HOT SPOTS
BREWER LAKE Fishing for all species has been very good the past week. Crappie are still 17-18 feet deep and are being caught on live minnows and jigs fished over brush piles. Large flatheads are being caught at night on jugs baited with bream 10-15 feet deep fished over structures. Bream are in the brush around the banks and are hitting crickets and worms 1-3 feet deep.
BULL SHOALS Fishing has been excellent. Largemouth bass can be caught out to 12 feet deep around brush using spinnerbaits, Flukes, Zara Spooks, soft-plastic worms and flipping jigs. Smallmouth and spotted bass are holding on the lake side of the brush and are running in 12-20 feet of water. Soft-plastics that look like minnows, tubes, Carolina-rigged soft-plastics, deep-diving crankbaits and Alabama rigs loaded with small swim baits are working best. Some white bass continue to surface feed on shad. A lot of walleye are being caught, but keepers hard to come by. Trolling deep-diving crankbaits 20-25 feet or bouncing night crawlers in 20-25 feet are the best methods. Crappie are being caught around brush piles in 20-35 feet of water. Catfishing is excellent on jugs baited with liver, shrimp, stink bait and live baitfish set 20-25 feet deep.
LAKE DARDANELLE Largemouth bass have been biting well on topwater baits and swimming jigs in the mornings and large worms and crankbaits fished off points and drops as the morning wears on. Catfishing has been excellent using cut bait fished around eddies near the mouth of creeks and river points. Bream are biting very well in the backwaters on crickets, redworms and grasshoppers. Striped bass have been hit-and-miss, with topwater poppers and swimbaits catching a few.
LAKE OUACHITA Black bass are biting well on drop-shot rigs, Texas-rigged worms and bass jigs fished around points with cover. Walleye fishing is excellent around main lake points and humps. Drop-shot rigs and bottom bouncers tipped with night crawlers are very effective, or try trolling a No. 5 Berkley Flicker Shad. Striper fishing is fair using live bait and hair jigs around main lake points and humps on the eastern end of the lake. Bream are hitting worms, grubs or crickets near brush 8-15 feet deep. Crappie are near brush and are being caught on minnows or crappie jigs fished 15-20 feet deep.
SALINE RIVER (BENTON) Bass have been biting well on small worms and lizards, small crayfish-colored crankbaits and small soft-plastic craw imitations. Catfishing is good using minnows and black salties. Crappie fishing has been fair in some backwater areas and around brush and logs in the main river. Bream are biting worms or crickets fished around woody cover.