Great catches keep rolling in

Anglers having luck; find a fishing hole this weekend!

Arkansas Wildlife Editor This is the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s fishing report for the week of April 25, 2022. If there is a body of water you would like included in this report, please email jim.harris@agfc.ar.gov with information on possible sources for reports about that lake or river.

Reports are updated weekly, although some reports might be published for two weeks if updates are not received promptly or if reporters say conditions haven’t changed. Contact the reporter for the lake or stream you plan to fish for current news.

Greers Ferry Lake

As of Thursday, the Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake’s elevation at 461.84 feet msl (normal conservation pool: 462.04 feet msl).

Tommy Cauley of Fishfinder Guide Service (501-940-1318) said the water level at Greers Ferry Lake is at 461.85 feet msl and falling just a little everyday. It is 0.19 feet below normal pool of 462.04 feet msl. The catching is pretty good every day for most species, some super shallow and some still deep. The crappie fishing is still going good all over, from 6 inches out to 20 feet of water on minnows, jigs and crankbaits.

Walleye are ganging up moving around eating; try crawlers, minnows or spoons in 1 foot out to 25 feet. Catfish are being caught on lines and jugs all over the lake and rivers using a variety of baits.

More bream have showed up shallow; try beetle spins, inline spinners, small crankbaits, crawlers and crickets. Black bass are shallow for the most part or headed that way or headed back out deep eating everything in your tackle boxes; get out and get them while you have them hemmed up in shallow water. It’s a great time to learn from the fish. Hybrid bass and white bass are eating, laying eggs and moving. The shad spawn will be, and is, in full bloom, and you can catch great numbers of fish now back in the lake, while the fish in rivers also are eating well. Try spoons, inline spinners, swimbaits and topwater baits from shallow out to 30 feet.

Fish ’N Stuff (501-834-5733) in Sherwood says

Photos courtesy of AGFC

This spring, with the wildly changing weather, is still providing plenty of exciting fishing on Arkansas waters, as we see in these photos.

Clockwise from top left, Tom Grose found the fish, like this healthy smallmouth, on Greers Ferry Lake responding mosly on cloudy days or at dusk with the water termperature below 60 degrees lately; below the Greers Ferry Dam on the Little Red River, UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson brought in this gorgeous brown trout while fishing with guide Casey Hughes; Sean Robinson and son from Oklahoma enjoyed some great father-and-son time on Millwood Lake with the crappie bite picking up nicely; and on the White River near Cotter Trout Dock, Coloradoan Steve Slye, on the right, caught a 27-inch brown trout while fishing with guide Elvin Weaver. As the weather gets better and more anglers get out, we welcome all of you to send in your fishing photos to the AGFC's Weekly Fishing Report. You can always submit them via askagfc@agfc.ar.gov; or you can send them directly to the editor of the page at jim.harris@agfc.ar.gov. Just look at the photos and know there is big fish awaiting you in an Arkansas lake or stream.

FISHING REPORTS (cont.)

5733) in Sherwood says water is normal and clear.

Bass are good. They’re shallow around buckbrush biting on Chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, and peanut butter and jelly or green pumpkin finesse jigs around the bushes on both the upper and lower ends of the lake. They’re also good in 12-16 feet of water on Carolina rigs with a Zoom Baby Brush Hog on it or smaller creature bait in any natural green pumpkin color or watermelon color.

Anglers will also find a good bite from suspended bass on a single swimbait.

As for crappie, some people are catching them in treetops in 10-15 feet of water, or up shallow around the bushes, on jigs in Tennessee Shad, Popsicle and Electric Chicken colors. Also, crappie catches were coming on a Crappie Magnet in natural color or salt and pepper

color.

As of Thursday, the Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake’s elevation was 259.45 feet msl (normal pool: 259.20 feet msl).

Mike Siefert at Millwood Lake Guide Service said that as of Tuesday, Millwood Lake has improved clarity, while lake elevation is about 3 inches above normal conservation pool and falling; oxbows' water clarity has improved, and Little River clarity also has improved with current reduction this week. Gate discharge at the dam is around 1,900 cfs in Little River, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. The tailwater below the dam and gates is around 227 feet msl and falling with discharge.

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. Surface temps remain stable this week, ranging 58-67 degrees depending on location, and we expect that to continue warming this week except for a day or two of a predicted cold front arriving.

Continue to use caution in navigation on Little River and Millwood watching for random broken or floating timber in Little River.

As for fishing specifics this week:

• Largemouth bass: Most bass up Little River in the oxbows are post-spawn, although main lake pockets continue in varying degrees of pre- and post-spawning conditions for the past few weeks on Millwood. Most of the oxbows up and along Little River continue seeing post-spawn largemouths and pre-spawn crappie.

Brazalo Spinnerbaits in Millwood Mayhem Bream, River Shad and Spot Remover continue catching solid bass from 2-4 pounds each, over the past several weeks, and Chatterbaits in Sexy Shad or Bream patterns, continue to pick up a few healthy 3-4 pound largemouths this week.

