Photo by Tom Evans

By Steve Taylor

If you made a promise to give up a bad habit or two for the New Year, you deserve a reward. While everyone else is at home, wishing for a warm front, why don't you treat yourself to a winter smallmouth bass fishing expedition? Our research and experts show that you can maximize your chances of success by choosing to fish reservoirs rather than streams at this time of year. We also offer up a unique cold-weather pattern that could have you fishing over sizeable concentrations of smallmouths without going far from your favorite marina.

With advice from Arkansas Game and Fish Commission experts and details on destinations, we think you'll be very happy to ring in the New Year with a resolution to go after the feisty smallmouths in Greers Ferry, Bulls Shoals, and Beaver Lake. And we'll even look into our crystal ball and tell you about the lake that's most likely to top the list of all smallmouth fisheries in the state in just a few years.

Colton Dennis is the biologist in charge of the statewide black-bass program and works with Williams out of the AGFC's Andrew Hulsey warmwater fish hatchery on Lake Hamilton. In a recent interview, he offered up a unique tip, gleaned from friends who like to pursue Lake Ouachita's smallmouths during the winter. "That time of year, you can find pockets where the shad ball up," Dennis explained. "They run up into the marinas from the main lake to get away from the hybrids and stripers. If you look up under the boat docks in the marinas, you can find bunches of them in there."

Because baitfish typically behave the same way under similar circumstances within a geographic region, you can apply this Ouachita pattern to the other lakes discussed here and anticipate the same success. To help you get started, we've provided directions to many of the marinas operated within U.S. Army Corps of Engineers parks on our top three smallmouth lakes. Of course, there are plenty of other fine public and private facilities on these lakes, and you should consider them too when you're planning a winter smallmouth trip.

One advantage of fishing in January is that on the most blustery days - when the fishing is often best - you won't have much competition from other anglers. And, if this marina-fishing pattern fails to materialize, at least you won't have to endure a long, cold, empty-handed ride home!

Choctaw Park and its namesake marina are convenient to folks who live near Clinton. Take U.S. 65 south from that city, then turn east on state Highway 330 and follow the signs for 1 1/2 miles. The Archey Creek area, north of the marina at this park, provides excellent walleye fishing at this time of year if the smallmouths won't cooperate.

You'll find Dam Site Park off state Highway 25 about three miles north of Heber Springs, in central Cleburne County. It's near the city, the Corps' Greers Ferry project office and excellent trout fishing on the Little Red River. Heber Springs Park and its marina and public boat ramp are just west of Heber Springs off state Highway 110.

The area around Hill Creek Park has long been prominent in successful fishing reports on Greers Ferry. If smallmouths aren't hanging out in the marina, look westward toward Hill Creek or the Middle Fork of the Little Red River, a major tributary with excellent walleye fishing during cold weather. This campground is off state Highway 225, northeast of the Greers Ferry community, in western Cleburne County.

From Sugar Loaf Park, there's a fine view of Sugar Loaf Mountain, one of the most-recognizable landmarks in the state. To reach it, drive northeast on state Highway 92 out of Bee Branch, in southern Van Buren County, for about 12 miles. At its intersection with state Highway 337, turn west for 1 1/2 miles.

The Narrows Park and its marina are landmarks on the distinctive (and, logically, very narrow) alley of water that separates the upper lake from the much larger lower lake. The park includes a bathhouse with hot showers to warm you after a day of fishing in the cold. You'll find these facilities off state Highway 16 near Higden. At Shiloh Park, Dennis's hint about checking marinas for concentrations of shad and smallmouths seems like an especially good idea. Thousands of acres of open water are nearby, just the sort of territory where schools of striped bass and hybrid striped bass roam like packs of wolves, terrorizing even larger schools of shad into seeking the cover of boat docks.

The locations of the marinas described in the following paragraphs begin with Tucker Hollow in the western reaches of the lake and lie eastward from there on the map. Like all of these Corps parks, Tucker Hollow offers a marina, campsites, public boat ramp and other facilities. To reach it from the town of Lead Hill on the eastern edge of Boone County, head northwest on state Highway 14 for seven miles, then follow state Highway 281 for three miles. Deep spots in nearby Bear Creek should yield some smallmouths if the marina pattern doesn't hold true.

Lead Hill Park, the next marina eastward, lies just off scenic state Highway 7, four miles north of its namesake city. East and West Sugar Loaf creeks help form the fishy-looking point on which this park lies. Buck Creek Park, off state Highway 125 in the northwest corner of Marion County, offers access to the northern side of the shoreline. It also features a landing for the Peel Ferry, a free service of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. The barge operates during daylight hours and can take six vehicles at a time across the lake to Highway 125 Park, where you can fish for smallmouths around another marina and use the ramp to access the southern shore. The 45-minute ferry trip replaces a 90-minute drive to reach the same points across this westernmost end of the lake. And, yes, it's OK to ride the ferry for fun - but local commuters who rely on it to get to work will thank sightseers who make the crossing during off-peak hours.

Oakland Park has a marina for close-in fishing and access to an interesting mix of open water and the Ozark Isle area, which features plenty of excellent smallmouth habitat. This park is on state Highway 202 a few miles west of the Oakland community in northeastern Marion County. Continuing eastward, Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock is on Shorecrest Drive off state Highway 178 in the city of Bull Shoals, which lies north of Flippin, also in Marion County. The easternmost marina on our list is within Lakeview Park. Follow the aptly named Boat Dock Road off state Highway 178, just north of the city of Lakeview on the western edge of Baxter County. Here, as on all the large Corps reservoirs, in Arkansas, keep an eye out for bald eagles. Scan the trees along the shoreline, and you'll often see adults with fully white heads and tailfeathers perched there, waiting patiently to ambush on a fish or coot.