By Keith Sutton

It's tough trying to forecast where Arkansas's best catfishing will be this year - tough, because Arkansas has so many blue-ribbon catfish waters; tough, because the term "best" means different things to different anglers; tough, because, for the most part, this is just a subjective exercise.

Just because something is tough, however, doesn't mean that we're not willing to tackle it. If it's great catfishing you seek, check the grades on these top waters.

But if it's eating-size channel cats you're after, along with an occasional heavyweight, this 1,700-acre south-central Arkansas lake is a good place to visit. The impoundment, named for the tributary of Bayou Bartholomew it's built upon, sits on the line separating Lincoln County's rolling hill country and flat delta. The western/southern shoreline skirts the bottom of a ridge and slopes quickly into fairly deep water. Across the lake, flat terrain required building a long levee in conjunction with the dam. All but a small portion of the lake is heavily timbered and laced with boat lanes.

There's standout fishing for channel cats in many portions of the lake, but especially in cover along the inundated creek channel and the sloping west/south shoreline. These cats grow big. Lucky anglers sometimes take rod-bending channel cats topping 18 pounds, especially when using crawfish and cut bait (chunks of shad or skipjack herring) to entice them.

The levee, a little shy of five miles long and covered with riprap, attracts spawning catfish, making it another very good summer hotspot. Work live crawfish or night crawlers beneath a bobber, targeting cover and unusual structure you see as you move along the levee.

Lewis Peeler and the author pose with proof that the Mississippi River is a mother lode of giant blue catfish. Photo by Matt Sutton

To reach the lake, travel east out of Star City on Arkansas Highway 11 from its intersection with Arkansas Highway 81. About three miles from town, a lake sign indicates the way down the gravel county road leading to the lake.

Facilities include a concrete boat ramp, courtesy dock, wheelchair-accessible fishing pier and parking area on the north side. Cane Creek State Park on Arkansas Highway 293 has campsites and other facilities. Fishing supplies, a motel and restaurants are available in Star City.

Chicot has a long, interesting history. Hernán de Soto discovered the lake, which was later named by French explorers (chicot being French for "stumpy"). In the early 1900s, people came from all over the nation to visit this hunting and fishing mecca. Unfortunately, as more and more land was cleared for farming, the lake got muddier and muddier. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission built a dam across the upper end in 1948 to isolate the upper fourth from agricultural run-off. But water quality continued to deteriorate in the lower end until the 1980s, when diversion channels and a pumping plant were built to direct silt-laden run-off into the Mississippi River. Presto! The lower lake cleared up, fish thrived and angling since then has been little short of amazing.

Action for channel cats and flatheads is red-hot throughout most of the year. Chicot, like most oxbows, 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, buck brush, dead timber and private docks along the shore.

Inch-square chunks of cut shad are the best bait for big channel cats, but you'll also catch plenty of nice fish on crawfish, 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. When savoring the fight of the fish is as important as catching something to eat, then rod-and-reel fishing outshines other tactics.

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.

Lake Chicot State Park on the lake's north end has cabins, campsites, a fish cleaning station, a marina/store (boat and motor rentals, party barges, fishing supplies, groceries) and other amenities. Restaurants, motels and a tourist information center are located in Lake Village.

Some of the best hotspots along the river's length include the tailwaters of Ozark-Jeta Taylor Lock & Dam south of Ozark, where an 80-pound flathead, the current Arkansas state record, was caught in 1989. And then there's the tailwaters below Dardanelle Lock & Dam near Russellville, an area that has given up one-fourth of all the catfish listed in the Arkansas record book since 1959, including blues weighing: 44 pounds; 47 pounds, 8 ounces; 50 pounds, 4 ounces; and 86 pounds, 15 ounces. Also: flatheads weighing 46 and 48 pounds. And the tailwaters below Murray Lock & Dam and the North Little Rock Hydroelectric Plant at Little Rock and below Dam No. 2 on the Arkansas' lower end below Tichnor, both of which produce astounding numbers of big river catfish year after year. A sleeper honeyhole is the stretch immediately below David D. Terry Lock & Dam, where Bruce and Mackey Sayre caught the biggest flathead ever recorded, a 139-pound, 14-ounce fish taken in May 1982. (Anglers should remember that national security measures have closed bank-fishing areas along many dam tailwaters. You'll need a boat to access prime catfishing areas.)

Heavy tackle is a must for fishing this big river, especially when targeting king-size cats. Rods should be 8- to 15-foot heavy-action models, and reels - whether levelwind or spinning - should have drags in good working order. Hooks should be no smaller than 5/0 to 9/0 when fishing exclusively for large cats, and you'll need plenty of sinkers heavy enough to hold your bait on the bottom. Use top-quality 50- to 100-pound-test line. The best baits, most anglers agree, are shad and skipjack herring - live or dead, whole or cut into filets or chunks.

Look for catfish near breaklines in river bottom structure. Deep holes, outside channel bends, wing dikes, riprapped banks and areas above and below sandbars are good places to fish. Fishing at night is generally the most productive, but churning discharges limit light penetration, and big tailwater catfish may feed even on bright, sunny days.

For Arkansas River access information, get the Arkansas Outdoor Atlas from the AGFC by phoning 1-800-364-GAME or logging on to www.agfc.com. The atlas has detailed lake and river access information for all 75 counties in Arkansas.