Ouachita's slowly waking up

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

congrats on your catch

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

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

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

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

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Originally Posted by dafshklr

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

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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

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. ;)

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Originally Posted by 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. ;)

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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

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