What to do when the water goes down

[BrycenW]

so a lot of people have said that when the water goes down on the oxbows in eastern arkansas the fishing will improve. so what would you use to catch some in shallow oxows. would you spider rig or single pole and would you use jigs or minnows. all tips to this newbie would be appreciated

[dblevens]

I'm getting in my oxbow this weekend. I'm gonna start single poling the laydowns in the deepest water. I'm gonna start on the outside and work into the tops with a jig. The water is usually about 6' deep in there so I'll start out about 4' deep, and I'm gonna start out with either a Char/Yellow jig with a pink head or a black/purple jig with a black head. Notice I said "start out with", in crappie fishing its all subject to change.

[supergooser]

[Cmj]

X2 Also, try blue and white. This color usually works well for me on oxbows.

[Turtlebait]

The oxbows are clear,some look muddy some look dark b/c of bottom color but they are clear.May want to rethink start off colors and try tenn. Shad slider for morning and tenn. Shad curly tail when sun gets high.Alittle extra flash will help as the sun gets higher...some are so clear a long pole shallow / movement will spook.

[CrappiePro]

If I go to a Oxbow this time of year I am going to have my spider rigging poles firing on all cylinders with critters/live minnows. Just my two cents.

[arkcrappie]

Along the Mississippi, the water will back out of the different oxbows at different water levels. Take Midway for example. The water will start retreating and start clearing up around 25.5 on the Memphis guage. I like to get in a place like that BEFORE the lake level gets back to normal. The fish will be back in the brush and you will have to find them. But when you do, it is game on! Also, as the water retreats, the fish will pull back a little each day. They are easy to follow.
As CrappiePro said, get that spider rig out once the water gets back to a "normal" level. The fish will pull out to the deeper water, and that's relative to the depth of the lake, and hold there for the rest of the summer for the most part. There may be time you will still find some fish in the brush or on the trees, but the majority will pull out to where the food and most comfortable temps are.

I would expect that as the water retreats, this is going to be fast and furious as the water temps will rise quickly with this being late June. For me, I find on the shallow oxbows the bite gets tough once the water takes on the brown appearance and the temps go 90 or above. For some deeper oxbows, such as Tunica cutoff, fish can be caught all summer long.

That's my .02 anyway.

[Billy E]

I plan on fishing Midway this weekend. Look for me. I will be spider riggin. I will have 3 poles with minner critters and minners. 2 poles with capps and coleman straight minners. 2 poles with Creekslick troller jigs. I will let the crappie tell me what to use. My color ar on minner critter anything with chartreuse. the creekslick color is silver fox and black and blue. 1 of my C&C rig will have yellow and white and blue and white midsouth. This will be the 1st trip back on our oxbows this year and looking forward to it.