Ouachita's slowly waking up

[Arkie John]

Went out there for the day and caught 15, keeping 9.

1 14.6, 1 14, 1 13.5 2 13s, and four in the 11-12.5 inch range.

Caught mostly on minnows or minnow/jig combinations. The jig I used was a 1/4 oz round head weedless w a chartruese Crappie Thunder body tipped either with a minnow or nibbles. The bite was slow but steady. It slowed to a crawl about 1 pm. That's when I got out the bandits.

I set the medium spinnin' outfits to where they'd track about 14/ deep. I had my Garmin 76MapCsx and I'd tell it to find waypoint X and I'd follow it in; then to the next one and then to the next. Nothing for the first 45 minutes...until I went by a waypoint I call 20'lngWillows. I swept by it and picked up a 14 incher! On my next pass, a 13.5 incher and on the next pass a 12! I had fished the spot for 30 minutes vertical jigging and w/ minnows to no avail. But they just could not stand the 300s.

At the end of the day I saw about 10 turkeys fly up to roost. So, if I feel like it tomorrow morning, I'll trek across the lake and with my trusty Matthews, will attempt to take another one. We'll see. Hmmmm.

I may just sleep in tomorrow on second thought....and fish on Saturday...or Monday. I think I'm gonna like this retirement gig. :D

aj

[dedawg1149]

congrats on your catch

[CastandBlast]

Good catch AJ.....Sounds like the retirement is going the way it supposed to....

[creekslick]

AJ retired people are not allowed to fish on Saturday, that is the day us working stiffs get to fish. Sound like you had a great day.

[dafshklr]

Can you post a pic of your rig/setup with the bandits? I've never tried them and would like to see one.

[TreeMyDog]

AJ, Way to go! Sounds like a great day.

[Arkie John]

Can you post a pic of your rig/setup with the bandits? I've never tried them and would like to see one.

But I will.

I've been dabbling in the trollin' thang since the summer with only limited results. Then I got to talkin' to the boys that do so well on Greers and decided that I wasn't getting the necessary depth I needed.

So...not having fancy line-counter reels, I did what some of them are doing. marked my rod for 2' and just strip off 70' of the line of one rod and a little less on the other, until I see what the fish prefer. I KISS. I use only two rods. Anything more is just too much work...and if I run amuck of a bunch of submerged trees etc, it just keeps things manageable.

In case you don't know, the bandit 300s are deep-running crank baits that resemble shad. They come in many colors. They're about $4.49 a pop here in Hot Springs. (Trader Bills)

Trollin' is not my favorite way to add to the livewell, but when all else fails I break 'em out--especially if I have a couple of hours to kill before the late aftertnoon bite begins. Hope this helps.

aj

[NIMROD]

Arkie , sounds like this retirement thing is agreeing with you. Settle'n into it nicely from the sound of it. Don't be too rough of the fish and game leave a few for the weekend warriors.

[Arkie John]

Arkie , sounds like this retirement thing is agreeing with you. Settle'n into it nicely from the sound of it. Don't be too rough of the fish and game leave a few for the weekend warriors.

Nim!

Well, alls I'm doin' these days is what I call "old man fishin'." That's where I go to the lake, stay all day - sun up to 45 minutes past sun down. I come home and clean fish, shower and go to bed. The next day I stay home, sleepin' in 'til 8 am or so and doin' a few "honey-dos." Then the NEXT day it's back to the lake or to the tree stand before daylight.

I likes this retirement thang, methinks. :D

Looks like Nimrod is back in shape and I know that makes YOU happy, too. I'm buying myself a new rig and will have to bring it us sos we can check it out together. It's a 19' Lowes deck boat w/ aluminum hull, two seats side by side up front, complete with livewell and 24v tm. Should have it in a couple of weeks.

aj

[NIMROD]

Sounds great Arkie, glad retirement is agree'n with ya. Congrats of retiement and the new boat.