Smallie Action Down In Arkansas

[LittleRedFisherman]

My friend Jody, who is kinda new to bass fishing, went with me to try our hand on some smallmouth on the EP. We decided to head to Randolph county to try the smallmouth down there. Needless to say, it didn't disappoint. It did start off slow this morning, but as the heat warmed up, so did the smallies. We tried all kinds of different lures today. My first one was a 15 incher that came on the Senko, I thought this was gonna be the ticket, but as the day wore one, the old tried and true Rebel Craw turned out to be the go to lure. As the sun got up and hot, the shady areas were key, they produced fish. Also, Jody had pretty good luck today throwing a buzzbait, I also knabbed a couple on a Pop R. I also tried a spinner bait, all I caught on that was a nice, and my first ever Walleye, which was really cool! All and all, we had a great day, and probably boated between 20 and 25 Smallies, not counting some Goggleeye we also caught. The largest one was 16 inches, but was still a load of fun. Only caught 2 spotted bass, the rest were Smallies!!

You had to watch where you were boating, not from debris or shoals, but from Cows. This stretch of river in Randolph country AR, is heavy in cattle production, cows where everywhere, on the sides and in the river. At one point, had a big old cow play chicken with me as we were heading up the river, it finally moved, got that on the gopro if I every get time i'll show it. The river is different here than is it up in Missouri for sure, but it looks even more "fishy", as far as cover, tons of wood in the water, with nice stretches of water that makes boat handling nice.

[DaveMac]

Nice report and pics! Looks like the water you were fishing in is a little slower and bigger than what I usually target in Ozark streams. Was there action in riffles or did you catch most in pools as the pics seem to suggest?

[E Green]

nice pics...looks like a great trip

[LittleRedFisherman]

Nice report and pics! Looks like the water you were fishing in is a little slower and bigger than what I usually target in Ozark streams. Was there action in riffles or did you catch most in pools as the pics seem to suggest?

This part of the Eleven Point is different from a typical Ozark stream, at this point in it's journey, it's in the foothills of the Ozarks in Northeastern Arkansas, kinda on the fringe of were the Delta starts. We do target smallies on the edges of current, we did that at first. Even though the water has slower areas, there are still many shoals that step down and have nice current as it levels off into another run and hole. The largest smallmouth today came off steep banks that had some shade in the heat of the day, many hit really close to the bank, and also around all the woody cover. We did fish a stretch of really deep slow water and didn't have much luck, but it was full of nice feisty bluegill, and spotted bass.