According to Hopkins, the following lakes have been stocked with Florida bass over the past couple of years: Atkins, Bois d'Arc, Chicot, Columbia, Monticello, Greenlee, Millwood, SWEPCO and Lower White Oak. Lakes stocked with Florida bass follow different management plans, and are managed on the basis of different harvest restrictions.

"Many of the lakes that are regularly stocked with Florida largemouth bass have some type of special harvest restriction in place in order to offer these fish more protection and ultimately reach a larger size," Hopkins said. "Lakes Austell, Pickthorne, and Mallard have received Florida largemouth bass in the past, but are not being stocked any longer due to reduced growth rates, which most likely had occurred from the lack of harvest of smaller fish on these lakes.

"Lake Monticello, Millwood and Columbia are probably the most productive big-bass producing lakes in the state, and reports of fish exceeding 10 pounds are not uncommon."

As mentioned earlier, Florida bass fisheries in Arkansas can be difficult to maintain because of the interaction with northern-strain bass. So how many Florida bass are typically stocked in Arkansas waters?

According to Stein, over the last couple of years, Lake Millwood has received an average of 175,000 Florida largemouth bass fingerlings, Monticello has received an average of 60,000, Columbia has received an average of about 100,000, and Lower White Oak has received an average of 90,000 Florida largemouth bass fingerlings.

At 25,000 acres, Lake Millwood needs more Florida bass stocked to transform the genetic makeup of the lake's bigmouth complement. Even with 175,000 Florida bass fingerlings stocked into Millwood each year, only 15 percent of the bass caught are either pure Florida bass or fish designated "F1" -- first-generation hybrids. (See below for a more detailed review of the science relevant to the Floridas and their genes.) On the other hand, the percentage of pure northern-strain largemouths in Millwood is less than 5 percent, so most bass in the lake at least minimally exhibit the presence of Florida bass genes. Continued stocking will almost certainly continue to advance trophy potential at Lake Millwood.

Lake Monticello's percentage of largemouths that are either pure Floridas or F1s -- 40 -- is the state's highest. This relatively new lake was built with a future as a trophy bass fishery in mind, so no northern-strain bass were stocked in the lake -- only Floridas. Such as they are, the lake's northern-strain bass are "stocked" courtesy of the feeder streams.

Said Hopkins, "The AGFC Largemouth Bass Management Plan states that approximately 500,000 Florida largemouth bass fingerlings will be produced annually, and that state lakes" -- i.e., AGFC-owned -- "will have top priority, along with lakes that have shown to have adequate habitat and conditions, including a sufficient amount of forage, that are favorable for growing larger bass."

Lake Millwood serves as a prime example of what Hopkins means by a lake with "adequate habitat and conditions": large amounts of forage, extensive vegetation and other cover, large spawning flats, deep channels and just about the warmest climate to be found in the Natural State. Given all this, it's hardly a surprise that many Arkansas anglers pick Millwood to surrender the next state-record largemouth. (The current state record, incidentally, was caught at Mallard Lake in 1976; it weighed 16 pounds, 4 ounces.) And Columbia, Lower White Oak and Monticello all exhibit many of these same characteristics acknowledged as ideal for growing monsters.