Labor Day on Nimrod

[Arkie John]

Steady wind from the East, constant heavy "seas," got wet twice and still managed 8 decent black crappie (none over 11"), one giant red ear and several small bream; jigs only.

No minnows to be had or I could have taken close to a limit methinks. :rolleyes:

Got into the upper reaches and trolled bandits for a spell with no results. Everything came on 1/8 weedless junebug/chartreuse and pink/chartreuse.

Coffee&milk water color but a beautiful lake. It's 62 miles one way to my house. I reckon I will stay near Ouachita for the most part.

aj

[NIMROD]

Where did you fish ? We caught lots of small Crappie with an Occasional nice fish this weekend. Most were white ,but the blacks were all pretty small. Saw Slabbandit and his buddy dragging in a bunch of dinks out by English Creek. We kept more than we could eat all week but did'nt really tear them up.

[CastandBlast]

Sounds like you did ok considering the conditions you were having to fish in....thanks for the report.

[barry davis]

love those redear. is there a big population of them in the lake? are they comparable to the redears in conway? as far as size.

[NIMROD]

love those redear. is there a big population of them in the lake? are they comparable to the redears in conway? as far as size.

No Redears are few in number and tend to be small here.

[slabbandit]

Hey Arkie John, I assume that you came up Hwy 7 to the lake. Lela's smokehouse and baitshop is closed due to a funeral. If you come on down 5 miles on Hwy 60 you will come to Bait N More bait shop. they have bait.
NIMROD rode us pretty hard about using minnows instead of straight jigs like him but we were just laid back this weekend and wanted to relax. Like he said we were keeping a lot of dinks but we ended up with 80 for the weekend.

If you decide to try it again any time soon put in at Carden Point and just locate the river channel and tightline minnows out over 15 feet in the channel and then turn back in to about 10 feet deep on the ledge. The crappie that were relating to the shad were in the 10 to 12 foot range.
If jigging brush tops 6 to 9 produced a little better fish.

[Arkie John]

I put in at Carter Cove after goin' to the Bait N More. The little princess (from Mena, originally) told me she was out of minnows and that her supplier was out. Well, that just set the pace for me. I knew it would be slim pickin's for me with me bein' on a strange lake. I bought some ice, a map and a few drinks and headed down to the lake.

Fishing the channels on the lake was just out. It felt like me ridin' one of those mechanical bulls at the Electric Cowboy lol. I just couldn't stay on the spot.

So I went over to the big creek on the South side of the lake, where the shere rock cliffs are. At the corner of the rock out in the channel (17' of water) the rock makes a 90 degree turn. At that turn there is a massive brush pile coming up to within 8-10 feet of the surface. I fished the rocks out in the deeper water and picked up the blacks there in that area.

Then I went toward the dam and started in on the published brush tops on the second main point on the North bank. Didn't do much there even though I was out of the wind a little. Then I went toward the dam and got in deeper water, marking a few trees on the channel banks for future use.

I also went into the river in the upper reaches of the lake. Never been there before but liked the 25' + water I found there. I trolled there for a time until the second rain squall threatened from the east. I reeled in, picked up my markers and shagged between the two small islands and headed for the cove. I was trailered up and headin' out at 7:00 pm.

I took the specks home and put them in the pond. They were real lively when I released them so they should be right at home.

I caught one black crappie that was a deep, rich, spectacular black color. He was just a purdy fish!

Maybe next time I come up to you all's waters, you guys can show me around and/or at least eat a sandwich and a cold drink together.

I appreciate all the tips. I like the lake but just wish it was closer. I'd like to get to know it better. It was special for Daddy and his cronies and for me and my brother, the times we spent there.

aj