Arkansas Crappie Trek Part I

This is the first installment of the ACT saga. It's been an interesting trip so far and I have attempted to document some of the trip with pictures. On Friday morning we sat out for Beaver Lake in spite of the hail storm that had arrived just prior to day light. The boat was ready...

Attachment 86519

However the preparation of the travelers was of utmost importance. Nothing gets a person in the mood for a hard days travel more than a good breakfast from Omlet Express in Jonesboro. This relatively unknown breakfast spot which double as Blue Coast Burrito from lunch till close serves up some mean breakfast vittles at a bargain price. Knowing this we put the peddle to the metal and headed out to get our tanks full.
Attachment 86522

A quick stop at Paragould for some minners and we were on our way.

Attachment 86523

It was great visting with you and the better half today at Carter Cove on Nimrod. Hope yall make it back after all the flood water is gone. Still want to see the triple tail Cat you told me about.

The trip was not destined to be uneventful. After reaching Hardy where we had planned a stop, I checked the trailer and found the left hand side to be covered in grease. Upon further inspection, I found the rubber grease seal in the bearing cap had failed and was letting all the grease in the left hand bearing to sling out. I did a quick tape job to hold the grease in and made a call to a buddy in Hardy who told me there was a farm store at Ashflat. This store had the rubber seals and I needed and inspite of the expense, I chose not only to purchase one, but also to purchase a second for a spare. Two bucks and a nickle for the 2 seals, I felt was highway robbery, but they knew I needed them and probably realized I was from out of town and stuck it to me.

We had our lodging on the lake planned for quite some time and arrived at the Little Cabin in the Woods about 1730 hours.
Attachment 86524

Dumped the boat in the lake

Attachment 86525

and got ready for some fishing the next day. The cabin had intermittent cell coverage, intermittent internet coverage. The TV was a 40 inch...if you measured the distance of each side and added them together. There was no satellite, no cable...there was not even an antenna. If you watched TV, thats what you did, sat and watch the box with no picture. The cabin had a jacuzzi, lots of candles, and a fine back porch with a nice view of the lake. My wife said it was romantic, but I wouldn't know anything about that.

It was a pleasure meeting you and your wife today, I certainly enjoyed the visit. I hope we get to catch a few crappie one day soon. At least, I know you've been trained to handle the net. lol Hey, we can't all catch fish, just be glad you married one that can..lol
Seriously, you'll have to come down and hit both Nimrod and Dardanelle with us, hopefully the water will be down about right and not so muddy....You can leave that "Trawler" at home...lol

I LOVE the cabin....it looks so romantic......are ya'll newly weds?

Again,,it was great meeting you folks!

I'm glad you asked about the fishing.

Our first trip was destined to short since we had a wedding to attend midday. Not knowing where to even start and being the skillful and resourceful fisherman that I am, I researched my available resources and found that the cove that the back porch overlooked was called Crappie Cove. What luck...we drive across the state and drive miles on a one lane track to a cabin in the woods and find ourselves on the banks of CRAPPIE COVE. There was no doubt where I would be fishing. The next day found us making a circle in CRAPPIE COVE with both sonars running and the front and rear sonar analysts interpretting the dots and squiggles on the screens into fish catching information. One pass was enough. We found CRAPPIE on the sonar stacked up in 30 fow about 12-15 feet down. We immediately began to unlimber the 8 B&M BJGPs and other miscellaneous fishing utensils to assualt these crappie stacked up in the Cedars. Our plan of attack was a frontal assault using the spider rig. We had already decided to take no prisoners so it was war. Only there was one small problem...

Spider rigging in them daggum cedars just don't work out so good. After a zillion and one hang ups we abandon the spider rig and attack with single jigs on 12'B&Ms. The crappie stacked up was clearly a clever ruse to discourage the average fisherman. They had apparently positioned leaves and other debris to appear on sonar as crappie stacked up while they had undoubtely departed for carp cove where they could eat in peace and not be disturbed by crappie fishermen.

