Jackson and I left for lake Millwood early Tuesday morning with intentions of making the 4 1/2 hour drive and being able to fish before the sun got too hot. We had read an Arkansas Game and Fish report that was about fishing in the lily pads and catching plenty of aggressive bass on topwaters up until 10 in the morning. We arrived at about 9 and launched the boat into a lake full of stumps. We were in the upper end of the lake where the Little River entered. There are many meanders and oxbows and cypress trees are everywhere. I had looked at Google Maps and found what I thought was an oxbow that was clear. We noticed that the river was running hard and was muddy. We stumbled around and found the oxbow and some relatively clear water. Within a few casts I had a pretty good strike on a Ribbit. I thought this might be good. Some time later after a total of 12 strikes and still no fish in the boat I wondered what was going on. None of the fish were the 2 to 4 pound bass that were in the report. Most were small. We finally figured out the water had come up a good bit from where it normally is on account of heavy rains they received a few days before. We looked for another clear water spot but could not find one. The next morning we returned but not many bites. About 9 we retired to the big lake. There was a lot of idling through all the stumps. Out in the middle of the lake it was still only 8 feet deep with an occasional plunge of the depthfinder to 30 feet when you crossed the river channel. There were navigation poles marking lanes enabling you to plane off and run to another area of the 29,000 acre lake. We found some pads and caught some small ones on spinnerbaits. There was plenty of time for discussion on the way to the landing because we were idling a lot of the way. We decided to try Lake Erling the next day. It is about 1 1/2 hours away and on the way home. Jackson called a sporting goods store to ask about Erling and was told the winning string at a recent night tourny there was 32 pounds. The next morning we started fishing around 6:30. The lake had some wood in it but was generally deeper, clearer and had better navigation aids than Millwood. We again caught only a few with the largest maybe 2 pounds. They were caught on topwaters swimbaits and a 10 inch long ribbontail worm. We quit at 1 and started our trek home. In our Southwest Arkansas excursion we had covered two lakes and only lacked a mile of being in three states.

I started in Lake Chicot this morning about 6:15 and, with a Booyah caught 5 fish in the first hour. In the last few days I have watched Major League Fishing on TV and have noted the accuracy of the participants. Today I intended to work on that aspect of my fishing and I generally did pretty well, especially later in the day as fatigue was trying to set in. After the first hour the bite slowed down . At first the fish bit to eat the bait and later they hit it not to eat it. At this point I pulled out a worm and on some sunken pallets that I knew the location of had a strong feeling fish hang me up in the pallets and break off. As I was going down a thick bank, a growl of sorts came out of the darkness. Something could be seen moving around in the cypress knees. I finally made it out as an otter and it had a fish, probably 15 inched long in its mouth. It was going back in the thickness to keep me from taking his prize. Caught a couple more on the worm. Rain was in the area and it was time to quit so I did with a total of 7. When I was taking out the Arkansas Game and fish was in the process of releasing 150,000 Florida Bass fingerlings, 1 1/2 inches long, in the lake. Good for them. Thanks.

Jackson and I went to Lake Enterprise Thursday morning after we figured the worst of the rain was over. We had put on our rain gear before we left his house in case we misfigured. Our calculations were not too far off and we didn’t get caught in a pourdown. The lake was beautiful but the fishing was slow to start. After lunch we came upon some bass hitting on top in the middle of the lake. The schools were spread out and it appeared they were segregated by size. Unfortunately we only got to deal with the small ones. We ended up with 9. Schooling bass that are moving, as these were, are very frustrating. If you cast where they last were, they have already left chasing the shad.