ARKANSAS SPORTSMAN

Lake Conway outing a treat for kayak angler

A remote cove on the back side of Lake Conway was a perfect place to spend an evening fishing for bream.

I don't know how big this place is. Eighty acres? Maybe 120, or even 200. It's very shallow, no deeper than about 8 feet at the most, but between 3-5 feet most everywhere else. I was here a long time ago to fish for bluegill out of an aluminum flatbottom, and I caught a huge mess with crickets right up against the bank.

Today I came with a different craft, one my friend Alan Thomas dubbed the "Littoral Assault Vehicle." It's a kayak that I modified to be the ultimate small water fishing boat. Everything about it is devoted to that one purpose. I customized a transom on which to mount a 36-pound thrust trolling motor and a transducer for my electronic graph. The graph is a Lowrance Elite 4X HDI, a compact little unit with a bright color display that shows both a traditional sonar display and a down imaging display. Not long ago, a unit like this would have cost megabucks. Now, it's pretty close in price to many economy units. It's attached to the deck in front of the seat with a Ram Mount. Three rod holders are bolted to a milk crate behind the seat that holds my trolling motor battery.

For this trip I brought a long, ultra-light action Berkley rod and spinning reel, and a half tube of crickets.

It took awhile to find this place. It's been so long since I last visited that I forgot where to take a couple of turns. Honestly, I'm not altogether sure that I even found the right place, but it's beautiful and it looks fishy. That's good enough for me.

With a little two-wheeled cart, I roll the LAV out of the truck bed and straight to the water. I slip the transom assembly into the in-hull rod holders and tie it to the deck. I mount the trolling motor and connect it to the battery. I mount the graph and connect it to power. I strap the milk crate to the deck, wade out to about knee deep and slide into the seat. I turn on the graph, put the motor on low and cruise to open water.

I figure in this hot, sunny weather that bream will hold to deep cover, so I look for downed trees on the bottom and brushpiles. I find them, too, but I don't find bream. I move the bobber stopper so that the hook rides about a foot off the bottom. I get no strikes there, so I reset the bobber stopper to bring the hook up another foot. Still no strikes.

Angular lines on the graph show fish dashing up and dashing down. I also see bright orange and red displays that denote big balls of baitfish, along with some signatures beneath the bait that I suspect are bass or crappie. As I pass through these balls, I see shad swim near the surface. Predator fish pop them all around, oblivious to the silent kayak. I chide myself for not bringing a bass rig.

Easing toward the bank, I check out the assortment of cover in water that can't be more than a foot deep. I set the bobber stopper to dangle the hook at about 2 feet. I cast to the spot where the depth contour drops and the bobber plunges. It's a big, mean, palm-size bluegill, the first fish ever caught from the LAV. It's also the last fish I'll catch that day.

I am so absorbed in the displays on my graph that I spend the rest of the afternoon skulking around and mapping the bottom. There's a veritable shooting gallery of cover, and with a late-afternoon storm moving in, the largemouth bass go on a feeding frenzy. They slap the surface all over the cove busting shad. A few pound water with a much deeper, more solid timbre. Those are 3- and 4-pounders, and now I am really sorry for my choice of tackle. A small swim bait or a Zara Puppy would be killer right about now.

A storm is brewing to the northwest, and it's coming my way. I don't like being on Lake Conway in a storm. In fact, I don't like being in Faulkner County in a storm.

It hits as I cinch down the last knot that lashes the LAV to my truck bed.

I'm glad I came, and I'll be back, next time with different weapons.

Sports on 08/28/2014

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