AGFC, helpers work to help aging lakes in Arkansas

HOPE – It is undeniable. Lakes in Arkansas are aging. Most are not as productive as they were in their young and glorious days.
The majority of the public lakes in Arkansas were built in the 1950s and 1960s, meaning today they are roughly a half-century in age. Nutrition and cover have declined. Siltation is a problem.
But some countermeasures are underway by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and by private citizens, often working hand in hand with the fisheries biologists.
One example with a solid history of success is the use of “cane condos,” the term used by AGFC biologist Drew Wilson of Hope. These are made in several forms, and the one most common stemmed from Lake Greeson, where fishing guide and outfitter Jerry Blake and his associates perfected the technique.
Blake often refers to “crappie condos,” and his group has built a reputation of leading people to good catches of crappie on Greeson, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake near Murfreesboro in southwest Arkansas.
Their condo is a five-gallon bucket that is filled with quick-setting concrete, an eye-bolt put in the top then the bucket stuffed with shoots of river cane that may be 8, 10, 12 feet long. The condos are dropped at selected spots in the lake and charted with Global Positional System (GPS) markings.
Greeson was built in the 1950s. Other major southwest Arkansas lakes are Millwood (1960s), the Tri-Lakes of Gillham, Dierks and De Queen (1970s), Bois d’Arc (1950s) and Erling (1950s). These lakes differ in their makeup, but all have declined somewhat in fish production and now are benefiting from corrective measures that include the use of cane condos.
With age, a lake loses its underwater wood components, essential for fish nutrition and cover. Silt comes into the lakes, more in shallow lowland bodies of water than in the deep, clear lakes.
The weighted bunches of cane sunk into lakes helps with the cover needed by small and young fish as protection from predators. Greeson now has hundreds of the condos, and AGFC fisheries biologist Les Claybrook maintains a lake map with numerous yellow dots around the edges. Each dot represents a group of three cane condos.
Fishermen are catching crappie, bass, bream and catfish in these spots, and word is spreading that Greeson is again “hot” for fishing, somewhat like it was 50 years ago.
Wilson and Claybrook explained that the cane condos can be made in other configurations, too, and still another alternative that is low-cost is the wooden pallet triangle. Three discarded pallets are bolted or lashed together, a concrete block fastened for a weight, then the triangle is dropped into the water at a selected spot.
Horizontal condos or mats are made with concrete blocks, not cinder blocks, Wilson said. The latter are lighter in weight, and a bundle of cane is highly buoyant. The concrete blocks are laid on their sides, and the openings are stuffed with cane. The block and cane rigs can be stacked two or three deep then dumped into the water. This arrangement is more shallow than the upright condo, making it a choice for shallow waters.
With Greeson enjoying good fishing again, Millwood also is rebounding with fishing. Restrictions on black bass fishing were eased at the first of 2012. Better strings of crappie and bream are coming in, and catfish are so numerous that anglers can keep 30 a day – 10 channel catfish and 10 blue catfish in addition to the regular limit of 10 which can include flathead catfish. Bois d’Arc Lake is bouncing back as well after renovation work.
For detailed information on the state’s lakes and wildlife management areas, go to: http://www.agfc.com/resources/Pages/ResourcesMaps.aspx.

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AGFC releasing water from Craig D. Campbell Lake Conway Reservoir as heavy rains hit central Arkansas

CONWAY – Due to the heavy rains pounding central Arkansas, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has been dropping Craig D. Campbell Lake Conway Reservoir’s water level for the past few days. The threat for flooding is very high and the predicted rain totals have continued to increase. Central Arkansas is predicted to receive as much as 10 inches of rain by Thursday.
Lake and downstream property owners should take precautions. The lake is not a flood control reservoir and the drawdown will provide only minimal storage. It will not mitigate the need to remove water from flash flooding that may occur in the watershed.
“The amount and intensity of rain we receive in a short period of time can cause much more water to be flowing into the lake than could flow out,” said Matt Horton, lake manager with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
AGFC Chief of Fisheries Mark Oliver has announced that all 15 of the lake’s spillway gates are open to evacuate water in anticipation of this flood event. “All 15 spillway gates are open. This is an unpredictable weather system and the speed that it travels will have a lot of influence over rainfall totals. If the worst happens, we’ll distribute sand and sand bags to Paradise Landing, Palarm, Caney Creek and Lawrence Landing access areas for lakeside landowners to use for protecting low-lying structures,” Oliver said.
Horton said another reason for opening the gates early is the majority of the heaviest predicted rain is to fall right on the Arkansas River valley, from western Oklahoma to central Arkansas. “Given the intensity and duration of this rain event, it is possible that the Arkansas River could reach the flood stage or at least rise significantly. This would cause water to back up in Palarm Creek and drastically slow the discharge of flood water from Lake Conway,” Horton explained.
The AGFC will be monitoring the rain event around the clock. Once the rain event is over, the AGFC will shut all 15 gates to allow water levels to reach the normal pool elevation of 263 feet above sea level.

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