Hey Pops

[CaptnT]

I wrote you a long private message only to see that you don't accept them! hehehe

I live and fish in North MS (mostly Arkabutla). THe COE is working on the spillway and not releasing any water. I see that Sardis is flowing at 5300. That is too much at Arkabutla, what about Sardis? Also, what side of the spillway do you prefer under different conditions?

I know these are broad questions, but any info will help. I fish the spillway at Arkabutla fairly regularly and know a fair amount about rigging and tackle, but I know nothing about the spillway at Sardis. I can share info about Arkabutla if you'd like. Seems the two lakes get hot at different times every year. Private message me if you want.

[CaptnT]

Couldn't stand it any longer, so I made the drive down to Sardis spillway yesterday, thinking the approaching front would turn them on. Got there before light on the Batesville side, along with about ten others. Water was up on the rocks and following pretty hard. Not much calm water, and what was there was taken.

Most were catching small fish, few and far between, a few feet off the rocks. I managed only one keeper after 9 hours of fishing. One fella had a stringer of about 10. The bite was real subtle, and I actually pulled the jig out of a few crappie's mouth at the surface. Those of you that have experienced this know what I mean. The jig didn't pull out, the crappie was just toying with it and would't commit.

I was determined to stubborn another one and waited until the rains came, around 2:30. Caught a few white bass.

Game wardens checked everyone around 9am. They ticketed an old timer for snagging. I heard them say $225 ticket. Just not worth it.

I will say the people that were ther were very courteous and sportsman. I saw several snagged fish thrown back, something that isn't done much at other reservoir lakes in N MS.

[spawner]

Captn T

I was down there Friday most of the day and caught 15 that were 10 to 11 inchs. I was amazed at that the fish I had to throwback that were caught in the back or somewhere other than the mouth. It is somewhat sad to catch several large ones and turn around and throw them back. But the law is the law better to throw back than to fork out $225.

[Pops]

CaptnT, I don't know how to do the private message thing (fill me in). As you posted, the bite can be very subtle, depending on conditions. With the flow at 5300 CFS, most fish landed in the actual spillway will be snagged. However, right around the corner at the south end of the spillway (sand beach), a lot of nice fish were caught on Saturday morning from the bank and from a couple of boats. The best fishing slowed down about 10:30. I guess the moral of that story is that if you are not catching at least keepers this time of year, you are in the wrong spot, and it's time to go looking for folks with fuller buckets. The best spillway fishing technique is walking and looking.

Anything above 5000 CFS will force the biting fish out of the spillway and down on the sand beaches below the mouth of the spillway, and the best all-round fishing is usually right after daylight and right before dusk.

As you have seen, weekends in Jan/Feb are getting pretty crowded, after that, weekends are almost impossible-it's a zoo, and the animals are loose! I see that the spillway is now turned back to 2000 CFS due to the rain we had. The bite will be on again up in the actual spillway until the COE turns the water up again, which will probably be Monday morning. I will be there to see!

[CaptnT]

I did walk to the second set of stairs, guess I didn't walk far enough. Those pelicans weren't gathered around the bend for nothing I reckon.

I did see a few vehicles parked down that way, but didn't give it too much thought. Seemed after 12 the Sardis bank filled up, and I waited for the bite to start. Lesson learned, thanks for the info.

You can private message me by clicking on my name on my posts and pick "send private message" to CaptnT.

Took the kids down to Arkabutla spillway to see what we could see. They had it cut completely off and have built a floating walkway into the mouth of the spillway outlet and have a crane parked above it. There were COE employees working on a Sunday, so it must be pretty serious. I heard one guy say there were "big chunks of concrete" coming out of the outlet before we had these last two big rains, so it may be awhile until they open her up. another good rain and they will have to seeing that its only 6 feet below flood stage now. A one inch rain can raise her 4 feet. Hopefully they won't want to flush her out too fast if they just repaired something in there.