Topwater gar

Toothy leviathan steals show from feisty catches

Rusty Pruitt of Bryant sets the hook on a smallmouth bass on the Caddo River on Thursday upstream from Glenwood. Despite heavy rain, Pruitt, Ray Tucker and the author caught numerous smallmouth and Kentucky bass, rock bass, longear sunÿsh and green sunfish.
Rusty Pruitt of Bryant sets the hook on a smallmouth bass on the Caddo River on Thursday upstream from Glenwood. Despite heavy rain, Pruitt, Ray Tucker and the author caught numerous smallmouth and Kentucky bass, rock bass, longear sunÿsh and green sunfish.

CADDO GAP -- Big smallmouths were in a fighting mood, but a big gar was the star of Thursday's float fishing trip on the Caddo River.

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Ray Tucker of Little Rock admires one of the chunky smallmouth bass caught Thursday while fishing on the Caddo River.

My partners for this excursion were Rusty Pruitt of Bryant and Ray Tucker of Little Rock, host of Ray Tucker's Arkansas Outdoors, It's a Natural program that airs Wednesday from 7-9 p.m., on KABZ, 103.7-FM.

Despite an oncoming storm, fishing conditions were perfect on the Caddo. Thomas "Lucky" Kerberskey, owner of Lucky's Canoe Rentals in Glenwood, said the river was back to normal after last week's flood.

"It's a little low for floating, but it's perfect for fishing," Kerberskey said.

I was on the verge of canceling the trip because of the weather, but when a late forecast moved the storm's arrival back to 5 p.m., I figured we could get off the river before it hit.

We met Kerberskey at his new facility north of Glenwood. He ferried two canoes to his launch site at Caddo Gap while Tucker, Pruitt and I followed in a bus that sported a spiderwebbed window behind the driver.

"Looks like that one took a shot," Pruitt said.

"Yeah, Thomas got it while he was mowing yesterday," the driver said. "That's about the third or fifth time it's happened."

As we bounced up Arkansas 8, the window crumbled and coated a pile of life jackets with a shower of tinted glass.

"That Dixie Cutter [zero turn mower] is the rock-chunkin'est thing I've ever seen," Kerberskey said with what sounded like a hint of pride.

The river was a little low, but with its gentle flow and milky, emerald tint, it was indeed perfect for fishing.

The Caddo has a temper, though. She's like a gentle, soft-spoken woman who pampers the man she loves, but when she gets mad, she'll go upside his head with a skillet.

That side of the Caddo's personality was evident in a wide swath where entire trees had been snapped like matchsticks and thrown against their more stubborn brethren. The usual array of flotsam adorned the brushline, as well.

We usually ignore the stretch of water from Caddo Gap to the confluence of the South Fork of the Caddo. It's beautiful water, but we almost never catch anything there. Of course, we make a few perfunctory casts to get it out of our systems, but we do so with no expectations.

This time, those perfunctory casts got results. Pruitt caught an eating-size rock bass, and I caught a magnum size green sunfish. Tucker caught the day's first smallmouth.

Tucker and Pruitt used red pumpkin Zoom Tiny Lizards on Texas rigs. I used a tube jig in a dull citrus shad color with an internal weight to cheat the sharp-angled shale bedrock. It's a bigger, bulkier bait than the lizards. It excludes small fish, but its better for catching bigger fish.

It was a good choice because I caught a 15-inch smallie in a very small pool that my mates had worked thoroughly with the lizards.

"That really wasn't even a strike," I said. "It was just a big, mushy weight."

While smallmouths hit soft plastics on the bottom, the conditions were perfect for topwater fishing. I switched to a Booyah Pond Magic buzzbait. I didn't get a strike, so I switched to clear Heddon Tiny Torpedo. That's a classic lure that splashes and makes a distinct "zzzip" when jerked.

Three sets of eyes watched it intently, anticipating a violent strike every second the thing was in the water.

It didn't quite happen that way, but the first strike was an event.

The long pool between the South Fork and the S-Turn Rapid is a shallow expanse of gravel, and I suggested pulling up our lines as we hastened forward.

"That last flood put too much gravel in here," I said. "It's too shallow, and there's nothing here to hold fish, so let's move on to better water below the rapid."

The water got a little deeper about 150 yards above the rapid, and bedrock "teeth" poked through the gravel. It looked "fishy," so I backpaddled to slow us down. Pruitt caught up with us and shared some of his lunch.

"I always bring extra when I fish with 'Brain' because he never brings anything," Pruitt groused. "I don't know how you can plan for a day on the river without bringing anything to eat, but he never does."

After wolfing down a delicious turkey sandwich on sourdough, I made a long cast with the Torpedo and gave it a couple of pops. The snout of a big spotted gar surfaced behind the torpedo and took it under with scarcely a ripple.

"Something's got it!" Tucker said.

"It's a great big gar," I said, setting the hook.

The water exploded as the great fish bucked against the pressure.

"Well, now, that was a pretty stupid thing to do," I said. "I'll never get that lure back."

Tucker and Pruitt hooted and yelled when I brought the fish close. It was about 4 feet long, and when it saw the boat, it tore out on five long runs that made the drag on my Mitchell 300 spinning reel squeal. I finally got it close enough to free the lure by jabbing it with a paddle.

That fish changed the course of the afternoon because Tucker and Pruitt wanted to catch one, too. Pruitt paddled back upstream and cast popping bugs with his fly rod. Several gar followed it, but they wouldn't take.

Meanwhile, every bass in the river wanted a piece of that Tiny Torpedo. I caught a big Kentucky bass, followed by a half-dozen nice smallmouths. A half-dozen more rolled on it without getting their mouths around it.

I reached for a topwater to give Tucker when thunder jarred us from our reverie. The sky had turned dark gray, and low clouds obscured the ridgetops. We descended the S-Turn Rapid when a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder opened the deluge.

We put away our rods and paddled as fast as we could to Lucky's, stopping only to bail water.

Driving back to Malvern, we howled at the videos that Pruitt and Tucker shot of the gar fight.

"I tried to keep track of all the fish I caught, but it was no use," Pruitt said. "Once I got to 20, they start to run together."

"It was a bunch, for sure," said Tucker, who was soaked to the bone.

"Typical Hendricks trip," Pruitt said. "Jacked up as always, but always fun."

Sports on 05/14/2017

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