To probe difficult to reach sweet spots, many Arkansas sportsmen “doodlesock” around these obstructions. Using long, limber crappie poles, some exceeding 20 feet, they tie two to three feet of line to the tip. On the end of the line, they attach a worm, jig, topwater bait or spinner. Using the pole length to accurately place baits in these sweet spots, anglers frequently slap the water, vertically fish baits or run them in circles or figure eights.

With these long poles, anglers can reach spots that they cannot approach by boat and place baits more accurately than by casting, pitching or flipping. By putting the bait right in the strike zone and leaving it there, anglers antagonize fish into biting. They can often provoke a bass into striking even if it”’s not feeding aggressively just by aggravating it with an annoying lure rattling in its face. When a bass strikes and hooks itself, anglers pull in the pole overhand until they can reach the line at the end of it.

In late summer and fall, anglers might also find bass around some rocky shoals, sandbars, points or other shallows along the river shoreline. Bass suspend in deeper water, but enter shoals to feed, usually on overcast days with a slight breeze. Bass then chase shad into shallows to cut off their escape routes. Shad-colored crankbaits, white spinnerbaits or topwaters can hammer bass at the right time.

Sandbars typically form on the inside of bends or points where current slackens and silt deposits. Often, sandbars create placid, pond-like eddies downstream of points. Weeds may grow thick in calm water, making prime conditions for running spinnerbaits, buzzbaits or topwaters.

“In rivers, I catch 90 percent of the fish in 5 feet of water or less,” Cochran said. “In the summer and fall when the water is clear, fishing around sandbars is good.”

During extremely hot temperatures, bass might seek deeper, more stable waters around the outside bends in the river. Water moves faster around the outside of a bend than around a shallow point on the opposite shore. This flow often creates deep scour holes that sometimes trap sunken logs or other debris directly opposite the point. Carolina- or Texas-rigged worms or heavy jigs dropped into these scour holes along the outside bends where few people fish might tempt some old mossback lunkers.

Besides the main river channel or the Cache River, anglers might fish Big Creek or Prairie Bayou. Anglers can launch their boats at facilities in Augusta, Des Arc, DeValls Bluff, Clarendon and other places. For more information, call the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission at 1-800-364-4263.

Find more about Arkansas fishing and hunting at: ArkansasÏSportsmanMag.com