sdeisen little fish reports

Quote from greekdiver

It's so Steven gets jealous and moves back to Florida to dive with me.

It had exactly that effect! I appreciate you keepin the spot warm for me. Nice thing bout those spots is I know there will be fish for me when I get back. Tight work Harry

We're you using 120 or 130?

I dove a tournament in Arkansas last week. It was at lake Ouachita near Hot Springs Arkansas. Besides a very murky trip to Toledo Bend about a month ago it was my first exposure to spearing in freshwater. Hot Springs Arkansas is about a 7 hour drive North of where I am living. Being born and raised in south Florida I get really excited like a little kid seeing the farms, woods and picturesque countryside that surrounds this place. I got roped into doing this tournament by a guy I met through work who is an avid scuba spearfisherman but recently took a freedive class and he's really enthusiastic about freedive spearing. I figured it would be a neat way to see another state and do some much needed diving in the process. Driving through the hills and passing all the summer camps and lodges in the hills leading to the lake you never get the feeling like you are about to be hunting fish underwater. We got to the marina on Friday morning, signed up for the tournament, launched the boat and spent the day scouting and an hour before dark set up our hammocks for the night on one of the lakes islands. Unfortunately the Texas-Louisiana -Arkansas area has been getting a ton of rain this year and just like Toledo a few weeks ago this lake was experiencing (from what I've been told) unusually horrible viz. The lake is pretty large and we found varying degrees of water visibility in diff areas. I don't what youd say in terms of how many feet of vis we had but basically you could not see the end of your gun until you hit the thermocline and then things got remarkably cLear but also dark. Between 35-50 feet things basically got pitch black. My dive buddy and I shared a flashlight taking turns on dives but hunting with a flashlight if your not using it to look in holes is really difficult. Now I wonder if anyone does that with any success. Before going I was dreaming about how I would shoot a giant striper out in the deeper middle of the lake but those hopes got crushed when I realized the visibility situation. My dive buddy mostly wanted to look in the shallows for catfish for the tournament and I hoped to win by finding a walleye . Most of the lake is sheer rock cliffs so he could look along the bank and 20 feet further out I was in 50 feet of water. I managed to shoot a few bass (legal in Arkansas within season but not included in the tournament) and I shot one walleye. It was a long day of many many long dives but much of the time was spent staring into darkness hoping to make out a fish swimming by.
We finished the day and went to the tournament weigh in. I was pretty confident that I would be the only person who found a walleye. There were 44 participants and I think all of the were on SCUBA. I brought up my little walleye and it was put on the scoreboard. Most of the people got skunked but a few brought up monster catfish that they had trouble holding up. I was feeling good about my chances at the walleye category then some guy brought up one about 3 times the size of mine so we just got in the truck and headed south lol.

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Quote from Dan

Very cool report. Unfortunate you weren't able find spearfishing satisfaction, but nevertheless sounds like a nice experience.

What gun were you using in this terrible vis?

Thanks Dan it really was, just for the scenery alone and the diving was actually pretty surreal

I put together a 90cm with a dangelo 2 handle I've had for a couple years.

Quote from Sames

Steven,

Glad you at least didn't get skunked on an Arkansas lake! I am in the NW corner of AR and dive Beaver Lake, vis has been rough this year since we got well over a foot of rain recently. It sucks that here on Beaver it is illegal to shoot black bass (largemouth, spotted, smallmouth). Sounds like you had a great time diving a new location despite the conditions.

It's funny that you dream of shooting big striper over here, while I have spent years dreaming of diving in FL shooting a big grouper or mackerel or wahoo. Biggest striper I've taken here on a spear was 38 pounds, but I've seen some far bigger than that; lake record is 70 pounds on rod and reel. I usually chase shad balls close to the surface if I can find them on the depth finder and then dive in hoping striper are chasing them. In the real murky stuff having huge fish like that blow right past you at point blank range can make you almost jump out of your wetsuit.

Great story, not many people travel from Florida travel to Arkansas to spearfish, glad you enjoyed the trip and the diving, best of luck!

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I knew I remembered there being a member from Arkansas on here.
I've heard you guys generally have much clearer water up north. I think the same guy and I are going to bull shoals in a couple months.
Those are big stripers, I might have to make that trip :). I can imagine one of those blasting past you in the haze would give you quite a jolt.

Quote from Sames

You will love diving Bull Shoals, it has good water clarity and lots of fish. I have always found diving by the dam to be the best visibility on both Beaver and Bull Shoals, and the striper are always by the dam. If you see some foot-long shad darting around you near the surface, be ready. Areas with large rocks and boulders are always go-to spots for big catfish hiding underneath, and bluffs are also hot spots. I'm looking forward to hearing how that trip goes.

I've recently started dropping a weighted mesh bag full of cut up perch at areas where I am going to be diving, and start diving there after about 15-30 minutes of waiting. I was a little skeptical at first, but I've been surprised at how many shootable fish it brings in. Since lake fishing is hit or miss usually, this has really increased my fish per day ratio. Maybe that will help, good luck.

That is awesome advice and I really appreciate it. There's not a lot of info out there about diving the lakes and especially little when it comes to doing so while free diving. If you're doing any diving this summer it would be cool to join you, let me know by PM if you ever want to.

Quote from hatterasfreedvr

Steven, you should try duck hunting if you are still out that way during the season. Supposed to be some of the best in the US

Woooooo don't get me started. I duck hunted literally the entire season. The people I know here have a house boat in the middle of the Atchafalaya and we went every weekend. So many wet, 30 degree mornings. Where the camp is located there are sloughs accessible from the main waterways and basically 0 chance of anyone else hunting there. We would sometimes hunt from the boat, sometimes we would cover the boat and walk in waist deep flooded timber till we found good cypress trees to lean on and wait for the sun to come up. I probably shot off over 200 shotgun shells over the course of the season and I hit one duck :,)

Well worth every minute and the non resident license and stamp, though.