Here are some great places to catch walleyes

Overcast skies provide conditions conducive to good daytime walleye fishing. Big floating/diving minnow plugs are good enticements, as Bobby Graves of Mount Ida, Ark., knows.
Overcast skies provide conditions conducive to good daytime walleye fishing. Big floating/diving minnow plugs are good enticements, as Bobby Graves of Mount Ida, Ark., knows.

Walleyes rank high among the most popular sport fish in many Northern states, but here in Arkansas, few people fish for walleyes outside the late-winter/early-spring spawning season.

I’ve never really understood this. Certainly, it’s not because walleyes are scarce or hard to catch. They’re not. Several of our lakes and streams harbor healthy populations of these perch-family members, and anglers who learn the right fishing tactics have no trouble catching their limit.

The fish’s sportiness isn’t in question, either. Walleyes seldom jump like bass or test tackle like big catfish or stripers, but they’re fun to catch, even so, especially on light-to-medium tackle.

The walleye’s low ranking as a Natural State sport fish has nothing to do with taste, either. No, indeed. As everyone who has eaten them will attest, deep-fried walleye fillets are marvelously delicious. Few fish can compare.

Perhaps the main reason walleyes get overlooked here is that folks simply don’t know where to fish for walleyes. If you’re after bass, crappie, bluegills or catfish, you can drop a line in almost any body of water in the state and expect to catch a few. But good walleye waters are much more limited in number. To catch these marble-eyed beauties, you need to target the specific lakes and streams where walleyes are known to be abundant. The bodies of water described in the paragraphs that follow are among the best of these.

Greers Ferry Lake

Located in the Ozark Mountains near Heber Springs, Greers Ferry and its tributaries probably have produced more 20-pound-plus walleyes than any other bodies of water in North America, including a 22-pound, 11-ounce all-tackle world record caught by Al Nelson on March 14, 1982. Unfortunately, the number of huge fish has declined because of heavy angling pressure on older, larger walleyes during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The good news is that restrictive harvest regulations have helped bolster the Greers Ferry walleye population in recent years, and there are lots of favorable fishing reports from anglers catching walleyes year-round all over the lake. Catching several 2- to 10-pounders during a good morning of fishing is not at all unusual, and the lake is once again giving up a few fish weighing 15 pounds and more. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission helps maintain a healthy population of walleyes with regular releases of fingerlings raised in a lakeside nursery pond. Roughly 400,000 young walleyes are stocked every other year in the lake and the upper forks of the Little Red River.

There are innumerable fishing tactics, lures and baits used to catch walleyes, and some are naturally more popular on Greers Ferry than others. Trolling with deep-diving crankbaits tops the list for many summer anglers. Bottom-fishing with small live bluegills or creek chub minnows is also a common strategy, and many walleye anglers troll- or vertical-fish with jigs or jig/minnow combos.

Bull Shoals Lake

Another Ozark Mountains hot spot is Bull Shoals Lake. This federal reservoir on the Arkansas-Missouri border near Mountain Home boasts a big population of lunker walleyes. Many are caught in rocky cover near the mouths of creeks where the fish spawned earlier. Good spots to target include areas around East and West Sugarloaf creeks, Big Creek and Brushy, Charley, Trimble, Big Music and Little Music creeks. The lake often yields some real lunkers, with walleyes to 17 1/2 pounds reported in recent years.

Fishing at night can give you an edge on other anglers. Walleyes are nocturnal, being most active during low light and dark hours, so fishing at these times increases success. This is true no matter what the season when you fish.

Another important aspect of walleye fishing is proper presentation of your lure or bait. Walleyes are bottom-dwelling fish. It is important to put your offering at the right level and keep it there throughout the length of your retrieve or troll. It’s also a good idea to work your rigs very slowly, whether trolling or casting. You want your bait or lure to move very slowly past hungry fish.

Many baits and lures prove productive for local anglers. One favorite is a slender, three-hook, floating-diving lure known locally as the “long-billed Rebel.” Live minnows are also effective, as are spoons, spinners trailing night crawlers and minnows. Jigs tipped with pork rind or plastic tails are top-notch enticements as well.

Lake Ouachita

Publicity for this 40,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers impoundment between Hot Springs and Mount Ida generally has centered on other species, especially largemouth and striped bass. But an aggressive walleye stocking program by the Game and Fish Commission has also produced a top-notch “jack-pike” fishery here. That still seems to be a state secret, however, despite the fact that 8- to 12-pounders are as common as costume jewelry at a flea market, especially around weed beds and rocky humps on the bottom. Few Ouachita anglers target walleyes, which has resulted in an untapped bounty of big fish.

Casting and retrieving crankbaits around rocky shoreline cover seems to be the favored local tactic for catching walleyes in late spring and early summer, but anglers in the know use other methods as well. One very popular tactic is fishing a lead-head jig tipped with a lively night crawler. Whether the jig has a feather, rubber or hair body is unimportant, and many anglers actually prefer a bare jig. Hook the worm through the head so it can wiggle full-length behind the jig; then work the lure with a hopping motion as you drift or troll around creek channels, rocky points and the big bottom humps plentiful throughout the lake.

More Good Fishing

Few Arkansas waters produce better walleye fishing than Greers Ferry, Bull Shoals and Ouachita. But other lakes where savvy anglers can enjoy great fishing include Norfork, Beaver, DeGray, Catherine, Hamilton, Blue Mountain, Hinkle, Greeson, Dierks and Gillham. Lake Nimrod also has been stocked with walleyes, and Lake Greeson is periodically stocked.

Arkansas streams also harbor healthy walleye populations. Hot spots to consider include the upper White River, Eleven Point, Fourche la Fave, the Strawberry River, the Petit Jean River, the Caddo River, the Saline River and the Little Missouri. The Spring River is one of the state’s more popular walleye fisheries, with catches of 2- to 3-pounders common in spring. Other streams with moderate walleye populations include the War Eagle, Black and Kings rivers.

The most unusual aspect of Arkansas walleye fishing is the fact that so few anglers fish for these delicious, fun-to-catch game fish. For walleye anglers who want to fish uncrowded waters sporting good walleye populations, however, The Natural State’s untapped bonanzas are certainly worthy of consideration. The fish are there. It’s the fishermen who aren’t.

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