I am not familiar with the waters in your area, search local fishing newsletters for pictures/articles of where people are catching stripers first. I know the river below Pickwick dam holds striped bass, and that there are striped bass waters in Arkansas. Throw large swimbaits and jigs, or rip large heavy poppers or plugs for artificial bait. I like to use live bait. If you can catch shad and keep them alive they make excellent bait. Depending on conditions you can fish them in a variety of ways. Free lineing works for fish in shallower water or fish that are in the upper column of water, add splitshot to get a little deeper. Downlineing is basically the same thing except with a 2+ oz weight and leeder, to fish a precise depth. If fish are spotted 30' down, you hover over them with baits set 25'-30'. Then there is bottom fishing. In lakes or slow moving river holes, cast a dowline rigged tail-hooked shad into 25-40' and set in a rod holder.
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