Thread: Help with cold water carps.

The Carolina rig suggestions are good. Another good rig is to tie a 3-way swivel on your main line, with a sinker on one end and the hook on the other (it's called a White River Rig). Redworms are always pretty good baits, esp. after a big rain. Don't use a drag chain! You've got to really know what you're doing to use them; otherwise that's a good way to get yourself sunk. When you float, keep an eye out for trees, rocks etc. behind you; don't get lulled to sleep by the beauty of the river...I did that once and almost paid the price: OTOH, my buddies won't let me run the boat anymore:D

Yep, Green Giant Niblets used to work best, tiny marshmallows sometimes 2. Haven't trout fished in Arkansas since way before Power Bait came about, but, think it would work just fine. Good luck, stick with it and you'll figure it out.

Tip 1. Open the can of corn before chumming with it.
Tip 2. A yellow and white minijig on a 1/32 oz head will fill the boat. probably a crappie nibble added will be perfect.
tip 3. +1 on the crawdad patterned crankbaits for some nice ones
final tip a friend owns land at the confluence of the norfork and white. Get the smallest hook you can find and bait it with the smallest bit of worm and drop between big rocks. Sculpins are numerous. catch a few and fish them for bait. Prepare to have your line stretched and have a camera handy.

Here's a Tip RCC, If nothing is working for ya, pull your boat up on the bank, kick some rock's, spin around three times, bite your lip, and say aww shuck's i bit my lip. Then try a trout magnet below a float, or throw a rooster tail at em. Worked for me One day on the Little Red when i fell in:D

You have'nt lived till you fall out of your boat into the waters of the White or Little Red rivers and hit that 47 degree water on a hot summer day.

Looks like a lot of you crappie fishermen are moonlighting as trout fishermen!

RCC, I agree with everything that's been said here about what bait to use and how to use it. I especially agree with the drag chain deal. I would be really careful using a drag chain because if it hangs on something at high flow, you can sink a boat in a heartbeat. In my opinion it's better to just add more weight to get to the bottom than to take a risk. Also, you might want to try that salad shrimp, a piece no bigger than 1/2 inch on a #6 hook tipped with an orange Berkely Powerbait. Sometimes I add a wire spinner with beads tied on the line with the hook on the other end and it seems to work. Lately I've been having some success with the Berkely Powerbait called Sunrise. The old standby though is an orange glowworm threaded on the hook and pushed up onto the line, the hook filled with canned corn and then tipped with Powerbait in either white, orange or sunrise.

Good luck, and let us know how you do.

Thomas Buoyant Spoons work well up there too. Quarter them upstream just above riffles and shoals and let them drift down a little before twitching them back to the boat.

It all worked out really well. We released all that we caught except what was injured. Here's my favorite pic. Notice I have used a strip of bacon to show how big they really were:D

Bet that taste good RCC, but i need to refer to my medical manual before eating it. LOL