LITTLE ROCK — In recent weeks, reports have continued to surface of Arkansans who have contracted the dangerous BOT-B virus.
Symptoms affecting those with this affliction include odd darkening of exposed skin, particularly around the eyes; excessive absences from home; a coma-like stupor induced by watching certain TV shows; soreness in one arm; open wounds on the hands, generally centered on the thumb and forefinger; unusual urges to awaken in the middle of the night; sluggishness at the workplace or in the face of honey-do lists; and an obsessive fascination with piscine behavior.
Furthermore, the members of this group are known to show an eccentric willingness to spend copious amounts of cash in search of the next big thing that will help them curb their illness.
In that regard, it is believed that something about BOT-B, or “bass on the brain,” triggers the amygdala to become overactive. When affected by BOT-B, this part of the brain’s so-called pleasure center is positively stimulated by the accumulation of long sticks, line-retracting tools and sharp barbed metal attached to various shiny bobbles.
While there is no known cure for BOT-B, biologists from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission were recently impaneled to provide remedies that may alleviate the suffering from this disease. The resulting research delivered a handful of locations where BOT-Bers (or Botbers, as they have begun to be called) can find relief through aqua therapy.
Yes, it’s true: The only way to get BOT-B to subside is to go fishing. So, I asked a handful of fisheries biologists with the AGFC to provide a detailed list of the best bass waters in their areas and across The Natural State. What follows are a handful of destinations that every Arkansas bass angler should try.
River Valley & Ozark Lake Dardanelle For 50 miles, the Arkansas River backs up to wash over more than 34,000 acres, forming what we call Lake Dardanelle near Russellville. Bob Limbird, the AGFC District 9 fisheries supervisor, noted Dardanelle as one of two big-bass hot spots for River Valley & Ozark anglers.
Of Dardanelle and similar river-system impoundments, professional bass fisherman Denny Brauer once said that if you are fishing deep, you are probably fishing too deep. That’s often true of this lake, where rock revetments, small islands, riprap, shallow flats, woody cover, creek-channel edges and various aquatic vegetation serve as the home to Dardanelle’s largemouths and spotted bass.
The lake is known as a bigbass hangout partly because, for years, the Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza has been dominated by fish taken from one of two pools on the Arkansas River. While theDumas area is often in the winner’s circle, Lake Dardanelle has given up its share of true lunkers - largemouths in the range of 6 to 8 pounds or more.
One factor that makes Dardanelle so attractive is that several highland streams, bayous and smaller rivers empty into it. Names like Illinois Bayou conjure up images of some of the better fish taken from Dardanelle and its backwaters.
Lake Atkins
Lake Atkins earns mention as the other place to go for big bass in this area, Limbird said. The lake also gets a nod from Kevin D. Hopkins, assistant biologist with the AGFC Black Bass Program, as one of his top-three waters in the state for lunker largemouths.
That trait comes as no surprise. Atkins, found south of the town of the same name, was refurbished in the early 2000s. It had already enjoyed a reputation as a good lake for big bass - and big crappie and big bream - before silting in as it aged.
So, the AGFC stepped in and worked to improve the dam, the fertility of the lake and more. That more was the addition of Florida-strain largemouth bass to the lake fishery. Today, Atkins, at only 752 acres and one of the northernmost Florida-strain impoundments, is proving on a weekly basis that small waters can hold big bass.
The big bass of Atkins may be found holding in whatever timber remains: shallow-water willows, cypress trees, pondweed, slimy lily, coontail, stumps or buckbrush.
Lake Conway
At 6,700 acres, Lake Conway, constructed in the late 1940s and early 1950s, is still the largest manmade fish and wildlife agency lake in the entire United States. While the lake’s age has shown in similar ways to Lake Atkins, Conway is still a great bass fishery, said Tom Bly, an AGFC district fisheries supervisor whose area includes the lake.
“Lake Conway is a fertile system that has always produced good bass,” Bly said, noting that a local bass club tournament held earlier this year included afive-fish winning weight of 28 pounds.
Lake Conway - while known more for its giant redears, big bluegills and behemoth flathead catfish - has lily pads, cypress trees and knees, brush, logs and old creek channels that are favored hangouts for the lake’s largemouth bass.
The lake, averaging only about 6 feet in depth, is relatively shallow compared to the Corps impoundments found to the north and west.
Across the state Greers Ferry Lake Hopkins has Greers Ferry Lake among his top three in the state for numbers of bass. Meanwhile, Bly put the lake at the top of bass fisheries in his area.