Bass continue randomly roaming shallow on full sun and bright skies in the 3-6 foot depths of flats adjacent to deeper drops into 7-10 feet depth ranges. The best period this week is during the afternoon.

Anywhere a slightly deeper creek channel swings in near spawning flats with vertical structure nearby, and where stumps are present near creek mouths drop, have held some decentsized bass over the past few weeks. NUMEROUS largemouth bass over 10-11 pounds each have been weighed in,over the past several weeks. Another big spawning, 9.5-pound largemouth bass was caught and released this week.

Bass Assassin Shads continue to draw good reactions in the grass and lily pads. Salt and pepper Silver Phantom, Grey

Continued on Page 14 FISHING REPORTS (cont.)

sun and bright skies in the 3-6 foot depths of flats adjacent to deeper drops into 7-10 feet depth ranges.

The best period this week is during the afternoon.

Anywhere a slightly deeper creek channel swings in near spawning flats with vertical structure nearby, and where stumps are present near creek mouths drop, have held some decentsized bass over the past few weeks. NUMEROUS largemouth bass over 10-11 pounds each have been weighed in,over the past several weeks. Another big spawning, 9.5-pound largemouth bass was caught and released this week.

Bass Assassin Shads continue to draw good reactions in the grass and lily pads. Salt and pepper Silver Phantom, Grey Ghost, or Houdini colors continue to be the go-to choices. Best colors of Bugs and Beavers for the last couple weeks were Black Neon, Grasshopper, Blackberry and Pearl Bream. Custom-poured Senkos and Trick Worms are still working on stumps and cypress trees in 3-8 feet depths. Heavy thumper tail swim baits and Beavers on a Jackhammer Chatterbait in Spot Remover and, Blue Glimmer are working, and Trick Worms in black/blue, Blue Ice and Watermelon Candy are catching bass.

Magnum Bulky Lizards in Blackberry, Blue Bayou, black/blue tail and Watermelon Candy continue taking a few good bass this week on flooded cypress trees, stumps and along vegetation lines in ditches, creeks,and flats from 3-8 feet deep.

Topwater Horny Toads, Hollow-body Live Target frogs and Rage-Tail Toads are beginning to snatch a few topwater-explosion bass from 2-4 pounds each near buckbrush, overhanging limbs from cypress trees, and in Lily-pad and alligator weed vegetation.

• White bass: They are wrapping up their annual spawning run upriver, between U.S. Highway 71 at Wilton Landing and Patterson Shoals near Cossatot inflow ditch and pockets with points extending into Little River, above Wilton Landing along Little River this week.

Numerous anglers are connecting with white bass in the 3-plus-pound class, along the river on Rat-LTraps, Little Georges, Chuck'n Spins, Rooster Tails, spoons and crankbaits. The white bass began their annual spawning run up Little River a few weeks ago.

• Crappie: Continue to improve again this week and are staging near 2-8 feet deep close to cypress stands ready to move in for the spawn. Over the past week, these pre-spawn crappie have been best on minnows and jigs in pockets along the main lake sections near the golf course along South Hickory Creek and near Beards Bluff campground, and in oxbows of Mud Lake and McGuire Oxbow up Little River. Crappie continue holding in the 2- to 4-foot and 8-foot depth zones this week, and are staging to move shallow over the next few days or so. Best colors of jigs over the past week or so have been black/red, FISHING REPORTS (cont.)

Junebug, white/red and white/orange. Blakemore Road Runners in white/chartreuse and SK Rocket Shads in white/yellow heads, have also produced nice sized 2- to 2.5pound slab crappie over the past few days.

Cotter Trout Dock (870-435-6525) said Bull Shoals Lake is continuing to rise to power pool level, so we've seen Southwestern Power and the Army Corps of Engineers increasing dam releases in recent days. North-central Arkansas has experienced some unseasonably cold weather nights over the last week or so, but the days are perfect April. The cool mornings and sunny days have created great trout fishing conditions. The brown trout bite has been steady, with sculpins and the occasional well-positioned shad doing well.

Rainbows have been hitting sunrise and orange PowerBait, especially in combination with shrimp or crawdad tail, an excellent way to reel in some nicesized fish. Casting toward the bank, dangling a red wiggler worm, is the best way to take advantage of rising water releases but will require some effort to keep from snagging the rocks. The quality of rainbows often exceeds the quantity, but you'll see a good quantity put aside in the creel basket, too.

Copper-colored spoons and spinners are the baits to cast this time of year if that's your style of fishing.

“We hope to see you here in the Ozarks.”

Sportsman’s White River Resort (870-453-2424) said fishing is picking up.

Anglers are still catching a lot more browns than they are catching rainbows.

Clarity is good Level is high with eight generators running 24/7. Overall trout bite is termed good.