Spring comes early on SWEPCO Lake in northern Arkansas. Fishing guide Brad Wiegmann has been spotting bass on the beds on this 500-acre power plant lake since mid-January, and he spent several December days catching and releasing chunky fish after chunky fish on topwater, using Heddon Super Spooks and Super Spook, Jrs.
Wiegmann, who has been guiding on Beaver Lake since 1989 and on SWEPCO for the past couple years, has watched the little lake get better and better as a class of Florida-strain largemouths, which the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission stocked six years ago, has continued to grow.
Biologists have documented the improvement as well. In shocking surveys conducted last March, 65 percent of all fish caught were more than 15 inches, and catch rates were substantially higher than during the previous survey, a couple years earlier.
SWEPCO Lake’s hot fishing hasn’t gone unnoticed. The lake can get very crowded at times, especially in the area around the discharge. Bass will pile up in the current and anglers will pile up along the edges of the warm flow, often casting YUM Houdini Shads.
Last fall, when the bass got wise to soft-plastic jerkbaits, Wiegmann switched to white YUM Floatin’ Jitterworms and 4.75 inch Houdini Worms and kept catching bass when other anglers were scratching their heads.
Wiegmann expected the spawn to be in full swing by the mid- to late February, with many of the lake’s biggest largemouths up on shallow pea-gravel flats and around laydowns in the backs of coves.
SWEPCO’s absolute best spawning habitat, ironically, is in an area closed to all boating traffic to protect nesting eagles.
SWEPCO is a clear lake overall, although it’s deep open waters have somewhat of an ice-tea tint. Its banks are generally rocky and lined with laydowns. The power plant discharge has some warming effect on the entire lake, but the effect definitely is most pronounced near the discharge.
“SPRING” TACTICS
Wiegmann often works topwater plugs while he searches for beds. He pointed toward a bone-colored Heddon Feather Dressed Super Spook Jr. as the absolute single best topwater lure for SWEPCO. He also keeps handy a YUM Houdini Worm, rigged whacky style, as he cruises shallow areas.
The whacky worm is great for hitting targets as Wiegmann searches for beds and for dropping into actual beds. He uses an Excalibur TX3 wide-gap hook for whacky rigging, but typically adds a little weight to the shank of the hook with lead wire to get the bait down to the beds more efficiently. He also likes Texas-rigged YUM Mega Tubes for sight-fishing.
In addition, Wiegmann likes hitting shallow flats with YUM Floatin’ Jitterworms rigged weightless. He has discovered that a smoke/red pepper worm will produce bass virtually all the time on SWEPCO Lake.
To plan a day on SWEPCO Lake with Brad Wiegmann, give him a call at (479) 756-5279 or e-mail him as cuppy@alltel.net.