One of the greatest things about living in Arkansas is our vast selection of fishing opportunities. We have largemouth, smallmouth and Kentucky bass. We have white and black crappie. We have channel, flathead and blue catfish. We have rainbow, brown, cutthroat and brook trout. We’ve got stripers, white bass and hybrids. We’ve got walleyes and, yes, we have bream.
Our state abounds with great places to catch all these fish, and some of the year’s best fishing is happening right now.
Largemouth BASs
Lake Ouachita
In early April, water levels can be very low, but when the rains come, rising waters inundate high banks and small islands to expand exponentially the amount of bass cover.
In low water, you can catch bass on topwater plugs and stickbaits in the backs of finger pockets. You can also catch bass around docks and isolated cover in pockets and coves.
A few days of rain can raise the lake instantly, which puts a lot more cover into play. When that happens, you can catch bass flipping jigs, worms and other soft plastic baits into ambush points in thick cover.
Stripers
Lake Ouachita
If you want to catch a trophy striped bass, there’s no better place in inland America than Lake Ouachita.
In April, you can catch stripers with a variety of methods. They will hit live shad trolled deep on downriggers, but you can also catch them with swimbaits and white jigs. Stripers often school in the morning near the confluences of major tributaries. One of my most dependable spots is at the mouth of the Crystal Springs inlet. All you need is a Zara Spook or a C10 Cordell Red Fin in rainbow trout color. Getting topwater strikes from mega-stripers is an unforgettable, adrenaline-charged experience.
Crappie
Lakes Greeson/Hamilton/DeGray
You can catch crappie anywhere in Arkansas, but Lake Greeson, Lake Hamilton and DeGray Lake are consistent hotspots.
The secret to great crappie fishing is plenty of cover. Lake Greeson has a lot of it in the form of brushpiles scattered all over the lake. Using live minnows, many guides use color-coded crappie poles and bobbers with the baits set at different depths. A pole wrapped with green tape is matched to a green bobber. A yellow-wrapped pole is mated to a yellow bobber, black-to-black, blue-to-blue, etc. If a blue bobber plunges, a guide yells, “Blue down!” That cuts down on the confusion that often occurs when multiple bobbers go down at once.
Successful guides use the same system on DeGray and Hamilton.
White Bass
Beaver Lake
One of the greatest white bass runs in the South takes place each spring on Beaver Lake, and it peaks in April.
The hottest fishing is in the major tributaries, specifically the White River, Hickory Creek and War Eagle Creek. Huge schools of white bass thrash the surface in pursuit of shad, and you can catch them on every cast with small spoons, small crankbaits and small topwater lures.
The smallest fish are usually close to the surface. If you can get under them, you can catch jumbo whites up to 2-3 pounds. There’s also a good chance of hooking something substantially bigger, like a big hybrid or a 40-pound striper. Beaver has them all, so use versatile tackle.
Smallmouth Bass
Caddo River
What would April be without a float fishing trip for smallmouth bass on a mountain stream? We have a lot of great candidates, but for April, the Caddo River is hard to beat.
The best sections are from Norman to Caddo Gap, Caddo Gap to Glenwood and Glenwood to Amity. Each segment is about 8 miles. The first few miles of the Caddo Gap-Glenwood float are very attractive, but the best fishing is in the last three or four miles.
Excellent fishing is also available from Glenwood to Amity. This was my favorite section for many years not only because the fishing was good, but also because it was always deserted.
Trout
White River
In April, the White River below Bull Shoals Dam is often very high and fast because of heavy power generation at the dam. This rules out fly fishing and wade fishing for most of the day. However, you can catch great numbers of rainbows and cutthroats by drifting in a johnboat, and you can also catch some big browns.
For rainbows and cutts, the most dependable method is to drift nightcrawlers on a dropper rig. You rarely catch many big fish, but you’ll easily catch enough for dinner.
For big brown trout, jerk stickbaits are used in the transition zone between slack water against the bank and the main current. Big browns often lurk there waiting for a meal, and you can expect to catch lunker browns almost anywhere.
Catfish
Arkansas River
In high, swift water, you can catch eating size channel cats anywhere on the river by retrieving a medium-diving crankbait through heavy current into eddies and slack water on shelves bordering the main channel. Channel cats stack up in this transition area and nail anything that looks like food.
For big cats, Lake Dardanelle is your spot. Chris Fuller of Fayetteville goes after the big ones with big chunks of cut skipjack. Tim Griffis of Haskell uses the same method to catch boatfuls of big cats in the lower Arkansas below Wilbur Mills Lock and Dam near Tichnor. For this, you must have strong current. Using heavy tackle and wide-gap circle hooks, cast the skipjack chunk into the current and let it bounce downstream. When you get a bite, simply start reeling. The fish will hook itself.
Bream
Lake Conway
Let’s finish off our fish-fry menu by loading the boat with a big mess of bream from Lake Conway, between Conway and Mayflower.
In April, big bluegills will be spawning all over the lake. You can find them in any big cove next to fallen logs and standing timber, both of which are plentiful in this stump-studded panfish paradise. It’s not complicated. After you figure out the depth fish are holding, all you have to do is drop a live cricket on them under a bobber and have someone to open and close the ice chest.
For big redears, find areas with hard or gravel bottoms. They’ll be a little deeper, but they’re usually bigger than bluegills, and they’re just as easy to catch.
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