Crappie poor 

Stripers are deep using umbrella rigs and deep cranks and live shad

Largemouth Bass good using crankbaits and fish slow 

White Bass No Report

WALLEYE SEMINAR
MARCH 5th and 6th
DETAILS WILL BE AVAILABLE AFTER JANUARY 1ST
If you are interested in this seminar call 870-445-2703 to receive a registration form

December 27, 2004
Merry Christmas – we certainly hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa brought you lots of fishing stuff for you to try out this spring. We had 2 to 3" of snow last week and temperatures in the 20’s. Ice and snow on the ramps and roads leading to the marinas shot down fishing for most of the week. Lake level this week is 653.97, less than ½ foot below normal pool. Lake clarity is about 16 feet and the lake temperature dropped to 46 to 47 degrees with the snow and freezing night time temperatures. Crappie will be doing their "winter thing", suspending over channel swings and in the pole trees along the bluffs. They will be 35 to 55 feet deep using shad as the their main source of food. Crappie tubes, crappie minnows on bright jig heads and small spoons will be your key baits throughout the winter.

Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and Kentuckys will be wintering along the channel swings in the creek arms, deep sides of points and on bluff walls throughout the lake. A number of baits and techniques are proven to work well during the winter months. Spooning is #1, drop shot with small baits can put the bait on their noses, Stingray or Beaver tail grubs are winter favorites and football jigs on the bottom in 40 to 50 feet of water can be worked very slowly triggering some feeders. When Mother Nature gives us a few sunny days find the banks that have large boulders on them, the bass will move to that type of bank to warm themselves. Fish these banks with tubes, Spider Jigs and grubs for some exciting winter action.

Walleye spend the winter around deep structure such as big boulder rocks, flooded timber and humps. Graphing is a big part of walleye winter fishing, it takes some time to find a few and then comes the challenge – trying to catch them. Best baits through the winter are Rapala Jigging spoons, Mann’s, Cotton Cordell or Hopkins Jig Spoons, ball jigs tipped with shiners and jig and grub combination. After a few sunny warm days in a row, trollers can pull small shad baits on lead core about 45 to 55 feet down around the outside of large feeding flats and maybe find a few walleye that are roaming searching for shad.

PWT Tour Offers Walleye Anglers a Challenging 2005 Brainerd, Minnesota…The In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail announced a challenging 2005 season for the world’s top-ranked walleye anglers. The PWT is a Pro-Am format. Pro anglers are fishing ambassadors who share their boats, tackle and tactics with amateur/co-anglers and those who’ve always wanted to fish a special lake can do it as amateurs/co-anglers. Call PWT headquarters at 218-824-2542, for entry blanks, or go to www.professionalwalleyetrail.com.  Entry forms are also available at Wilderness Trail and Bull Shoals Boat Dock.

Trout on the White River are biting on yellow and white Berkley Power Eggs when there is not much generation. Super Dupers, Little Cleo’s and Mepps are working when there is generation. Fly fishermen are doing well on floating egg patterns in peach and chartreuse and olive and white Woolly Buggers. Browns can be caught on Suspending Rogues, Flat Fish and Rapala Countdowns.

This will be the last report for the year. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our readers for their support. May you all have a wonderful New Year. We will be back with the report the first week in February.

}><(((º> Millwood Lake Fishing Report 1/04/05 <º)))><{

Millwood Lake Guide Service reports water temps 50º-55º ; approx 8 inches above normal pool, heavy stain, increased current. Release rate at dam as of Tuesday: 13 gates, release = 9,465 CFS.

Largemouth bass are good on black/blue or pumpkin/chart colored jigs with Uncle Josh 101 or 11A Pork frog trailers on cypress trees in 6-8 feet depth areas, and white Lead head jigs with spilt milk grub trailers swam through any remaining vegetation along Little River edges in 3 to 7 foot depths are taking some decent adolescent bass. Shallow to medium diving red, brown, orange crankbaits like the bandit brown back/orange belly craw patterns, deflecting off stumps, continue working on points and creek channels . Average 2-3 pound sized bass remain fair to good, during the heat of the day, on 1/4 oz Rat-L-Traps in red chrome or bleeding gold shiner.

