The joys of AR

[spokey9]

Since I moved to Arkansas last year I haven't been able to fish near as much as I did back on WA but I can say my time on the water is about good as it gets. Over the last 18 months I've found a fish called a bowfin that gets to about 10lbs that are eager biters and they fight light a chum with an attitude. They're my daughter's favorite fish now. These things hit about anything so if they're around it's gonna be a fun day. We've dialed in catching gar and my daughter has the biggest between us at 4ft so...It burnt the drag off my Sahara 2500 . Catfish are about everywhere but I'm learning how finicky they can be but we've done pretty good so far with them. The smallest one we've caught has been a yellow bullhead around 2 lbs with our biggest a 14lb channel cat, with a handful of small flatheads in the 5 to 8 pound range. I got a swamp near our house thats full of crawdads during the warm months so I run 6 traps all summer to keep the wife happy. Just check and rebait on my way home from work. There's Asian carp in the black river and pound for pound they're about the hardest fighting fish I've put a hook into. They're just tough to catch outside snagging season. We're gearing up for some winter blues on the Mississippi for the first time, hopefully I can get the kiddo into something 30lbs or better. And paddlefish snagging season is not to far around the corner. And maybe this'll be the winter I'll try hitting the spring river for some of the rainbows and browns...10lb fish a fairly common so I'm glad I kept one my Steele float rods.

My combo tag cost me 50 bucks to hunt or fish for everything. And the hardest part of fishing down here is deciding what to chase and where. The few wardens I've encountered have been top notch people. After checking we're legal they've been happy to chat a few minutes on what's biting where and they've given me a few tips on techniques. Of course had I been poaching I'm sure things would've gone differently. The game dept as whole does a fine managing the resources and providing more opportunities then seems fair after being in WA most my life.

And probity the best part for me anyways is buying the new rods and gear needed down...I think that's the worst for the wife though

[RiverRider55]

Awesome insite to that area - thanks for sharing

[The Quadfather]

Spokey,
Good to hear your update on the AR fishing situation. I have fished in the South, just a bit for Gar. Man, look @ all the new cool species that you have discovered.

So let me ask you this.. Remember how in WA. It’s all about ‘No live bait’ etc.
When I go to Louisiana, it is CRAZY with live bait stores. Does AR have these same type things?
I’m talking about these live bait (baitfish) stores where they have HUGE tanks with all these different baitfish. You go in and get BAGS of different baitfish, then put them in your livewell, amd your off!

Imagine this.. when I went in to a South Louisiana live bait store, I’m telling this deeply Cajun dude about how in WA. we are NO LIVE BAIT. Telling him I’ve never even seen anything like someone selling baitfish from a tank.
He just looked at me like I was from Mars!!

[spokey9]

There's a couple bait shops that have tanks full of minnows and goldfish. The guys running trot lines really like goldfish for some reason here. I don't buy much bait here since I'm allowed to use a castnet. A few throws and I usually got enough bluegill or shad to fish for a day or 2. Some days I even get a bunch of big crappie in it, they get fried though I used to catch bluegill to eat in WA and now I see them as bait

I won't lie, the first couple months throwing a live bluegill out on a hook, i was searching for the warden hiding in the bushes it took some getting used too. Only real restrictions we have in AR is if im using live bait I gotta catch it in the same water as I'm fishing. Otherwise I gotta kill it and use it as cut bait.

[The Quadfather]

Good to hear from you, Spokey. Keep us in the loop here.