Article by outdoor writer Tommy Garner

[Spoon Feeder]

Hey Darrell, Here's the article I wrote about our fishing trip with you.  It was published Sunday July 31, 2016

from the desk of

Award Winning Outdoor Communicator

TomCat Tommy Garner 

 

  

Summer fishing heats up on lakes

By Tommy Garner

A light rain fell as we ripped across Norfork Lake right at daylight headed to a secret spot where we were in hopes to find some hot striped bass action. Of course there would be some hybrid bass and white bass mixed in with the stripers and that was okay.

Hybrid bass is a man made fish that came about by crossing striped bass with white bass. They have traits of both and grow to enormous size in the deep clear water lakes of Arkansas. We headed into a cove and I spotted a bird silhoutted against the gray sky in the early morning light.

"Eagle or osprey?" I asked. "Probably an eagle," Darrell Binkley replied. As Bink backed of the throttle of the bass boat I could see that the raptor had a white head and tail. "Bald eagle," I said. "A mature bald eagle," Wanda added as we got our rods and reels ready for action. "I'm marking fish here. Get ready, you're gonna get hit!" Bink said.

"I've got one!" Wanda said as she struggled with trying to keep an unseen predator from ripping her spinning reel from her hands. "If it's a walleye grab the net Tom" Darrell said. I reeled in my lure and reached for the dip net. "Never mind, that's not a walleye," Darrell said. "Get back out there and get another fish on Tom. We are right in the middle of them." I cast my spoon out and was letting it sink when I felt a fish hit it like a freight train. "Look what a hybrid," Darrell hissed as he saw Wanda's fish for the first time. I couldn't look because I had my hands full with something that was bent on pulling me off the deck of the boat. "Honey, look at my hybrid!" Wanda sang out in the dim light. "Can't look right now Wanda. I kind of got my hands full," I replied with my back turned to my estatic wife.

I absolutley love fishing with Wanda. She gets so excited when she gets a fish on and she is good at it. Of course we love fishing together and we especially love fishing with our favorite fishing guide Darrell Binkley. We have fished with him for close to twenty years. We have never been disappointed and it was apparent that we would not be disappointed today. In my mind Lake Norfork is one of the most beautiful places in Arkansas and it is always a thrill just to be on the water whether you catch fish or not. Motoring right up to the bald eagle and watching him slowly sail away made the rainy morning with fog hanging over the trees seem surreal anyway.

Wanda got the first fish of the day and it was a hunk of a hybrid bass and I finally landed the striper that I had on. I cast back out and immediately got a hookup with another fish. This one was not as big so it didn't take me as long to boat it as it did the striper. It was one of the biggest white bass I have ever caught. I threw it into the cooler and got my spoon back down in the school of fish.

Fish started blowing up the water chasing shad near out boat and Darrell cast a spoon near the splashing water. Instantly a fish hammered his lure and he landed a nice Kentucky bass. "I just can't help but to throw to breaking fish," he said with a good natured laugh. Neither can I. The predator in me comes out and if a fish breaks the water chasing shad or minnows I am probably going to chunk at them.

Darrell set the hook on something and in a minute he said "This is going to be a bass. Yep it is a good smallmouth". He lipped the three pound smallmouth and quickly released it. "That was not what I wanted to catch today," he said. "But Darrell don't you like catching smallmouths?" I asked. "Yes, but not today. I like to catch them in the spring!" he replied.

You can not always tell what you are going to catch when you are fishing deep water in the summer time. Though there were bass breaking around us chasing shad, most of the bigger fish were down deep. We were fishing in the inside bend of a creek channel where we found big schools of shad on the depth finder. They show up as a blob or cloud on the screen and then you can see the bigger fish handing under them on the screen. When the action really heats up there will be slashes on the screen that resembles fireworks going off on the 4th of July. When this happens it is the fish slashing through the school of bait fish just the way they do when they are on the surface. It is almost impossible to dangle a heavy metal lure in the melee without getting hit.

During the dog days of summer most of the fishing is turned completely off or it is very slow at best. Not so with deep water vertical spooning on the deep manmade clearwater lakes across our region when you know what you are looking for. Wanda and I have experienced this smoking hot summertime fishing many times. On this trip we caught a mixed bag of fish as we normally do. We caught stripers, hybrids, white bass, Kentucky bass, smallmouth bass and walleye. We had some big fish on that we could do nothing with. Darrell got a monster of some sort on, probably a striper that hit and immediately smoked his drag them broke his line faster than you can believe. When Darrell gets a hookup with a fish that he can't react fast enough to keep from breaking off it is a monster.

We had another great day on the water in Arkansas enjoying some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere and we are already planning another trip in August. This kind of fishing takes some knowledge and effort to tap into but when you do you are in for getting your line stretched and experiencing one of the best days ever on the water. It does get hot very fast in the mornings but the fast furious fishing action is well worth the effort.

Good fishing!

 

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

Hey Darrell,

What the fishing like in late October?

Pete

[o2bnMO]

25 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Hey Darrell,

What the fishing like in late October?

Pete

I've been talking to my wife about going down sometime during the last 2wks of October.

[Spoon Feeder]

27 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Hey Darrell,

What the fishing like in late October?

Pete

This is not Darrell, I post Darrels info for him, but after the lake turns over there's three to four weeks of awesome fishing working the brush piles for all species. After that the night bite usually kicks in for Stripers and spooning during the day.

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

Thanks.

I'm booking a trip if he's open.