OCTOBER
Largemouths, Village Creek State Park
Here's a two-for-one bass-fishing deal: Village Creek State Park in east-central Arkansas' Cross and St. Francis counties. In addition to great fishing in spring-fed lakes Austell and Dunn, you'll enjoy the fall colors of Crowley's Ridge as its sugar maples, beeches and butternuts turn crimson and gold.

Austell made headlines with a 15-pound Florida-strain largemouth 20 years ago, and it continues to reward anglers with more 8-pound Florida-native crosses than you'd think possible from an 85-acre lake. Dunn, a snug 65 acres about a mile away, also produces bass up to 8 pounds, but its population of native, northern-strain fish tends to offer anglers higher numbers of fish up to 4 pounds.

Both lakes feature standing timber in coves and thickets of fallen trees on the bottom, so you'll need weedless lures and sturdy gear to dredge largemouths from their woody lairs. To reach Village Creek State Park from Interstate 40, take the Forrest City exit and head north on state Route 284 for 13 miles. Call the park at (870) 238-9406 for information.

NOVEMBER
Striped Bass, Lake Ouachita
As fall water temperatures reach the 60s in reservoirs, stripers shift into higher gear, arising from lies deep in the summer thermocline. Hunting them, while they restlessly stalk shad on 40,000-acre Lake Ouachita, means a legitimate shot at fish of 30 pounds or more this month.

Experts from the Arkansasstripers. com Web site target long points on the main lake, humps and creek channels now, trolling or casting progressively from deeper to shallower water until they find stripers. Later in the month as stripers stoke themselves for winter, you can fish faster with oversized crankbaits, spoons or chuggers. If you're new to striper fishing, consider hiring a guide for a day to learn the techniques and current patterns, and then venture out on your own.

The bulk of Ouachita lies in western Garland County, featuring more than a dozen accesses, including Brady Mountain to the south, Lake Ouachita State Park to the east and the northerly Irons Fork area. In eastern Garland County, seven more accesses are available. For details, call the Corps of Engineers' Ouachita project office at (501) 767-2101.

DECEMBER
Brown Trout, Little Red River
Yes, we know the brown trout spawned on the Little Red just a few weeks ago, but we prefer to head to Heber Springs now. We don't have to worry about foul-hooking trout while they're busy making the next generation, and all the other Arkansas sportsmen are in the deer woods, leaving the best shoals to us and to the bald eagles.

When water rushes through Greers Ferry Dam, big browns relocate to the edges, ambushing prey from grassbeds and timber. That's when you fish the home of the 40-pound, 4-ounce world-record brown like you would the North Fork or White River: from a boat, casting jerkbaits to the banks. This is visual and visceral fishing with big trout flashing out of cover to your lure. In low water, gear down to bait, jigs, spinners or flies.

Boating and wading access to the Little Red begins at John F. Kennedy Park, off State Route 25 northeast of Heber Springs in central Cleburne County. Good ramps are scattered along its cold waters for more than 30 miles downstream.