Lake Dardanelle is a popular fishing destination located on the shores of a
34,300 acre man-made reservoir on the Arkansas River near the cities of
Russellvilleand Dardanelle Arkansas. Lake Dardanelle State Park offers outdoor
recreation opportunities with state of the art facilities and technology.
In 1964, construction was completed on the Dardenelle Dam, located near the
river crossing between Russellville and Dardanelle. Lake Dardanelle was created
in 1965. Construction on the lack and powerhouse was completed in 1969. The
dam, build by the Army Corp of Engineers, is part of the McClellan-Kerr
navigation project that made the Arkansas River navigable to commercial vessels.
Lake Dardanelle spreads westward behind Dardanelle Dam and is two miles
wide in places. It reaches fifty miles upstream to the Ozark – Jeta Taylor Lock
and Dam and has three hundred and fifteen miles of shore line with five major
creeks. Depending on what area of the lake you would choose to fish, there are
numerous concrete launch sites with good parking facilities.
Russellville State Park features a one thousand eight hundred and sixty one
square foot fishing tournament weight-in pavilion, a world class facility and
first of its kind. It serves as a staging area for tournaments. Near the
weight-in pavilion is a covered, barrier free fishing pier, a popular facility
for fishing enthusiasts. The pavilion provides a meeting room and computer
room, weight-in scales, a public address system, LED weight-in readout, a
de-watering station, aerator tanks, catch and release tanks and a first-aid
station for tournament participants and sponsors. The park also provides a
catch and release boat to take the fish back to their natural habitat. Lake
Dardanelle and Russellville have hosted up to two hundred tournaments a year
including professional, college and high school tournaments that frequent Lake
Dardanelle yearly for the search of that eighteen to twenty four pound sack at
the weight-in which frequently occurs.
The second week of July Iwas contacted by a college student in Texas that
had qualified for the Southern CollegeConference Championship that would take
place on Lake Dardanelle the first weekend in October. During our telephone
conversation, Ethan George explained that the topfive finishersfrom this
tournament would qualify for the National Tournament and that the winner of the
national tournament would qualify for the “Forrest Wood Cup Tournament”. We
established the date and time to fish Lake Dardanelle. Ethan had never been on
the lake, however, he did some research on past tournament weight results and
knew that it would take eighteen pounds per day to win this tournament.
I arrived in Russellville the morning of August 20th and met Ethan at his
hotel where he was staying with his parents. We had an opportunity to visit and
establish a plan for the day on our way to the Dardanelle State Park launch
site. Ethan and I agreed this trip was his introduction to Lake Dardanelle,
however we would try to establish a few patterns for fishing for quality
tournament fish. We started fishing coves off the main river that had
vegetation and cover in them. We found the early morning bite to be
productive. The baits we chose to use in the shallow vegetation were the Spro
Frog in black, a double willow leaf War Eagle spinner bait and a worm. The
shallow bite just didn’t seem to be working in that area. We moved to another
pocket up river and repeated our pre-fishing strategies, however we made one
change. We tied on a transparent “Zara Spook” that did the trick. The bait
fish were on the outside of the grass line in three to five feet of water. We
caught a number of fish on the spook, but they were not the tournament size fish
we were looking for. Our next stop was six miles up river in a backwater creek
that offered the same structure, but also had sand bar islands with a defined
drop and lily pads on the drop-offs. We opted to fish the lily pads first and
concentrate on the drop-offs. This creek also has abundant stick-ups and lay
down logs which can be very productive at times. Ethan added one more bait to
his arsenal, a square bill sexy shad crank bait. The shallow crank bait did
catch some fish, but still not what we were looking for.
We caught some fish shallow, however the quality bite was still alluding
us. At that point it was time to make a decision and change our tactics.
As in any river system there is structure beneath the waters surface , in
the outside bends and drop-offs. Ethan tied on a deep running “Sexy Shad” crank
bait that would get down to fifteen feet. I pulled my Carolina Rig out of the
rod box with a “Green Pumpkin Baby Brush Hog” already tied on. We started
concentrating on the five to ten foot drops on the outside bends of the river
and sand bar drops.
The Lowrance Graph didn’t indicate any bait fish or structure on the first
bend, so we continued down river to the next bend. Ethan cast his deep crank
bait “Sexy Shad” and I started dragging my “Green Pumpkin Baby Brush Hog”. That
was what we were looking for, caught two keepers and lost a good one. Just
about every third drop-off we would catch fish. We had found the pattern and
right baits for that day.
Ethan and I continued to fish drop-offs with structure on them using the
“Sexy Shad” bait, Carolina Rig and worm. We caught a number of fish, however,
the quality tournament fish were in five to ten feet of water close to or on
structure. Ethan was satisfied with what we had found. Ethan had mentioned
that he was “impressed” with the Russellville State Park weight-in facility and
the way the Corps of Engineers had marked the main river channel with buoys.
We had found the pattern and right baits for that day. It was getting late
in the afternoon and we had put in a full day of fishing graphing and
observing. There were some more drop-off I wanted to show him down river on the
way to the boat launch. The graph indicated balls of shad and fish on the
structure. That confirmed what we found to be a good pattern.
Bill Dennis, Central Arkansas Fishing Guide Services, Inc.
(501) 580-0669
By: Bill Dennis