The attraction of Greers Ferry near Heber Spings is simple, according to Bly.
“Greers Ferry is the only one of [the good bass fisheries] that offers all three species of black bass - largemouth, smallmouth and spotted,” he said of Three Rivers waters.
“The past several years of above-normal lake elevations on Greers have made the lake much more productive with significant improvements in the overall fish population.
High water has improved survival of young bass as a result of increased food production and increased cover. Shad, gizzard and threadfin are the driving food sources in Greers, and thepopulations of these forage fish are excellent in providing good growth for adult bass,” Bly said, further explaining Greers Ferry Lake’s bass boon.
With its relative proximity to central Arkansas, Greers Ferry can get a lot of Little Rocktraffic. Still, with roughly 40,000 acres of water to fish, there’s lots of space to find bass around trees, rocks, coves, bluffs, humps and other cover similarly found at other U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lakes in our highlands.
Another commonality between this lake and other Corps impoundments is that there are the remains of communities beneath the waters of Greers Ferry. So, you might be catching fish out of someone’s old chimney. Just something to ponder.
White and Cache rivers, oxbows
A pair of rivers called White and Cache carve their way south to the Arkansas Delta, eventually meeting with the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers. While the population of people in this part of The Natural State may be less dense, the same is not true for bass.
Jeff Farwick, the AGFC’s district fisheries supervisor in the Brinkley office, noted “excellent seasonal bass fishing” that occurs along these running waters when they recede. This fishing is diverse, with largemouths being a more common catch in backwater oxbow lakes and a greater number of spotted bass being found in the available cover offered by the rivers themselves.
Many of the backwaters in this area are found on public grounds such as the Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge and the Henry Gray Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area, further improving bass angling opportunities here.
While Greers Ferry bass fishing is typical of upland Corps reservoirs, angling for bass here is much more like the flatland bayous and sloughs that typify bass waters in southeast Arkansas. Fish-holding cover in these waters includes logs, brush, treetops, cypress trees and knees, beaver dams and vegetation. Plus, fishing deep in the White, Cache or one of the rivers’ oxbows may mean 4 to 6 feet instead of 60.
Lake Barnett
Of this impoundment, Bly said, “The big bass lake in our district is Lake Barnett in White County, with bass up to 13 pounds being caught.”
While the lake, located off Arkansas 31 near Romance, is closer to Little Rock than Greers Ferry, Barnett is often considered an underutilized hidden gem. The lake totals about 245 acres, was constructed in 1984 and is owned by the AGFC.
While the lake is small in surface acreage, it is said to fish like a much larger impoundment, often receiving the moniker of “Mini Greers Ferry” because of Barnett’s three-mile route through a mix of wooded hills, bluffs, ledges and rocks. The lake is full of wood along the inundated channel of the bayou that was dammed to form it. The deepest water is at the eastern end near the dam.
A snapshot highlight of a trip here is the 150-foot-tall rock formation known as Red Bluff. It resides on the northside of Barnett at about the middle of the lake.
Lake Ouachita Hopkins said Lake Ouachita is a wonderful lake for bass anglers hoping to catch good numbers of fish. Stuart Wooldridge, a District 8 biologist, concurred by pointing out that Ouachita has produced “over 110 bass per hour of electrofishing sampling when you combine spotted bass and largemouth bass.” Plus, AGFC activity at Ouachita in recent years has included stocking reservoirstrain smallmouth bass that have enhanced fishing on the lake’s lower end.
Ouachita is Arkansas’ largest lake entirely within our state’s borders, encompassing roughly 40,100 acres. It was among the top 100 bass waters as named by a national bass-fishing publication earlier this year, and Ouachita is often ranked in the top 10 by many such publications.
Great spawns in recent high-water springs have many largemouths and spots available to anglers in a variety of cover. Fish can be found around Ouachita’s many islands, rocks, trees, dead timber, drop-offs, ledges, old creek channels, flats and aquatic vegetation.
Lake Hamilton Wooldridge and Hopkins both have Lake Hamilton high on their list of bass waters, but for different reasons.
Wooldridge points to Hamilton as the region’s big-bass lake, while Hopkins notes Hamilton as a prolific bass fishery.
As proof of the former, Wooldridge said, “Over the lastthree years, Lake Hamilton has produced several lunkers from 8 pounds up to 14.5 pounds for local tournaments.”
Meanwhile, on the latter, Hopkins said Hamilton is one of the spots he would target if he wanted to catch a limit of fish, partly because it would allow him to stay close to home.