It wasn't long though, before Carol was hollering get the net I looked up and the B&M was bent in the approximate shape of a pretzel that someone had taken a bite out of. I answered her with the worst words a woman could hear in that situation....WHAT NET?...the fish turned out to be a 4lb 14 oz deformed catfish (had a 3rd fin on the tail like a gold fish) which she made me lip since we had no net. Do you know what liping a catfish does to a thumb. It just ain't pretty...Attachment 86526

What's up with the goofy tail? We released that one to fight again. Carols second hook up was on a we don't know what since it towed the boat out of the cedars around a circle in the cove and back into the Cedars where it wrapped up and came off. It was a good thing cause I was sure dreading sticking my hand into the mouth of what ever it was...

Gotta run. More to follow soon. Good to see ya'll today Nimrod and Xring.

Hmmmmm I was accually getting excited as I scrolled down through this thread and thought you might have a mess of crappie to show us. LOL Im pulling for ya, Love the boat and cabin and to finally see what you look like RCC. Sounds like your having a great time. Go attack them crappie and give em heck. Remeber your Ole saying " You Have'nt Lived till you have four Bandit's snagged up on a windy day"

Sorry Crappie Pro, that's not me, that's my wife:yikes

Evening trip on day one was not much better. We single pole jigged a cove off of what I believe to be the Clifty arm of Beaver. This resulted in a bass catching fiasco.

Attachment 86537

After a few bass off of the single pole it was getting late so I decided we would long line our way back in along the edge of a line of cedar trees. This resulted in even more bass.

The next morning casting with rod and reel...guess what....Attachment 86538

Bass....and

Attachment 86539

More bass. I knew we were catching lots of bass which aggravates me, but what really aggravated me was when I discovered some of the local residents sneeking in the woods around watching and listening trying to figure out how we were catching so many bass.

Attachment 86540

We asked a couple guys long lining how many they had caught and one said four and the other said one. I asked if they were crappie and they said naw they were bass that crappie were hard to come by on that end of the lake. I told them we had lit off 3 sticks of dennimite and all we had floating was 43 bass. At that point they showered down on the ninety hp on their boat and left us bobbing like a toothpick in a toilet with their long lines flying straight out in the breeze. I guess they just didn't appreciate my attempt at humor. I sure hated telling them that Carol had just caught about 15 from the direction they had been fishing. No crappie were caught at Beaver on the north end. If you want to catch a bass, it's no problem. Carol did wear my hide out on the catching. I suspect she had the butterly mojo working for her.
Attachment 86545

While I had the turkey buzzard mojo working on me. This one got so tired of watching me catch no fish, he hid his head.
Attachment 86546

So much for crappie fishing on the north end of Beaver. It's time to head on south.

By the way, the first person to correctly count the amount of butterflies in the picture with the hand and tells me the correct number in person AT SPRING CAMP or if it is a number other than what I counted and can prove it, I will give them a free Handicrappie manufactured crappie.com hat.

We headed on south for phase 2 of the Arkansas Crappie Trek. We met up with my buddy Nimrod just after mid day. No fishing this trip due to situations beyond our control, but he did fix me up with some fish catching stuff since he knew I had been down on my crappie catching luck. Xring was over on the lake and dropped by and also knew I was down on my crappie catching luck so he decided to share his latest secrect weapon. I'm pretty sure this was not how the conversation went, but I'll recall it the way I want to remember it...

xring-"RCC you wanna heard about my new secret weapon for crappie catching"
rcc-"you betcha"
xring-"it's cover sent, you know, like the ones deer hunters use to mask their smell"
rcc-"I didn't know crappie could smell. How do you do it? Do you get a little bottle from Walmart and dab some on?"
xring-"naw, you can do it several ways. You can find a dead skunk on the side of the road, tie it to a broom handle and mop your boat down or if you want the really long lasting scent you can lock a skunk in the garage with your boat over night"
rcc-"does it really help you catch more crappie"
xring-"naw, but it sure helps keep the other fishermen from crowding you"
Rofl
There is a little more to this meeting and since the camera with the pics are in the truck, the rest of the story will have to wait.

