Arkansas River 8/10 Part II

[AllenOK]

Well, after putting around for a little while with a spinning rod, I decided to give my fly rod a try. I tied on a streamer, olive over chartreuse over white, with green krystal flash and flashabou, size 6.

I?ve tried this, and other, streamers before, but haven?t had much luck with them. Well, with the hot bite that was going on, I was about to start giving a clinic on catching Sand Bass (White Bass) on the fly.

I wasn?t quite sure how I was going to approach this. I had a band of current about 15? wide in front of me, moving right to left at a good clip. There was slack water on the other side of the current. On my right, across the current, was a concrete ledge coming out from the base of the dam (you can see it in the video) that had a little water running over it. There was also a big rock in the middle of the current, creating a patch of slack water with current on either side (is this what the trout folks call ?pocket water??). From my experience earlier with my spinning rig, I knew that the Sandies were holding in the slack water, on the current seams (all FOUR of them), as well as IN the current. Basically, fish were everywhere.

I tried quartering upstream throws, and drifting/stripping back. I couldn?t keep up with the line as it moved downstream. I tried quartering downstream throws, letting the line/streamer swing. I caught some that way. I also threw straight across the current, about 10? into the slack water, holding the line up out of the current as best I could, and letting the water pull the line, leader, tippet, and streamer through the slack water into the current seam, eventually making the swing through the current, and into the current seam on the side I was standing on.

Pretty much EVERYTHING worked! It was a really hot bite! There was even a small, short ?blitz? with a few Sandies trying to grab some bait on top. I was already in a retrieve, or I would have put a streamer right near one. There were times I could a fish chasing my streamer, making attempts to grab the streamer, splashing on top several times in a row. Sometimes I would see a flash as a fish boiled on the streamer from below; they were facing upstream and saw it coming, and intercepted my streamer.

Here?s the video. Please excuse my amateur casting technique. I?m still learning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1qxN...ature=youtu.be

All totaled, I got three Stripers and probably 30 or 40 Sand Bass (White Bass). The Stripers were a hoot! Now I know why folks target them with a bigger rod. I think I see an 8wt in my future, come tax-time.

[greenlantern]

There is almost no water in the Ark here in Wichita glad to hear you have enough to fish in. The irrigaters west of here are pumping like crazy and the low water table affects the river level.

[Gandolf]

Hi AllenOK,

Nice video, I like to fish moving water, but we basically have little to none in the Texas panhandle. Thanks for posting it, it was neat to watch.

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

[AllenOK]

This river is still rather low. Plus, there's a couple dams upstream that control the flow. The closest of those is what really dictates how much water is moving, due to hydroelectric generation.

Where I'm fishing, the river is about 1/4 mile across. There are two channels. The channel I'm fishing is maybe 50' wide, and 3 - 4' deep. I have to wade the other channel, if you want to call it that. It's about 100' wide, and averages less than knee deep at the flow rates I wade-fish.

Now, come Spring, when we normally get a "flood", we'll have a prolonged high-water flow event that will raise water level anywhere from 6 - 12' higher that what I've shown. If you can hit it while 20K cfs is moving downstream, the big blue cats show up, making for interesting fishing.

[FishnDave]

Awesome! Looks like a lot of fun, fast action!

[drolfson]

Nice video! Looks like a fun place to hit.

I am gonna have to try more of those places somewhat close by. I did hit the Lower Illinois for a bit a few weeks ago, but then the lightening started and it was time to pack up.