Arkansas Online

Caddo delivers

Rain doesn’t dampen enthusiasm for bass fishing

BRYAN HENDRICKS

GLENWOOD — Rusty Pruitt and I had a feeling that the fishing would be excellent last week, and the Caddo River did not disappoint us.

The odds seemed stacked against us. We organized the trip hastily, which limited us to half a day on the water. It was the worst half, too, because storms were in the forecast beginning in late afternoon. I do not like being on rivers during storms because heavy rainfall can cause them to rise dramatically. I was caught in a flash flood in 1995, and that was all of that I wanted.

Not to worry. Our friends at Lucky’s Canoe Rental in Glenwood assured us that the heavy rainfall wouldn’t occur until night, after we had left.

“The river’s a tad low, but the fishing ought to be excellent,” said Thomas “Lucky” Kerbersky, co-owner of Lucky’s Canoe Rental.

Lucky’s put us in one of their brand new Old Town canoes. They were very proud of it and were eager to hear our review. The hull is a lot lighter and more nimble than the Old Town barges of the past, but the seats are hideous.

We were deposited at Caddo Gap where Pruitt and I began our timeless preparation ritual. We never rig our lines beforehand, for example. We always rig them riverside. We always shoot a couple of videos and then shove off through a rock garden that we have navigated many times over the decades.

We resolved not to fish until we reached the South Fork of the Caddo. The water looks good in Caddo Gap, but we never catch many fish there, and the water gets progressively better downstream. We can’t resist, of course, but this time Pruitt and I caught a couple of smallmouth bass almost immediately. Our resolve crumbled, as it always does, and we fished diligently from the beginning.

“They’ll probably bite pretty good ahead of this front,” Pruitt said.

“And they’ll bite in the rain, too,” I said.

“Did you bring a raincoat?” Pruitt asked with a mocking tone.

“As a matter of fact, I did!” I crowed.

This is a standing joke with us. As many times as we have been caught in the rain, I never bring rain gear on a fishing trip. On this day, however, I was prepared.

We caught fish steadily down to our first deep hole above a long, winding rapid. It’s not deep anymore. It is filled with silt almost to the end. We caught a couple of bass in the thin pocket of deep water remaining at the rear of the pool.

At the bottom of that rapid is another attractive pool that seldom produces much for us. It was on point Wednesday, though. A woman that watched us from a comfortable chair on her deck asked us if she should heat up a skillet.

Below that is one of our favorite pools on the Caddo. For reasons unknown, it always produces big fish for us in the winter. We seldom catch much there in warm weather, and that trend remained active.

Below that is a long pool with a submerged rock garden. In overcast weather with a little rain, it is a great place to catch bass on topwater lures. To my great regret, I failed to bring any topwater lures.

Below that is the fabled S-Turn rapid. It is the most challenging rapid on the river, and it is the gateway to the river’s best fishing.

The S-Turn rapid is a thin chute between large boulders that drops about 4-5 feet very quickly. You enter the the rapid between several rocks and cut a hard right turn. If you don’t line up just right, you won’t make it. Pruitt and I have run that rapid many times, and I have run it solo many times extra, but on Wednesday we didn’t feel so adventurous.

“Man, I really don’t feel like messing with this today,” I said.

“I don’t either,” Pruitt agreed. “Want to get out?”

We exited the canoe and guided it by hand through the chute, which was almost as dicey as paddling. At the bottom lay our reward, the best bit of water on the entire river. Regardless of the season, we always catch at least one big smallmouth bass below the S-Turn.

We beached the canoe and worked the web of seams below the rocks. It was raining hard by then, but the water was a perfect temperature for wading. Pruitt worked river left and I worked river right.

We caught fish early and often, but the bigger smallmouths were in my seam. I called Pruitt over, and he caught several, too. The party ended when he snagged his lure and waded into the hotspot to retrieve it.

“A bunch of ‘pigs’ took out of there when I went in,” Pruitt said.

Below that was another long rapid with a long seam of deep water. We caught a bunch of good fish there, including a double, and again in a similar spot downstream.

At that point I began missing a lot of fish. As I threaded on another soft plastic lure, I noticed that my 1/0 hook had lost its rigidity. When I set the hook, the pressure stretched the hook instead of driving the point forward. I changed hooks and began catching fish again.

My most productive lure was a Yum Craw Papi, an old favorite that I haven’t used in many years. It is small and hard to use with a 1/0 hook, but smallmouth bass and Ozark bass love it. Later, I switched to a Zoom Mini Lizard in junebug and cotton candy colors. Near the end of the trip I switched to a brown, Zoom Tiny Brush Hawg. I had never caught a fish with that lure in that color, but it worked that day.

Pruitt used a Zoom Tiny Lizard in watermelon red all day with even better results than mine.

Near the end of the run is the Flag Hole, a long, fun rapid that’s too swift to fish unless you slow down by back paddling. We did that and caught our first bass ever in the Flag Hole.

“Cast behind that little bit of rock sticking up,” I said below the Flag Hole. “I catch at least one good fish there every trip.”

Pruitt missed the sweet spot, so I cast to it and caught a 14-inch smallmouth. “Called shot!” I said. The bite slowed as night fell. I tallied 25 smallmouth and Kentucky bass, five green sunfish and two longear sunfish. I missed about a dozen bass.

Pruitt didn’t count his fish, but he caught considerably more than I did. He missed about the same number.

Our drive home was familiar, in the dark and in a driving rain. We were very content and eager to fish again soon.

Arkansas Outdoors

en-us

2023-05-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/283317526765961

WEHCO Media