Warming To Winter

Anglers who wish it was springtime all the time only need to wet a hook at Swepco Lake.

Hot water flowing from the Flint Creek Power Plant on the lake’s eastern shore keeps the reservoir warm as July even in January.

When the water temperature is in the 40s elsewhere in winter, it might be 80 degrees near the power plant and 60 degrees down lake near the dam. When largemouth bass are cold-weather sluggish on other lakes, they’re willing to bite at the 500-acre Swepco Lake near Gentry.

The warm water means bass grow all year and get big quick. No wonder Swepco Lake is Northwest Arkansas’ wintertime bass fi shing hot spot.

FOGGED IN

Here it was Dec. 21 and the Mayan calendar said the world was supposed to end.

“Maybe it did and we’re in heaven,” piped Kenny Stroud of Siloam Springs while we fi shed the lake’s clear water. Bald eagles soared in the cloudless sky and the bass were biting.

Crack of dawn fi shing wasn’t on the agenda when Stroud and I got together at Swepco just before Christmas.

“Let’s meet at the ramp about 9 a.m. That’ll make time for the fog to burn off,” Stroud said.

Bath-like water makes Swepco Lake steam like a cauldron on bone cold mornings. On this day, misty swirls spun from the lake like water spouts while Stroud backed his small boat and trailer down the ramp.

Steam was so thick in spots Stroud could barely see beyond the bow. We cruised across the lake at idle speed.

“I always take it easy through here,” he said. “There could be a boat right in front of you and you wouldn’t see it.”

We had a scare at Swepco Lake one Saturday years ago. A boat came speeding out of the fog and missed our stern by a few feet.

It was almost the end of the world - ours anyway.

Stroud set a course for the power plant on the east side of the lake and the warmest water.

Rapids of steaming hot water from a culvert came crashing over boulders and into the lake.

Water is drawn from the lakeduring electricity production. It’s about 100 degrees when it fl ows back into the lake.

We worked plastic worms along a low bluff across the discharge.

The water temperature this December day? Eighty degrees.

Ten minutes into our trip, Stroud set the hook and a solid 2-pound largemouth came rocketing from the deep in a leaping show. Firstfish and a dandy one.

Most types of soft-plastic lures work at Swepco Lake, Stroud said.

The technique is simple. Lob it to the bank and work it out 10 to 20 feet deep.

We started with 6-inch plastic worms in dark-green and welcomed a conga line of bass intoStroud’s boat.

Green rules when it comes to Swepco Lake’s bass. Stroud uses watermelon, green pumpkin or red with green fl akes.

“Spinner baits can be good on windy days,” Stroud said. “Top-waters can be good when it’s foggy or in low light.”

The daily limit at Swepco is 10 bass per day of any size, but only one may be 18 inches or longer.

I was after a mess of fi sh for the Fry Daddy and had 10 in the ice chest pretty quickly.

CATCH, KEEP

At Swepco Lake, keeping fish is good for the lake, said Ron Moore, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission fisheries biologist for Northwest Arkansas.

“It keeps the bass population from becoming so dense that it depletes the forage,” Moore said.

That was part of the problem years ago at Swepco Lake when fishing was all catch and release.

There were too many bass and not enough threadfin shad, their primary food. Anglers caught lots of fi h, 50 or more in a day, but they were all thin and mostly the same size, around 12 inches.

One reason anglers caught so many, Moore said, was there were so many bass and they were so hungry they’d bite anything that moved.

Harvest has improved the fishery, Moore said. These days, anglers catch fewer bass, but there’s a variety in the size.

Last year’s electrofishing studies at Swepco Lake showed lots of 2- to 4-pound bass in the lake, said Arkansas Game & Fish Commission biologist Jon Stein. He’s Moore’s co-worker.

“Swepco is the best lake in the area for bass over 16 inches,” Stein said.

They grow fast at Swepco with the lake’s year-round growing season. A 10- to 12-inch bass at Swepco Lake might be a year old. At Beaver Lake, it takes two years to reach that size.

Like Beaver Lake, Swepco Lake is low this winter from drought. To launch large boats, trailers must be backed off the edge of the ramp and the drop-off is significant. Moore said he’s heard reports of trailers being damaged.

SIMPLE DOES IT

“Wintertime and the fishing is easy,” might be the theme song for SwepcoLake. Almost anyone can pitch a plastic worm to the bank and reel it toward deeper water.

“It’s a great lake for beginning fishermen because the bass are fairly easy to catch,” Stroud said.

If the fishing is slow, there’s wildlife to watch. Swepco Lake is home to one of the largest concentrations of bald eagles in the region. We saw more than we could count during our trip. Herons patrol the shoreline while kingfishers cackle in flight.

A highlight was seeing an eagle in hot pursuit of a great blue heron.

Birds, too, find the fishing to their liking at Swepco Lake.