Good afternoon TFF! I am taking a trip to Lake Ouachita this weekend and have some ideas of what areas and structure to target. I have never been there and after researching the interwebs, I cannot find a lot of info...any help from ya'll would be appreciated. Not wanting your spots, just some general knowledge to make sure my buddy from Colorado and I can catch some nice bass for his 40th bday! Thanks in advance for the help!!

Arkansas? Found this on another forum(shhh) from June this year.

http://www.ultimatebass.com/bass-fishing-forum/index.php?topic=130077.0
"Houchin said he spent his day targeting grass, wood and bushes in two areas within the mid- and upper-lake regions of Ouachita."
"�I followed a fairly basic pattern for this event,� said Houchin, who logged his second BFL win of the 2016 season. �I caught my limit on three baits - a white Heddon Zara Spook, a leopard-colored Spro Dean Rojas Bronzeye Frog 65 and a perch-colored 6th Sense Lures jig.�
Houchin said the Spook was the most productive of the three and that he caught the majority of his fish before 10 a.m."

Fished it 10 days ago during all the rain. Got action on clear spooks and poppers. They will be schooling. Clearest water I've seen. Find some grass. Most is sub surface and can only be seen on the depth finder

from the Arkansas fish and wildlife fishing reports page-

http://www.agfc.com/fishing/Pages/FishingReports.aspx

Lake Ouachita

As of Wednesday, the Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake�s elevation was 573.28 feet msl (full pool � 578.00 msl).

(updated 8-17-2016) Todd Gadberry at Mountain Harbor Resort (870-867-2191) said water surface temperature has been 82-88 degrees. The water is stained. Black bass are still fair and still being caught with Texas-rigged worms, pig-n-jigs and buzzbaits. Brush piles on main lake and secondary points are producing the best results when fished with Texas-rigged plastics or jigs. Drop-shot finesse worms are working well for �spots.� Walleye are still excellent and are being caught trolling shallow running crankbaits and jigging CC spoons. Stripers are fair to good on live bait. The central and east areas of the lake are the best areas for these fish. Bream are good. Crickets, maggots and redworms are best fished 20-25 feet deep. Crappie are fair. Try using minnows or crappie jigs at depths around 25-30 feet deep near brush. Catfish are fair to good. Try night crawlers, trotline minnows or hot dogs in depths of 15-20 feet. Call Mountain Harbor fishing guides Mike Wurm (501-622-7717), Chris Darby (870-867-7822) or Jerry Bean (501-282-6104) for more information.

(updated 8-10-2016) David Draper of the Lake Ouachita Striped Bass Association said fishing for striper on Lake Ouachita has been tough. They are seeing fish from Crystal all the way to the east side from 20 feet to 70. As a live-bait fisherman, Draper said, he has tried everything and nothing seems to help. Bottom line is, if you find a couple of hungry fish, they will bite, but that is few and far between. Draper said he doesn't know if artificial baits are working or not.

I haven't been much this summer since June but topwater early if you can find any schooling bass. If that doesn't work look for brush piles on points and humps. Might be worth your while to stop by Trader Bills in Hot Springs and talk to them as most of the people that work in there fish pretty often. My last couple of trips have been Striper fishing. If you want to try Striper fishing - Look for the guide boats out from Brady and watch your graph. We were able to catch a few using regular Flukes on a jig head in 40' of water by letting it sink to the bottom and lightly jigging it back. Another thing to try is a 5" flutter spoon on points that don't have too many trees in about 15-25' of water. Was able to pick up a couple of bass and a walleye in 30 minutes after the striper bite shut down at about 9:30 before it got too hot in Bear Creek (deep cove southwest of Brady). That was 2 weeks ago and before all the rain. Good luck and hope your buddy catches some fish on his 40th. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for you.

I stayed in arkansas last week I didn't go to Ouachita but I went to Hamilton and Catherine. We were staying in Catherine and didn't catch a single fish they whole time. At Hamilton they were schooling in coves and chasing shad everywhere. If you see a big ball of shad just try to cast into it during a fluke or spoon. If you cast right on the schoolers you'll catch them.

Thank you to all of yall for the information... I knew I could rely on my fellow TFF anglers!! I really appreciate this guys!! Hopefully I'll have some great pictures to post when I get back.

go striper fishing

Throw a spook. Ouachita can get tough this time of the year

Spook seems to be the consistent theme...think I'll be throwing one! Thanks guys!

I would recommend going to the backs of the creeks to where it turns flat, and timer starts to showing. The water will be a bit muddy, but that puts them right where they should be. flipping, and buzz baits work well back there. find some steeper bank with grass near by and throw Texas rig, swim jig, and top water for some action as well.

There are schooling fish but do not stay up and only saw small bass. Fished west part of lake hit long flat points with plastics and cranks and caught some small bass. There is small patches of moss in different areas and may only be visible on sonar or on lure. Believe it was 8 to 10 ft when we did find it. Fished main lake and main lake pockets with timber and caught a keeper on crank. Also broke a good one off using finesse and light line on isolated lay down. Was visiting a client and was able to go fishing. It was first time there. It is a beautiful spot.