Cotter Trout Dock Weekly Fishing Report

  May 29, 2024

More reports and other videos are on the Cotter Trout Dock Youtube Channel Page.
Below is the Arkansas Game and Fish Fishing Report May 29, 2024.

White River

(updated 5-30-2024) Cotter Trout Dock (870-435-6525) said the trout bite this week has brought excitement to kids of every age — children, parents, grandparents, every angler on the White River. The water level has been lower during morning and early afternoon hours, with late afternoon releases bringing a rush of cold, clear water for a whole different fishing adventure. Bull Shoals Lake level is slowly rising, and was sitting Wednesday at 666.39 feet msl, with nicely managed releases.

Lots of success with spinners and spoons on the low water, best in the morning. The sparkle from gold or silver Cleos is attracting really nice-sized rainbows, and the nickel/gold Colorado or a one-sixth-ounce Rooster Tail with a gold blade is hard for the trout to resist, too. You can experiment with shrimp or with various colors of floating eggs and you’ll bag a bunch, but the action will be faster when you use them together.

Brown trout catches continue to delight the anglers around Cotter, mostly with live bait taken from the river (minnows, crawdads, sculpins), but we heard that more than one brown was hooked with shrimp and PowerBait. Heard, too, that the browns liked the peach-colored D2 jig during the slight rise midday.

“Enjoy the best of spring with the best The Natural State has to offer: trout-catching on the White River in the Arkansas Ozarks. Come visit.”

(updated 5-30-2024) Dave McCulley, owner of Jenkins Fishing Service in Calico Rock, said the storms Sunday morning caused a lot of damage across the northern part of the state. “Fortunately, Calico Rock didn’t receive any damage, but around Norfork and Mountain Home there was a lot of damage from the wind and rain. So much rain in such a short time flooded many of the area creeks. As a result, by Sunday afternoon we had high and very muddy water with large trees, etc., coming down the river creating unsafe conditions.

“Conditions remained high and muddy into Monday, but finally started to clear up late Monday afternoon. Tuesday the river was dingy but fishable. Before the storm and since Tuesday the fishing has been great. We continue to have a lot of success with Uncommon Bait UV eggs and corn catching some nice limits of rainbows to include several over 15 inches.
“With the clearer and lower water Wednesday the bite was fast and furious. Quarter-ounce Thompson Colorado spoons worked well for rainbows and smaller browns with Rapala Countdowns CD2 in silver working well for larger rainbows and some nicer browns.
“We did receive one trout stocking of over 1,000 rainbow trout late last week.”

 

Bull Shoals Lake
For the Army Corps of Engineers’ real-time outflow report from Bull Shoals Dam, visit the Corps’ Little Rock office website.

(updated 5-30-2024) Fishing guide Del Colvin at Bull Shoals Lake (815-592-4302) said the lake level is holding around 666 feet msl. Parking and boat ramp access is starting to be affected. Water temperature around 76 degrees, give or take, and warmer in the dirty areas. Bass are setting up toward summer areas; some are up chasing sunfish but the water rise has slowed everything.

Fishing has been good but it will definitely be tough after a storm front. There are large groups of schooling fish setting up on ledges. If it’s cloudy, rainy and/or windy you can powerfish covering water with a square bill, spinnerbait or Chatterbait in the stain or dirty runoff. Try a frog/toad over submerged flooded grass. If it’s flat and sunny target swings, points and secondary points. Try green pumpkin or puke Ned rig, tube or a shaky head. Keep the boat out deep in the clear water; you can hit the old shoreline. Fish off points in 15-25 feet of water. There is a lot of activity in the 15 feet range. You can go up there with a Beaver-style bait or Jewel Flippin Jig. Green pumpkin orange/red variants are best.

Some shallower brush piles closer to deep water in less than 25 feet are holding some fish. The shad balls are spread out deep off the points, backs of creeks and swings. So, if you’re fishing open water you’re going to have to pay attention to find shad. Try a 2.8 swimbait or flutter spoon. Topwaters have been hit or miss. Wake baits and a Lucky Craft Gunfish are starting to produce, all in white or shad patterns. Del says he has been catching some on the Robo Worm drop-shot with suspended fish.