Lake Hamilton is just below Lake Ouachita on the Ouachita River. At 7,460 acres, Hamilton is greatly smaller. Plus, its shoreline is far more developed. That’s both bad and good. There’s going to be a lot more traffic, especially weekenders on skis, wakeboards and other watercraft. However, the development adds a myriad of docks to the fish cover similarly found in Ouachita.
That means another pattern to use to target the fish.
One final tidbit is that trips here can be enhanced by glimpses of The Belle of Hot Springs, a 400-passenger riverboat that regularly carries locals and tourists across Hamilton’s waters.
DeGray Lake
While DeGray Lake does not give up big bass as commonly as Hamilton, Wooldridge said hooking a lunker here is still a possibility. He and Hopkins,however, believe that DeGray is more of a sure thing for anglers looking to catch fish in greater quantity. Here, as at Ouachita, Wooldridge reported electrofishing samples that include more than 110 bass per hour.
Like Ouachita, DeGray, near Bismarck, was recently included among the national top-100 bass waters. The 13,400-acre lake was officially impounded in 1972, with the completion of its dam, making DeGray far younger than either Ouachita or Hamilton.
With great spawns in recent years, large numbers of spotted and largemouth bass are to be found in a variety of cover, including points, flats, rocks, wood and submerged creek channels. The cover is similar to both Ouachita and Hamilton, with the key to any outingoften being the baitfish. In other words, if you find the food, you’ll find the bass.
Staff writer James K. Joslin can be reached at (501) 399-3693 or jjoslin@arkansasonline.com.
Bass fishing elsewhere in ArkansasA group of fisheries biologists from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission was recently polled regarding the best bass waters in The Natural State.
While lying outside of our coverage areas, these rivers and lakes are worth a visit for anglers looking for bass in either quantity or quality.
Arkansas River: The lower stretches of the Arkansas River, particularly the river and backwaters in Dumas Pool 2, are known as a bass hot spot throughout the state’s angling community. Current is a key in the main river for catching a mix of largemouths and spots off wing dikes. Meanwhile, woody cover and vegetation hold good numbers of largemouths in the backwaters.
Lower White River: There are 300-plus lakes, bayous and other bodies of water found on the public grounds of the White River National Wildlife Refuge.
While the fishing can be seasonal in nature, these waters - and bass - are far enough from Arkansas’ major population centers that pressure is nearly nonexistent for the harder-to-reach lakes. Either try to beat the rush when floodwaters fall or wait until later in the year to fish here.
Bull Shoals Lake: This lake is far from being the Dead Sea that some called it in years past. Evidence of that came earlier this year in the weights turned in by professional anglers at a Bassmaster Elite Series event held here. High-water years have made a big difference. Bull Shoals has good numbers of largemouths, smallmouths and spots.
Crooked Creek: This is one of two blue-ribbon smallmouth streams in Arkansas. The creek is good for numbers, while bigger smallies may be more often found in the state’s upland reservoirs. Part of the reason for the trip here is the possibility of catching a big bronzeback in the backdrop offered by the creek.
Rocks, wood cover, willows and more offer fishy spots, while names like Kelly’s Slab are famed as put-in/take-out points along these running waters.
Buffalo River: Made America’s first national river in 1972, the 150 or so miles of the Buffalo National River also hold blue-ribbon designation for smallmouths.
Again, trips here are partly because of the scenery. The lower river is more fishable later into the summer, with some bigger smallies being found near the chilled waters of the White River that rush by the mouth of the Buffalo at Buffalo City.
Lake Chicot: If you travel south and east in Arkansas, you can almost go no farther than this 20-mile-long oxbow that was formerly the channel of the Mississippi River. The largest such lake in the United States and the largest natural lake in Arkansas holds bass around cypresses, willows, buckbrush, timber, docks, rocks, the old river channel and the bayous that empty into it. While Florida-strain largemouth are stocked here, the lake rarely gives up fish over 6 or 7 pounds.
Bass are here in plentiful numbers, though, with a recent sampling showing a good age class of fish in the 11- to 13-inch range.
Millwood Lake: Another of the AGFC’s Florida-strain fisheries, Millwood provides lots of water and lots of different territory to fish. Some believe the next state-record largemouth will be caught here. The main lake itself has the old Little River channel, flooded timber and aquatic vegetation. Meanwhile, backwaters offer a variety of woody cover, lily pads and more. Like many river-system lakes, the 29,000-plus-acre Millwood has both largemouths and spots.
River Valley Ozark, Pages 150 on 06/24/2012