Arkanss River 9/17 Zebra Mussels!

Headed out this morning, first full day of my 2-week vacation. I had three goals that I wanted to accomplish today:

1. Catch some minnows to take home for use as bait.
2. Catch some Shad, again, for bait.
3. Catch some Skipjack, to process into cut bait for catfish.

I knew it was going to be LOW, as I?ve been watching the level on the internet.

BOY, was it low! I haven?t seen it this low in awhile. Walking out, I noticed shells everywhere, where the Drum and other fish are eating various mussels. When I got to where I was going to set up, I noticed LOTS of Zebra Mussels around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFa_F...ature=youtu.be

I set up my minnow traps. I actually did some fishing gear with me; I was planning on harassing some fish while waiting for the minnows to get trapped. After about 30 minutes, I hadn?t caught any minnows. Nor did I see any Shad. I did, however, see a bunch of lead. I decided to spend a little time picking up some lead, and try to salvage my trip.

I decided to move downstream a bit, to the hole over on the west side. There was one person already there, fishing for cats, without any luck. I did see some shad, but didn?t try to catch them, as I was still trying to harass any sport fish that might be in that hole.

After a few minutes, I ran down to the chute, as I KNEW that would have some fish. Sure enough, lots of Shad, some Gar, Buffalo, etc. I tried fishing a bit, but wasn?t catching anything there either. I decided to get the cast net out and catch some shad. I had a cooler with me. The first several throws yielded only a few Shad. I realized the water was to deep, to clear, and my net was to small. They were escaping out from under the net before it hit bottom. I decided to pack up, and head for shallow water. On the way out, I found some good bait-sized Shad working in shallow water. I managed to catch enough to fill my little cooler in two throws.

I decided to go and pick up some more lead. I had competition. I ended up with 8 ? 10 lbs. I saw a big deposit of sinkers that I just couldn?t get to. I wonder if I still have my metal-detecting ?water scoop???.