Beautiful lake.
I'll be back!

Fat , healthy and good looking fish. Can you relate some particulars ? How many days spent there, bait of choice and or method . Thumping involved, river beds close to creek beds and best time of day. Hot Springs is close .

Thanking you in advance for the intel.

That it is...and a great fishery.

I only fished for about 5 hours. Stayed in one area where we found some bait and fish. Live shad trolling slowly over and around drains, humps and points put a handful in the boat. No thumping, other than getting ice off. It was in the 20's and made things slickery, or sticky depending on what you were touching. Put in here and found fish pretty quick. Nice ramp.

Gotta ask, where did you get shad? I drive to the Arkansas river when I fish there and its a major pain. I take three 50 gallon shad tanks when I fish Quachita and Hamilton.

I love the lake but bait situation is tough.

Lots of those Blazer Bay's running around now days.

Glad you found them, good job.

Nice!

I agree that shad are not closely available, especially with new regs on same water body, or certified disease free facilility. I was extremely fortunate! Brood minnows can be nearly as effective I'm told, and can be had close to Mt Harbor at Ruth's Bait Shop.

Nice fish.