Thread: Jones Lake/Blue Lake today

Looks like you had a good day. At least it was filled with action.

Where is Jones Lake?

Take Hwy 82 West from Crossett. Cross the Ouachita river and go six miles till you see the Jones Lake sign on the right then follow the signs. It is in the Felsenthal Refuge and has a great concrete ramp and place to camp. Go North thru the trees at the East end of the lake and after about 150 yds it opens up to Blue Lake. It is very secluded and in the Boondocks....and a great place to fish. You never know what you are about to catch in that lake cause it has just about everything in there.

Sounds like you had plenty of action Steve, I need to learn where some of these lakes are and start fishing them, sounds like my kind of spot. Thanks for the report.

Sounds like a great time and a nice place to fish......good job on landing some of those fish.

Sounds like you did pretty well considering the Plan B lake (the lake you fish on windy days). I'll bet that 23lb Buffalo was a hoot. Thanks for the report. Looks like I will be "visiting" the in-laws next weekend...

I had a lil time to kill today so I rode down to jones lake and tried them out. I had my 8 pole spider rig out and after the 9th mudcat and 3 gar I decided to call it a day. I did catch one crappie about 6 inches long. I've never heard of mudcats biting crappie jigs fished 2' deep in 15' of water. That was really strange to me.

Originally Posted by Lipripper

I had a lil time to kill today so I rode down to jones lake and tried them out. I had my 8 pole spider rig out and after the 9th mudcat and 3 gar I decided to call it a day. I did catch one crappie about 6 inches long. I've never heard of mudcats biting crappie jigs fished 2' deep in 15' of water. That was really strange to me.

I know what you mean. I could understand the flatheads hitting the jigs but couldn't figure out why the mudcats were hitting them shallow in deep water. How fast were you trolling? I was not able to catch any crappie when moving slow which was unusual for me. I usually like the slow trolling. They were nailing the jigs hard when trolling 1.0 to 1.5 mph which is much faster than I usually troll. I found that out by accident when moving in a hurry to get over to another spot and caught a 1.5 lb Crappie while going fast (I actually thought I was hung up when I picked up the pole and was surprised when it was a Crappie). They were picky about the colors they would hit. I never could get them to hit a Bobby Garland (which is one of my favorites) in about 10 different colors. The blk/char or Green/char tube jigs worked best for me. I would catch catfish when fishing within 20-25 ft of any bank but didn't catch any in the middle. I started staying away from the banks or it would be a guaranteed catfish and wasted time. The best area for Crappie I found was just in front of and to the right of the boatramp in the 20 ft water. Also they were to the left of the ramp going toward the West end staying about 75 ft from the North bank. I had my jigs set at 1.5 ft but going the speed I was trolling at probably put them pretty close to the surface. There was about a 45 degree angle on the lines so they were actually probably 8-12 inches from the surface. All the fish I caught trolling fast and shallow in the deep water were good ones. I did catch some smaller ones when I was fishing deeper on some of the poles. I don't know why they weren't hitting the jig when it went by them slow and can only guess that maybe when they saw it zipping by fast they just attacked it on instinct. Sometimes a dog will not chase someone if they are just walking by but let them be running or on a bicycle and the chase is on! That's just a guess....but when they did hit a jig they hit very aggressively. I did have a roadrunner on one pole and caught one crappie that I remember on it but that's the pole I also had a lot of trouble with trash fish on (caught the gar on it). I will be going back to Jones' lake real soon...it was fun and a good experience. Also, I have a small score to settle with a few big'uns that got off.