Crooked Creek Part 2

I was back in north Arkansas for work again and took a fellow biologist and our summer intern to Crooked Creek. I hate to keep posting non-crappie pictures on here, but I can't seem to catch crappie and we caught some good brownies. I just had to share some of the pictures. This time we parked at the back of the Fred Berry Education Center and walked down to the slab. We didnt catch as many smallies in this stretch but we did catch some good-uns. The largest was 18 inches. We also caught several 16 and 15 inches. Great day. Same baits as before. Enjoy!
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Thanks for the post, Matt. You post pics like that of smallies anytime you want! :ThumbsUp

Keep posting!!! love those smallmouth!!! and Rock Bass!!!

What kind of fish is that in the last picture. It doesn't look like the other smallmouth's.

It is an Ozark Bass. It is one of 3 species (Rock Bass, Ozark Bass, and Shadow Bass) in Arkansas that is commonly refered to as a rock bass.

Rock bass is a beauty!

Great pics. As a kid we wade fished some creeks north of Hardy. It was always a good time.

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Originally Posted by RCC

Great pics. As a kid we wade fished some creeks north of Hardy. It was always a good time.

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You probably caught some Shadow Bass in those creeks. They look like an Ozark Bass but it has dark blotches on it.

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Originally Posted by D10

You probably caught some Shadow Bass in those creeks. They look like an Ozark Bass but it has dark blotches on it.

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I didn't know what kind of fish were what. All bass looking fish were just bass to me and perch covered the rest of the fish in the creek. We released them all. Once we got "good" fishing gear, we would fish with a white or yellow beetle spin, but once I remember fishing a short plastic worm with an in line spinner and the "bass" loved it. Prior to good fishing gear, it was cut a stick and tie on a line and a hook. You could always catch a bunch of grasshoppers while crossing the pasture to get to the creek. Sometimes we would knock down a wasp nest and use the larvae as bait. I wish I knew now what I was really catching back then.

What ya'll have done shows that a person don't need $20k worth of gear to catch some really pretty fish.

Thanks for the answer, the reason I asked was I caught one that looked like that in the Buffalo river and was not sure what it was.

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Originally Posted by RCC

I didn't know what kind of fish were what. All bass looking fish were just bass to me and perch covered the rest of the fish in the creek. We released them all. Once we got "good" fishing gear, we would fish with a white or yellow beetle spin, but once I remember fishing a short plastic worm with an in line spinner and the "bass" loved it. Prior to good fishing gear, it was cut a stick and tie on a line and a hook. You could always catch a bunch of grasshoppers while crossing the pasture to get to the creek. Sometimes we would knock down a wasp nest and use the larvae as bait. I wish I knew now what I was really catching back then.

What ya'll have done shows that a person don't need $20k worth of gear to catch some really pretty fish.

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We still to this day catch crawdads,creekslicks,spinning reels, 2 & 4 lb test line just a hook no weight wade fish the ozark streams!!! Catch and release!!! We are blessed to be able to fish creeks that most can,t.does it get any better!!!We just wade through the cotonmouths,water moccians (snakes)!!!!

I would rather catch Smallies than anything. We have a few down here but catch lots of Spots . Great photos!

Matt, you have to fish for crappie to catch crappie!:fish

Good looking fish though. And beautiful country! Congrats.

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Originally Posted by craftshaw

Matt, you have to fish for crappie to catch crappie!:fish

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You can't post pictures of fish that you don't catch while crappie fishing. Believe me, I have tried. I just havent figured out the hot weather crappie fishing yet. Give me some time and I will figure it out one of these days.
:biggrin