Middleton369

Holiday Island yesterday at 2 pm. Current in the main channel was similar to that of the white River with all generators running. You couldn't pay me to get out there on it right now because it's only gotten higher

These pics are of Holiday Island yesterday around 2. The current in the main channel was similar to that of the White River running all generators. I imagine it's much higher now

How far up did you run? Gonna launch at the RV park across from Cricket at 6 in the morning was planning to spoon fish and drop shot around 86 because the reports I have heard had said that up Long Creek wasn't worth the time. Would love to fish brush way up the creek but decided not to because of what I've heard lately. Your report gives me hope

I drove across hwy 311 bridge at Enon last night and the launch looked good. Water color was good too and didn't see a whole lot of debris in the water

Phil that sounds pretty well on par with how we've been doing the past few days in the Long Creek/Yocum area. Fished this morning from 7:30-11 and only had 3 keeps with a few shorts. Some were in brush in 12-14 feet of water and some were in lay downs in 3 feet of water. Like you said, there is no real pattern. And we haven't been able to find a magic spot in the last couple weeks that you can pull them off of right and left like we found 3 weeks ago. WT was 62 today. Using BG shad on 1/16 oz head.

Phil, I was up there from 12-3 yesterday, along with about 20 other boats. Most went up there first but I chose to go for my crappie before heading up for the whites. I had the same problem as far as the females go, they seemed to be the only ones I could catch. I put 18 in the livewell and probably released 20 or 30 more. At the time I left, the water temp way up in the riffles was 62 degrees. Thanks for the report and pictures!

Fished up Long Creek from Cricket today. Crappie fished 4 different spots and managed a good limit. About half on 1/16th oz Bobby Garlands and half on minnows under a slip bobber. At 8AM water temp was 55. By the time I left at 4 it was 58 with water temps way way up Long Creek at 62. Crappie were anywhere from 4-10 feet deep. Still relating to structure but inching closer to the banks. After the crappie I decided to follow the nearly 30 boats I saw running way up Long Creek. Left with 18 BIG whites and threw back at least 20 more. Just didn't feel like cleaning that many fish. Even with all the people the fish were very active. Caught them all on Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr rigged with 4 pearl Zoom Fluke Juniors and a chartruese one in the middle. A few of the whites went 3.5 lbs and were some of the biggest I've ever caught. Caugbt them in the same spot I found them last Tuesday. Run seems to be in full swing and the crappie are about to really bust loose. Fun day and great weather!

Here are a couple of pictures of the 311 bridge where Yocum and Long Creek meet, taken this morning

Was down at the 187 bridge a few minutes ago. The bridge at Elk Ranch is opened so 187 is passable the entire way through. The SUV is still in the creek and they have not located the driver

My days off finally intersected with good weather and I will be off tomorrow and Tuesday. Was planning to chase whites or crappie somewhere, but with all the muddy water may not be doing that. Was thinking of putting in at Houseman and trying to locate the walleye. May be too early but will post if I find them

Of course another plus is that when a bank stabilization project does occur one of the key ingredients is adding in large amounts of rock and keying in large logs into the bank, which creates great fish habitat and great bedding areas for all the fish species, great news for folks like us.

Unfortunately a lot of this comes from farmers cutting their fields too close to stream banks, and landowners wanting a better view of streams therefore they cut down all of the trees around the banks. If the soil has no vegetation to hold onto then during high water periods the banks just continue to erode, causing steep vertical banks and causing a serious decrease in water quality. Although it's a long term solution, planting trees and shrubs near the stream banks can have a positive impact and that's one thing we did during my internship. Another cause of the problem that we found were low water bridges. We noticed that a lot of the eroded banks were not far from low water bridges. I do remember during one of the clean ups near West Fork that we cleaned up an area beside a low water bridge. Even in the Kelly's Slab project a key part to improvement was cutting out a section of the low water bridge to better facilitate the water flow. But your correct in that if enough folks get involved that steps can be taken to improve. There's no better place in the state to get folks to jump on board with improving water quality that in NWA. I'm sure that if the EPA and environmental quality folks got involved that some improvements could be made.

When I was in college I did at internship with the AGFC and my area of focus was with stream bank stabilization. While I was there we completely re vamped the vertical banks at Kelly's Slab on Crooked Creek by Yellville. We did several cleanups on the white River near West Fork but did not do any bank stabilization projects. I believe the guy that I interned with is now retired, however you can contact the AGFC and they should be able to put you in touch with the new Bank Stabilization guru. At the time there were government grants that helped to find the projects but that was several years ago. I will say that if you don't own part of the bank or the person that does is unwilling to take action on it there's little that can be done.

Used to hunt on Bull Shoals nearly every weekend and could almost always guarantee a limit. However I refuse to hunt there anymore, thanks to the new flocks of hunters that have come from watching Duck Dynasty. I've never heard worse duck calling, worse sky busting, or worse hunting courtesy. Put some thought into hunting teal season this past year, but 13 groups of hunters all within 50 yards of each other on opening morning gave me second thoughts. I've hunted Truman before and it's a great area. If you are going to hunt in this area I would recommend getting permission on ponds, and hunting small streams when the ponds freeze. I've had amazing hunts on tiny creeks in this area when the ponds freeze over. For myself I will either be hunting in East Arkansas or sticking to ponds and small streams when I can't take off from work. No more Ozarks lake hunting after the experiences I've had!

Just got the boat out of the shop and am wanting to fish this area this evening after I get off work. Has anyone had any luck in this part and any suggestions?