Look for Austell lunkers hiding around stumps, beaver lodges and fallen timber in the lake arm running north from the swimming beach. This arm has produced several of the lake's largest catfish. Also productive are shallow timbered flats adjacent the creek channel running through Austell's southwest arm, two deep wooded coves on the lake's south side, and around logs and brush adjacent the riprapped dam.

Many anglers find summer catfish suspended over a deep inundated hole where dirt was dug for the Austell dam. To locate this hole, look for a vertical gravel bank, 10 to 15 feet high and about 100 feet long, on the south shore almost directly across the lake from the boat ramp. A depth sounder run across the water parallel to the cutbank will indicate a sharp drop from 20 to 30 feet of water down to 50 to 55 feet. When conditions are right, it's not unusual to find a dozen or more big catfish suspended along the dropoff in summer.

For additional information, you can contact Village Creek State Park at (870) 238-9406 or visit www.arkansasstateparks.com.

BEST OXBOW LAKE
Lake Chicot
Lake Chicot covers a total of 5,300 acres in Arkansas' far southeast corner, at the town of Lake Village. This huge oxbow, the world's largest, is very beautiful, and it's loaded with big channel and flathead catfish that can be caught using a variety of tactics. Blue cats are found here as well, but aren't as common as their cousins.

Like most oxbows, Chicot isn't blessed with much structure. There are no sharp variations in the bowl-shaped bottom, so the best fishing is generally around cypress trees, willows, buckbrush, dead timber and private docks along the shore. Inch-square chunks of cut shad are the best bait for big channel cats, if you have it, but you'll also catch plenty of nice fish on crayfish, catalpa worms, night crawlers and chicken liver. For big flatheads, nothing beats a lively sunfish hooked just behind the dorsal fin so it wiggles enticingly.

Trotlining is popular here, and many visiting anglers also enjoy running limblines and following jug-fishing rigs. But when savoring the fight of the fish is as important as catching something to eat, rod-and-reel fishing outshines other tactics.

The lake is divided into two sections: upper and lower. The upper lake has an access at Lake Chicot State Park on Arkansas Highway 257 (just off Arkansas Highway 144). The lower lake can be reached from several points on U.S. highways 65 and 82 and Arkansas highways 144 and 159.

For additional information contact the AGFC office in Monticello by phoning 1-877-367-3559 or Lake Chicot State Park at (870) 265-5480.