From the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission
As of Oct. 2, 2025, Randy Plyler with Plyler Outdoors Guide Service said some bass have been schooling early in the mornings and very late in the evening. During the day, bass can be caught on crankbait and Texas-rigged worms. Some white bass and hybrid bass can be caught vertical-jigging a spoon.
Some crappie can be caught on small jigs in the brush.
Philip Kastner of Trader Bill’s Outdoors in Little Rock and Hot Springs said in a late September interview on “Wild Side Show” on KABZ-FM, 103.7 The Buzz that an intense hybrid striped bass bite has been going on at DeGray for a while now.
“A Rooster Tail is a secret little thing that DeGray hybrids kill it,” he said. “I know it sounds crazy, but you take a half- or three-quarter-ounce Rooster Tail, you can throw them a mile. You drag them through a bunch of breaking hybrids and they will eat ’em up.”
Be alert for the first good, little cold snap — that will have crappie and other fish moving up where they’re supposed to move and the overall fishing will be fun.