Four members from our club, Ames Anglers, drove some 450 miles south from Ames, Iowa to Holiday Island, Arkansas to walleye fish March 15-16 with guide Ken Greenwood of Greenwood’s Guide Service (479-244-9630). We were not disappointed. Members Jim Trow, Chuck Beck, Daryl Strohbehn and myself met Ken at his most unusual walleye boat docked at the Holiday Island Marina. Go on line to his website to see the boat. The area around Holiday Island is the headwaters of Table Rock Reservoir which originates below the Beaver Reservoir and runs (the White River) some 15 miles into Missouri and becomes Table Rock. The water temp coming out of Beaver is approximately 43 degrees and becomes some 6-8 degrees warmer as it enters Table Rock. Our target species was spawning walleye but the system has Rainbow trout, white and black bass and crappie. Ken brought the minnows and several hundred long hook, ¼ oz. unpainted jigs. We dressed the jigs with a minnow (through the mouth, out the gill and up through the back) which was mostly the only rig we used. We went toward the Beaver Dam (up river) stopping at sand bars/flats positioning the boat along channel breaks and casting the combo out on the flats. We let the jig/minnow touch the bottom, hopped it occasionally while retrieving it back to the boat. Once in a while we just vertical jigged. Water depth was 15 or so feet with a fairly strong current coming through the dam. Temperatures were in the upper 60’s and low 70’s during the day. Jim, who is a retired professional angler, winning the end of the year tournament on the MWC in 2005 and MWC Angler of the Year in 2006, naturally out fished the rest of us. He brought in a 27 and a 27.75-inch walleye and numerous other nice walleyes including several keepers. We totally caught 7 keeper walleyes between 18 and 20 inches which were cleaned and brought back to Iowa. Many 16–17-inch walleyes were caught and returned to grow up for us to catch next year. Other species caught were two nice crappies, several nice whites and several Kentucky bass. We didn’t catch any trout on this trip but have in the past in this stretch of the river. The walleye had not spawned yet or were just beginning to spawn. Many we kept were full of eggs.

That is my report for now. Eighteen from our club are headed back down for another outing April 10th – April 14th. Walleyes should be still around as well as white bass on the spawn at that time. Wishing you a successful open water fishing season.

Lee Huey
Coordinator
Ames Anglers
515-231-2932
hueyiowa@aol.com