CONWAY -- On Arkansas's 167th birthday, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission announced Thursday that it will renovate its oldest asset, 75-year old Lake Conway beginning Sept. 1.
The Commission voted earlier Thursday to approve renovating one of the state's most storied and popular fishing lakes. Draining the lake will begin on Sept. 1. If the project is completed on schedule, the process to refill the lake will begin in 2028.
Austin Booth, director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said the agency cannot estimate the cost of the project until the lake is empty, but he said he expects it will cost $8-10 million.
Created in 1948, 6,700-acre Lake Conway is the largest fishing lake in America owned by a state wildlife management agency. Booth said that political conflicts over creating the lake led to the public passing Amendment 35 to the Arkansas Constitution, which established the Game and Fish Commission in its present form.
"Amendment 35, then in 1945 and also today in 2023, is less a statement about constitutional independence and more of a statement about what conservation and the Arkansas outdoors means to Arkansans," Booth said. "Make no mistake that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is not just doubling down on outdoor recreation on Lake Conway in Faulkner County, but we're also doubling down on the conservation ethos that we know existed here in the 1940s. It's alive and well in 2023 so that future Arkansans can enjoy Lake Conway at its full potential."
Impounded from Palarm Creek, Lake Conway inundates a swampy area that was unsuitable for development. Over time, the lake has accumulated about 16,000 acre feet of sediment, Booth said.
"To put that in numerical terms, we estimate that over the last 75 years, Lake Conway has lost 40% of its volume [water storage capacity]," Booth said.
Ben Batten, the commission's deputy director, said that about 1,400 acres of the lake no longer contains viable fish habitat. Sediment has also made the lake shallower, diminishing the quality of habitat throughout the lake at large. The renovation will increase the lake's average depth by 1.3 feet to 3 feet, Batten said.
On Sept. 1, the renovation will begin with the draining of the lake. Exposure to sunlight and the atmosphere will cause the sediment to compact. It will form a hard surface that will remain hard when the lake refills. With the lake empty, the commission will determine if it should dredge sediment or remove sediment.
"By draining the lake and letting the sediment compact, and then assessing whether we need to further dredge or remove sediment from the lake, we will greatly increase the volume of the lake and thereby the fishery," Booth said.
Additionally, the commission will install pea gravel structures on the lake bed to create spawning habitat for fish. It will install artificial and natural fish attractor structures. There will be one fish attractor per two acres, Batten said. Commission employees will install stake beds to attract crappie, and they will plant cypress trees.
Containing a vast number of stumps, Lake Conway is known as a difficult place to operate an outboard motor. While the lake is dry, commission personnel will remove stumps from boat lanes and upgrade boat lane markings.
Booth also said the commission will modernize all of the public access points on the lake. Boat ramps will be improved, and kayak launching ramps will be installed to facilitate kayak use and eliminate conflicts between boaters and kayakers.
Furthermore, Batten said, the commission will build jetties that will provide public bank fishing opportunities. The jetties will be made from dirt scooped off the bottom. The excavations will create 10- to 12-foot depths, which Batten said will attract a lot of fish, especially in the winter.
The commission will also replace the Lake Conway dam, which was built in 1948, with a modern water control structure and spillway that will eliminate the need for annual drawdowns in the winter, Booth said. The present dam requires a Game and Fish employee to raise and lower the water control components manually.
On July 20, Booth said he expects the commission to suspend all limits on fishing at the lake. This will allow anglers to keep as many fish as they want before the lake dries. Booth said that most of the lake's fish will escape into Palarm Creek and eventually into the Arkansas River.
"It will be one of the largest mass stockings of fish into the Arkansas River to date," Booth said.
When the lake refills, the commission will stock Florida strain largemouth bass, coppernose bluegill, redear sunfish, black crappie, white crappie, channel catfish and flathead catfish.
State Rep. David Ray of Maumelle said that he is glad that the Game and Fish Commission is committed to preserving Lake Conway.
"Lake Conway is a tremendous asset and resource not just for Mayflower and Conway, not just for Faulkner County, not just for Central Arkansas, but really for the whole state," Ray said. "People come from all over to fish, to recreate, all sorts of things. The economic impact of it is huge."
Billy McCaghren of Mayflower, a prominent angler who competed on the Bassmaster Elite Series Tour, said the news excites him, but it also saddens him.
"That's kind of straddling the fence, ain't it?" McCaghren said. "I'm torn. When it comes back, it'll be better than ever. It'll be similar to what happened at Lake Atkins. It really boosted Atkins.
"On the negative side I'm thinking about people like my dad, people that have fished there their whole lives that may not get to fish it again."
Ray acknowledged that deactivating the lake for five years will inconvenience anglers, especially advanced seniors who might not be able to fish it again. The longterm benefits outweigh the short-term inconveniences, Ray said.
"It's a tough situation," Ray said. "It's sort of like when there's a major road construction project. There's a lot of pain in the short term with congestion and traffic and other sorts of things. In the long term you've got a nice, smooth road to drive on. I completely understand and sympathize with people who are going see a lot of disruption because of this. You hate it. My hope is a few years down the road we look back and see that the work that was done will improve and preserve this asset for the next generation of Arkansans."
Booth said that the renovation would not have been possible without the endorsements of the City of Conway, the Conway Chamber of Commerce, the City of Mayflower and Faulkner County.
Brad Lacy, chief executive officer for the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, said Lake Conway was created in partnership with the Game and Fish Commission and the chamber, so it's fitting that their continued partnership will enable the lake's renovation.
"As you learn more about the story of Lake Conway, it really mirrors well with the history of Conway," Lacy said. "The people were visionaries. They did not look to folks in Washington, D.C. or even to Little Rock to solve their problems. They raised money, they took responsibility, and they fought to get what they wanted. And this lake is no different than those other stories that we heard."
Danny Hester, mayor of Mayflower, said his community is enthusiastic about renovating the lake. He acknowledged that five years seems like a long time for the lake to be offline, but it really isn't when put in perspective.
"A lot of people say five years! Are you kidding me? That's a long time!" Hester said. "On the other hand, we just had a ribbon cutting for the completion of our new [Interstate-40] overpass. If you think five years is a long time, they started talking about our overpass when [President] Lyndon B. Johnson was in office 60 years ago. When you compare that, 60 years compared to what we're going to be benefiting from in five years, we feel like this is going to be a huge impact for us from an economic standpoint. We appreciate this work, and we really look forward to its completion."
Bart Castleberry, mayor of Conway, talked about fishing, hunting, and camping on Lake Conway as a youth. He said the lake will become even more important to residents by integrating it with other recreational opportunities. For example, Castleberry said the city plans to incorporate the lake in its Connect Conway bicycle loop.
"It's [the bicycle loop] going to add to this city's growth, and it's going to give people an opportunity to enjoy Lake Conway," Castleberry said.