Photo by Ron Sinfelt

By Jason Sealock

How many times have you been flipping channels when you stumbled across the proverbial "panel of experts" telling you what to buy, when to do whatever, or how to vote or think or feel? Seems like they're on somewhere all the time, right?

Well, not in bass fishing - a panel of experts learned in lunkers is often hard to assemble. Fear not, however: We searched far and wide to find a good mix of local anglers and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission fisheries biologists to fill out our bench. We think you'll appreciate what they had to say about bass fishing in the Natural State this year.

Guide Ron Crawford says that he had his best guide trip ever in 2003. In one outing, Crawford and his party boated two bass over 6 pounds and a 5-fish stringer over 20 pounds. The high waters of 2002 led to improved fishing in 2003, and Beaver shows no signs of letting down.

Expect to catch large numbers of keeper spotted bass on the lower ends of the lake while catching solid numbers of largemouths and smallmouths in the upper and middle portions of the lake. For larger fish, expect to find an occasional largemouth over 5 pounds and several smallmouths over 4 pounds. Anglers access the lake via highways 12, 62, 94, and 412 in Benton, Washington and Carroll counties.

One of the forgotten lakes in the region is tiny Swepco Lake in the extreme northwest corner of Benton County. A local SWEPCO power plant feeds the lake warm water year 'round, sending anglers in the know flocking to the lake in the dead of winter for fine fishing. The heated-water situation induced the AGFC to stock Florida-strain largemouths in the lake.

It's an easy lake to learn. The lake is 100 percent catch-and-release for bass, but will offer an excellent opportunity to catch a bass over 5 pounds to anglers who don't want to fight the crowds on larger lakes. Several bass over 4 pounds were caught and released in SWEPCO in 2003, so expect fishing to be improved. You can anticipate catching numbers of fish over 16 inches. However, keep in mind that, because the water is warmer, the pre-spawn and spawning periods generally occur two full months earlier than they do at other lakes in the region.

Eastwold, who spends part of his time scuba diving the lake, reports that he witnessed several largemouths in the 7- to 10-pound range lurking in the depths. "Those fish didn't get that big by being stupid," he remarked. But the bigger attention-getters in recent years seem to be the numbers of smallmouth and spotted bass over four pounds. Look for this trend to continue.

At Table Rock Lake, which dips down into northern Arkansas, the fishing has been phenomenal leading into 2004. Spotted bass thrive in this lake; on one outing in 2003, area guide Rick La Point caught a stringer of 5 spotted bass and smallmouth that tipped the scales at 19 pounds. Several smallmouths and a few spotted bass over 5 pounds make this a lake to mark on your must-fish list in 2004.

Be sure to consult a lake map to see which parts of the lake can be accessed with an Arkansas license and which require a Missouri license. An easy alternative: Purchase a White River Border Lakes License from the AGFC, which allows anglers in Arkansas and Missouri to fish the sections of Table Rock, Norfork and Bull Shoals that extend into each other's states. The cost of the permit is $10.00 on top of your state fishing license, but you can fish as far up any of the lakes as you wish without having to purchase a nonresident fishing license in Missouri.

Another good bet in the region is Winthrop Rockefeller Lake, also known as Pool 9 of the Arkansas River. This section of the lake had big numbers of keeper-sized bass in 2003, owing in part to the abundance of forage. "Water flow in late spring and early summer positions fish around current breaks and makes the good mixture of largemouth and spotted bass easy to catch," Leone said. Anglers can access this section of the Arkansas River in Conway County, Pope County and Yell County below the Dardanelle Lock and Dam.

Leone advises anglers that Lake Hinkle was drawn down this winter and probably won't return to normal pool until mid-April. However, the 13- to 16-inch-slot limit has been rescinded, so anglers will find a lot more keepers on each outing. He also reports that Lake Atkins is still rebounding from a total fish kill in 2002, which was undertaken to rid the lake of smallmouth buffalo. The lake was restocked with Florida-strain bass, but he estimates these fish will only be from 8 to 12 inches this spring.

Electrofishing samples conducted throughout 2003 yielded large numbers of bass within the 13- to 16-inch slot limit. "We expect a large number of those bass to be over the slot limit," said Wooldridge. Anglers will find Lake Hamilton just south of Hot Springs.

Another Hot Springs lake that gets the nod from biologists is Lake Catherine. With plentiful artificial structure and fertile water, Catherine offers ample numbers of bass in the 2- to 5-pound range. Wooldridge gives Catherine a thumbs-up in terms of catching numbers of quality bass in Arkansas.

While Lake Ouachita, near Mt. Ida, has been a productive lake for a number of years, anglers began complaining about two years ago when largemouth bass virus was found in the lake. The lake is on the upswing now, and should begin to return to prominence as one of the best lakes in the state. "We found good numbers of bass in the 13- to 16-inch slot during sampling in 2003, and several in the 18- to 20-inch range," said Wooldridge.

Anglers sometimes forget that LMBV doesn't devastate a whole bass population, but instead attacks only adult fish. And according to bass biologists, there were no massive fish kills as a result of the virus on Ouachita. Both are robust indicators of LMBV being less prevalent than many anglers tend to think.

DeGray Lake sampling in 2003 also yielded many bass in the protected 13- to 16-inch slot. Thanks to the lake's wealth of forage and the fertility of its waters offered, expect a good many of those fish to be over the slot.