Looking for advice - NE Arkansas..

[Srongchoo]

New member here. Hopefully y'all can help me out.

Just moved to Paragould, AR and have been trying to figure out how to fish this area. I grew up on KY/Barkley Lakes, and have lived in Memphis fishing the Mississippi lakes and Horseshoe lake AR for the past couple years. Going from big lakes to these small impoundments and oxbows has been giving me fits (I don't understand how to find and locate fish on lakes that don't have primary and secondary channels in them). I've fished Portia Bay, Lake Frierson, and Mallard lake recently. Portia was a gar hole - literally. Caught several small (6-8") shallow in Mallard lake but couldn't find deeper water or bigger fish. Is making the drive every time to a bigger lake like Reelfoot or Horseshoe lake going to be my best bet?

Are there any other areas that I'm missing? Lake Hogue and Ashbaugh are next on my list to try as is Wappappello in Missouri.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Not asking for honey holes. General information such as deeper areas of a lake or if a lake is predominantly white or black crappie would help me tremendously.

[mcc]

Unfortunately there's not a lot of prime crappie fishing locations in NE Arkansas. It consists of mostly small bodies of water and river oxbows. If you truly want a consistent "home" lake to catch fish on then you're going to have to travel 1.5 hours +.

[rbro7752]

The north west corner of mallard lake is the deepest part, mallard had some decent fish if you can find them. I’ve also caught some decent fish out of big lake. If you don’t know the boat runs travel with caution.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

[whatroads]

You've got some of the best darn smallmouth stream fishing anywhere......Look for some of the smaller lakes. You could also make trips to Missouri and fish Table Rock. The river entrance at Kimberling City has some decent crappie fishing. You could also make a little longer trip to Stockton lake. Given where you're located you may have to go farther South, in Arkansas, to find decent crappie fishing. The goal would be to get South of the rocky state forest areas that tend to have clear, and cold, water

As for the smallmouth, I use an ultralight spinning rod and Rebel "wee-R" craw imitations. Almost any crawdhead imitation will do. Plastic grubs work too. Work the deeper pools. I particularly like to hit feeder streams that empty into the larger rivers such as the Buffalo River

[Ketchn]

i would tend to think since they have water in great abundance there are likely good numbers of fish close to you in one of those lakes mentioned , it often takes a bit of time to figure out the when and where though .
and for sure dont go thinking a small water body doesn't have some big crappie in it
oxbows might be difficult to fish because they are so shallow and turbid ,but thats what a white crappie is designed to take advantage of . some of those muddy looking oxbow impoundments might be holding 3 lbers ,just saying

[Fishincracker]

Moved to N/E Arkansas and wondering if there are any good bank fishing spots for seniors in the Blytheville or Jonesboro area. Can’t handle a boat anymore but still love the idea of catching a fish or two now and then. Thanks.

[NIMROD]

Might get better answers posting on Arkansas threads . Welcome to the site .

[quadlee]

lakes without creek channels always look for the bait. Thats where the fish will be especially in smaller lakes. You find the bait you will find more fish than you can catch