POOLS 2 THROUGH 6
Avid bass anglers who follow tournament fishing know about the excellent fishing on the 94-mile stretch of river from Terry Lock and Dam near Little Rock to Dam No. 2 near Dumas. This is the area where bassing great Rick Clunn set a new three-day BASS Masters Classic record with 75 pounds, 7 ounces of bass in August 1984. And it's the place where Jack Chancellor worked magic with his "Do-Nothing" worm rig to win the 1985 Classic with 45 pounds of fish. This stretch offers some of the best bass fishing in the state.

Largemouths and spotted bass are especially plentiful in the five pools formed by Murray Lock and Dam (L&D) at Little Rock, L&D 5 just below Redfield, L&D 4 just below Pine Bluff, L&D 3 near Grady and L&D 2 near Dumas.

Pool 2 above Dam 2 contains 96 miles of shoreline at normal navigational pool and covers 10,600 surface acres. This pool extends upstream 35.9 miles following the river channel.

This section of river has a reputation for producing bass in the 10-pound-plus range. The Pendleton area contains a variety of good bass fishing areas, including two huge off-river oxbows, Moore Bayou and the Coal Pile, as well as Merrisach Lake.

Coal Pile is on the right bank of the river (heading downstream) at about Mile 23. This area offers ideal bass habitat, with plenty of logjams, flooded cypress, rocks, channels and flats to fish. Moore Bayou is three more miles downriver on the opposite side. Flooded timber is abundant here, and if an angler likes shallow water, this is the place. Merrisach Lake, just above Lock No. 2, is on the Arkansas Post Canal, which leads out from Moore Bayou. Like Coal Pile and Moore Bayou, it is essentially shallow with heavy cover. And like its sister waters, it often produces giant bass.

Continuing upstream, anglers can explore Big Bayou Meto, Mud Lake Bend (a major backwater) and Little Bayou Meto. Little nooks and bays off the main portion of this river lake also contain good cover and excellent shallow-water fishing.

Pool No. 3 is the smallest of these four Arkansas River lakes. This pool has 36 miles of shoreline and 3,670 surface-acres at normal levels. It's mainly just straight river channel, but there are a couple of backwaters between Richland Bend and Trulock.

This section contains a large number of bank-stabilization structures, which consist mainly of large wooden pilings driven into the sandy bottom. At times, these attract heavy concentrations of bass.

Pool 4 begins just below Pine Bluff and contains 5,680 surface-acres along with 58 miles of shoreline in its 20-mile length. This is the pool made famous by Rick Clunn. His fabulous three-day stringer of bass came from the Slack Water Harbor area near Lake Langhofer. Clunn found a shallow ledge holding an immense population of black bass and used crankbaits to establish the record catch. In its eight-mile length, the harbor contains a variety of cover and structure, including flooded timber, shallow vegetation, riprap and 2- to 80-foot holes.

Lake Langhofer and the Slack Water Harbor area contain some of the best backwater areas on this section of the river, but there's also a small, often productive backwater near the Hensley Bar Cutoff. The remainder of the pool is mostly river channel with several miles of channel-stabilization structures.

Pool 5 extends upstream from White Bluff some 21 miles with 6,680 surface-acres and a shoreline length of 50 miles. This pool contains several backwater areas. Brodie Bend, an old oxbow with acres and acres of timber, is one of the most heavily fished of these areas, but the areas around Case Bar Cutoff and Warings Bend also provide excellent backwater bassing. Several small creeks also enter this pool, and they often hold bass, especially at the point where they enter the main pool of the river.