Arkansas encompasses more than 110,000 lakes and ponds and more than 20,000 miles of streams.

If a person could fish on a different body of water every week year 'round -- and do this year after year -- it would still take a lifetime to investigate first-hand the thousands of extraordinary fishing waters within the Natural State. To my knowledge, no one has come close to achieving that end.

It's fun to try, though. And if you'll try the following suggestions -- three hotspots per month, 36 in all -- you'll have sampled some of the best fishing that Arkansas has to offer.

JANUARY
Rainbow Trout, Lake Catherine
The cold month of January serves up hot fishing for trout in Lake Catherine, with anglers routinely catching stocked rainbow trout larger than 15 inches here on the south edge of Hot Springs. Lake Catherine is below Carpenter Dam, which impounds Lake Hamilton, and it's in the cold tailwater of this dam where trout fishing is best. Fly-fishing with streamers and woolly buggers works great, and bank-fishermen enjoy success casting small in-line spinners and fishing waxworms or night crawlers floated under a bobber.

Crappie, Lake Millwood
Fishing Blakemore Road Runners or live shiners around brushpiles in 17 to 22 feet of water is the ticket to crappie fishing success in this southwest Arkansas lake.

Walleyes, Bull Shoals Lake
Bull Shoals' winter walleyes are suckers for spoons fished over large flats in 35 to 40 feet of water.

FEBRUARY
Crappie, Lake Greeson
Crappie tipping the scales at more than 2 pounds are common in this 7,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers impoundment 30 miles southwest of Hot Springs. There's little natural cover here, so these good-eating panfish congregate largely around the hundreds of manmade fish attractors scattered throughout the lake. Find the deeper brushpiles with sonar, drop a minnow or jig down beside them and get ready for some fast-paced winter action.

Striped Bass, Lake Ouachita
Stripers up to 40 pounds often are caught here this month by vertical fishing with spoons or trolling with shad-imitation crankbaits, but the hottest action is on live gizzard shad dropped to schools pinpointed with a fish-finder.

Bream, Lake Chicot
This may be the state's best winter hotspot for big bluegills and redears, and the best bait to catch them with will be live waxworms.

MARCH
White Bass, Lake Maumelle
The spring white bass run begins this month, with limits taken every day by scores of Maumelle anglers. Among the most popular lures are Rattlin' Rogues, Sassy Shads, Road Runners and 3-inch paddle-tail grubs. Look for fish staging around tributary mouths in the main lake early on, with some of the best fishing during the peak of the spawning run in Maumelle Creek near the lake's west end. The action often seems concentrated on both sides of the state Route 10 bridge west of Little Rock.

Spotted Bass, Table Rock Lake
Nab some dandy "Kentucky" bass here by working smoke-colored grubs around submerged trees in 25 to 35 feet of water near bluff banks.

Channel Catfish, Lake Atkins
Worms, shad and chicken liver fished on the bottom in deep holes almost always produce some nice Atkins channel cats this month.

APRIL
Smallmouth Bass, Bull Shoals Lake
Big bronzebacks start spawning this month on the northern banks of this north-central Arkansas Corps impoundment. Most will be fairly deep -- down around 18 to 24 feet -- but even so, with Bull Shoal's exceptional water clarity, it's usually easy to see the fish on their beds. Favored lures include soft-plastic lizards, tubes, centipedes and finesse worms on shaky heads, all of which produce hard reaction strikes from smallies that occasionally exceed 4 or 5 pounds.