Panther Creek Arkabutla

[CaptnT]

This past Saturday I was returning from a below average day at the spillway when I saw several trucks parked off the 304 bridge over Panther creek. I've never fished this spot, so I walked in and caught a few good crappie off a rooster tail. Several people were further back wading, so I decided to return Sunday with waders.

Sunday morning the water had risen nearly a foot, and the crappie weren't in the same place I had caught them the day before. I was using minnnows, which I almost never use. After about two hours with only one fish, I saw an edlery black fella walk in and then return a couple of hours later with a stringer full of SLABS. I of course followed him and offered to help him carry his load, he was obviously struggling and probably would have never made it up the hill. He offered me some of the fish, but I said I just wanted to know where he had been fishing. He instructed me how to get back to where he had caught all the fish, told me exactly what to do, how deep to fish. He said there were two other people in there, but they could not cast far enough because they were using short rods.

These fish were in about a foot of water, and all of them were really big fish, 15 to 18 inches. They only wanted a minnow, wouldn't touch a jig. I caught 9 fish before noon that yielded 10lbs of fillets! After 2:00, a fella that was obviously a local came in and started fishing a jig in deeper water and pulled out several fish that pushed 3 lbs, including the largest black crappie I have ever seen. All this from the bank.

I returned Monday before the storms hit and caught 3 good sized slabs before the lightning hit. After that I could't keep the catfish off my minnows.

Needless to say that spot is under water now and only accessable by boat. The spillway should be hot when the Corps start releasing water later this week.

[england]

Captnt
That little creek can be tough to beat sometimes.The water is going to have to slow down before they resume the spawn.Its rising pretty quick. There will be so much stuff in the water, it will be a little bit overwelming.