03/02/2025
Great Fish!!
Time to Talk a Little More Trout
Dave McCulley (above), owner of Jenkins Fishing Service and Motel on the White River at Calico Rock, recently caught this 25.5-inch and 6-pounds-plus brown trout below Calico while fishing with Jeff Wallace, a local guide and friend. Wallace was featured in this same space two weeks ago with a monster brown trout of his own.
If you're in the Rogers area this weekend and want to talk some trout with McCulley, he will be at the annual Northwest Arkansas Boat and Outdoor Expo at the Rogers Convention Center.
Despite up-and-down water conditions and up-and-down temperatures in the last couple of weeks, trout seems to be the big talk in terms of catches, though stripers are also on in some of the bigger lakes (Beaver, Ouachita) and walleye fans are gearing up for the walleye spawn to kick into gear in a few days. Things are a mess in Millwood, according to guide Mike Siefert, and big daily releases of water into the Little Red River have that fishery "blown out," according to our contacts at Fish 'n Stuff; Greers Ferry Lake rose 7 feet this past week and has necessitated some releases from the dam, even using the spillway on Thursday. Meanwhile, some of the rain didn't hurt: Beaver Lake finally got back to normal pool with its recent rainfall, and good fishing there is just around the corner according to guide Jon Conklin.
Crappie are still on in the Arkansas River and its tributaries around Little Rock, according to the reports we received. Black bass will bite well in the Little Maumelle River, which is enjoying perfect water conditions. If you have seen the latest weather forecast for the weekend, which seems to follow in line with everything weird about the bouncing temperatures the past several days, Saturday is supposed to warm up possibly to around or over 80 in central Arkansas (only, we'll see the temp tumble on Super Bowl Sunday). Saturday might just be the first perfect day we have this year for fishing, a teaser for the spring to follow, though that's officially still almost six weeks away.
