Thread: Going to Hot Springs

I actually live in Royal which is about 10 minutes from Crystal boat ramp and I fish Lake Ouachita a lot. I hate to be the barer of bad news but Creekslick hit the nail on the head. Ouachita has been SLOW. I have beat my head against the wall out there over the last month trying to catch crappie and I know the lake like the back of my hand. The lake is really low right now which makes it even worse. I will admit I haven't been trying up in the river but I really don't suspect the crappie are biting up there any better than down the lake. In addition to that it can get a little dicey running around in the river when the water is low if you don't know where you are going. I wouldn't feel uneasy about it but I know exactly where the channels and danger spots are. However, if you've never been in the river area before I don't think now is the time to make it your first trip. It's a real deep lake but once you get up in the river there is a lot of big standing timber and when the water is low some of it can sneak up on folks.

I actually prefer fishing Hamilton in the fall. It just seems to me the fish are easier to find and more eager to bite this time of year. Greeson is another good one. The water is real low there also but it's very easy to navigate and it's loaded with brush piles but they are not as easy to find as Hamilton (except for the ones that are sticking up out of the water right now). A buddy of mine caught a pile of crappie there a couple of weeks ago. They weren't real big ones but there was a bunch of them. He and his brother kept there limit both days they fished. He said the first day they culled for a few hours and were keeping a total count of how many they had caught but got tired of counting around 70.

Fish Slapped, I sent you a PM.