Arkansas River at Pendleton

OK. I live in dewitt and drive all over to pull cranks and spider rig. Sardis, Enid, Greers, Nimrod, etc. Have noticed that alot of where prime trolling places are very similar to the arkansas river at pendleton. Sardis, enid, dardanelle are all called lakes, but are in fact just pools between 2 dams. Am I correct? So why is fishing those spots so popular and I have never heard of anyone using these methods in pool number 5 on arkansas river. I catch alot of VERY nice bass in pool 5 but have never trolled for crappie, because never heard of someone doing it. Can anyone tell me if they have heard that that can be done in this area? Or even done it? There is good established river channels in this area, and flats and slack water. Now where the slack water is, its usually pretty shallow, but still. It seems like it could be done. I have ran barrel nets in this pool before for catfish and have released a whole bunch of BIG crappie out of them, so I know the crappie are there. Now how catchable under the rivers conditions, I do not know. Sure would be nice to be living that close to a crappie hot spot cuz its only like 15 minutes away. That would save me ALOT of gas money, cuz i usually go somewhere once a week and when the bite is ON may go twice a week lol.

Maybe you need to check it out!:twocents You may try something and hit the jackpot where others overlooked.:fish

I would give it a try. It is bound to have crappie with little pressure.

Man Now im excited!!! Only problem is.... im a winter time hunter. Now I would definitely fish this time of year, but never been a wintertime fisherman. I want to learn the crappie habits in the winter though. I hate to fish it and not do any good and don't know if its because there arent catcheable fish there, or if i just dont know what im doing. From the research I have read my conclusion is that the crappie winter pattern is very similar to hot summer pattern. Same terrain and water situations. Fish drop-offs/ledges and deep structure. Only difference is maybe slow down and downsize baits. Is this correct? If so I wil go give it a shot.

Sardis and Enid are not pools between two dams. Each are on separate rivers.

I knew they were on separate rivers, but thot there was a dam above and below each lake (which created the lake) similar to the pools on the arkansas river.

I have heard of an occasional place on the Arkansas river that has been pretty fair. I imagine a stray crappie or 3 may get washed up or down stream and end up there.

I catch some out of cole pile but I don't pull cranks! ! I spiderrig and single pole! !!! belcoe can be good also! !!!

Awesome news! I tried belcoe mid summer last year and found that it was as deep as I was hoping it would be. Never caught a crappie, but water temps were HOT so I chalked that up to the reason why. Alot of bream beds ALL over that thing tho.

Was NOT as deep as i was hoping. Typo in previous post.

That's one place I will fish next year. I went over the bridge at Pendleton several times this year and thought that water looked great. There's crappie in there.

Belco is a hit or miss lake! !!! There is SLABS there to be caught! !!!!!!

Kent, there is a lot of good crappie fishing in the Pendleton area especially in the spring! !!!

I liked the look of it Jerry. I saw several boats coming out of there. I will get down there hopefully in May and give it a shot

March and April is your best months , before and during the.spawn and that's. Mainly because of all the shallow water, not much deep.water around theses areas! !!!!

I think it was Belcoe that my FIL was telling about camping at when he was a teenager in the 40's. He worked at a sporting goods store in Pine Bluff. He said snakes were everywhere. I wonder how long snakes live.

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Originally Posted by RCC

I think it was Belcoe that my FIL was telling about camping at when he was a teenager in the 40's. He worked at a sporting goods store in Pine Bluff. He said snakes were everywhere. I wonder how long snakes live.

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Belcoe is a hot Bream lake.....and a good Crappie lake..but the snakes are hanging off those tree limbs in the summer like spaghetti ! ! !

RCC, I think you and I need to go fish Spaghetti Lake! :Rofl

I've caught crappie at 5 behind the long wall in high water conditions. But- lots of white bass catfish and stripers. They can make a mess of things fast.

Belco [emoji106]

Lowepro, I have seen them stacked in the open water just out from buzzard beach about this time of year. Parking lot was full and looked like an armada trolling in the pocket in the bowl right off the ramp. One guy told me they move in there but I was a bass fisherman then and never thought to remember the dates. It was fallish though.

Buzzard beach is also known as morgan point , that deep hole is pretty good in January and February! !!!

Awesome news! I shot a decent buck yesterday, so now back to fishing!

My first trip to Merrisach Lake was in May '06. I traveled the cannel to the Arkansas river then to the left toward the dam. I found 25 foot of water on the south side and set my deep water rigs out at 14 ft. I spotted pockets 30 foot and more. Fished the area for 4 hours, not a bite. I was headed toward the dam, got on the phone, not playing with the boat and found myself in 3 foot of water soon.
The last time looking at google earth showed deep water on the north side.
Put together a camp n fish weekend and I'll plan to be there.

I have seen several boats grounded in the middle of the river just up from the start of the canal. Get out of the channel and you can go from 20 to 1 ft of water. real quick.