Arkansas Big Bass Bonanna

Well we are on the road headed to the Arkansas River, going to do a little scouting tomorrow and check out the conditions. Hopefully things go well since it has been postponed twice so may not be as many there this year. Won a little money last year so we'll see what this one brings but it is going to be hot!

Good luck!

Well it was tough fishing this year but fun nonetheless and if it stood the winning fish was out of Lake Dardanelle. I was just inches from landing another money fish in the last hour of the last day as the biggest of the top 3 for that hour was 2.97lb. and we all agreed that it was definitely a solid 3+ lber but will never know as it shook the bait as I was reaching for it, yes I should have just swung it into the boat but thats how baseball go

Glad you had a good time, sorry to hear about losing that fish.

Yeah it was hard to swallow but it was just a dumb mistake on my part

Formula, did you guys catch many over the 3 days. I went for the first time and we really struggled to find fish. Only caught a couple the whole weekend out of Pool 5. Saw lots of boats but not many catches.

Shouldn't feel too bad about struggling on the river this year. It has been really difficult to pattern anything with the constant water fluctuations and high river flows all year. It hasn't been fishing "right" all year. If the Arkansas River were the only place I could fish the rest of my life, I'd probably quit fishing. lol.

I'll probably go back next year. My cousin lives north of Conway and talked me into going with him and was already working on me for next year before we it was over. The river fluctuations and the full moon all night didn't help either. I'll take all the excuses I can think of.

no we boated 5 fish between the 3 of us and only one went in the live well and those were caught sporadically as stated there was no pattern. this is the 5th year we have gone and the toughest. we thought we were in great starting spots but could not get anything to hit on top. we fish pool 5 as well. if iwould have boated the last one that shook off I would have felt a little better about this year but already have reservations for next year. the Texas boys will win it. what area did you fish the most?

Should of fished pool 2!!! Dardanelle or Dumas wins it every year just about.

My buddy lives in Conway and we were going to fish it until it was postponed twice. Work got in the way and we couldn't fish last weekend. But we've already made plans for next year. We fish pool 3 most of the time, but only could get on Dardanelle from May to July because of the high water. Dardanelle was pretty good this summer. We fished two tournaments out there and both took over 20 to win.

Formula,

we were mostly between coal pile and merisach and cuts/backwater east side between the two. We tried lily pads, lily pads w/stumps, along bank where the cuts going to backwater, including the mouth of them, and so on. The two I caught, both small, were on flipping a rodent one around a cypress and one off the bank. We tried frogs, spinners, big worms, buzz baits, crank baits, etc. We didn't try much around the jetty's though.