I've been fishing three days now on Mazarn creek, part of Ouachita lake. I brought fly and standard tackle, I have my Hobie kayak.

I have caught one bluegill on a grasshopper fly.

Fishing worms and plastics on a Texas Rig has not been successful at all. I don't have a depth finder. A minnow top water has not been successful either.

I do see the Occasional fish hitting the surface.

Arkansas no longer sells a 7-Day non-resident license. You have to choose between a three-day license and an annual license. I paid 60 bucks to catch one bluegill so far.

Advice on how I should fish? I would like to catch a bass.

Fished in White River and Table Rock Lake a few times last week while in Branson.

Couldn't get anything but bluegill to hit worms.

I blame the unseasonable high temps and lack of rain.

We have a place in the Ozarks north of Mountain Home. Temps have been normal except last week the ridge of high pressure over Texas reached north and we had two days at 99 or so, but it's gone back to normals since. In fact this coming Saturday's high is going to be 79. Rains have been decent compared to last summer.
I fish Bull Shoals and Norfork quite a bit.
Smallmouths are down around 20' on ledges and rocks. Early, early morning they have been up close to banks on baitfish... but as soon as the sun breaks over the trees they are moving back down.
Doing fair at night using 3/8 jig with black pork rind or swim bait.
It's summer in these Ozark lakes so night or early am and deep.
Some crappie at night on brush piles or around docks.

Try an inline spinner like a rooster tail.

Yellow and maybe some other darker color like green or black.

Look for one heavy enough to get down deep.
Thats probably what I'd do.

I also like to throw a tiny torpedo around sunset. You might have 30 minutes of action. Silver reflective on the bottom seems to work the best. Clear also works.

During the day you might try a wacky rigged sinko bounced off the bottom.

That would probably be my strategy if I was in your situation.

The lakes in Arkansas have incredibly clear water. If you are using braid, make sure you add at least 3-4 feet of flourcarbon leader. I often add 10 feet and reel the knot through the rod eyes onto the reel. I was the Fly Fishing Editor for three different magazines and was on the masthead of Texas Fish & Game for 19 years. Fish in clear water will turn their nose up at your offerings if the leader is too large. Fly fishermen should scale down tippet size. Consider going to a longer leader as well. Anglers fishing beneath Lake Taneycomo in Missiouri would tell me that they had to scale down from 5X tipper to 7X, and even 8X just to get a strike. As noted in other posts, fish early and late to help turn the tables on fish with keen eyesight, as well as fish deeper when the sun starts to rise higher in the sky. Tight lines, Bird

You fish a lot in those Ozark lakes?

Been up there once. Seems like nice place to live though.

I saw a guy last night casting a contraption that has something like 5 leaders attached to a wing-shaped piece of wire.

This morning I tried switching over to a spoon with treble. Anything with an exposed hook that goes to the bottom is going to catch a lot of vegetation, at least where I am, and that is casting to the very middle. So I had to start my retriever before it gets to the bottom. Nothing, nada.

Thanks for the advice. If I had known that I would be this unsuccessful, I don't think I would have come here. I've fished all long the boat docks, nothing. The water looks so fishy, it's frustrating to not even get a bite with a thousand casts.

shiftyandquick said:

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I saw a guy last night casting a contraption that has something like 5 leaders attached to a wing-shaped piece of wire.

This morning I tried switching over to a spoon with treble. Anything with an exposed hook that goes to the bottom is going to catch a lot of vegetation, at least where I am, and that is casting to the very middle. So I had to start my retriever before it gets to the bottom. Nothing, nada.

Thanks for the advice. If I had known that I would be this unsuccessful, I don't think I would have come here. I've fished all long the boat docks, nothing. The water looks so fishy, it's frustrating to not even get a bite with a thousand casts.

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My experience is throwing artificial anything in those waters rarely works for bass. It can work for the trout runs. If your ego is too big to get some night crawlers, don't even bother.

We fished everything we had on a crystal clear lake on the Arkansas / Missouri line where we could see the bass for 2 days with no luck except for some sun fish. Finally asked a local how the hell he was catching fish and he just held up a bucket of worms, smiled and asked if I wanted to be a macho an or catch fish. We hauled ass to walmart for a couple of tubs and never looked back. Had a blast the last 2 days. You could literally cast to the fish you wanted and pull the bait away from the ones you didn't.

I have a little experience fishing on that lake. Mostly looking for Kentucky Bass (Spotted Bass) and it was finesse fishing with light tackle spinning reels and soft plastics on a jig head in about 8-10 feet of water. Watermelon with red flake if I recall correctly. Water is very clear so have to go light tackle. It's nothing like large mouth bass fishing on Rayburn. Good luck!

I don't know anything about Arkansas but I know in Texas if you can't catch a bass with a senko then there aren't any bass there.

It's called an Alabama rig by the bass guys. Mimicks a school of baitfish. Sometimes called an umbrella rig also. Works well if you can find them feeding on shad etc.

That water is pretty standard for Norfork, Bull Shoals, Table Rock etc. They have lots of bass tournaments up there just like elsewhere in the south. Guys that fish those circuits up there catch pretty good fish.
Spinnerbaits, deep diving crankbaits, shaky head jigs, regular jigs with a swim bait or pork rinds are just about in everybody tackle packs.
I work a lot of tournaments in the Ozarks and amazingly those guys catch lots of good fish.

White top water worked pretty well for me last summer.

What were you throwing?

Drink more beer

Maybe the water just turned over and the fish are all outta whack…could explain the tough fishing

Downsize with Ned rigs and green pumpkin grubs/ tubes and fish deep and slow

Going to try that tomorrow morning on Norfork. Sounds like sound wisdom.

AgDad121619 said:

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Downsize with Ned rigs and green pumpkin grubs/ tubes and fish deep and slow

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This is the advice that worked. I started hammering the bass after I went with a Ned rig. Of course there might be other factors involved as well, different conditions on the lake/river that day. I caught 12 or more Bass, after having not caught any in the prior days. I could have caught a lot more if I had continued fishing. Thanks for the advice, it was a real lift to leave that place having caught fish.

shiftyandquick said:

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Advice on how I should fish?

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When nothing else works you could always try the ol reliable and call them in...

Grenade Fishing?

I had a couple on the ned rig but changed to doing a drop shot about 16" up. Used a purple and red flake 4" worm and a copper chartreuse and caught 8 before it got hot.
Nothing big. 5 small mouth, 3 Lm.
Fun.

shiftyandquick said:

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AgDad121619 said:

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Downsize with Ned rigs and green pumpkin grubs/ tubes and fish deep and slow

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This is the advice that worked. I started hammering the bass after I went with a Ned rig. Of course there might be other factors involved as well, different conditions on the lake/river that day. I caught 12 or more Bass, after having not caught any in the prior days. I could have caught a lot more if I had continued fishing. Thanks for the advice, it was a real lift to leave that place having caught fish.

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smallies , spots , largemouth or some combination of all?

AgDad121619 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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AgDad121619 said:

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Downsize with Ned rigs and green pumpkin grubs/ tubes and fish deep and slow

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This is the advice that worked. I started hammering the bass after I went with a Ned rig. Of course there might be other factors involved as well, different conditions on the lake/river that day. I caught 12 or more Bass, after having not caught any in the prior days. I could have caught a lot more if I had continued fishing. Thanks for the advice, it was a real lift to leave that place having caught fish.

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smallies , spots , largemouth or some combination of all?

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TBH, not sure. I'll have to go back and look at my pics.