Del regularly posts new YouTube videos. Visit his YouTube site (Bull Shoals Lake Fishing Report) for more information and tips on fishing Bull Shoals Lake.

(updated 5-30-2024) Southernwalleye Guide Service (501-365-1606) reports fishing has been pretty much the same as last week. Some fishing methods have changed over the last week. Some report that fish are starting to set up in traditional spots and water depths, which is indicating the thermocline is setting up. Pulling crawler harnesses in 20-25 feet early will get some fish. A little deeper later after sunrise.

If contour trolling, try shad-style baits or small Banada-style baits in 15-25 feet water. Slide out to deeper water, 30-40 feet, after daylight. If open water trolling for suspended fish, they are still the same as last week but just a little deeper. Find shad and try trolling with snap weights from 45-55 feet depth over 100 feet of more of water while using Berkley No. 9 Flicker Minnows or No. 7 Flicker Shads. Rapala Deep Husky Jerks and Reef Runner 800, as well as Bandit deep-divers series, trolled over the old river channel at 1.5-1.8 mph should put some fish in the boat. Have also had reports that jigging spoon fishing has also been another tactic that’s working. Casting a half-ounce spoon into 15 feet and hopping it off the bottom back into about 30 feet might also get you a few fish.

(updated 5-30-2024) Crappie 101 Guide Service (870-577-2045) reports crappie are definitely more scattered and they are finding some on the brush and structure. Quality is still kind of mixed up and they are having to really work at it to catch good numbers. The jig bite has definitely slowed down but still catching a few on the Tater Baits Tater Shad Jr. with a sixteenth-ounce head and, of course, minnows. Stay patient; as conditions stabilize it should really get good.

 

Norfork Lake
For the Army Corps of Engineers’ real-time outflow report from Norfork Dam, visit the Corps’ Little Rock office website.

(updated 5-24-2024) Lou Gabric at Hummingbird Hideaway Resort (870-492-5113)

said Wednesday, “A couple of us at Hummingbird Hideaway Resort had a great day fishing for striped bass. I was on the lake around 4:30 a.m. I set out my green light on a main lake bluff wall point to draw in bait. A small school of bait came to the boat, but not the number that I found Tuesday. I landed several baby striped bass in the dark. As it started to get light out, I moved from this point since the stripers seemed to have vacated this area and moved into the back of a main lake creek.
“At a channel swing in about 70 feet of water, I marked several big arcs. The fish were coming under me from 20 feet down to the bottom. I saw a big arc lying on the bottom and dropped my white trash Tater Shad with half-ounce white big eye jig head right onto the striper’s head and he hit it immediately. He gave two great runs and all the time coming up to the surface. I saw him surface about 100 feet away from the boat.
“After his photo shoot he was released to swim away. After this battle I saw some fish surfacing and casted out my Kastmaster with a white feather trailer. One of the two hybrids I caught hammered the bait and circled the boat three times during the battle. What fun! The second hybrid came off the bottom and met my sinking bait at 40 and the game was on again. By this time, it was around 7 a.m. and the fish were scattering out, so I left this creek to check out another area as I headed back toward the resort.
“Of course, I stopped and looked at three other areas along the route. I met one of my friends who was trolling big umbrella rigs, and he told me he had landed nine stripers so far in the area I planned to check out. I set up in 74 feet of water off of a main lake big round point. A deep-water channel also swings into this point on two sides. I was in the middle of the point and started marking scattered fish. These fish were suspended from 30 feet down to the bottom. I got to land two more striped bass and both fish hit the Tater Shad on the fall.

“It was time to head back to the resort, so I left feeding fish. Brett and his son Logan had a great first morning of fishing after arriving late Tuesday. They caught some threadfin shad and then headed back into a creek I had told them about. They proceeded to land five really nice striped bass along with some big largemouth and spotted bass. To say the least they were excited. ”
The surface water temperature at midweek ranged from 77 to a little over 78 degrees. The lake level is 557.68 feet msl.
“Hummingbird Hideaway Resort still has cabins available during June and July and a few still open for the remainder of May. Summer family vacation fun is just around the corner. Give us a call. If you have not been to Norfork Lake before, you will absolutely fall in love with it!”

Lou posts fishing reports almost every day to his blog on the Hummingbird Hideaway Resort webpage.