Arkansas Fishing Reports - March 15, 2006

White River: Gaston's White River Resort said generation has been very minimal, as we only had one day of any generation, and that was one unit for about four hours. The fishing has remained excellent using white or yellow PowerBait with a wax worm on a No. 6 hook. If you prefer artificials, any type of white or silver spoon, such as the Little Cleo, Rooster Tail, and Krocodile lures, are excellent. The Flat Fish lure in gold has been the hottest lure lately. Anglers have been having a lot of luck with Mepps and Rapalas spinners in No. 7 or 9 sizes, preferably in silver or gold colors. Fly anglers are still using the Y2K bug with much success, as well as sow bugs, woolly buggers and midges. The warmer weather has brought us a hatch of midges, so dry fly fishing should be productive. The big story last week was the rain we received, which is bringing the lake up very quickly. This will help generation levels on the river tremendously in the near future.

Wilderness Trail said fishing has been up and down, depending on generation.  With low or no generation, Berkley Power Eggs in yellow and white have worked well along with a floating Rapala. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, Little Cleos and Countdown Rapalas are the baits of choice. The fly anglers have done extremely well with little generation on olive woolly buggers, zebra midges and caddis dry flies. The brown trout are being caught on Countdowns, Jointed Rapalas, suspending Rogues and nightcrawlers.  

North Fork River: Norfork Trout Dock said the generation has been low and fishing has been pretty good. When the water is low, most anglers are doing well on crawdad baits, corn and PowerBait fished around the mouths of creeks and inlets. Once the river begins its rise, shad lures like Countdown Rapalas and Flatfish crankbaits have been good bets for some nice action on rainbows and browns.

Bull Shoals Lake: As of Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake’s elevation at 645.97 feet MSL.

Wilderness Trail said main lake temperature is now 49.2 degrees with temperatures as high as 52 degrees in the back of northern creeks. White bass are already moving back to shallow water in the northern creeks. A few are being caught in Howard Creek, Sister Creek, Spring Creek and Big Creek on Roadrunners and Lucky Craft Pointer 78DDs. Crappie are still slow except in the upper lake areas above Lead Hill.  Dragging a crappie minnow will trigger a few around brush piles and points in the mid to lower lake. In the upper lake tubes, crappie jigs and a jig-and-minnow are the baits of choice around blow downs and brush piles. Largemouth bass made a major move off the main lake into the creeks and coves last week. The big largemouth haven’t shown up yet, but there are plenty of 15 to 16 inch males in the spawning areas. Jigs are great, crankbaits (Bandits and Wiggle Warts) are even better, but suspending Rogues are HOT!  Smallmouth bass are showing up on transition banks and points and holding in 26 to 30 feet of water from the main lake to three-quarters of the way back into the creeks. Spider jigs and tubes are primary baits and on windy days, Wiggle Warts and Bandit crankbaits are also triggering some nice strikes. Suspending Rogues are working in sunny, glass-water conditions, and the best colors are blue, black and black back/orange belly. Kentucky bass are still with the shad but the shad have moved into the pockets and creeks and so the Kentuckies have moved with them. Spoons are still taking a few but the best bite is on grubs and Rogues fished off the banks that have some large chunk rock. Other baits that are worth fishing are Lucky Craft Pointer 78’s and Junior X-raps. Walleye are just now moving to the chunk rock banks on the main lake and in the creeks. It is true that there were walleye in the back of some creeks in the upper lake areas a few weeks ago when we had the big warm up but that was a short-lived deal.  Start working the entrance points and banks to small pockets or coves in the northern creeks with Rogues, Lucky Craft Pointers, X-raps, Shad Raps and Glass Shad.    

Sugar Loaf Harbor said the lake is coming up. Crappie are decent, with some suspended fish in 15 to 25 feet of water. Drift minnows above this depth for the best action.

Lake Norfork: As of Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake’s elevation at 541.58 feet MSL.

Cranfield Junction Quik Stop said the rains brought the lake up and muddied the water substantially. Crappie are biting fairly well on minnows and tube jigs. Bass are biting well with the most action coming near spawning areas on crankbaits, jigs and flukes. Catfishing is good on prepared baits. Striper activity is increasing during the early and late hours of the day, and many are being caught on jerkbaits and flukes. Walleye are in the creeks and biting well on jerkbaits and trolled crankbaits.