OPINION | ARKANSAS SPORTSMAN: Anglers set to tackle Lake Dardanelle

Lake Dardanelle will host the first event in the FLW Toyota Plains Division today through Saturday as 224 anglers vie for a berth in the Toyota Series Championship.

The full field of 112 pro anglers and 112 co-anglers will fish the first two days. The field will be cut on the third day to the top 10 anglers in both divisions with the heaviest cumulative three-day weights. The pro champion will win $40,000 and a $35,000 Phoenix boat bonus for qualifying anglers. The co-angler champion will win a Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat powered by a 115-hp Suzuki outboard. The package is valued at $35,000.

Takeoffs will be at 7 a.m. at Lake Dardanelle State Park in Russellville. Weigh-ins will be at 3 p.m., also at Lake Dardanelle State Park.

Ordinarily a dynamic fishery, Lake Dardanelle is full of muddy water and stagnant current that could make it difficult to establish a consistent fishing pattern. Nevertheless, A.J. Mays of Cabot said he has caught limits every day in practice.

"What's been working for me is fishing rockier banks closer to deep water with riprap and wood," Mays said. "I've been taking advantage of the topwater bite early and mixing it up with jigs and moving baits throughout the day."

Anglers hoping for a dramatic change in water quality and current flow will be disappointed.

"It would have to rain, and they'd have to open the floodgates to flush some of that water out of here," Mays said. "It's stagnant with minimum flow, and that colored water is not going to go very far. The person that bounces around and hits high-percentage spots and finds cleaner water will be the person that pulls this tournament off."

Covering nearly 34,000 acres, Lake Dardanelle touches about 315 miles of shoreline and exhibits multiple profiles. It is essentially a highland reservoir with distinctive lowland characteristics. Its average depth is 15 feet, with a maximum depth of 61 feet.

Major tributaries are Big Piney Creek, Spadra Creek and Illinois Bayou. Water levels are variable and can fluctuate dramatically overnight, and sometimes throughout the day. The upper end of the lake, near Ozark Lock & Dam, is narrow and shallow, with rock wing dams and revetments, large sandbars and mud flats with a lot of shallow cover in the form of laydown logs and beds of water willow.

Lake Dardanelle is a dynamic fishery that welcomes a variety of fishing styles. Some anglers have excelled here using finesse tactics, while others have won with power-fishing tactics. A common strategy is to fish jigs and spinnerbaits in the headwaters.

Sheldon Collings of Grove, Okla., won the FLW Bass Fishing League Regional Championship in October 2016 by casting crankbaits on wing dams below Dardanelle Dam. That was unheard of at the time, but Collings established it as yet another option to consider.

In April 2017, Quincy Houchin of Mabelvale won a Costa Series Central Division championship in a backwater pond on the north side of the lake. The rest of the field disregarded the pond because low water made it inaccessible the first two days of the tournament. The lake level rose before the third round.

Usually 15-17 pounds a day is possible here in optimum conditions, but with bass becoming more aggressive with the onset of fall, local anglers say that 20 pounds per day will be necessary to win.

Lake Dardanelle is currently about 285.86 feet above sea level, or 7.6 feet. Pool level is currently 337.63 feet. Full pool is 338 feet. Current has been running about 22,300-23,000 cubic feet per second at Dardanelle Lock & Dam. At Ozark Lock & Dam, at the Dardanelle headwater, current has been running 18,284-26,544 cfs. Water levels have been stable. However, rainfall in Oklahoma and Kansas continues to bring large amounts of silt into the lake. That has stained the water to a high degree and made it challenging to find clear water.

For 30 years, with an interruption in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza has taken place along the entire length of the Arkansas River. The winner always comes from Lake Dardanelle or the Dumas Pool, near the river's terminus. The average winning weight is around 7 pounds, and fish that size are plentiful in Lake Dardanelle.

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