"Trawler" pfffffffft Rofl

You are too funny, but did try to stand up wind of the minner pause or whatever that red boat of Xring's is called.RoflRoflRoflRoflRoflRoflRoflRoflRoflRoflRof lRoflRoflRoflRoflRofl

First,,look up mercy in websters...then show some, I have feelings you know, I'm deeply hurt...well, I could have been had I been thin skinned..rotfl
I went to town, bought 5 gallons of tomato juice, after 9 hours of scrubbing, I went back to town, bought a gallon of vodka..mixed it with the remaining tomato juice, added one ice cube left from yesterdays unsuscessful outting and have just started drinking away my cares....my minner dawn is poised for take up, off..and I have a problem, someone stole my dash and radio out iof my truck and the foot pedals too..........oops, I guess I got in the back door instead of the front..disregard officer, I found it...no I ain't been driving,,I didn't til just now have a steering wheel..

Randall, sounds like you just need to keep heading South, LOL!!

Xring has mentioned mercy a couple...or at least one time and that is something he hasn't practiced in this thread. He has been on a continuous gouge from xring post #1. Losing the peddles and steering wheel is just meanRofl I would gouge back, but when I met Don for the first time I sized him up just in case we decided to arm wrestle for lunch and realized he is only about 5 foot 18, lean and mean. I figured if we arm wrestled for lunch, I'd be buying since I am more of the short, soft cuddly type person. I do how ever have a pic of xrings boat. Nimrod and I are pointing to something in the back. It's a possibility it may be a the 3lber in the live well or we could be pointing to some "unmentionable hardware" that may get some unpostable comments from certain persons.

Is it a 3lber in the live well?
Attachment 86547

Get on over in the pic xring. I didn't drive all the way across the state for you to hide behind the seat...
Or is it some certain unmentionable fishing hardware. If I find the rest of the parts at a yard sale, you're gonna get a ups box to finish fixing you up.
Attachment 86548

Not only is xrings boat nice, the neatest thing is the steps. I didn't get a pic, but I'm sure a pic could be arranged. I sure had fun meeting ya'll over there.
"whiskers the size of a stick of baloney"Rofl

RCC, you're a hoot. Good luck on the rest of yer ACT!!


Big River Marine
Bill Burnett
870-635-0202

hey mr randall, i sure enjoyed reading this sequel of events you have presented us with! good stuff. u and ms carrol need to come south and get in on these 2lbers.

I noticed in the pic that xring and nimrod are wearing the same shirt. Is that a crappie uniform? If so I want to get one....I want to be like them when I grow up.:crazy:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bigtex

I noticed in the pic that xring and nimrod are wearing the same shirt. Is that a crappie uniform? If so I want to get one....I want to be like them when I grow up.:crazy:

---

Your half right, thats xring and rcc. I was not wearin my Columbia fishin shirt or we would all three be dressed the same. lol lol. With the sun on the water every day, the long sleeve shirts offer some protection and are loose fitting. To me they are as cool if not cooler than a tee shirt. Besides they make you look like a real fisherman.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NIMROD

Your half right, thats xring and rcc. I was not wearin my Columbia fishin shirt or we would all three be dressed the same. lol lol. With the sun on the water every day, the long sleeve shirts offer some protection and are loose fitting. To me they are as cool if not cooler than a tee shirt. Besides they make you look like a real fisherman.

---

Sorry, Mr. Nimrod for the mis-identification. Hopefully after this week-end I will be able to put faces with names better. Look forward to meeting you.

I have tryed, unsuscessfully to reply to this thread since the wee hours of the morning,,so if you want to know my thought,,use ma-bell...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrr.

I'm back. Got cell, got internet. Ready to rock and roll. Where da fish?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RCC

I'm back. Got cell, got internet. Ready to rock and roll. Where da fish?

