16 June 2008
Spearfishing - Opening Weekend - Bull Shoals Lake, Arkansas
Posted by Darrell under: SPEARFISH HUNTING! .
We almost missed opening weekend of spearfishing in Arkansas. Jeff and I were in Texas with our families visiting our friend Thad and his wife. We were having a great time in Texas, hillbilly surfing on Lake Austin and floating one of the local rivers.
But, much to our wive’s dismay, Jeff and I flew back early Sunday morning in order to spearfish the Arkansas open. We made a great decision. It was probably the best day of spearfishing we’ve ever had. Bull Shoals Lake is flooded and about 30 feet higher than normal. We didn’t know what to expect.
When Jeff and I arrived at the Bull Shoals Boat Dock in the town of Bull Shoals, Arkansas it was already late in the day on Sunday. We were simply happy to arrive at all, since we had begun that same day in Austin Texas. Spearfishing season was already well underway. We were excited to arrive at the dock and hear stories of some of the locals already taking giant cats. There were stories about people with 200 pounds of catfish on their boat from that morning, etc and we got caught up in the excitement. The crazy thing was that everyone was claiming that the catfish were in 12 feet and less of water!
So, with just a couple hours of daylight remaining, Jeff and I headed out. We each burned a tank of air and didn’t have tremendous success. I saw a big (10+ lb) yellow cat but couldn’t get a shot off at it. Jeff saw a flathead (which is not in season yet) and I speared a nice walleye, but that was the extent of it.
When we got back to the dock, one of the local guides (TJ - a really cool guy), was just coming in with a couple of his friends. They had some monster cats including a couple in the mid 40’s and several that were over 25 lbs. Man was I excited about getting out there today.
Our friends, Zach, Travis, and Mike arrived late Sunday evening and we all sat up making plans for today. This was Travis’s first time spearfishing and we were all looking forward to seeing what he thought about it.
Today turned out to be one of those dream days. It was almost surreal. I saw some huge catfish and definitely saw some of the best fish (including walleye and a whole school of stripers) that I’ve ever encountered spearfishing. I blew it several times with misses and dumb mistakes (like forgetting to load the bands on my new speargun) but still managed to land my biggest catfish ever. Jeff took the biggest fish of the day and Mike was close behind with two GIANT cats. Travis managed to limit out on his first day ever of spearfishing. Zach took a couple nice cats and the only walleye of the day.
I can’t imagine topping this day of spearfishing, but can guarantee that we will try to.
When I get back and have high speed internet available, I’ll load a bunch more pictures in my photo gallery. For now, hopefully this picture will give you an idea how great an day we had (and why you should consider taking up spearfishing):
2 Comments so far...
Kristine Shreve Says:
17 June 2008 at 7:18 am.
Those are some enormous fish. It definitely looks like you had a good day.
Jeff Says:
1 November 2008 at 9:19 am.
Great catch! Isn’t spearfishing the most fun you’ve ever had?
Personally, I only dive in salt water, (California, Brasil) but my brother lives in Diamond city and I got him into spearfishing a couple years ago and he loves it too. I think he’s getting certified as we speak, but I taught him to do it freediving and he has a blast that way too.
He has a dock in Longbottom creek, so maybe you’ll see him someday. I’m sending him a Brazillian Speargun for christmas, so I’m sure he’ll want to put it to the test as soon as possible.
Dive safe!
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