Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Game Fish Thriving In Gurdon Lake

Nearly five years after major recontruction, Gurdon Lake is coming along nicely with its game fish, said biologist Stuart Wooldridge of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

The lake is one of a pair given the Commission in 1988 by International Paper Company. Nearby Big Timber Lake isn't as accessible, but renovation is planned for it also.

The two lakes date from the early part of this century and the extensive lumbering operations in southwest Arkansas. These operations also included steam-powered locomatives which needed a ready source of water.

Less than a mile southwest of Gurdon, Gurdon Lake is alongside U.S. Highway 67. It's long been a fishing spot for area anglers even in later years when it had a multitude of problems like muddy water, eroding levees, excess vegetation and an imbalance in the fish populations.

The lake was a surplus facility for International Paper's modern operations in the area, and the company gave the two lakes to the Game and Fish Commission in 1988. The Commission rebuilt the levees impounding the 50-acre lake, constructed a modern water control structure and began refilling it. Largemouth bass of the Florida subspecies, crappie, channel catfish and white amur (grass carp)-the latter to keep the vegetation in control-were stocked. A 15-inch minimum length limit was put on bass to give the young fish time to grow.

They've done just that, Wooldridge said, so the bass length limit was removed this year. The lake has a plentiful supply of 12 to 14 inch bass. What it also has, to the delight of local anglers, is plentiful numbers of crappie and bream, mostly bluegill. The channel catfish are coming along nicely, also but the Commission has a daily limit of five on these plus a ban on trotlines, yo-yos, and limblines. More stockings of catfish are planned.

Recent checks by fisheries personnel showed, along with plentiful small bass, many bluegill over eigth inches in length and crappie between 11 and 13 inches long.

Gurdon Lake is a "dark" lake in fishermen's terms in that the water collected from runoff in the timber land surrounding it contains tannin. Stumps fill the lake's bottom and vegetation is plentiful. All these factors make conditions favorable for fish production. The lake is relatively shallow overall, although it is 13 feet deep near its drain structure.

Future plans for Gurdon Lake's management include, along with catfish stocking, regular monitoring of the fish by shoreline seining and by electrofishing to keep a close check on their numbers. Also planned are checks of the vegetation remains at a desired level for fish havitat.

The lake will be partially drained every few years for maintencance and fish management. These drains will lower its level about 3 1/2 feet in the fall and winter, Wooldridge said.