St Franscis Sunken lands

[Roughneck]

Does anybody ever fish the St. Francis sunken land area near Lepanto ? My friend has a buddy that goes there and does well. Looks swampy from the Google map, my kind of place.

[gzrglide]

Depends, we used to fish the bar pits on that side all the time when they quit biting on this side or when there got to be so many fishing this side you could walk from the ramp to you fishing hole across all the boats and never touch the water. We have done well in several of the bar pits over there, but haven't been over there in 6 or 7 years.

[tommyboyrn]

What about st francis lake?? I thinks it near oak donnick but dont know much about that area.
Ive accessed the river east of trumann before at the "iron bridges?" access but didnt do well in mid august heat.....

[gzrglide]

We always pickup some up in the wide water, there is one stump there that I always stop at, first thing, and depending on the size crappie I catch around that stump tells me whether I will work the wide water or move on up the river. Puttin' in at the county line (iron bridge) is always iffy. Depends on how high the water is. Have caught fish in the barrow pit there when the water is right, and have also run North thru the bar pits into the river if the river is up enough. South out of the bar pit, you can get to the river also, but there is only about a 1 or 2 mile stretch there that typically has enough water to fish, I have caught a bunch of bass in that stretch but not a lot of crappie, water tends to be to shallow and swift, if you go to far south, you will be waddin to get back because of the sand bars and swift water. Lots of sand bars in that river anymore, I think in the last 10 years, I can only think of one time that I made it from the dam to above the county line by water without waddin. Fishin' wasn't that good that day so decided to see if I could get to Lake City and back. Got bored just above the county line and turned around about the time I got to the bar pits of Craighead County Road 820.

[tommyboyrn]

I may have to try that lake I guess...never ventured there before. I have also wanted to try near marked tree where u turn by mcdonalds and hit river south of marked tree

[gzrglide]

A place to try in the spring if you have a small boat (10 ft or so.) and a good skullin paddle is the bar pit in the flood way just south of the highway about a quarter mile or so just before ditch 60? (I think it is 60, might be 61, anyway last ditch before you get to the Marked Tree side) A buddy of mine and I went in there spring before last and there is some big crappie in that little pit, but keep you paddle close to beat the snakes off and keep up out of the boat. Last time we went in with chest waders on and caught a limit, but I swore I wouldn't go back without a boat and something to keep the snakes off. I hate snakes with a passion.
Oh, forgot to mention, you want a small boat cause you will have to drag it thru the woods and brush about 100 yards to get in there

[gzrglide]

If you are going as far as Marked Tree, might as well go down 75 and fish the bar pits at Monterey. With the new concrete ramps and one with a mini van can get in and out of the first two bar pits, the third still takes a 4wd to get in and out of so doesn't get quite as much pressure. I like the third bar pit, but have had fun getting out of there when a nice ran caught me in there. The place you launch is a sand bar surrounded by Gumbo, so once it is wet get out is like skating on ice. Last time I was caught down there in the rain, mud got deep enough to where my boat floated the trailer thru and my jeep had about an inch of gumbo on the roof and hood by the time I got back up on the line, boy was that fun.

[Billy E]

Thanks for the info gzrglide.

[tommyboyrn]

Yes thanks grzglide. I have fished monterray before and caught a few bass but never any crappie.
but it looks fishy. My brother in law fishes there alot. I habe not tried the third pit....I have 4wd so may wanna look at it when it dries out a bit......