Mixed Bag

GOSHEN — Why catch only one kind of fish when everything in the river is biting? That’s a question anglers face during spring where the White River becomes Beaver Lake near Goshen.

Walleye bite in late March. But wait. The white bass run is heating up, and they’re eating bait and lures like crazy. No, crappie rule the frying pan, and they’re biting, too. What’s a fisherman to do?

Jon Conklin and his son, Noah, decided they’d just catch all three during a day last Friday. The father and son from Goshen launched their boat at the Arkansas 45 bridge ramp with high hopes for walleye.

Jon had caught some big walleye lately, and Noah was on spring break from his classes at McNair Middle School in Fayetteville. Spring break was a grand opportunity for the two to fish together and this trip was special. It was Noah’s 14th birthday.

Jon put the hammer down on his aluminum boat, and we sped upriver. The outboard’s jet drive lets him navigate in water that’s mere inches deep. We stopped at a shoal a mile upstream. Noah dropped anchor and the two made their first casts.

A limit of four walleye would be a fine gift for Noah, but the stream had other presents in mind.

Noah got the first bite, and his dad stood by with the net, ready to snatch the unseen walleye from the drink. Instead it was a 12-inch white bass that had Noah’s fishing rod dancing. The teenager had the hot hand this Friday morning, putting the spank on his dad by catching a half-dozen whites in the trip’s first hour.

“This is fast becoming a white bass trip instead of a walleye trip,” Jon said. “And later, we might head downstream and see if we can catch some crappie.”

Now it was Jon’s fishing rod that bent deep. “This one’s a walleye. You can tell by the way they fight” he said.

When the fish showed itself at the side of the boat, it was a walleye, all right. The fish looked to be 16 inches long, 2 inches shy of keeper size. That’s OK. We planned to release our fish anyway. Jon admired the golden-colored walleye and slid it back into the White River.

We’d caught what we came for, and that was good enough for Jon.

River Wranglers

When the walleye aren’t biting but the whites are going gang busters, it’s good to adapt and catch what the river is giving. The white bass were biting the Gulp Alive brand of artificial minnows the pair were using. They also got a few bites on a white jig with a red collar that Jon ties himself.

He’s a fishing guide on the White River and Beaver Lake and takes customers fishing for crappie and walleye. March is prime walleye time, and Jon offered reasons why.

Walleye are spawning on the White River shoals right now, he said. They spawn in 50-degree water temperature, and it was right on 50 degrees as he and Noah fished last Friday.

They fished jigs and artificial minnows under a float, casting out then working the rig back to the boat.

“What we’re doing is setting the jig deeper than the water depth so the jig bounces along the bottom,” he coached.

Fishing on the bottom is key for walleye and white bass, Jon added.

Their boat was anchored in a large eddy not far from the current.

“The fish will be right on the seam of that still water and the current,” Jon said.

Noah’s minnow got bit again right on that seam, as his dad predicted. Noah brought another fish aboard. It was white bass No. 7 or 8 for him. No one was counting. Jon still held hope for a walleye.

“We usually start fishing for walleye the first part of February,” Jon continued. “The walleye fishing should be good for the next couple of weeks. Then they’ll start moving back downstream. You can follow them down if you have good electronics and can find them.”

Summer is another good walleye season, he said.

“Fishing can be good off points from the Highway 12 bridge to Rocky Branch park. We use deep-diving crank baits or nightcrawler rigs 20 to 25 feet deep,” the guide said.

So much for the walleye lesson. Now it was time to watch father and son work their magic on crappie.

Hot Fishing Spot

Jon’s jet-drive outboard pushed us downstream, under the Arkansas 45 bridge and toward the area where the White River meets Beaver Lake. It was a weekday, and the river power boats, canoes and kayaks packed the river. Anglers fished from shore.

Anglers call this area “twin bridges” because of the twin spans over the White River and nearby Richland Creek. It’s the hot spot of Northwest Arkansas fishing in March and April.

Few boats were seen once we traveled about a mile down from the Arkansas 45 bridge. Jon zigged and zagged his boat to keep it in the river channel and deepest water.

We passed a great blue heron rookery made up of about 35 individual nests. Thin-legged, long-necked herons roosted on branches tending the nests.

Jon eased the throttle back about 2 miles down from the bridge at the headwaters of Beaver Lake.

The water between the Arkansas 45 bridge and U.S. 412 bridge is Jon’s turf. He knows every tree in the water, even the ones he can’t see. His depth finder showed one of Jon’s favorite targets for crappie, a toppled tree about 20 feet deep. The depth finder showed schools of crappie in the branches.

Those branches and the fish were about 10 feet deep. Jon and Noah set their jigs about 8 feet deep under a bobber.

“Those crappie will come up to bite a bait, but they won’t go down,” Jon said.

The guide let one of his tricks out of the bag. He crimps a small split-shot weight to the line where it meets the bobber.

When he twitches his rod tip, the split shot clicks on the bobber. In Jon’s view the clicking brings more strikes.

To click it seemed the ticket here where river meets lake. The duo caught another eight or so crappie. Most were under the 10-inch length limit, but we’d planned to let our fish go regardless.

We motored back to the boat ramp with memories of a fine trip. Kevin Eubanks, an Arkansas Game & Fish Commission wildlife officer, stood on the ramp watching the fray of fishermen. Eubanks said he hadn’t seen one angler with a walleye all morning.

We were thankful for the white bass and crappie the river gave us this day, a special one for Noah as he turned the big 1-4.