Spotlight on East Arkansas

The fish are biting close to home

By Jim Harris

Arkansas Wildlife Editor

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— The Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday reported the Clarendon gauge at 25.92 feet, slightly below flood stage of 26.00 feet.

• Horseshoe Lake — Kent Williams of Oxbow Guide Service (870-2787978) says crappie have been good but the fish have scattered with the recent warm weather. As of Tuesday afternoon, the water temperature had risen to 61 degrees in several areas of the lake. Fish were scattered from 20 feet deep to as shallow as 4 feet. Jigs and minnows were both producing. With the expected weather conditions midweek, look for crappie to head back to deeper water.

Bream had started moving into shallow water and were biting. No reportss on bass or catfish.

• Cook’s Lake — The AGFC’s Wil Hafner at Cook’s Lake Conservation Education Center (870241-3373) reports that Cooks Lake was set to reopen for youth and mobility impaired fishing Wednesday, March 3, but the parking lot is flooded and the White River at Clarendon is over flood stage. Check in with the Education Center to see when it reopens, when water has receded. In the meantime, Wil urges anglers to “go catch some fish” at another public pond or lake near you.

• Bear Creek Lake/Storm Creek Lake — Tyler Ball, park ranger at Mississippi River State Park (870-2954040), said that at Bear Creek Lake, anglers report success in catching largemouth bass between depths of 4-6 feet within specific coves. Anglers are reporting catching those largemouths with various types of artificial baits. A few blue catfish have also been reported by a few anglers.

Anglers mentioned catching them off free-floating devices within 6-10 feet.

They report using liver and homemade baits to catch the blues.

At Storm Creek Lake, a few anglers have reported catching blues as well.

They're using free-floating devices within depths of 610 feet. Anglers report using homemade baits and slicks to catch the blues.

• Lake Charles — Shelly Jeffrey at Lake Charles State Park (870-878-6595) said the lake saw a lot of anglers, both men and women, this past weekend, but Shelly did not get any reports of any catches.

Surface water temperature Monday was 53 degrees and the lake level is low, but Lake Charles is refilling after the annual winter drawdown. The AGFC has also added several new structures for fish habitat to the lake. Many were still sticking up out of the low water but should be covered soon as water rises.

• Crown Lake — Boxhound Marina (870670-4496) has reopened and is accepting RV and cabin reservations. Anglers were back out on the water, and they report that crappie were fair on minnows and jigs. Black bass are fair with a jerkbait. No reports on bream or catfish. The water level is normal, while the clarity is “pretty murky,” as of Wednesday morning.

• Spring River — Mark Crawford with springriverfliesandguides. com (870955-8300) had no new reports.

John Berry of Berry Brothers Guide Service in Cotter (870-435-2169) said

See FISH, page A9

Photos courtesy of Facebook

Janice and Rick Wiggins of Marion had some luck trout fishing on the White River last week.

From page A8

the Spring River is fishing well. This is a great place to wade fish when they are running water on the White and North Fork rivers. Canoe season is coming and it will get busy. Be sure to wear cleated boots and carry a wading staff. There is a lot of bedrock that can get very slick. The hot flies have been olive Woolly Buggers with a bit of flash (size 10), cerise and hot pink San Juan worms (size 10) and Y2Ks (size 10).

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— The Army Corps of Engineers reported Thursday that the White River stage at Batesville was at 10.90 feet, well below the flood stage of 15.0 feet. At Newport, was continues to rise to 21.09, about 5 feet below flood stage of 26.0 feet.

The stage at Augusta isvery high at 30.29 feet, more than 4 feet above flood stage of 26.0 feet.

Triangle Sports (870-7937122) said the water has dingied up in the past week but is at a normal level. They heard no reports of angler success.

• Arkansas River (Pine Bluff Pool) — The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Bass Fishing Team reports that water temperatures are low 50s on the main channel, mid-50s in backwaters, and Lake Langhofer is upper 50s in shallow protected backwaters.

Water clarity is only inches in most places, with protected backwaters up to around 6-8 inches of visibility. Black bass are biting fairly well on redand shad-colored lipless and shallow-diving crankbaits, spinnerbaits and bladed jigs around rock and woody cover.

Look for warmer, cleaner water with woody cover and you should be around fish.

Smaller males are already feeding in spawning areas.

Larger females don't appear to be in spawning areas yet, but they are not far away. We should see rapid water warming this week and improvement in size and numbers heading to staging and spawning areas. If weather patterns hold, we should see spawning begin in the next couple weeks.

• Cane Creek Lake — Jeff Shell, superintendent at Cane Creek State Park, had no new reports.

• Lake Chicot — No new reports. Call Brian Whitson, park interpreter at Lake Chicot State Park (870-265-5480) for up-to-the-minute weather and fishing conditions.