After visiting with several of the anglers in the Toyota Bonus Bucks Team Championship this morning, it was plain to see that many of them are scratching their heads.
Lake DeGray is not easy. That's become a pretty standard assessment in the last decade around Arkansas.
But It wasn't always that way. The lake used to have a tremendous band of milfoil around the banks that supported some incredible fishing at times. Names like David Ashcraft, Ron Shuffield, Scott Suggs, Keith Green and Ricky Green Jr. (the oldest son of the legend Ricky Green) all cut their teeth on this lake and eventually competed in the Bassmaster Classic.
I covered events on this lake for 20 years and can remember many of them. It wasn't very often, at least back in the day, that a 20-pound plus sack didn't take a one-day tournament. I can remember catching a 24-pound limit in the mid 1990s that just put me in the top 10. One of the guys ahead of me caught a 14-pounder that day.
In the last decade, though, there has been some major changes. The lake level fluctuates tremendously (witness the 10-feet low status at the moment) and those high and lows are what is said to be the biggest reasons the grass is no longer prevalent. I'm skeptical.
Additionally, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has stocked tons of hybrid bass (Striped/White bass crosses) and they have flourished. Without the habitat and the baitfish that gets hammered by hybrids, the overall largemouth fishing has suffered greatly.
But there are still good fish to be caught. And one of these teams will figure out something. They always do.