---

In da water , unless the CC. Com folks already caught em all RCC.Rofl

I'm just hopin' to get lucky and get on 'em, LOL!

Hearing some nasty rumors about some fish being caught. I need to be payed off to stay away from the hot lakes. Hate to shut the bite down just by showing up. Met a buncha fine folks down here already.

Billbob, stay away from my woman:biggrin.

It's back to the salt mine tomorrow, but in the mean time, the ACT story must continue. After several days away from the story, my thoughts have scattered like shot at quail after a covey rise, but here goes...

No Crappie so far after fishing Beaver, but we are to stay behind the locked gates of Hot Springs Village and surely a crappie will bite, but I can feel the dark mojo getting stronger as each mile passes under our vehicle. We arrive at HSV on monday and as I gazed out into the forest at our place of lodging, it seemed the trees were mocking me sticking out their tongues and the wind through their branches seemed to be whispering "no crappie, no crappie, no crappie", but perhaps it was only my mind playing cruel tricks after fight the traffic from Rogers, Ar to HSV, but again...was it my mind?????
Attachment 87046

Tuesday morning brought a beautiful day with turkeys gobbling in the woods around us while having breakfast on the back deck of VRBO #193378. We took a morning break from fishing and tried to catch up with c.com member cache22 to get some fishing tips for HSV. After several missed calls both directions we decided to fish lake Cortez. The evening bite was sparse for us and after fishing till dark with only a few fish, none made it to the place of honor in the fish box. The dark mojo was becoming stronger almost to the point of being unbearable, but it was still early in the week and it was a possibility with the hot bite going on down south a crappie would still find it's place into the sandwich sized ziploc bags I had brought along to place my filets into, since this size had always been adequate before. Wednesday found us on the road again to visit the in-laws on lake Conway and recharge the mental batteries for the task of catching a fish down south.

Sandwich bags ain't gonna cut it down here Randal, LOL! You better get the gallons......or at the very least the quarts!! :biggrin

After some good groceries and mental rest. We departed for parts south on thursday without fishing Conway. We arrive at Lake Village and get settled in the Ramada and decide to drive through Pecan Grove campground to see if we can find anyone we know. Almost at dark Carol and I stumble on some friendly looking people setting around getting their relax on so we parked the ride and walked back to find several Crappie.Com members. Steve48, Harold, Laserbeam, Crappie Pro, Midsouth Man and Shannon, and Ski Trip led by the one the one and only Bill Bob were there, and I sensed their nervousness even though they attempted to hide it with their easy going banter. I could practically read their minds and as I introduced myself, and they were thinking "RCC is here, notorious for not catching fish...what if he...by some strange freak, cosmic occurance, should catch more fish than I. It could ruin my reputation for life". As I gripped each hand I tried my best to squeeze just a little bit harder to make them doubt their own fish catching abilities. After many stories among which I learned my new favorite phrase "hold on cupcake", which I try to use as often as opportunity will allow, I voiced my concerns about my boat. While not worth much, it was the only boat I carried with me and leaving the SS leaksalot in the Ramada parking lot was causing me much consternation. Of course good Crappie.com members couldn't turn down another member in need and Ski Trip asked if I would like to leave my boat there that they would keep an eye on it. I weighed this over in my mind "me watch my boat and lose sleep worrying about it, or Ski Trip watch my boat and he lose sleep worrying about it" after weighing this for approximately 1.6 seconds, I decided that Ski Trip should lose sleep watching my boat and besides this would have one member at a possible disadvantage to be out fished by me since he wouldn't be quite as sharp feeling the gentle bite of a crappie after being up all night watching my boat. So it was all set. My boat would be left with Ski Trip and Crappie Pro. Sensing an opportunity, inspite of my boat hosts being so kind and helping me out, I decided I would have a little fun at their expense. We were in my wifes jeep and the steering wheel is on the wrong side...yes, THE S T E E R I N G W H E E L, is on the wrong side. It is a little strange to drive down the road and a bit different to back a trailer while sitting on the wrong side of the truck. My plan was to tell a sob story about backing the trailer and talk one of the C.C members into helping me out by backing the trailer, in the dark, from the wrong side, while I watched from the outside and giggled like a school girl at their attemps while they first got into the vehicle on the wrong side, discovered no steering wheel, getting back out, going around the truck,and finding the steering wheel, then trying to back a strange trailer, in a strange vehicle, into a small unlit area. I departed the gathering and went to pull the rig around closer. Knowing that if they saw me get out it would ruin my practical joke, I stopped well short of the RV and started walking where I met my victim...Crappie Pro, coming around the corner to drive the jeep with the steering wheel on the wrong side. I could barely contain my mirth as Russ strolls straight out to the vehicle and gets in.....THE RIGHT side....how does Russ know to get in the right side...someone has sold me down the river...ruined my practical joke. Not only that, Crappie Pro snaps the jeep into drive pulls forward, yanks the jeep into reverse and without a bobble puts the trailer perfectly into the parking spot while I stand there with my mouth open and eyes as big as saucers. My practical joke ruined. Not only was it just barely ruined, it was completly destroyed. Russ I found out later and spent time in Japan driving RHD vehicles, and driving ours was no problem. It was then I realized that the mojo...the "DARK" mojo had reached an F5 on the Fujita scale and I had developed some strange charcteristics one being a twitch, and the other being a maniacle snicker, which sounded something similar to a squirrel up a tree barking at a stray cat passing through the yard.

