If you love fishing, and you live in Arkansas, you're living the good life indeed. Few places in the U.S. offer the astounding variety of freshwater fishing opportunities available in the Natural State.

Regardless of the time of year, the fish are always biting somewhere. Try your hand at catching monster catfish in the broad bottomland rivers of the Delta, or fly-fish for trout in the clear streams of the Ozarks. Fish the coastal plain lakes for crappie and bream, or try for white bass and hybrids at a reservoir in the Ouachita Mountains. The opportunities are almost endless.

That said, here's a road map to 36 of the state's best fishing destinations this year.

JANUARY
Mississippi River Blue Cats
Most folks are backed up to the fireplace this month, but not serious catfishermen. These guys know January is time to bundle up and chase blue cats, and no place offers better action than the Mississippi River, home of the former 116-pound, 12-ounce world record.

Use sonar to pinpoint deep wintering holes anywhere on the river from Blytheville to Chicot County. Then drop a chunk of fresh skipjack or shad to the bottom and hold on. Thirty- to 50-pounders are common, with 100-pound specimens always possible.

Other Choices
Dam tailwaters on the Arkansas River are another congregating spot for January anglers. Small jigs tied tandem on light line slay winter panfish such as saugers, crappie and white bass.

Hefty smallmouth bass lurk around shale ledges in the Ouachita River above Lake Ouachita.

FEBRUARY
Old Town Lake Crappie
Old Town Lake, southwest of West Helena, warms up earlier than do many other Arkansas lakes, and crappie usually move into the shallows to prepare for spawning around the middle of February. This oxbow, separated from the Mississippi River by a levee, drains into Big Creek in the White River drainage. Fishing conditions are not highly influenced by any river, however, and water levels are generally quite stable, a definite advantage for visiting crappie anglers. The lake is at the town of Lakeview on state Highway 44 in Phillips County.

As the water in Old Town Lake warms this month, anglers start catching crappie around the dense stands of cypress trees in shoreline shallows. It's not uncommon when working jigs or minnows around good cover to take a 30-fish limit of crappie that weighs 40 pounds or more. The lake is extremely shallow, less than 6 feet throughout, but on February's warm bluebird days, most crappie will be in 2 feet of water or less.

Other Choices
Another February oxbow hotspot is Lake Chicot, which offers hot largemouth bass fishing at Lake Village, in the state's southeast corner.

On the Spring River in the Ozarks of northeast Arkansas, anglers can expect to hook some nice trout as winter comes to an end.

MARCH
Beaver Lake Hybrid Stripers And White Bass
On this huge U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake near Rogers in northwest Arkansas, anglers can enjoy some hot action for hybrid stripers and white bass this month. Both species of temperate bass can be expected to be gorging on schools of shad, and near dawn and dusk they run the baitfish to the surface. Watch for surface disturbances as the shad are herded around by these predators; then, move in quietly and start casting to the schools.

Any shad-like lure will catch them, but it's hard to beat a silver jigging spoon worked vertically beneath the boat. Freeline one to the bottom, and then rip it upward a few feet at a time. Use a sturdy baitcasting outfit: Hybrids weighing up to 10 pounds and more are common, and one of those can demolish poor-quality tackle in short order. Whites weighing 2 pounds and up are abundant. Dress warmly; the weather can turn frigid quickly this time of year.

Other Choices
Cane Creek Lake near Star City is a favorite destination for in-the-know March crappie anglers.