Largemouth bass are "waiting in the wings" for anglers who know the best strategies and throw the right lures against these rocky, fish-holding structures.
Brad Smith heads for the rocks when he wants to catch fall bass on the Arkansas River. A guide and tournament angler from Fort Smith, Smith concentrates his autumn efforts on the wind dikes at the heads of the river's pools.
Fall typically brings low to moderate flows to the big river, causing batfish and bass to move to the heads of the pools, where they find more concentrated currents. The wing dikes, which are big rock jetties designed to maintain the river's boating channel, create well defined eddies, and feeding bass pile up in those eddies.
"The wing dikes create spots where the bass can stay out of the current but will have food washed past them in the current," Smith explained.
Smith's primary spot on any wink dike is right at the end of the dike, where the strongest current meets a defined eddy. He'll position his boat downstream of the end of the dike and work the rocks with an arsenal of baits, each of which serves a specific function.
Smith begins with topwater lures to take advantage of the most aggressive bass, usually using an
Excalibur Spit'n Image and a 1/2-ounce Booyah Buzz . Most topwater strikes come right against the rocks or directly over them.
Next he'll crank the tip of the dike with a
Bomber Fat Free Fingerling , which dives quickly beside the rocks and digs to about 10 feet deep, and a Rebel Wee-R , which kicks off the rocks nicely with its square bill. Before moving, he'll dig deeper with a YUM Ribbontail or Wounded Mega Tube .
Through the first part of fall, Smith fishes exclusively with shad- and bluegill-imitating colors (with an emphasis on the shad) because that's what the bass are eating. As the season progresses and the water starts cooling, he'll begin using some crawfish colors for his deeper baits.
Smith will spend the bulk of his time fishing the tips of the wing dikes, as they hold the most fish and usually the largest fish. However, before leaving one dike and moving to another, he'll work along the downstream side of the rocks, toward the bank, fish the corner at the base of the dike and then quickly fish the bank between there and the next wing dike.
Many wing dikes also have gaps in the rocks where current pushes through, and when the river is high, water will spill over low spots in the dikes. Both conditions create localized hotspots, which the bass eventually give away to anglers who take careful note of river conditions and pay attention to the location of every strike.
Smith uses the same lures on all parts of the dikes. However, he turns more to the
YUM soft-plastics and to Fat Free Fingerling crankbaits in areas where there is less current nearby to fire the fish up and hold them shallow.
To learn first-hand from Brad Smith, call River Valley Guide Service at (479) 462-8361