Van

I've got one. Its a pretty sweet pistol. It is VERY accurate, even beyond normal shooting distances for such a little automatic. The only downside is that its still just a little too big to easily be pocket concealable. I haven't had any issues with it at all. Van

Pick up a Delorme Arkansas Gazetter- these have all of the roads in the state and shows many of the access points for most of the rivers and lakes. Also, check out google earth and look for roads that cross the rivers you're interested in. Most of those bridges will have pull-offs that allow you to access the water. Some of them don't, however, so be careful to avoid trespassing. Van

Fished a couple of sections on the Arkansas side today. Didn't have a ton of action but did catch 2 1-1.5 pound smallmouth, 1 green sunny, and 1 longear sunny on a small, black bead-head woollybugger with an extra #4 splitshot. Also caught a half-pound smally and a greenie on a chartreuse clouser. As I pulled in the smallmouth, a 3-4 pound largemouth chased it out of the depths and nipped it repeatedly. Tried like heck to hook that guy but to no avail. Water was at a very wadeable level throughout most of the places I fished, but it was pretty dingy in the holes. Early in the morning, I had luck with the woolybugger before the sun broke through the clouds. The chartreuse clouser was more successful in the sunny afternoon. I haven't been on the Illinois in 2 years, and much of the river is completely different from what it was then due to all the flooding. There's a lot of new submerged timber and deep holes that the dingy water hides, so be careful while wading if you haven't been there in a while. If the rain holds off and the water can drop another 6-inches or foot and clear up, it could be really awesome fishing. Van

Hello. I am relatively new to the area and would like to try some largemouth/spotted/smallmouth bass fishing on Beaver using a canoe or kayak. I've located most of the boat launching sites on googlemaps but I'm curious which ones would be relatively close to decent-fishing creek or river arms so that I could paddle both easily and safely. Bass fishing is my number one goal but, having had interesting experiences in small boats on big lakes, I'm also a bit paranoid about getting run over by pleasure boats doing 40 mph. Thanks for any responses! Van