RUSSELLVILLE, Ark.- Lake Dardanelle could produce some stout fishing this week at the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southwestern Division event as a wealth of bass have migrated to the bank. These bass are following both the high water from last week’s rain and their natural desire to spawn.
While the lake is up, it’s by no means flooded, and relatively stable conditions so far this spring have created a perfect recipe for bass to get shallow and begin their spawning rituals. Big bags by Dardanelle’s standards could be brought in throughout the three-day tournament.
Anglers will likely find themselves fishing among a crowd in popular spawning areas, trying to coax big spawning females to boost their five-fish limits. Whichever pros and Strike King co-anglers can ignore the fishing pressure and trigger the right ones to bite will take home their respective top prizes this week.
About the fishery
This Arkansas River impoundment is diverse, to say the least. At 34,300 acres of fishable water, Lake Dardanelle runs the gamut of structure and cover. Large bays with flooded timber, bridges and causeway riprap, fishable docks, flooded mining pits, bays and backwaters with fishable grass all make up the ideal areas for fish to live and feed. The further an angler ventures away from the dam, the skinnier water they may find as the top end of Dardanelle narrows and becomes nearly unnavigable in some places for a standard bass boat.
While water that is being pulled from the Dardanelle Dam is often a factor in events on the lake, the flow has been fairly stable lately, staying between 60,000 and 70,000 cfs over the last few days.
Conditions could get crowded
With bass having the spawn on their mind it’s fairly evident that things are going to happen shallow for most of the field this week on Dardanelle.
“I think a lot of fish are spawning,” said Tackle Warehouse Invitationals pro Tyler Stewart. “I don’t know if it’s just from the pressure or the recent floods or what but there’s not a ton of places that you can get bit.”
Stewart expects anglers to be stacked in community areas targeting spawners, making it difficult for anglers to spread out at a time when usually a ton of areas can play. Stewart doesn’t believe anglers will only catch them off the bed though, pointing to a wide variety of shallow presentations as viable options to win this week.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of things going on,” he said. “I doubt somebody commits to bed fishing the whole tournament. I’m sure it will be a bunch of junk fishing. People flipping, throwing spinnerbaits, bladed jigs, stuff like that.”
Stewart also believes that having multiple areas to work over will be vital to whoever wins at the end of the week.
“Covering water is key,” he said. “I don’t think someone will win it out of one area. I think someone will have to have a ton of places to go.”
While Dardanelle has hosted both slugfests and grinder events, Stewart estimates a respectable 17 or 18 pounds a day will be the ticket for the top spot this week in Arkansas.