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Message Subject: 'Vacation' in Arkansas

sworrall

Posted 4/15/2006 8:39 PM (#187610)
Subject: 'Vacation' in Arkansas

Posts: 32934

Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin

Headed down to take a few days 'off' ( ha, that's a good one) after the boat and sport shows and before the bulk of the Walleye Events I have to go cover. Sue found us a deal at Bull Shoals Resort, on a lake I've been to a couple times in a very nice unit for just over 300 bucks for the week. No muskies, but a TON of fishing opportunities, especially in the Spring. The 1890 is currently getting rigged, so we took Sue's rig, Suzi Q. To make a very long story short, we couldn't run the rig at all until Friday evening. The White River, just minutes away and boasting world class trout fishing saved the day. We had a blast, met some very interesting poeple, and had fresh fish for dinner every night. I found out that I actually CAN catch trout on purpose!

Interestingly, the Arkansas regs state that Tiger Muskies have a 6 a day limit. I don't know what waters have muskiers there, but they must have been stocked at some point.

Our hosts, Steve and Donna at Bull Shoals resort worked very had to help me try to get Suzi Q on the water, and the good folks at R&H Marine in Bull Shoals got the rig up and running post haste! Heart felt thanks to both.

The part I needed arrived overnight 3 days after it shipped. Overnight to here is about forever, I guess.

We hit the lake last night, and immediately caught a 14.5" black crappie and a near dead copy hit Sue's offering. Two rainbows later, the jig I was pitching got slapped, and the battle was on. 15 minutes later, I boated a HUGE sheepshead, I'd guess close to 15#. We met a very nice guy from Decatur, and he told us about the WHite Bass in 12' in the cove openings. We went in those coves this morning and caught a few, up to near 20". This water has some huge fish in it. I got 3 really nice rainbows today too, so we had a great time. Smallmouth bass were willing too, as were the largemouth. There were walleye ( and nice ones) caught all week, but we didn't even try to find them with only one day on the lake.

While I was cleaning the fish, our new friend from decatur asked if I'd give him a chunk of White Bass spawn. He then proceeded to smack two carp off the dock that were hanging around the cleaning station, one was probably 20#, the one pictured in the low teens. Both were released, and both swam away strong...

All in all a very nice trip, and I'll do it right next year. Kept Sue a happy camper, too, a very very very very important thing.