Pool 6 at Little Rock isn't known for producing the big bass often caught downstream, but it receives a lot of fishing pressure and is one of the river's hottest pools for consistency and numbers. The first mile below Murray Lock & Dam and the North Little Rock hydroelectric plant is frequented more by catfishermen than by bass anglers, but largemouths often are caught around wing dikes and rock riprap here.

When flows through Murray Dam exceed 30,000 cfs, bass move into the few backwater areas here (including several downstream from the Interstate 440 bridge) and to the downstream edges of the dikes and bridge piers. (There are several bridges crossing the river from Little Rock to North Little Rock.) Fishing the first mile of the Fourche Creek tributary just above Interstate 440 is also popular with local anglers.

When rain and runoffs are heavy and the river is high, anglers fishing these pools will probably be forced into backwater sloughs and off-river lakes, where topwater plugs, buzzbaits, minnow-imitation divers and crankbaits can be retrieved around timber, rocks, pilings and vegetation. Jig-and-pigs can be good around fallen logs and treetops.

With more-stable water conditions, backwaters are good early and late with topwaters, buzzbaits and plastic worms. Midday patterns revolve around the main river channel and include working riprap with crankbaits, worms or spinnerbaits and flipping shoreline cover with worms.

During summer's hot weather, riprap wing dikes often figure prominently in the game plans of most savvy river anglers. These long walls of rocks help prevent shoreline erosion by directing water straight downstream. They often stretch for hundreds of yards on both sides of the river, especially near dams and along bends. Water around them ranges from 5 to about 15 feet deep, and if the backwaters have warmed, schools of summer bass often will be found holding near these rocky embankments.

Sometimes bass hold right off the ends of the rocks. Other times, they're at a specific spot along the rocks. And still other times, they're scattered all along them. Crayfish and shad are attracted to these boulder-strewn hideouts, so artificials imitating these forage animals are among the best bass-catchers.

LAKE DARDANELLE
Situated several pools upstream from Little Rock, Lake Dardanelle is one of the most accessible and scenic bass fishing sites in Arkansas. Spreading westward behind Dardanelle Dam, the lake covers nearly 35,000 acres in Pope, Yell, Logan, Johnson and Franklin counties. The lake is two miles at its maximum width and 50 miles long, reaching upstream to the Ozark-Jeta Taylor Lock and Dam. About 315 miles of shoreline afford prime fishing waters.

Within Dardanelle's murky waters lies a diverse smorgasbord of fish cover -- rockpiles, channels, submerged timber, shallow flats, jetties and islands. There is still water, moving water, open water and brushy water; there are dropoffs, points, coves and tributaries. With these confusing masses of fish habitat and structure, it's easy to see why tenderfoot and veteran anglers alike can find fishing Dardanelle a perplexing experience. There are "bassy" places to tempt you from every side, but it takes hours of fishing to truly know such a vast lake.

During summer, many bass are taken early and late in the day by fishing flats edging Dardanelle's feeder creeks. For example: Spadra Creek and Little Spadra encompass two such sites. In the back end of Little Spadra are two or three creeks that intersect. There are some little islands and channels that run 5 to 10 feet deep before jumping up on 2- and 3-foot flats. Those flats are where bass are likely to be found.