Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

The Natural State offers some of the finest smallmouth bass fishing on the planet in famous moving waters such as the Buffalo National River and local favorites like the Caddo and Eleven Point rivers. But in January, they're not the best places for tussling with the sportiest member of the black bass family. Instead, you'll find more stable temperatures and conditions in reservoirs -- and Arkansas is equally blessed with lakes that are heaven on earth for a smallmouth.

Colton Dennis, who leads the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's statewide black bass program, and his assistant, Kevin Hopkins, point to Beaver Lake, Bull Shoals and Greers Ferry as our top three smallmouth reservoirs. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owns them all, and they're sizeable enough -- ranging from 28,000 to 40,000-plus acres -- to overwhelm first-timers. Their deep, crystalline waters mandate specialized tactics at any time of year, but winter patterns can be especially challenging.

To help you enjoy these destinations in January, we talked three busy fishing guides into coming ashore long enough for interviews about their home lakes. As each man summarized his years of experience, a set of straightforward steps for locating and catching smallmouths on each lake emerged. With this advice, we believe your January smallmouth fishing will be so hot that you'll forget all about the cold!

As a bonus, we've got an update on the AGFC's efforts to establish a viable smallmouth fishery on Lake Ouachita -- a project with the potential to turn parts of the lake into the state's best smallmouth destination.

BEAVER LAKE
An integral link in the chain of White River lakes and tailwaters, Beaver covers 28,000 acres in Carroll and Washington counties.

"The smallmouth population in Beaver has grown sizably during the past few years," said guide Ron Crawford of Rogers, who has fished Beaver for most of his life. "They remain aggressive in cold water, and there's fish all over the lake at that time of year (January)."

Crawford calls Beaver difficult to fish "because it's so big, and there's so very little cover. You have to know how to find fish, read your electronics and the banks, and find and follow riverbeds and bluffs. It all depends on how aggressive people are in trying to learn."

Because smallmouths fancy rocky surroundings over muddy, sandy or silty bottoms, Crawford locates their lairs by spotting small rock and pea gravel ashore.