COVE CREEK, DRY FORK AND LITTLE BEAR CREEK LAKES
For a real backcountry getaway, consider one of the three small U.S. Forest Service lakes near the town of Hollis in Perry County. Cove Creek Lake covers 40 acres, six miles northeast of Hollis. Dry Fork Lake, a 90-acre reservoir, is 16 miles west of Hollis, and Little Bear Creek Lake (30 acres) is two miles south of Hollis. All three lakes are within the Ouachita National Forest, and all support thriving populations of channel catfish.

The U.S. Forest Service constructed these lakes for flood control, but each has also been stocked with channel cats. Fishing opportunities are superb, but relatively few anglers know about these hotspots because of their size and remoteness. Primitive camping is allowed, but be sure to practice good campfire safety.

Catfishing on this trio is either a bank-fishing or small-boat proposition. None offers a launch ramp suitable for large boats, so a lightweight johnboat or canoe that can be carried to the water is preferable. If you have a portable depth-sounder, bring that along, too. Little Bear, Dry Fork and Cove Creek have inundated creek channels in deep water where catfish often hold. If you're bank-fishing, try casting to deep water near the dams during the day, and fish the edges of shallow flats at night.

Little Bear Creek Lake and Cove Creek Lake are on county roads branching off Arkansas Highway 7. Dry Fork Lake is off Arkansas Highway 314. For more detailed info, look at the Perry County map in the Arkansas Outdoor Atlas available from the AGFC (see below).

LAKE MILLWOOD AND TRIBUTARIES
Channel cats up to 20 pounds are so abundant in this shallow 29,200-acre Corps impoundment that anglers are allowed to keep 20 per day, twice the regular statewide limit. Trophy-class blues and flatheads thrive here, too, with many in the 50- to 75-pound class. Hundred-pounders are possible -- perhaps even a world-record-class fish.

It's the two rivers that feed the lake, however -- the Little River and the Saline River -- and the Little River tailwater below Millwood, that have the most potential for producing trophy-class cats. A 100-pound-plus blue cat fell to a trotliner in the Little River tailwater in 1994. Huge flatheads and channel cats also thrive here.