HOT SPRINGS -- During the winter, you can catch trout in streams and tailwaters without traveling to northern Arkansas.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission stocks rainbow trout in central and west-central Arkansas, including Rock Creek in Little Rock, in the Ouachita River below lakes Ouachita, Hamilton and Catherine, and in the Little Missouri River below Lake Greeson and at the Albert Pike Recreation Area. You can catch them fly fishing or spin fishing with any of the lures you would use on the White or North Fork rivers.
Rusty Pruitt and I experienced an excellent Monday catching rainbows below Carpenter Dam, which separates lakes Hamilton and Catherine. Our original intent was to troll for walleyes, but low water and lack of current dimmed our prospects such that we didn't bother to launch the boat.
Fortunately, we met Shane Goodner in the parking lot. Goodner, proprietor of Catch 'Em All Guide Service, specializes in catching rainbow trout below Carpenter Dam in the winter. He was tidying his boat and stowing gear after a successful outing when we arrived, and he generously shared some of his tips.
First, he said walleyes had not yet begun their spawning run in earnest and are still staging in Lake Catherine, making them hard to find and pattern.
"There are some males concentrated down by the bridge," he said. "You might luck into one or two here and there, but right now, trout are the deal."
Goodner and his clients caught 51 rainbows that day, as noted on the fish counter mounted to his boat.
"We couldn't get a bite for most of the morning, and then, boom! They turned on just like that," Goodner said. "For a couple of hours, they bit like gangbusters."
Freshly stocked rainbow trout are usually very easy to catch, but Goodner said the Lake Catherine rainbows are unusually picky about what they'll bite.
"It's the biggest waste of time trying to make a fish do something it doesn't want to do," Goodner said. "You can flail away with Rapalas and Roostertails, or you can give them what they want."
What they wanted Monday, Goodner said, was bright yellow, garlic-scented Berkley Power Eggs on a long-shank, barbless trout hook.
"Trout are pretty greedy," Goodner said. "They take it deep a lot of times, and you'll kill a lot of fish with a barbed hook. That's OK if you're going to keep them and eat them, but if you're going to release them, barbless hooks are the way to go."
Goodner advised wedging one Power Egg at the bend of the hook and placing another over the point.
The hook was at the end of a 20-inch, 8-pound test green leader. Above that was a ball bearing swivel, with a 1/8-ounce red bullet weight above the swivel.
The weight rests on the bottom and moves downstream with the current while the leader allows the eggs to wobble and pulse in the current. The bottom is all rock, but the weight is fairly resistant to snagging.
"Carpenter Dam is a big concrete wall built on a great big pile of rocks," Goodner said. "Trout get down in the rocks and break you off, and your line is always rubbing against rocks, so you need a good, tough line.
"If you break off, usually all you have to do is tie on another leader."
A Power Egg bite is subtle, Goodner said. Be patient and wait for at least two taps. When you feel the fish shake his head, take in the slack and give it a little pop. That will set the hook before he swallows it.
Breakoffs are inevitable, of course. For those occasions, Goodner keeps a supply of pre-tied leaders ready, with a pre-formed loop at the end. Clip the loop to the swivel, and you're ready to resume fishing in seconds.
Goodner had to tend to his night job and couldn't join us, but he tied us a couple of his trout rigs and gave us a bottle of Power Eggs. All we had to do was find fish, but Goodner was on top of that, too.
"They're in that big run below the dam feeding like crazy," he said. "You don't need a boat. In fact, it's better if you don't have one. You can walk right to it."
We went exactly to where Goodner told us to go and fished exactly as he instructed. Good results were almost immediate.
I cast upstream and felt the sinker tap rocks as the current carried it down the channel. I noticed the end of the leader linger behind the sinker farther than it should, so I reeled in the slack and felt the first tap, and then the second. I felt the line shake, so I popped my wrist and fought the first trout of the day.
It shed the hook at my feet, as did the next three. The Power Egg concealed too much of the hook point, and light line stretches to much to drive a hook through a tough bait and a fish's mouth, too. I merely pulled the egg higher to expose more of the hook, and I didn't lose any more fish.
Upstream, a couple of guys from Hot Springs Village stood in the chute casting flies. Larry Thye of Hot Springs Village had considerable success with his fly rod and released a succession of rainbows.
Upstream of them was a couple in a boat, and they caught a lot of fish, as well. The woman was especially delighted. She laughed and exclaimed loudly with each fish she caught.
About an hour before sunset, a siren sounded at the dam to warn that water would soon rise. Instead of turning on the electrical generating turbines, one of the floodgates at the top of the dam opened slightly, sending a plume of water cascading down the dam face.
Within a few minutes, the water rose and the current got much swifter. Trout continued to bite until it got too fast.
"Now would be the time to put the boat in and see if walleye come upstream in that current," I said as Pruitt and we prepared to leave.
We were sorely tempted, but we resisted.
Sometimes very good is good enough.
Sports on 02/19/2017