H0wdy,

Are you from AR? I am living in searcy and have fished up near fairfield bay before. I don't remember a lot of brush in the water in previous trips, but what we normally did was put in at devils fork (near fairfield bay) and we would go north across the river up the middle fork. There is debris and whatnot further up the river a little bit. We have had major luck up there before.
-side note- If you do go up the river, look to the right. There are some huge massive bluffs, one of which I foolishly jumped off of on a previous crappie trip. I ended up having to go to the x-ray room twice because of it. Do not jump off those bluffs.

One more thing, I know tons of people who make special trips to go east of fairfield bay to choctaw landing, in fact if I was to go today, that is where I would go. If you head directly east from the landing there are some really nice coves with some trees. This is the web address to a really small and nice bait shop. I am sure if you are traveling here they would love to tell you a bit in exchange for some business. I always stop and shop there.
http://www.smartpages.com/home/woodysbaittackle3

Good luck, sorry I couldn't help more.