Fishing springs forward

Try this sampler of hot spots to whet your appetite

Anglers can catch big stripers, like this one displayed by Mark Roberts, in February in the skinny waters of the Ouachita River above Lake Ouachita
Anglers can catch big stripers, like this one displayed by Mark Roberts, in February in the skinny waters of the Ouachita River above Lake Ouachita

— Daffodils started blooming the last week of January in central Arkansas, and you know what that means.

It means that peak fishing time is approaching.

I can tell by the phone calls and e-mails that have come pouring in from folks I haven’t heard from in awhile. From Scott Hunter and Mark Roberts, who are itching to get up the Ouachita River to catch some walleyes. And the regulars at Lisa’s Bait Shop in Benton, who have been catching walleye on the Saline River and nearby waters.

Crappie are biting for those who know where to find them on Lake Maumelle and Lake Ouachita. Bluegills and redears will start spawning in a few weeks, and let us not forget that it was about this time last year that Rodney Ply of Diamond City caught arguably the biggest striper ever caught in Arkansas on Bull Shoals Lake.

It’s also a good time to catch big walleyes, as well as big smallmouth bass and largemouth bass on Bull Shoals, Lake Norfork and Table Rock Lake. Trout are biting on the White, North Fork and Little Red rivers, and big catfish are biting on the Arkansas, White and Mississippi rivers. Throw a rock, and you’ll likely hita spot where the fish are biting.

Better yet, throw a lure.

You’ll catch more that way.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started: LAKE OUACHITA

Superlatives always describe the myriad fishing opportunities at this 40,000-acre showcase between Hot Springs and Mount Ida.

The hard part is figuring out what you want to catch most.

From now until May, you’ll be able to catch monster stripers in the middle and upper parts of the lake on all kinds of lures. My favorite place to fish in late winter and early spring is actually above the lake, in the Ouachita River between High Shoal and River Bluff Float Camp.

Swift, shallow water defines this playground, so you need a jet boat or a canoe with a small outboard to get around, but you can catch smallmouth bass and walleyes in the long pools.

Stripers move upriver to try to spawn as well, and you can catch them in ridiculously tight quarters.

One of my most memorable trips was with Mark Roberts, when I caught and landed a 19-pound striper with my ultralight baitcasting rig.

That fish smacked a Bomber Long A on the surface. The splash looked like someone had thrown a boulder at us.

We chased that fish all over the river, and I eventually landed it on 6-pound test line.

Later, the stripers will move back downlake, where you can catch them on top water lures and on live bait around the Crystal Springs area and Mountain Harbor.

For black bass, Lake Ouachita is sort of a two tiered fishery. Before the spring rains arrive, the Corps of Engineers keeps the lake several feet low. You can catch bass on secondary points with crankbaits and stickbaits, like the Lucky Craft Gunfish.

After rains refill the reservoir, you can troll around and catch bass in the flooded trees and bushes along the bank. George Cochran of Hot Springs, who recently retired from professional bass fishing, put on a clinic two years ago when he figured out bass were holding to flooded willow oaks and nothing else. We caught two limits of fish that averaged just less than 3 pounds each.

BULL SHOALS

It’s been decades since this 45,000-acre impoundment of the White River figured into any serious bass fishing conversation, but that changed last April when it wowed the anglers on the Bassmaster Elite Series Tour. The pros caught so many3-pounders that they had to target 4- and 5-pounders to have a chance to win. The winning four-day weight was 78 pounds, 6 ounces, which translates to about 3.9 pounds per fish.

That surplus is because of several staggered years of outstanding year classes.

This year, all those 3-pounders will be a little bigger, and because Bull Shoals has so many baitfish, its overall bass population is still very large.

You probably won’t catch many bass right now, but a smaller number of really big bass are available on main lake points. They come up shallow on warm days to chase shad, and you can catch them with heavy jig and-pig combos, shaky head jigs and soft-plastic lures on Carolina rigs. You can also catch some big smallmouth bass on Storm Wiggle Wart crankbaits.

LOWER WHITE RIVER

As the weather warms in southeast Arkansas, big bream will begin spawning in the oxbows and cutoffs in the White River National Wildlife Refuge. You can catch palm-size bluegills and redears against stumps, lay downs and flooded trees and bushes with a variety of live bait, including crickets, mealworms and night crawlers.

When you find a spawning party, you can move around and catch an ice-chest full.

While the water is still cold, you can catch big crappie with live minnows in places like Red Cat Bayou, Pecan Bayou, East Lake, Green Lake and many other places. You might have to move around quite a bitto find concentrations of fish, but the ones you catch will be big, and they are surprisingly aggressive this time of year.

LAKE CONWAY

A string of warm days will turn this shallow, 6,700-acre public fishing lake near Conway on like a light for bass, crappie and bream.

Lately, the most popular crappie fishing spot has been a big bay off Gold Creek just west of Arkansas 60, but you can catch them almost anywhere. This is also a good time to catch big largemouth bass on shallowflats near deep water. You’ll often find schools of decent size fish chasing shad on the surface, and you can catch them with soft-plastic swimbaits, stickbaits and small buzzbaits.

Later, when the bream begin spawning, you can scull a flat bottom boat along just about any bank and catch a mess from laydowns and stumps with crickets and worms under a bobber.

That’s just a sample of the great fishing you can enjoy in the Natural State in the coming weeks, but there’s enough to fill a book.

Sports, Pages 26 on 02/10/2013

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