Greers Ferry Lake Night Fishing

[Redbeard]

My wife is sending me to "camp" at the Holiday Inn in Heber Springs with my boat this weekend. With the heat and being unfamiliar with the lake, my first thought for fishing was to park the boat under the Narrows Bridge for some night fishing with lights and minnows for hybrids. I've never fished there before, but I read about night fishing at the bridge on Crappie.com last summer. Can anyone tell me whether fishing tied to Narrows Bridge would be reasonably safe and practical right now with the high water and generation levels at the dam?

I appreciate any advise.

[creekslick]

I have never fish there but I have seen several boats there at night. The only safety issue I know of are the "water lice" that run around on the lake at night.

[steve48]

Redbeard,
If you are staying in Heber, you are long ways from Narrows. If i was going to tie up to a bridge, I would probably go on over to Devils fork, or Hill Creek. You would have 2 bridges real close, and better fishing too. Edgemont bridge, and the Hy 225 bridge by Hill creek would be the best.

[Crappieawlogist]

My wife is sending me to "camp" at the Holiday Inn in Heber Springs with my boat this weekend. With the heat and being unfamiliar with the lake, my first thought for fishing was to park the boat under the Narrows Bridge for some night fishing with lights and minnows for hybrids. I've never fished there before, but I read about night fishing at the bridge on Crappie.com last summer. Can anyone tell me whether fishing tied to Narrows Bridge would be reasonably safe and practical right now with the high water and generation levels at the dam?

I appreciate any advise.

Mark...have you been banished again? Hey man we gotta get together soon....

[Redbeard]

Thanks for the info guys. I'll report back next week.

I agree Bob. I'm waiting for an invite to see you in action with that side imaging sonar.

[Redbeard]

I spent Friday night and Saturday night tied up at the Edgemont bridge in 100 feet of water from 9:00 p.m. to about 3:00 a.m. I put a green flourescent light in the water 5 feet under the boat. By 10:00 p.m. the boat traffic and wind would die down, and the minnows and shad were circling my light. Over the two nights I used about 6 dozen crappie shiners and caught about 6 crappie to 13', 5 hybrids from 18" to 22" and enough smaller hybrids and white bass to keep me interested. The larger hybrids were a good test for the drag on my Okuma line-counter reels since I was fishing with size 6 wire crappie hooks.

This was clearly not these fishes' first shiner buffet. When I set 4 rods out in rodholders, I'd lose 6 minnows before I would hook one fish. This quickly turned into a one rod affair and setting the hook as soon as I felt the line twitch. Also, it took me a while to figure out that the hybrids and whites were 30 - 35 feet deep and no shallower underneath the light. The few crappie that showed up were from 20 - 30 feet deep. I will definitely be back to try this again on some of these hot summer weekends. Steve48, thanks for the heads up about Edgemont bridge. The fishing was good, and since I could see the lights at Devil's Fork launch from the bridge, I couldn't get lost at 3:00 a.m.!

[BobbyJoe]

Here is what I got Saturday night at the narrows

Using minnows under a floating headlight. The crappie were all caught around 20' and the bass were all 30' and deeper.

[MissUL8R]

Nice fish, I guess I need to try the narrows before long.

Mike

[501mooney87]

Great fish!!! Boy i would love to have a mess of Walleye!!! You really can't hardly beat the meat, and amount of it, that you get off of them suckers!!

[BobbyJoe]

last year we were throwing all the walleye back. we talked to another guy at the marina who told us they were really good. well he was right. but i have found that this year they are far and few between.