Sunday was a good day for Martin Barrios from Rogers, Ark., to say goodbye to 2018 and look forward to catching a bigger striper in 2019. Topping this 40-pounder at 45 inches long I’m sure will put him on the water more next year.
Martin had no secret up his sleeve. He just stopped by the bait shop and bought some brood shiners. Then he put his boat in the water at Hwy. 12 bridge, kicked on the trolling motor and watched his graph to see how deep the bait and fish were running. It did not take long to see that they moved up to 15 feet under the surface, so he dropped that bait down and soon after the rod went down.
Happy New Year to Martin. I hope he gets some black-eyed peas to go with that fish.
Meanwhile, while Martin’s catching his big fish one of my buddies is a little south upriver around the Monte Ne area with 9 stripers in his boat that were all caught on top throwing lures. Seems like Sunday was a good day for all who got out on the water. I even heard from a guy who was catching crappie 2 – 4 ft. deep in 10 – 12 ft. of water on minnows.
Here on Table Rock around the Island we’re a bit cooler, but more walleye will be moving in as the days get longer. Best now is to go upriver in search for them mixed in with some trout, or since the deepest water depth here is close to 30 feet a lot of warm water fish will go north towards Eagle Rock to water closer to 60 ft. deep, there you should see more bait and fish on your graph. Drop down a minnow or jig a spoon to see what happens. No telling what you will catch.
Just make sure you have a trout stamp if you go up river towards the tailwaters past Houseman Access or if you keep any trout between here and there. If you decide to head north towards Eagle Rock you will be in Missouri, so make sure you have a border license (WRL) along with your Arkansas license.
Good luck and layer up. Warmer weather is coming this weekend and spring is just around the corner.