Catfish No Report

Crappie No Report

Stripers No Report

Largemouth Bass No Report

White Bass No Report

TUESDAY NIGHT OPEN TOURNAMENTS

SPONSORED BY R & H MARINE

$25.00 PER TEAM WITH $5.00 GOING TO BIG BASS POT

Rules and information available at R & H Marine and Wilderness Trail

Here we are in dog days of summer. Dog days are high humidity, no wind, pop up showers, daytime temperatures in the 90’s and the fish slow way down in their feeding patterns. Lake level this week is 652.37, two feet below normal pool. Now that we are in the middle of summer and generation has picked up we can expect the pool to fall a few more feet before the fall rains. The thermocline is steady at 35 feet and the lake clarity is at 14 feet this week. 

White Bass are schooling in the mornings pushing shad to the top and frenzy feeding. The best places to look for them is in the back of the creeks or in the main lake pockets. Pop R’s, Spit’N Image, Rogue Jrs and spoons are your best baits. 

Catfish anglers have done well overnight with jugs and bottom fishing using chicken liver and nightcrawlers. Main lake cuts and pockets have been yielding the better catfish.

Largemouth bass can still be caught at dawn and early evening on buzz baits, Zara Spooks or Flukes around secondary points and chunk rock banks in the creek arms. During the day with the lake temperature at 84 degrees the bite is pretty slow. Carolina rigs and spoons will trigger a few in 36 to 45 feet of water if you can stand the heat of the day. 

Smallmouth bass have moved out to the thermocline and repositioned on chunk rock or boulder banks. Top water is spotty in the mornings but you can raise a few on Zara Spooks. Best bite is on tubes, Spider Jigs and Mojo rigs with finesse worms or baby brush hogs. Kentucky bass are where they have been for the last six seeks, under the shad. 

Kentuckys will push shad to the top anytime during the day. Keep a Pop R, Sammy or Chug Bug tied on just in case they come up in front of you. Spooning is also starting to trigger a few Kentuckys in 40 to 45 feet of water. Bink’s spoons and silver flutter spoons are working the best. Check main lake and creek arm pockets and main lake cliff wall ends for groups of shad.

Walleye still are not deep but they are suspended. They are feeding above the thermocline somewhere between 20 and 36 feet although they could be up on the bank or out over 60 feet of water. Bottom bouncers with crawlers or leech harnesses are working somewhat along channel swings and flats. Lead core line anglers are having success on the suspended walleye pulling Reef Runners, Glass Shad and Bill Norman DD14’s. Remember it is dog days and the bite is slow.

NIGHT TIME UPDATE: The bite is in 20+ feet of water early in the evening and moves to the bank and brush piles throughout the night for bass. Pig and jigs and 8 to 10" worms are the best baits. Walleye are working the points and you can catch one or two on suspending rogues or X-raps.

LAKE RATING: The bite is a little slow as we are in dog days. This week’s rating is fair.

Fishing for trout on the White River has been good this past week. The Berkley Power Egg bite has been good in yellow and pink or Belgium red worms. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, Little Cleo's, and Super Dupers are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen did well on olive and black Woolly Bugger, tungsten bead head midges, soft hackles and scuds. The Brown trout are being caught on Suspending Rogues, Flat Fish and nightcrawlers

Remember to keep only what you can eat and release the rest for another day. Rick Culver of Wilderness Trail does the research for this report and the writing of this report.

}><(((º> Millwood Lake Fishing Report 7/17/05 <º)))><{

Water temps 88º-91º ; approx 3.5 inches above normal, & steady. Discharge = 172CFS.

(People, it's STILL very HOT, & I think they call it mid-summer, in Southwestern Arkansas!)

For most of the day, the Largemouth bass pattern from last few weeks remains largely unchanged. Largemouth Bass from 2 to 4 pounds each, are good, still occasionally schooling for some crazy reason in heat of mid-day, over hydrilla and other grasses, over and in 4-9 feet depth water, and on best on clear Baby Torpedoes, chrome/black back Cordell Red Fins, 1/4 to 1/2 oz white or chrome Rat-L-Traps, and white Rocket Shads, or Bass Assassin Shads, rats, and Zoom Horney Toads when school moves up into the pad edges.