The next day finds a rainy dawn. This I felt was the dark mojo reaching a feverous pitch and as I looked out into the dreariness, I twitched just a little and snickered the maniacle squirrel sounding snicker. I could sense my dark mojo was shutting down South Arkansas and possibly parts of Mississippi where several C.Com member were planning on fishing. No one was even going to get to fish. It was to be a rain out and my dark mojo had defeated EVERYONE. But wait, the rain was slacking and people were loading up. I felt obligated to play along with the fishing facade since I had driven far and claimed to be a crappie fisherman, so I went to retrieve my boat and trailer. I was met by Ski Trip who through tired eyes declared that the wheels were still on the trailer and it was ready to go. Without a smile, I inspected my gear looking to find a small extra scratch that had happened overnight so I could complain. Finding none, I proclaimed my thanks my saying "help me hook her up, I believe the rain is quitting".

Reaching lake Washington in Mississippi, I found the boat launches full of boats and optimistic fishermen telling glowing reports of great crappie catches throughout the week and the day before. Not one suspected that today would be different. As we launched and made our way across the lake, I could feel the forces of the good mojo and the dark mojo at war. As we fished through the day, I began to run across people with looks of despair on their faces. Across the water I could hear puzzled voices saying, "they were here yesterday I wonder where they went". No doubt the crappie had heard of my arrival and had departed from lake Washington the night before. After spreading the dark mojo up and down the lake until approximately mid afternoon Carol and I departed the lake at 2:47. As we drove away from Mikes bait shop my wife said. Do you need to me to drive? You keep jerking the steering wheel, and what's that strange sound sound you keep making? Do you need a cough drop. You sound like the squirrel in the yard barking at that stray cat that comes by.

We arrived at the Crappie.Com steak feed which was obviously prepared while my dark mojo was still across the state line since it turned out delicious. The chefs did an excellent job preparing and much work was evident by the tables and chairs set up and all the great food sat in front of us. Crappie Pro and Ski Trip finally arrived and I approached them expecting to hear some sad story but instead they were wound tighter than an 8 day clock saying they had got on them pretty good and had about 50. I had spoke with them on the lake earlier in the day and they had just a few so I asked what happened. They told me that they kept on fishing and about mid afternoon at 2:48 or so the crappie had really turned on. I did not understand. I sensed my dark mojo was beginning to weaken.

