When you launch a jet-drive boat in an Arkansas stream, you gain access to waters that a prop-driven boat can't reach.
In the summer, when the water is low, it's quite an adventure.
I often fish mountain streams in late winter and early spring with friends that own jet boats, but those waters are swollen from heavy rain. Navigating a low midland stream in summer is a whole different game. Shoals are often merely wet gravel, and you have to dodge snags and exposed humps. Your reward is casting to fish that otherwise seldom see a lure.
Mike Burnham of Benton and I met over an emailed exchange about WaveSpin spinning reels. We share a passion for smallmouth bass. We've both fished for smallmouths, walleyes and northern pike in the Boundary Waters between Minnesota and Ontario.
That conversation led to an invitation to fish the Saline River downstream from Benton. On Monday, we put the plan into action at the Cherry Gingles Access under the I-30 Bridge.
Burnham, a teacher at Benton High School, has a sturdy boat made of thick gauge aluminum powered by an 85-horsepower Yamaha. It is specially built to reach the inhospitable waters that defy attention from most Arkansas anglers.
We started with a short dash to waters accessible by foot from the I-30 Bridge. I was astonished at the wide beds of inundated water willow and midstream wood cover.
"I live 15 minutes away, and I have never been down here," I said over and over. "This place is amazing!"
"The water is more stained than usual, and I don't know how that will affect the fishing," Burnham said. "It's usually clear."
Our fishing styles are similar. Burnham uses spinning gear and light line with Zoom Mini Lizards. I use medium-action baitcasting gear, with light line and Zoom Tiny Brush Hogs. Immediately I caught a big longear sunfish, and then another.
"The bream bite is red hot this morning," I quipped.
Bass were reluctant to play, but Burnham coaxed a small Kentucky bass from the tail of a small shoal, and another from a small stickup.
"You know they've got to be hiding in all that grass," I said. "I bet they'd jump all over a plastic frog."
I tied on a green Lunkerhunt frog colored green, yellow and black. I tossed it to the bank and worked it through the willow. Instead of the splash of a striking bass, we heard crickets. We would have to earn every bite we got.
In spring and early summer, Burnham said he catches smallmouths up to about 3 pounds, but they get scarce when the water gets low and warm. Those conditions are better suited to Kentucky bass and largemouth bass. Burnham said he's caught largemouths in this section up to about 4 pounds.
Since bass ignored my frog and bottom contact baits, the last option was a topwater lure. That seemed a good possibility in stained water, which offset the effects of a clear sky and bright sunlight.
"Ahhh, the Whopper Plopper," Burnham said approvingly.
"I love the Whopper Plopper," I said. "I love it too much, really. It's about ruined me as a fisherman. I like catching them on it so much that I throw it when they're biting other stuff better, but there's nothing like watching a bass blow one up!"
Two small Kentuckies hit the Whopper Plopper, but we had yet to unlock the secret to bigger fish. Burnham switched to a squarebill crankbait.
"My wife signed me up for the Mystery Tacklebox," Burnham said. "My first one came a couple of weeks ago, and this came with it."
The Mystery Tacklebox is a subscription service that sends you a random selection of lures every month. It usually contains a bag of soft plastic lures, a crankbait, jerkbait, jigheads, swim heads and various other components.
"I talked to the guys that started the Mystery Tacklebox shortly after they introduced it at the Bassmaster Classic about 10 years ago," I said. "It's a cool concept. Very popular."
"I'm pretty happy with it so far," Burnham said.
My eyes locked onto Burnham's wristwatch, a striking diver model. I love wristwatches, especially automatics. In fact, I once offered to write a wristwatch column for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, but was rebuffed because, I was told, nobody wears watches anymore.
Now they are fashionable again among millennials who, despite wearing watches, still look at their cellphones for the time.
"It's just an old Seiko Automatic," Burnham said, twisting his wrist back and forth. "I've worn out several straps, but it just keeps going and going. I used to wear a Timex Expedition for general use until I finally wore it out, and I've got a nice Citizen that I wear to church and stuff."
That made me laugh.
"Dude, my hunting and fishing watch is a Timex Expedition. I've had it 11 years. My dress watch is a Citizen EcoDrive, and my everyday watch was a Seiko 5 automatic. It lost about three seconds a day. Rolex is said to lose or gain about two seconds a day."
My Seiko 5 is on the bottom of Crooked Creek, having been swept off my wrist during a canoe wreck several weeks ago.
"I still don't know how that happened," I said. "I bought a 250-pound drop magnet from Harbor Freight. I will get my watch back. It's water resistant to 50 feet, so it should be OK."
We intended to go downstream about 6 miles, but a big logjam a couple of miles down blocked our path. We made the return trip on plane as Burnham whipped the boat past snags, silt piles and overhanging limbs.
Even though we didn't catch any big fish, our tally was respectable.
The best part was fishing with a newfound kindred spirit.
Sports on 07/14/2019