Use a small baby- minus-one or Cordell Big-O crankbaits in white shad/orange belly, baby bass or spring bream color, 4-7' deep, close to, and along outside of the grass and lily pad lines to coax a few out in-between schoolings. Hang on with at least 14-17 pound test line around those pads and grass, because we have caught a few Millwood Hogs doing this lately. We won't say exactly how "piggy" they were, but let's just say their potbellies were full of shad, very pronounced, had 3-4 shad tails sticking out of their throats when they hit our crankbaits, and they wanted more. Carolina Rigs are working in Little River along the cuts, wash-outs and current cut steps from 10-12 feet deep, and in mouth of feeder creeks along stumps. Due to water clarity, try Lake Fork French Fries in green pumpkin, or watermelon-red colors in these areas.

Gitzits are still working on cypress trees, approx 10-12 feet. Green pumpkin, butterscotch, Irish whiskey, or smoke/red flake are better water color choices, since the lake has cleared over the last few weeks. Early and late in the day, and even between 11am-2pm in this heat, the bass are still feeding and chasing shad near top water. Smoke/red or spot remover colored buzz baits (and spinner baits), Rocket Shads, small Spit'N' Images Jr.s, Rat-L-Traps in various shad patterns, and Bass Assassin Shads, all are working well in the frenzy.

During heat of the afternoon, switch to the heavier 1oz size Rat-L-Traps or medium diving cranks, in shad pattern or white, and has to be worked slow along the deeper River ledges, or go to a 10" Ole Monster Worm or Berkley Power Worm, in June Bug color, jigged around stumps in 10-12 feet.

Spotted (Kentuckys) Bass, from 10-14", are fair in mouth of Snake Creek and Mud Lake along Little River on trick worms or wacky worms.

Few Crappie fishermen on the lake this week, the best bite remains prior to 10am, and very few Crappie fishermen out after 10am. The few that we talked to, were catching fair sized, 2-2.5 pound black Crappie on live shiners, early, 14-17 feet deep on shiners.

Channel (Blue) Catfish bite is fair on chicken livers, and Charlie on yo-yos under cypress trees, best at night, in 9-10 feet depths.

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

Thank you to the US Army Corps of Engineers and AG&FC personnel who are currently in process of evaluating the increase and spread of various vegetation species on Little River and Millwood Lake. A recommendation & report is pending, on potential control measures which would be the most physical effective manner of the vegetation growth explosion in all the creeks, oxbows, Little River and the main lake; as well as which methods could be the most cost effective to maintain.

Use EXTREME caution navigating Little River in low light conditions, and SLOW DOWN! Careful watch for floaters and debris in Little River's current, and wearing your PFD is a requirement!!

For those fishing the river and below the spillway, as of Sunday, July 17, the lake level has risen due to rain this week, and is approx 3.5 inches above normal conservation pool. Current is slightly increased in Little River due to change discharge at the dam. The lake elevation is 259.53. Release at the dam is approx 272CFS with only 1 gate (#1) open at 0.5 feet. Water clarity in the river is approx 10-12". Clarity on the main lake approx 8+". North eastern sector of the lake around OK Landing, improving stain. Saline River clarity improving.

The upriver oxbows such as McGuire, Horseshoe, Mud Lake, Cemetery Slough, etc, away from any current in Little River, still have much better water visibility, estimated at approx 7-9 feet in places. Water temperatures have increased in the last 2 weeks and range approx 88ºF early to 91ºF later in the day, depending on area of the lake and wind.

Don't forget, be safe, and respect the other guy's right to use the lake too.  Release those big bass to spawn and fight again, and take home those little 16"ers to fry up!  Use caution in low light conditions, wear your Life Preserver and SUNSCREEN!  If you are suddenly thrown from your boat, or knocked unconscious, your life preserver can potentially be your only hope to survive, so let me say it again, PLEASE, PUT IT ON!  Folks don't drown wearing LIFE JACKETS!!  That's why they call it UNEXPECTED, you never expect it to be you, to hit the lake!  Don't forget your sunscreen, and take some Gatorade to replace electrolytes, and lots of bottle water.  With this much heat out there, persons get dehydrated quickly, and sunscreen will help your skin thank you later.

Millwood Guide Service and all the Millwood anglers, would like to take this opportunity to thank the US Army Corps of Engineers for their dedication to continual improvement in the navigability and maintenance of Millwood Lake, continually fighting mother nature and the rising and falling level due to influx of run off from area lakes and rivers, and rain.