Southwest Arkansas serving up nice catches

Lake Millwood, area waters producing good summer fishing

Arkansas Wildlife Editor We finally got some rain in the Natural State over the weekend and with mostly tolerable temperatures expected through the holiday weekend, it might be time to hit the water.

Southwest Arkansas had some promising reports this past week.

Millwood Lake

Mike Siefert at Millwood Lake Guide Service said that as of Wednesday, Millwood Lake is back on the rise from recent thunderstorms in southwestern Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma, but still below normal pool at 260.2 feet msl and rising slowly.

Clarity has stained this week, along Little River.

Millwood Lake tailwater elevation was near 230 feet msl with gate discharge at the dam around 3,000 cfs in Little River, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Check the most recent lake level of Millwood Lake on the guide service’s website linked above, or at the Army Corps of Engineers’ website, for updated gate release changes and inflow rates with rising and falling lake levels. Watch for random floaters and broken timber during any navigation.

Surface temps are stable this week, ranging in 74-79 degrees depending on location and the time of day.

Current along Little River is normal stain levels this

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week, along Little River.

Millwood Lake tailwater elevation was near 230 feet msl with gate discharge at the dam around 3,000 cfs in Little River, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Check the most recent lake level of Millwood Lake on the guide service’s website linked above, or at the Army Corps of Engineers’ website, for updated gate release changes and inflow rates with rising and falling lake levels. Watch for random floaters and broken timber during any navigation.

Surface temps are stable this week, ranging in 74-79 degrees depending on location and the time of day.

Current along Little River is normal stain levels this week with reduced discharge release at the dam, and river clarity ranging 5-10 inches visibility depending on location. Clarity and visibility of oxbows is stained at 12-15 inches depending on location.

Further up Little River near White Cliffs and Wilton Landing has heavier stain conditions. Clarity and visibility can change dramatically on Millwood in just a few hours with high winds, gate discharge, rain or thunderstorms.

Mike offered this fishing details from this week:

• Largemouth bass are fair to good, most activity in oxbows up Little River, early and late in the day.

Bass are moving horizontally out to deeper water during heat of the afternoons, and shallow to cover early and late. Bass are fair to good on top water lures around emerging new Lily Pad stands and vegetation at daylight.

We continue seeing 3- to 4-pound bass, running in and out of shallow flats early for the past few weeks, and will bust a buzzbait, topwater chugger, and plastic frogs in the pads early.

Big, 7-10-inch bulky Brush Hogs, as well as worms, slow-moving square bill crankbaits and Chatterbaits will get a reaction from bass near laydown logs, cypress trees, knees and stumps where ridges, ditches and flats are close to deeper creek channels and vertical structure.

Bass are continuing to move out horizontally toward deeper drops in the oxbows once the sun gets up above the tree line in late morning. Bass Assassin Shads, Horny Toads, hollow body frogs, buzzbaits and Chatterbaits continue working. The oxbows over the past couple weeks have had the best water clarity, and Horseshoe, Clear Lake and McGuire will produce best topwater reactions from largemouths. Chatterbaits in black/blue/purple, or SpringBream with chartreuse, are taking nice 2- to 3-pound largemouths near stumps in 3-6 feet deep.

War Eagle Smokey Joecolored Underspins are catching fish that miss a buzzbait or topwater grog early. If the bass blow up and miss your topwater bait, an immediate throwback past the missed strike with the Underspin and Lit’L Boss swimbait will get you bit. We are using a Smokey Joe colored head War Eagle Underspin with a Chico’s Red Ear, or Hammertime, or Silver Flash Minnow-colored swimbait trailer to incite a reaction strike.

Buzzbaits, Cordell Crazy Shads, Boy Howdy’s and Spit’n Images are randomly working early. Topwater, weedless frogs like the Spro Live Target and Zoom Horny Toads will get responses from healthy post-spawn largemouth bass now from 3-5 pounds each.

Brazalo Spinnerbaits continue working on windy days and on creek channel drops and secondary points. Spot Remover, White, Sexy Shad and Millwood Mayhem Bream colors are best for catching keeper-size largemouths in oxbows and in the pockets along the golf course and at Millwood State Park coves. Bass Assassin Shads continue catching nice bass.

Work them in and around same areas as the topwater frogs, near new growth of vegetation lines, new bloom stands of lily pads and buckbrush. Texasrigged Bang Woopah Craws are working in these same areas, near laydowns and stumps from 5-9 feet deep, and best colors over the past week or two have been the Okeechobee Craw Blueberry. Bulky lizards are working with Blackberry, Sapphire or Watermelon Candy colors, on cypress trees in good water clarity in back of the oxbows, from 7-9 feet of depth. Salty Rat Tails, Senkos, and Trick Worms were working in the edges of new lily pad stands and stumps, near drop offs, from 7-10 feet deep. Best colors have been Black/blue tail, Blue Glimmer or Blue Ice.

• White bass continue roaming and moving to deeper drops along Little River headed back down to the main lake in large, broken, random schools. No consistent bite over the past week.

• Crappie have been excellent over the past couple weeks and have recently began moving out from shallow cypress trees from spawning over the past several weeks. The bite continues to be very good, just slightly deeper on planted brushpiles in the oxbows and along Little River.

Healthy-sized xrappie from 2 to 2.5 pounds have been hitting jigs, Southern Pro Crappie Stingers 2.0, Pro Series Lit’l Hustlers, and minnows over the past several weeks. Best colors over the past couple weeks on the Southern Pro Crappie Stingers and Lit’l Hustlers have been black/chartreuse, Money, Blue/Silk/Chartreuse Swirl, and black/orange.

* Catfish improved this week along Little River.

For several weeks the blues, flatheads and channels were fair to good on trotlines, yo-yos and tight lines. Spoiled chicken livers and gizzards, cut buffalo and shad, homemade cheese dough baits and King’s Punch Bait have all been working over the past week.

• Bream beds are being observed in many locations on Millwood Lake, from Millwood State Park, the golf course pockets on west end, and in the oxbows along Little River.

Largemouth bass are hanging nearby also to these bream beds and will hit a bream-colored square-bill crankbait. The bream were hitting on redworms, crickets and bread at Millwood State Park a few days ago, just off the banks. It’s a good time to take a kid fishing on Millwood Lake!

Lake Erling Guide Service (870-904-8546) reports the lake is clear and high. The water is on the rise and running over the spillway by 4 inches as of Wednesday afternoon .

Bream are excellent on redworms or crickets. Crappie are good and are in deeper water. Use minnows or hand-tied jigs. Black bass are schooling on shallow points chasing shad. The bite is good. Catfish are still excellent on minnows and cut bait.

Visit www.littlemissouriflyfishing. com for a daily update on fishing conditions.

Capt. Darryl Morris of Family Fishing Trips (501-844-5418) has been spending some time at Greeson in addition to fishing DeGray Lake, and said crappie fishing is great here, as it is at DeGray.