Zoom brush hogs and baby brush hogs are catching decent size bass in the 2-4 pound range on stumps along the edges of the river in 8-12 feet depths and in backs of creeks on base of cypress trees on sunny days. Along the river, back off the edges of the river bank to where you find stumps and timber in approx 8 feet depths is where we have been finding the better bite, more aggressive bass. Best colors in the past week remain blackberry or black neon. Heavy, 5/8 oz or 3/4 oz War Eagle Spinnerbaits in white/chart or spot remover color patterns in the remaining vegetation & dead lily pads are taking fair keepers on shallow flats close to the river and deeper water. Tip: use a large #6 or bigger thumping Colorado blade in gold to attract their attention. The larger bass remain slightly deeper in the creeks, and closer to the deeper haunts of the river drops at the creek mouths dumping into Little River. Southern Pro Fat Butt Tubes in black/red flake, or pumpkseed/chart tail pitched in on the base of cypress trees, are catching decent bass in those areas. Tip, put a rattle in your jigs or tubes in this muddy water, it draws their listening ear to investigate the noise. Also use a garlic or anise fish scent to mask your human scent, and the fish will hold the bait longer, or swim with it.

This time of year can be feast or famine for large bass. One day the ambient temperature will be 25º and freezing your line guides on your rod and the wind blowing 30mph and muddies up the entire lake. Few bites. Next day sun is out and high is near 65º, water clearing and shallow areas warming, cant get a hook in the water quick enough, and good, decent bass bites on every pitch with a tube or 10" power worm. Sharp hooks in soft plastic or crankbaits, are a must for those slow and deliberate (few) bites! Also, slowing the crankbait retrieve to a mere crawl seems to have the best results in this colder water climate.

Sharpen those hooks, get out there & deliberately slow down the retrieve, purposely deflect cranks off stumps, and HANG ON! This time of year can also yield the trophy Largemouth of a lifetime, full of roe and just waiting on warmer temperatures to move shallow!

Crappie remain suspended over planted brush piles in 18-20 feet depths along the Little River and 12-14 feet depth in Horseshoe Lake oxbow off Little River. Large shiners were taking a few keepers early in the week as the lake began clearing. The Crappie that were taken this week were full of eggs and average between 2-3 pounds each. Not many crappie fishermen on the lake past few weeks due to weather and muddy water.

Blue Catfish remain good in Little River on trot lines, due to increase in current. Try using cut shad or chicken livers, and cottonseed mill cakes or dog food prepared baits, in the outside river bends between Jack's Isle, and Pugh Slough and also between Hurricane creek and the 2nd entrance to Horseshoe Lake off Little River, set approx 14-16 feet deep.

}><(((º> Millwood Lake & River Conditions Report <º)))><{

For those fishing the river and below the spillway, as of Tuesday, January 4, with recent increase in lake release at the spillway, the lake level has returned to almost normal conservation pool, and is 7 or 8 inches above normal. The lake elevation is 259.81, and falling, with 9465CFS being released at the dam. As of Tuesday, all 13 gates are open this week, 2 gates at 1 foot, and 11 gates at 2 feet each. Water clarity in the river, has remained muddy last week, but now is improving. River visibility and clarity is improved to approximately 3-5 inches. Clarity is somewhat worse on the river due to increase in heavy current, and main lake, due to high winds and current toward the dam. Northeastern sector of the lake remains extremely muddy with increased current and muddy water in the Saline River.

The upriver oxbows such as McGuire, Horseshoe, Mud Lake, Cemetery Slough, etc, away from the current in Little River still have much better water visibility, estimated at approx 2-3 feet in places. Current in Little River is increased again this week. Water temperatures have stabilized in the last week due to above normal ambient temperatures, and range approx 50ºF early to 56ºF later in the day, depending on area of the lake, wind and sunlight penetrations.

Be advised the US Army Corps of Engineers recently replaced many of the missing river buoys in Little River, although there are still some stretches along the river that are still being worked on. We have seen several of the buoys washed up onto the south bank, between Pugh Slough and Jack's Isle.

HAZARDOUS NAVIGATION NOTE:

With the increase in current in the river, and floating debris from the recent 3 foot rise, many logs and submerged hazards are floating down Little River. Use EXTREME caution while navigating Little River in low light conditions, and SLOW DOWN! Careful watch for floaters and debris in Little River's current is a requirement. Keep in mind there are a few sections of Little River, where the river buoys have moved out of position or have disappeared, although the USACE is working to get all these buoys replaced as soon as possible, and are working on the navigation daily.