Ouachita River

[Al Agnew]

My wife was driving to a meeting in Hot Springs with our sister in law for the weekend, and at first I was not going to go. Not much I wanted to do in Hot Springs. Then, looking at a weather forecast, it was calling for warm weather down there on Saturday, with a 30% chance of rain, and well, the Ouachita River was down there and I'd never floated it. So kind of at the last moment, I told Mary I wanted to go. She switched reservations to a different place to have enough room for three of us the afternoon before we left, and I called canoe rentals on the Ouachita. The new reservations got made before I reached a canoe rental, and when I did, they said they weren't taking any reservations because the river was low and also because the forecast was calling for heavy rain on Saturday. I couldn't get hold of any other rentals. But it was too late to back out at that point, so we drove down. As it turned out, Mary's brother, getting wind that I was going and planning on a float trip, also came, driving separately with his wife. So now we were all four down there last night when we discovered the weather forecast had changed again and it was only calling for a 20% chance of rain.

So 8 AM this morning I called that canoe rental again to see if they'd consent to renting a canoe to us since the forecast was so much better. Nope. They were going to spend the day in Little Rock. I started trying to reach other canoe rentals, and on the second try got hold of one. No, they weren't putting in canoes because the river was too low. I told them we were experienced anglers who knew when to walk riffles and how to protect canoe bottoms, and because we were fishing we wouldn't be upset having to walk riffles. So the guy finally said he'd put us in for a four mile float.

I didn't have much idea what to expect on the Ouachita, having just spent a few minutes last night looking at it on Google Earth, but it looked to have many long, deep pools which should be good fishing this time of year. I was a bit worried that many of the fish would have moved down the few miles into Lake Ouachita, however.

We got on the river about 11 AM, cloudy weather, river clear, visibility about 6 feet. There was a long, deep pool running upstream from the put-in, so we decided to paddle up it and fish back down before going on downstream.

Jeff hadn't done any winter fishing, and had never fished with jerkbaits. So I'm sure he wasn't expecting much. The first fish, a 12 inch spotted bass, surprised him. The second fish, a 19.5 inch smallmouth, REALLY surprised him! It tied for the biggest smallmouth he'd ever caught.

That was all for the first pool. Down through a riffle and a couple of short fast runs, and into the second good looking pool. In this one I caught a 12 inch largemouth, and then a 19 inch largemouth, both coming on a hair jig and the only two fish we'd catch on hair jigs.

This river had pool after pool, deep water, with ledges running across them and huge boulders. At first it seemed a winter fishing dream with all that habitat, but we soon discovered it was an embarrassment of riches. There was just so much good water that no place really stood out. Most of the fish we caught came from the middle of the river off isolated ridges and boulders on the jerkbait, though I caught one nice 16 inch smallie off the only good sand drop-off I saw. But with so many pools in just a four mile stretch, all of them good looking, it seemed the fish were not concentrated anywhere.

Jeff caught an 18 inch smallie near the end of the day, and I caught a 17 inch largemouth...seemed Jeff was the smallie killer and I was the largemouth vacuum. Overall, we caught maybe 20 fish. Not fast fishing anywhere by any means, but I was pretty pleased with catching some really quality fish from a river i'd never been on before at this time of year. We were really glad we got on it.

[LittleRedFisherman]

Great report al! I'm getting ready to do some of this myself before long! Getting my jerk baits arranged. Gonna have to try some hair jigs!

[J-Doc]

Sounds like a great trip to me. Beautiful country down there. I bet those bass got trapped in those pools or just refused to leave.

Nice report!!

[Al Agnew]

Sounds like a great trip to me. Beautiful country down there. I bet those bass got trapped in those pools or just refused to leave.

Nice report!!

Even though it was low, there was plenty of water for them to move if they wanted to. I think it's more that those pools are just too good to leave. Plenty of deep water with lots and lots of cover.

[jdmidwest]

Great report. A friend just bought a lakefront property on Lake Hamiliton and I will be spending some time down there this summer refurbing the property. Might take a yak for a float instead of plowing the lake for fish.

[Bill Butts]

Al,

That was a great report, thank you for sharing.

One of my long distance goals for spring Striped and White Bass has been that river, for about 10 years.

A fellow fly fisher friend from Fayetteville has been fishing the lower Ouachita early in the spring successfully for a few years.

Since that area is usually at least a week ahead of the N Ark weather and water temps, it is a natural for opportunity to do battle with some White Bass and an occasional bonus Striper.

But, I have no idea what stretch of river he fishes, though honestly I've never asked.

So, would you mind sharing your put-in and take-out points?

It would be nice to know, based on your description of the river character.

Stripers love to have deeper water nearby, no matter where they roam, so if that is a common characteristic of the lower river it would be a great factor for Stripers to feel comfortable.

A contact I've maintained down there for several years is a guide, Shane Goodner, who guides for trout on the tailwater leading into Lake Catherine. But, he also guides wade trips on the Ouachita River for Smallmouth with conventional artificial tackle in the summer and does amazingly well. 50 fish days are common, and I'm sure he times the fishing to avoid the floating crowds.

Thanks again for your always great reports!

Bill

[Danimal]

That's my "home river" down there fella's. Let's keep it on the lowdown....

[Al Agnew]

The float we did was in the Pencil Bluff/Sims area. Looks to be about 10-12 miles above where the lake water begins.

I found it very different from winter fishing the Meramec, in which there aren't many long, deep pools. And the other thing about nearly all Ozark streams is that the pools usually have a bluff on one side, with a rocky bank on that side with the rocks sloping off into a deep trough where the gravel begins and the rocks end. Most of the fish in Ozark streams are found on the rocks down to the trough, with only isolated logs or sand drop-offs furnishing holding possibilities out in middle and on the other side. So the fish-holding water is limited enough that you can be pretty sure you're covering everywhere the fish could be in that pool. On the Ouachita, those solid ledges go all the way across the river, with deep troughs between them, and the huge boulders stud the troughs between the ledges. So basically the entire pool is possible fish-holding water, and some of the pools were over a quarter mile long. You could spend a whole day fishing a single big pool with something like hair jigs if you really wanted to cover all the possible fish-holding water thoroughly. We fished that four mile stretch in about 5.5 hours but I didn't feel like we'd really fished it anywhere near as thoroughly as I routinely fish 5 or 6 miles of the Meramec in a similar period of time.

[Mark]

Good report Al. Glad to hear Jeff was "wrasslin" some smallmouth!