|
 LITTLE
ROCK - For many Arkansas fishermen, mid-February through March means
walleye time. The toothy, tasty but somewhat mysterious walleyes live in
many Arkansas rivers and lakes.
And where do you find walleye? The walleye is a fish of gravel bottoms,
said Mike Armstrong, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's assistant chief
of fisheries. "They like clean water with gravel bottoms in both the
rivers and the lakes," he said. "If the water is generally turbid
(discolored or muddy), you won't find walleyes on a consistent basis."
Veteran fisheries biologist Carl Perrin of the AGFC has worked for more
than three decades with walleyes on Greers Ferry Lake, Arkansas'
best-known spot for them. Perrin said the magic number is 47. That's
the Fahrenheit temperature of the water that spurs walleyes into
spawning activities.
What this means to the average fisherman is that the walleyes begin
moving from deep waters, where they spend most of the year into shallow
areas for spawning.
Angler Dick Bailey of Fairfield Bay fished for walleyes in the Little
Red River before it was dammed to form Greers Ferry Lake in 1963.
Bailey said, "Walleyes get active when the water gets near 47 degrees.
The males move up the creeks and tributaries before the females do.
Males run smaller as a rule."
Bailey suggests keeping an eye on the water temperature by checking it
yourself or by calling area marinas. When there is a definite warming
trend, that's the time to begin walleye work.
Fishermen work with live or imitation minnows, a favorite food for
walleyes. The lure can be a combination. A popular setup is to dress a
lead-head jig with a live minnow and work it just below the shoals or
riffles of streams where walleyes may be moving in for spawning.
Also popular are stick baits or minnow imitations, either in plain or
jointed styles. Deep-divers aren't needed; this fishing is in shallow
water. Walleye anglers lean toward shallow-diving minnow lures instead
of surface models. Most walleye anglers believe night fishing is more
productive than daytime work, too.
Arkansas' lakes with good walleye populations start with Greers Ferry
but include Lake Ouachita, Bull Shoals Lake, Lake Norfork, Lake Hamilton
and Lake Catherine. All are man-made impoundments on clear,
gravel-bottomed mountain rivers -- the Little Red, the White and its
North Fork, and the Ouachita.
An outstanding Arkansas river for walleyes is the Spring, better known
for its rainbow trout fishing. Walleyes are found both in the trout
waters from Mammoth Spring down to Hardy and also in the warmer part of
the river down to its mouth.
Current River and Eleven Point River, like the Spring in northeast
Arkansas, have good numbers of walleyes. So does the Saline River in
central Arkansas near Benton and the Ouachita River from Remmel Dam,
which forms Lake Catherine, downstream to Arkadelphia. Lesser numbers of
walleyes are found in lakes Greeson and Table Rock, and in the White
River near Batesville.
Arkansas holds the world record for walleye, a 22-pound, 11-ounce fish
caught on Greers Ferry Lake in 1982 by Al Nelson of Quitman. |
