Cherokee Park 12/21/23

[Ham]

I headed down to the Arkansas River yesterday to try to get a Sauger on my flyrod. Seems like a great idea for someone that has never caught a Sauger on the Arkansas River right?I was Happy to see them running water when I got there. I didn’t put the time in to find a link online to their generation schedule.

I scrambled down the rocks and through the garbage to my first stop. In just a few casts, I was losing the first of many flys that I would feed to rocks. My theory is that the sauger are gonna be tight to the rocks and when the fly swings close by they will nab it. 
I was there for 5 hours and I used a flyrod for more than half the timethis was the only fish I caught on fly. I might have missed a bite or two on fly or maybe not. 
I tried to fish worms on a drop shot. Got some bites and lost some rigs. No fish caught. 
But what did work was a small swimbait slow rolled along. they were full grown and just crushing it. Kinda hurt my hands when they struck the lure. 
The generation seemed to wax and wane which made the current seams move around and the water level dropped, but they never stopped generating. 

Pretty decent largemouth bass slurped the swimbait.

I fished spinning long enough to make myself feel better about things.

When I stopped fly fishing, I picked up a bag of garbage. When I went back to the truck after catching a few on spinning, I picked up another bag of garbage. Maybe if some bank fishermen weren’t lowlife slobs, they would not lose access to places to fish. It’s gonna take a lot more people like me and a change in the behavior of the bad actors to make a real difference.

I carefully moved the truck to the other side (low clearance) and started up fly fishing again. Back eddy and reduced flow. I tried and I tried and I tried. 
I gave myself another spinning rod session before I left. I ditched the  drop shot set up and up on a jig. I moved down the bank making a few casts with the jig and a few casts with the swimbait

well, the jig worked and they quit biting the swimbait. I got this fish while tapping the jig off the rocks down and across. Jury is still out on the ID, but it was a Lifer.

Next cast was another White Bass.

Next cast I hooked a mystery fish. Slow heavy pull with big head shakes. I’m guessing catfish or gar. I have to guess because it gave me the slip. 
I decided to sweeten the jig with some worm. I did not care for the extra drag, but I felt like it might get me another weird bite. The best fish of the Arkansas River rolled up. This guy was very studly. 
I followed that up with losing rig after rig after rig. I was out of time for re-rigging leaders and digging out jigs.

I fished the swimbait for the last 10 minutes without a bite. It should have happened, but it did not.

Then I did the long drive home. I got 14 fish to hand. I missed some soft bites and some hard raps. It might not have been cold enough for the sauger to be there yet. I think was 250 miles round drive. Just under 6 hours of driving for just over 5 hours of fishing. 
Maybe I’ll get that Flyfer Sauger next time. 

[Quillback]

I'll be interested to hear what species that mystery fish is.  

[Quillback]

Dunno if you have read this, but wing dykes are mentioned as good habitat for sauger.

Seasonal Habitat Use, Movement, and Exploitation of Sauger in the Arkansas River

[Ham]

My fish nerds say River Carpsucker 

[oneshot 1]

Last two Carp and Drum. 

Don't eat Drum anymore but if the Carp was bigger it would be in Hot Greese. 

oneshot