Crappie5

Whack'em and I tried to get this topic going last year so I thought I would be the first to open it up. Anyone hitting the banks at night yet?? Night tournament info would be interesting also. We are going this Saturday night and plan on hitting some of the Friday night Derbys out of Campbell point. I will post what and how we did later. Whack'em, lets get it rolling. How are you guys doing out of Mill Creek?

Bill Babbler is good on the Rock and Taney both.

denjac, it is getting real close on the crappie, if the darn weather would just steady up. I had had a nice limit crappie up in the Kings river yesterday. It started out real good with 9 keepers until about 9:30 am and then just went dead until about 2:30 I finished out a limit. Most of the fish came out of trees in about 23'-26' of water about 10'-12' down. however I did hit a couple of my better banks and the first throw in about 3' of water was a 16" crappie. a little ways down i managed two that were 15-1/2". That was it i never caught another one off the banks. All three of these big ones were MALES, yes they sure in fact were males! I caught about 25 total and most were caught on red/white tube jigs and two of the three big ones were on a pearl swimming minnow on 1/8 oz jig head. Water temps averaged 55.

Shaker, the water temps was 55 around the Hickory hollow area all the way to 86 bridge, as you get more towards Arkansas I found 58-60 but this was last week. As of last week I seen whites being caught from Sweetwater all the way to the Arkansas line. Size seems to be above the bridge and quantity below.

Okay, I appoligize for a late report I have been gone but here are some pics from last week while fishing up in the Kings River. I started out at about 11:30. I talked to Bill B. at the boat ramp and they had some nice whites and some crappie. Always nice to chat with him for a minute. On Tuesday, March 17 I caught this nice limit in about 1-1/2 hours. I was using a slip bobber with a 1/16 oz red/white tube jig under it holding in the average of 8' staying in 20-23 ft of water in tree tops. I call what I did the pre-stage because I would catch them in pairs. I would usually catch a decent male and then keep working the same tree and eventually catch the female. That would be it. So I hit a lot of trees. The next day I was on the water at sunrise and thought I would do even better. I had caught 10 crappie by 10 am and they all were 9" to 9-3/4" so I then went up the river and caught a decent limit of white bass on pearl swimming minnows with 1/8 oz jig head. It's a little early yet on the crappie and now the rain and cold front I believe will push them back farther.

SKMO, it is good to hear from you. Seems like top water action last year since the last time. Thanks for the report. I'm heading up the Kings tomorrow and Wednesday to give it a try. I will report later on how I did.

White River Lodge would be my choice. Bill and Becky Babbler are great host and what a nice place. Check it out on the link at the top of the page. If you sweet talk Becky she might sneak the fishing report out of Bill for you and put you on some fish.

How is the winter crappie fishing? We went to mutton creek over the weekend and fished the crappie dock along with the 25 other people. We caught maybe 10 small ones with one 11-1/2 keeper. not much to brag about. And none of these were caught in the dock, all outside in and around the boat slips and walkways.

Anyone been up in the Kings River area lately. I heard it was all muddy. Did Arkansa receive a bunch of rain or could this be coming from Beaver Lake?

Bill B & Whack'em you guys crack me up, I don't need to say any more because you said it all and I agree with your comments 100%. My buddy tapped it for me and I just about reached over and threw it in the fireplace, it was terrible.

I agree with Whack'em, I can't believe guys are giving you crap. I'm just like Bill I have walked docks for 25 years now and never have had any problem. The only time I even ever was confronted by a dock owner was 5 years ago in Kings river on table rock. It kind of goes back to what Bill was saying about several stall owners. I was on the dock catching crappie and one stall owner came down and told me I needed to get off his dock I said that I would Kindly leave when all the sudden there was another stall owner who had been on the bank watching me catch crappie the whole time came down and got in to it with the other stall owner and told him he did not own the whole dock and told me I could fish there anytime I wanted just help myself. He pointed out 2 stalls he owned, 2 that his son owned and 1 that his dad owned. Only one of these had a boat in it and he told me anytime I wanted to pull my boat in one of them and get off on the dock and fish I was more than welcome. I have been walking this dock ever since with no problems. The same guy still comes down and visits with me and gets the fishing report.

Not too sure about loosing one but here is the number at the Corp office to call and see. Hope it helps. 417-334-4101 Ext. 0 Mon-Fri 7:30-4:00

Flippin I always order mine by phone every year. They will take credit or debit card and you usually have it in 1-2 days in the mail. The phone # is 417-334-4101 ext. 0 Mon thru Fri 7:30 am-4:00 pm.

