudder snapped in two! Ended up cutting it of, stowing it away, and kayaking the rest of the trip. Have to debate if the get a new kit to install or not. Fishing was not good, but the weather (85 degrees) was way better than STL (43 degrees)
Second trip was the Maumelle River at the confluence of the Arkansas River. I did manage to catch a small bass on a small spinner outfit. Slow fishing, but we had just had a cold front move through, and it still had a ton of wind behind it
I got a chance to kayak fish Beaver Lake in Northwest Arkansas. This was about the 3rd time I have fished this lake, and the experience was awesome. The lake reminds me of my "home water" lake of Table Rock. Nice rocky bottom with deep drop offs and clear water.
My strategy was to take (4) rods...(2) spinner rods with a topwater plug on one, and a Wiggle Wart on the other, with the two baitcasters rigged with a texas rig and a white spinner. I got out about 5:00 pm., but the bite did not really start until 6:30 or so. I got a little interest on the plug, but I started to catch them on my "go to" bait for summer: texas rigged with watermelon Zoom trick worm on the end. I was catching them about 6' off shore.
Before I headed in (I saw lightning in the distance.....time to get off the water!) I fished the cliffs that were right across the put in point. These deep cliffs are really, really productive. The bass like to lay towards the bottom against the cliff waiting for either things to go past or things to drop. I dropped the worm in a couple of times, and the third cast I caught the pig. I could have fished another couple of hours, but I really need to rig my kayak with some lights and night fishing stuff....maybe that will be what I work on for the rest of the weekend :)
I cannot wait to get back to Beaver Lake to do some more bass fishing. It is an incredible lake with some awesome angling opportunities!
The is an outstanding lake in the central/eastern part of northern Arkansas to kayak fish, and especially kayak fish for bass. I got out to the lake around 3:00 p.m. after work and headed out. This was the first time fishing this lake, so I spoke with a couple of anglers out there before I set off. Des Arc is also known for really nice sized crappie, and that is what the person I spoke with was fishing for.
I really though in setting out after a few hours of throwing just about everything and not getting one tap I was going to get skunked. There was an older gentleman who had a little jon boat with a trolling motor catching a few nice bass by accident on his crappie rig. I noticed that he was using some bright chartreuse colors so I switch the spinners to that.
Here is what happened that caused me to catch the bass for this day. I had a texas rigged Zoom watermelon/red trick worm (6"). It got snagged and I lost the rig so I had to re-tie it. The second time around I switched the bullet weight to a smaller size.....within (2) cast BOOM! It must have had something to do with the way the bait was presenting itself to the bass. Caught 4-5 before we needed to get back to the boat launch.
Lesson learned: If you are not having a lot of success, instead of always switching the bait out, consider switching the weight and/or presentation.
Lake Atkins is located in central Arkansas between Little Rock and Ft. Smith. I brought my SOT fishing kayak, "The Bossy Flossy" along for the trip. I was able to get a couple of hours of fishing in before the sun started to go down (I figured the fishing would turn on towards sunset). I paddled across the lake and drifted along shore. This lake is chock-full of trees, stumps and structure. I had read that it was drained in 2002 and restocked with Florida-strain Largemouth bass.
It is a nice sized lake, and looks like one that does not receive as much pressure due to the stumps and the location.
I was throwing a lot of stuff out trying to get something to hit. I have not had a lot of success the last couple of trips, so I was really hoping to catch something (It is funny how if you do not catch a bass after about the 3rd trip you start to wonder if you can remember how to fish!!).
I put out some white spinners, mini spinners with minnow, stand up jig with hula grubs, texas rigged dark worms. What I had success on was what my go to has been for 2011- watermelon zoom trick worm texas rigged on spinning rod. And sure enough, caught it in some trees, right about sunset.
