Hamilton Reports

Going to be in Hot Springs this week. Was looking for some reports on Hamilton, but no luck. Curious if the males are starting to scout shallow yet.

Haven't fished it this year but we have lakehouse there and I know they raised the lake to summer pool. Might be a little out of whack.

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Last I heard was brush in 10-15'. I don't fish it very often but have a couple of buddies that get out there fairly regular. The last reports I heard from them were not great. They were catching a few but nothing to write home about. If the water temp is the same on Hamilton as it is on Ouachita I would think they are still a week to ten days from moving up. The water temp on Ouachita yesterday varied from 53 to 57 depending on location and time of day. If you know Ouachita very well I would recommend it over Hamilton. This fish out there are still deep but schooled up in dense numbers when you find them. Finding them is the problem, but once you do you can catch a bunch sitting in one spot. I'm catching them in 20-30 FOW vertical jigging off deep brush. If you don't know where there is any deep brush and don't have good electronics to find it you might have a tough time finding them though. Another option would be Greeson if you don't mind driving just a little bit from Hot Springs. It's full of brush piles and easier to dissect than Ouachita. I haven't heard any reports on it lately but you can go to Jerry Blake's website "Action Fishing Trips". They usually have some pretty good information posted and photos of what they have been catching. Good luck, hope you catch'em.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm staying at a house up there that belongs to family. Hopefully, the crappie are still sitting in the docks then. There are a few condos dropped off the dock they have that is 20 ft deep. I have a fish cattube as well that I use that has a depth finder if I want to get out deeper. I'd have to take some time to look on google earth to figure out where to put in on the other 2 lakes, so probably going to stick with Hamilton.

Any advice on colors working on Hamilton? I always prefer pink jig heads 1/32 up to 1/8 on black/chart, white/chart, electric chicken down here in the DFW area.

In our clear waters around here I like more sparkled up colors with one exception, pink body and chart. tail. I fish Southern Pro grubs in blue/silver, bubble gum, red head and a coupe of other colors on occasion. With the Bobby Garland baits I like blue ice, pink pearl, and patriot. In Meatgetter jigs I use 89, 139, 101, 264, and one or two others. I catch fish on all of them. However, if you are mostly going to be sitting on a dock I would get some minnows and fish them under a slip cork. Condos in 20 FOW should be holding some fish, you will just have to figure out what depth they want the minnow at. You can buy minnows at Trader Bills on Albert Pike or the Valero gas station on Airport Rd. just up the hill from the Harvest Foods store. I'm sure there are some other places too but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.