Devan S.

Fished sweetwater to Arkansas line Friday. Heard people saying they were catching females on the flats trolling crank baits. Didn't catch a single white until the Ark line tried flats, channel, clean water, dirty water just couldn't find them. Water was 55-60. Muddy from kings river marina to 86 bridge. Stained elsewhere. Finally scrapped up 5 small males. Fished hickory hollow to romp hole today. Water was stained and around 55 most everywhere. Same thing as the day before but found one stretch and managed to catch 9 really small males about half way between bridge and romp hole. Saw several boats didn't see anyone else catching anything.

I attempted to fish the eagle rock to owl creek area which isn't exactly the same area but very close. Main lake was stained. Owl creek was muddy even though the creek wasn't to high. Roaring river was just starting to get muddy about mid morning. I didn't see a lot of debris just watch where your going and you should be good. I would either go to the mouth of the creeks or all the way back in the clearer water….but thats my preference. The wind was much more of an issue for me and an aluminum boat.

I have an older Ascend A10 that I have added most of the "fishing" extras to on my own. It was one of the best purchases I think I have made. In 2011 I used it several times in flooded areas to get to fish that a bigger boat would have trouble and caught a lot of fish. We can throw them in the truck and run to anyone of the rivers around and still float. In fact, I floated the mulberry river in Arkansas last weekend with it and while I got wet in some of the larger rapids and had to stop and dump water out several times I never had any trouble with stability in class II rapids and a few minor class III.

There will be times you will want an anchor too. Youtube and the internet have plenty of DIY ideas.

Well I finally pulled the trigger and bought a new graph. I finally got it put together and have used it 2 days. Spent most of the day today trolling in Kings from sweet water to 86 bridge for whites. I am overwhelmed with information and its probably going to take awhile before I quit playing and start fishing. In the picture on SI seems there is a cloud of bait fish or trash in the water that also shows up on the DI side. However seems to be that there is only a few "harder" returns in the trash or bait. I had to turn my sensitivity on 2d and DI way down 2-5 to get anything other than a complete washout on the screen. Is there something going on here or is the fact that part of the lake has so much small debris that is showing up. Maybe someone with more experience could explain? I know the unit is extremely sensitive because I could pick up running my rod tip just under the surface on SI while trolling. I also know my transducer placement isn't perfect you can see the turbulence on the left side of the SI at the very top. At one point my SI, DI, and 2d were cluttered up with the low setting from bottom in 20ft to about 10ft up. Out of curiosity, I threw my throw net thinking if it was shad I would catch it and if it was trash I would catch it. Whatever it was must have been finer than my net…... I marked what appeared to be lots of fish and bait but nothing would bite. Talk about a confidence buster. When I was fishing with zero information, I could always fall back on "Oh well they just weren't there."

I would echo what rps said. I would add rock creek to the mix too. I have heard several stories this week of some quality 4-5lb fish caught in several of those areas in shallow water.

Fished OA Big Bass on Saturday. Search high and low caught several fish just threw them all back never thought it would take a smaller one to win. At one point in Roaring River, we caught 3 good crappie in the dirty water. On Sunday we went back to the area in search of more crappie. The area we caught them in was so full of debris we couldn't fish so we ventured further into the river. We trolled for white bass, difficult to do with all the debris. There was 12-15 boats fishing the timber on the bend going up Roaring River. We managed one keeper. I only saw one boat catching any considerable number of fish. Water temps were in the 50-55 range and the lake was stained to nasty depending on where you were. Fished owl creek before we put the boat on the trailer and it is down right brown. We ventured all the way up into the creek itself to fish clear water and saw a lot of short fish. Caught 2 solid 3-3.5 LM in the water that was stained holding very near to stumps or lay downs on a jerk bait in very shallow water. Water temps were 55 nearing 60 way up the cove. Thanks to everyone that helped to put on tourney this weekend it was fun and the food was great.

Water temp was 40-41 in the lake. I spent most of my time trolling for whites or crappie in roaring river with zero luck. Water temps there ran almost 50 in places.

Fished out of Eagle Rock today. As Grumpy53 said going into roaring river arm the point that comes out from the right is very shallow > 2ft and extends for quite a way out into the lake. I wouldn't cut corners going up the river.

Add me and a partner.

8.48lbs

Sorry I dont have a truck here and all my poles and tackle are home. I run home alot to fish table rock but its about to kill me knowing im missing good fishing back home. I just wanted to get an idea of places to fish locally so maybe next year I can run off and relax a bit. Thanks for all the info Ill try some of those spots out.

Took survey.... I'm also a student at MST do you know of any decent places to fish that are within 15 or 20 miles of campus?