BigBird, the top water bite just is not there right now. Right as the sun breaks the horizon in the morning there is a small bite if you are in the right place at the right time. Yesterday morning I caught one 10" LM and one 12 " K on the red fin and that was it. Now We have been catching a few on a buzz bait just right before dark in the bushes. We actually had 2 keeper Lm Sunday evening up the white river on a black buzz bait out of some bushes on a point. Mostly jigs and Drop Shotting is catching all my fish right now. I'm getting ready to start whizzing the spoon though.

Bill, have fun in Alaska. Are you guiding up there? How is your buddy doing that lost his place to the fire?

We went down last night put in at Campbell point and fished mostly up towards Baxter. The night fishing still seems to be the same pattern for us. Catch a few right after dark and then dead until about 11:30 or so. We had 2 keepers by 9:00 pm with 4 shorts. Both keepers were K'S and believe it or not caught on the old Gene Lerew jumbo salt craws punpkin seed in color. We threw everything from jigs to worms to regular craws until 11:30 and then they started biting again. We left at 2:00 am and had 4 more keepers and 6 more shorts all caught on watermelon candy craws texas rigged with a 1/2 oz sinker not pegged. Seemed like these fish really wanted it moving fast. Most all fish were caught in the 15-18' range on bluff ends and a few did come out of brush piles.

We started out at 5:00 am around Big M throwing top water. The moon was out and the sun coming up at the same time. My partner was throwing a spook and I was on the fin. after 45 min he had 8 small ones on the spook and one nice 17 incher. Me on the fin only one blow up that I missed. Every point we hit after that was completely dead we headed towards the bridge and seen some fish surfacing across from point 23. we snuck in on top of them and first three cast on the spook all hooked up I did not give up on the fin. Once the fish settled down I managed 6 shorts and 1 nice fat 16" kentucky. It was now 8:00 and we could not buy a top water fish and fish were still surfacingh all over. We headed towards Campbell point to try one last top water spot and managed 4 more shorts all on the fin. We then proceeded to drop shot crawlers and a chompers purple lam. We finished the day at 11:00 with 17 fish on the drop shot with only 3 of the 17 that would eaisly keep. I would say the majority came off the crawlers but several came off the chompers purple Lam. We stopped at a point just pass the bridge because we seen several fish surfacing. this was 10:00. We could not catch anything and really could not tell what they were because they were always way out or just did not come up out of the water enough to see them. Was for sure they were not carp or gar though. This just kept on and on so we decided to tie on some rattle traps and troll around a bit to see what we could do. Not sure what was surfacing but we caught 6 walleye all about 18". Then an older gentlemen who owned a dock and house in there came through trolling a fat sassy shad rap and caught 3 over 20" and 7 just under keeper size. Do walleye surface like this?

Go to ktts.com to see a picture of the new record srtiper

I had a bad deal with a bat one night coming out of Kings river. I was cruising along about 40-45 mph and one hit me right in the chest. Now at the time it happened I did not know what had hit me until I got the boat shut down and turned on the lights and it looked like I had been shot because there was blood everywhere and then I seen the bat parts in the floor. Anyway it hurt like you know what and not too sure I didn't crak a rib or something. This was 12 or so years ago and I still have a tender spot there that hurts once in awhile. They do eat a lot of mosquitos though.

I used to fish truman quite a bit until gas got so high. Here is a site to go to and check out the fishing report. It is a good honest report. I know the people who write it. Hopefuly it helps. This is from Bucksaw Marina. http://www.bucksaw.com/fishingreport.htm

Great job. Glad to know you are out there. I might need you some day. I like to see friendly people on the water.

I have fished with some of the best equipment over the years and have found you need to spend the money on technique, line and lures. I have some Falcon rods only because I have fished Falcon rod tournaments and received free ones. I personally don't like them and rarely, rarely use them. Same thing with GLoomis and Bass Pro rods, I don't have anything good at all to sayabout them. The rods I use every day are Berkley Lightning rods. I think they are sensitive, action is good, they are comfortable and cost effictive. Spinning reels I'm pretty much a Mitchell 300 series man. Bait casters I use a couple shimanos and I still use ABU Garcia 5000 & 5000C. I have never tore up any of my ABU Garcia reels and I have had them for 20 plus years now. Clean them, oil them and just take care of them. Now I'm sure All the guides have different views as they are fishing 300 days a year placing gear to the test with customers each day.

A game camera has a flash to take night pictures. This flash would just lead the bad guys to know where the camera is and just steal it too.

Bill, thanks for the great report. You might have had the best 3 days to go. Looks like the rain is coming back in. Still sounds like nothing on the bottom all suspended.

Thanks SKMO, have you been lately? Has the top water bite slowed down?