Pickthorne

Anybody fish this lake? I live three miles from there, but due to the bad water conditions, and the sketchy bite, I rarely fish there anymore. I have always lived a stone's throw from the lake, and have caught some really good Bass and Crappie over the years. The Game and Fish had originally set out to make this a trophy Bass fishery, but due to high levels of suspended clay in the water, and other things, samples started to show signs of overpopulation in Crappie, and for whatever reason, an unhealthy Bass population. So the plan was scrapped. From what I understand, they have been electrosampling there again, and are hopefully going to try and give it another shot at redemption. I would love to see this lake restored to its former glory.

too many crappie. you ve got to be kidding. I sure cant catch them, and I do the blind trawling thing. we buy our gold fish by the pound. the only place in that lake over waist deep was in the bar pits. too many crappie? wow.

Used to fish it when I lived in jville. Don't let that stained water steer u away from it. Look at Grenada. I bet there are some toads in pickthorne

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Originally Posted by jtresn

too many crappie. you ve got to be kidding. I sure cant catch them, and I do the blind trawling thing. we buy our gold fish by the pound. the only place in that lake over waist deep was in the bar pits. too many crappie? wow.

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That was my reaction too. I have never caught a dink Crappie there.

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Originally Posted by arkansasbowhunter

Used to fish it when I lived in jville. Don't let that stained water steer u away from it. Look at Grenada. I bet there are some toads in pickthorne

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There are some nice ones in there, just not enough of em.

BigBen is the Biologist for that district (I think). Might drop him a pm and ask if they been shocking there. I know there's some catfish out there. and I hear there's even some skurls across the levee.

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Originally Posted by LMBarnett

BigBen is the Biologist for that district (I think). Might drop him a pm and ask if they been shocking there. I know there's some catfish out there. and I hear there's even some skurls across the levee.

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I have been in contact with him. They shocked there Tuesday. Havent heard about the results yet.

Keep us posted on the shocking

Lots of places are sleepers just have reputation as dead seas. Be interesting to hear a report on shocking survey.

That is also the closest lake to me. 10 or so years ago I fished pickthorn 2 or 3 times a week for crappie even if for an hour or two before work. there are a couple ditches with structure on the north east side that ran out toward the middle that would always hold fish in the winter. about 6 years ago we got to where we couldn't catch fish in pickthorn so I stopped going. I've tried it 3 or 4 times a year since and have'nt had a good day in years. I don't think over population is a problem. Whatever the problem is I sure wish it would get corrected, even if the problem is me.

The biologist for the Pic is in the Brinkley district. I talked to him several years about putting tilapia in each spring as they do in Lake Hoagie and a few other lakes. He was adamant about not stocking any non-native fish in his district. I told him that I was really glad that he was not in control when the commission stocked trout and other species in our lakes that has been very successful. He said that was different!!!! I have had a few good trips there several years ago. The last trips I caught one slab and a few dinks. I am going to try to go next again next week. Good thumps and tight lines Woodpecker

The biologist for the Pic is in Brinkley. I talked to him. a few years ago about stocking tilapia there as they do in Lake HOAUGE and a few other waters. He was adamant about not stocking non-native fish in his waters. I told him that I was glad he was not in charge when the commission stocked trout and other species in our waters that has been very successful. He said that was different!!!! I have some really good trips to the Pic years ago but the last ones wind up with one big slab and a few dinks. Some friends had same results. I plan on going next week and will give a report. hopefully it will be a good one.Good thumps and tight lines. Woodpecker

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Originally Posted by woodpecker

The biologist for the Pic is in the Brinkley district. I talked to him several years about putting tilapia in each spring as they do in Lake Hoagie and a few other lakes. He was adamant about not stocking any non-native fish in his district. I told him that I was really glad that he was not in control when the commission stocked trout and other species in our lakes that has been very successful. He said that was different!!!! I have had a few good trips there several years ago. The last trips I caught one slab and a few dinks. I am going to try to go next again next week. Good thumps and tight lines Woodpecker

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That biologist is no longer in charge of Pickthorne. I believe it was recently re-zoned so that the biologist in charge of this district would be closer and they could focus more attention on the lake. The fact that the lake was several counties away from the districts home office was part of the problem, and the reason for the rezoning. Ben Batten(BigBen) is in charge there now, and I believe that he is trying to find a solution to the lake's problems. Maybe he will chime in.

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Originally Posted by Cmj

That biologist is no longer in charge of Pickthorne. I believe it was recently re-zoned so that the biologist in charge of this district would be closer and they could focus more attention on the lake. The fact that the lake was several counties away from the districts home office was part of the problem, and the reason for the rezoning. Ben Batten(BigBen) is in charge there now, and I believe that he is trying to find a solution to the lake's problems. Maybe he will chime in.

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Yes, Ben's District is Pulaski County, and I am pretty sure he is in charge of the Community fishing program.

Ben is in charge of Picktorne. The biologist that woodpecker talked to has since retired.

If you stay on the south end of the lake away from the stumps, it is a good place to try out a new boat, or test one you've been working on. most of the times I've been there in the last 5 years that was the reason i went there.

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Originally Posted by HALF FAST

If you stay on the south end of the lake away from the stumps, it is a good place to try out a new boat, or test one you've been working on. most of the times I've been there in the last 5 years that was the reason i went there.

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That's about the only reason I go there anymore, but I usually try to wet a line while I am there. Despite what the electrosamples have shown, I know there are some slabs in there, just not enough of em it would seem. I caught this one there last year. 2.86 if I remember correctly. Attachment 162312

Daaaammmmmnnnnn it don't take many like that to make me happy.

You found the pic before I could. Think I lost it on my old phone.

Nice one (again)!

Guys, we were out there today shocking for bass, and had some interesting results. We shocked 10 runs 10 minutes long each, and came up with a total of 29 bass which is a very low number. However, the fish we caught were all in great shape and the vast majority of them were 2 lbs or greater, with the best few around 5 lbs. We shocked a handful of crappie, one of which was just shy of two pounds. Folks were questioning my opinion that there are too many crappie, but we pulled 1,400+ out of 10 nets set out there for just one night. Of these fish, 1,300 of them were from 3-5.5" long. This is something that I can see using trap nets, but that anglers pulling jigs, goldfish, minnows, whatever, would not be able to see. In the past I have aged crappie that were 3 years old and under 6". This is the result of terrible growth due to extreme competition between these small size classes of fish.

On a brighter note, we shocked a couple of flatheads that were around 8 and 20+ pounds, and a 12 pound channel catfish.

We are going to be doing creel surveys (angler interviews) 4X per month over the next year to get a feel for effort, catch and opinions. These four leveed lakes with no wind breaks and extremely fine clay particles which remain in suspension unless the wind quits for days in a row present some pretty serious management challenges. Ask Mojorig who just left the Jonesboro office, as they had a number of these lakes.

We will go over data, do surveys of the fish and the anglers over the next year, and try to formulate the best plan that we can to maximize the fisheries there despite the challenges.

Soooo.... In layman terms, science has now proven I can't catch crappie out of an over populated lake. The truth cuts deep. I would have rather found out all the crappie had died out of pickthorn

Awesome Ben, that sounds promising. Thanks for your hard work.

For comparison of bass catch rate, we are on the Arkansas River right now and averaging 23 bass per run compared to 3 per run at Pickthorne.

So how do you fix the gross overpopulation of the crappie in the lake?

A cast net

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Originally Posted by Basscat1

So how do you fix the gross overpopulation of the crappie in the lake?

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Saugeye