The next day was big fish day. Would the fish bite, or would the dark mojo affect the crappie bite? Time would tell. Carol asked me what I was going to do. She stated that I was a member of Crappie.Com and that meant I should at least catch a crappie. I decided the next day, I would follow some good fishermen and hopefully some of their good mojo would rub off. Unfortunately, apparently they had figured out the source of the bad mojo.

I first followed Crappie Pro and Ski Trip.
Attachment 87070
Ski Trip is telling me that their biting over in Arkansas I should go over there and try it.

I then stalked Mid South Man and Shannon.
Attachment 87072

I was just figuring out what they were doing and need to get a little closer, when we got busted and were asked to kindly remove ourselves from their fishing hole.
Attachment 87074

I told Carol we have one more shot at catching a crappie. We gotta find luvpt and follow him around. So off we went and found him out in the lake but it's to hard to stay hidden in open water. Here's Steve telling us to back off or he'll whup us up side the head with his EGO net.
Attachment 87075

What are we to do? I guess we'll have to prove to these fisherman that we can catch a fish all on our own.

So off we went on our on. Found our own spot and in a few minutes got on a hot bite. It wasn't long before we had several nice ones in the cooler. Nothing that would win a big fish tournament, but just good eaters.

Attachment 87076

Finally my dark mojo spell had been broken and I was so disappointed. People were catching big fish even I caught some nice ones. My reputation of bad luck was ruined...or was it?

I was exhausted from the combat of good vs dark mojo and left the lake assuming that my dark mojo was exhausted. I ran into Supergooser while we were leaving and he said he had some fish but was going to fish a while longer. After arriving back at Pecan Grove camp ground, I called him back and he said after we left it was just a little while had he had twice as many fish as when he saw us leaving, so I knew I was still carrying some dark mojo around. Several large crappie were weighed and luvpt had a fish they said was a crappie, but I'm not sure since I don't think they make crappie that big, and besides it didn't look quite like mine.
Attachment 87077

a real lake washington beauty !!!!! good job steve!!!

A wonderful crappie feed was spread before us which was fabulous and we all ate until we were filled. It was then time for the door prize giveaways. Someone would need to help me out with all who donated but it was absolutely amazing at all the things that were to be given away. There were door prizes for ALL. The tickets were to be passed out and one was to be placed back in the bag to be drawn from. I was the last to get a ticket and as I carried the bag with the tickets from our side of the room back to the front I wondered if my dark mojo was exhausted. So with much effort and concentration I focused my dark mojo on these tickets to see if I had any mojo left and the numbers began to be called out...

37...number 37...other side of the room
62...other side of the room.
on and on and on...other side of the room and I began to smile.
All the people that had put there number in the bag with mine began to look around at each other and finally Big Tex stopped the drawing and said, "no ones numbers from this side of the room have been drawn. Are our number in there?" Dennis said they were and I confirmed that I had taken the numbers to the front as my jaw twitched and an involuntary maniacal snicker sneaked out. My job was complete, camp was wonderful, the fishermen retained their reputation as fish catchers and I retained my reputation as being able to shut down the bite, if not on a large lake at least on a lake of a few hundred acres. My dark mojo inspite of being tested was confirmed to be intact by the fact that when we arrived at the motel, we found the air conditioning unit had failed and would not work. I breathed a sigh of relief at this news and knew things were to be back to normal in no time at all.

My wife was embarrased and concerned that all would laugh at my lack of fish catching ability so to appease her, I did borrow a man's fish and get a picture.

Attachment 87078
Carol said I didn't even look like a fisherman there with no hat and no fishing clothes. I guess we all gotta stick with what we do best. So on our way home, I discovered what I am good at.

Attachment 87081
Look at these babies I landed.
Attachment 87082
Everyone needs the GPS coordinates to here, but I'll not give them out. Find your own donut hole. My next adventure. Arkansas Donut Trek. It does have a ring to it.

Slab. Can you help me start a website I can call it hummmm......donut.com.

Dude, you ain't right!! My side hurting from laughing so dang hard. You must have one hell of a wife to put up with your crazy butt!