FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

Weather

78/94.  Humid with times of clouds and sun; with a 40% chance of thundershower in spots in the afternoon.  Wind S  12 – 21 mph.

Lake Level

Today  95.36 msl.   Last Monday   95.32 msl.

Bite Times

Major   9:53 am to 11:53 am.  (Dead on.)

It was still dark when I got to the ramp, it was dead calm with good cloud cover.  The water temp was in the high 80’s over the lake and the clarity is good.  This morning I decided to cut to the chase and head to my good spots and throw the creature bait and the stick worm, and as I said before any color is fine, as long as it is watermelon red of some sort.

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The Wade Right Fishing Belt and the new Madre Sling.

For all your wading needs.

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The bite was on.

I went to my magic tree and caught 8 in nothing flat, all small.  From there I just kept hunting around wood trying to find some better fish.  And then my luck changed, or at least I did.  It seemed the plastic was catching mostly smalls so I switched it up to fishing the swim jig like the plastic, hopping and dropping.  The first one was a nice one, and for the next hour plus it was on.

Early smalls but it got better mid-morning.

Once I found them they were bunched up and when they hit they were eating it.  And though the smalls were mixed in it was one of those times where I kept re-fishing the same areas.  There were 3 places where they bit so it was definitely stay with them until you did not get another bite.  It was flat fun.

The swim jig hopped off the bottom got the good bites.

Another Kentucky showed up today, and it was a little bigger than most I have caught but it just confirms they are getting established.  Winter will be the real litmus test, they love winter just like I like winter fishing so hopefully we will intersect.

Spotted Bass are cool looking.

They are prevalent in the north Arkansas highland lakes and the good ones cannot resist a jerk bait.  Not sure what affect it will have on the lake long term, but with the changes it has gone through in the last 3 years who knows.  And speaking of changes looking at the plantings areas not really sure it is taking off.  But will also withhold judgment on that until it goes for a year.  But right now it does not look promising.

It was flat good this morning.  The clouds held and the wind did not pick up until after 11:00, when they finally slowed down.  But the numbers were nothing to sneer at, an easy 25.  Slow and methodical was the ticket and it was nice to have a good day.  It is sumer.

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Stopping at Academy to buy a belt, just a quick in and out, did not work out that way.  I need another rod like another hole in my head so of course I bought one.  It is a really nice Berkley and it was clearance at $17.  And it did the job this morning.  At this point when we finally hit the road it will be a heck of a garage sale.

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One thing you begin to notice when watching fishing shows is that smallmouth up north make up a lot of the bass fishing.  There is a reason, they are easy to catch in those places, so making a show is pretty much a sure thing.  As Zona said on the tournament coverage this weekend smallmouth are stupid.  Guess that is why he fishes for them so much.

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Have a few things to take care of with the truck and tires after putting 6,000 miles on it in one month.  And with a return to Colorado in the next month times to make sure all is good.  With the weather looking up and down not sure when I will get back out but it won’t be long.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines

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