Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Outdoors
Walleye fills void in angler’s spring resume
Walleyes make their annual spawning runs into Lake Ouachita’s major tributaries, the biggest of which is the main stem of the Ouachita River. The same scenario is in play in many of Arkansas’ big lakes, including Greers Ferry Lake, Beaver Lake, Lake Norfork and especially Bull Shoals Lake, the state’s premier walleye fishery.
MOUNT IDA — Despite the glorious fishing I’ve enjoyed since mid February, there was one glaring void in my resume.
I have failed to catch a walleye, and I cannot rest until I do.
The stage, as it often is this time of year, is the Ouachita River above Lake Ouachita. Walleyes, striped bass and white bass make their annual spawning runs into the lake’s major tributaries, the biggest of which is the main stem of the Ouachita River.
The same scenario is in play in many of our big lakes, including Greers Ferry Lake, Beaver Lake, Lake Norfork and especially Bull Shoals Lake, our state’s premier walleye fishery. Greers Ferry is a bit different because it does not have striped bass. It has white bass/striped bass hybrids, but the same dynamic is in play.
Usually it requires a flatbottom boat with a jet-drive outboard motor to reach a lake’s headwaters. You can also launch a canoe in the headwaters and get around with a small outboard or trolling motor.
Because of heavy rainfall in recent weeks, the lake is swollen and stretches farther upstream than usual. The fall line, where Lake Ouachita ends and the Ouachita River begins, is usually just a few miles west of the Arkansas 27 bridge. Last week it extended all the way to one of the river’s most fabled fishing spots, a place known as Striper Corner.
The striper fishing has been phenomenal in that area in recent weeks, but conditions had deteriorated considerably when Bill Eldridge and Rusty Pruitt joined me last Saturday for the latest episode. Swift current is essential to walleye fishing in the headwaters, but the river was slack last weekend.
My MichiCraft canoe can barely accommodate two people, so Eldridge and Pruitt made the long run into the headwaters from Arkansas 27 in Eldridge’s Alumacraft flatbottom with a 9.9-horsepower Mercury outboard. That motor gave Eldridge such fits during our trout fishing trip to the White River in January that he considered trading it in on a new Yamaha. He went to the Internet to learn how to rebuild the carburetor, and that did the trick. It runs like new.
“You can learn how to do anything on YouTube,” Eldridge said.
We met in the headwaters, where Eldridge handed his boat over to Pruitt and joined me in the canoe. Before they arrived, I chatted with four anglers in bass boats. They hadn’t caught any fish, and they soon headed back to the lake to try their luck catching black bass.
The day was warm, balmy and overcast, with a threat of rain in the air. I set my 2-hp Honda motor to idle speed and began the first pull upriver. Eldridge trolled a Rapala stickbait and stuck a big white bass almost immediately. You can watch the video at arkansasonline.com.
Shortly after, he hooked and landed a striped bass that
weighed 5-6 pounds.
“That’s the biggest fish I’ve ever caught with a rod and reel,” Eldridge said.
Clearly the fishing wasn’t as hot as it had been earlier that week. We didn’t catch anything with two pulls through two of my best holes, so we pulled up stakes and headed straight to Striper Corner.
Pruitt, meanwhile, shadowed us in the flatbottom. Instead of trolling stickbaits, he trolled a lead-eye leech on a fly rod. He hooked a giant striper as we beached the canoe. Unable to maneuver the boat and handle the fish at the same time, the fish soon broke off.
Fishing from the bank, Eldridge caught a succession of magnum-size white bass with a small crappie jig and a Tennessee shad-colored trailer.
From behind I heard heavy grunting and a great clattering of rocks. It came from Shane Manley and his son-in-law Andrew Slone of Mount Ida. They were towing a big mess of stripers on a rope across a gravel bar.
“We caught them all on a trout-colored Redfin in shallow water,” Manley said. “They’re stacked in there feeding on shad. They’re all about eight to ten pounds.”
From the bank, I hooked a giant striper that bit in ankle-deep water. At first it was a stalemate, but the fish gradually picked up steam and headed into the current, which intensified its strength.
Eldridge stood at my shoulder and cheered me on as the fish headed toward the rapids.
“I’ve been here before,” I said. “I hooked a great big one last year on this same rig. Sixpound test line. I fought that fish for 50 minutes, through two sets of rapids and three pools. I was in a boat and could keep up with that fish. I don’t have a chance against this one.”
The reel spool squealed against the drag. I hauled back on the rod and thought I might turn the fish back upstream. It made one strong surge and broke my line. Eldridge was distraught.
“I wasn’t going to win that battle,” I said. “Better to tap out early and preserve my line.”
Eldridge and I tried to motor up the shoal into the next pool. With the motor running full throttle, I hit rocks and broke one blade and half of another off my plastic propeller. We pulled it by rope the rest of the way and trolled back and forth to the shoals below Saltpeter Rock. Eldridge caught a second striper there about the size of his first one, and then he caught another that weighed about 10 pounds.
When the action in that pool ebbed, we floated back down to the deep part of the shoal above Striper Corner. Just before being sucked into the rapid, I throttled the motor, turned into the current and tossed out a stickbait. A fish slammed it so hard that I was certain it was a striper.
Imagine my delight when it turned out to be a 20-inch walleye.
I felt justified, but now I’ve got the fever. I cannot rest until I catch another.