HOW THE CUP
WAS ALMOST WON
IN THE TAILRACE
A unique cold-water fishery had the
potential to produce the win. Here’s
what happened.
o
By Curtis Niedermier
n the final day of the 2019
FLW Cup at Lake
Hamilton, the field of 10
anglers spread out onto 7,200
acres of competition waters to try
and chase down the $300,000 top
prize. Though, they didn’t exactly
spread out into every inch of
available water.
For the most part, the top 10
piled into two primary areas: 1)
the far lower end of Hamilton,
below the Central Ave./Hwy 7
bridge, and 2) the tailrace below
Blakely Mountain Dam, which
holds back Lake Ouachita up
above.
There were a few pros who
worked the waters in between,
but it was the extreme ends of
Hamilton where the patterns that
eventually contended for the win
were applied. The lower end, with
its deep brush piles, surprised no
one. Typical summer tactics
worked there as pros started the
day on schoolers or wound
buzzbaits around docks in the
morning before fishing, re-fishing,
and re-fishing again through their
best brush milk runs.
The cold, clear, current-driven
upper end presented a unique sit-
uation that many pros got wind
of, but only a handful actually
deciphered. What they learned
about the tailrace offers a lot of
interesting lessons in summer-
time bass fishing that will likely
play a part in future champi-
onship tournaments.
64
The first couple miles of
Lake Hamilton below
Ouachita are narrow,
cold and clear with
heavy flows at times.
The Basics
The tailrace stretches from Blakely
Mountain Dam more or less to the
Albert Pike Road/US-270 bridge about
five miles downstream. This portion of
Lake Hamilton is narrow and riverine
and heavily influenced by the water
flowing out of the bottom of Ouachita.
The inflow is clear, supporting 10 feet
or more of visibility in some places, and
it’s cold enough that the water temper-
ature hovers in the high 50s to low 60s.
Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission Fisheries Management
Biologist Sean Lusk says this area is
home to a diverse mix of fish species.
There are hoards of bream, big stripers
and enough walleyes that the state
pulls brood stock from the tailrace.
There’s even a seasonal trout fishery
that’s stocked beginning in the fall.
Lusk has also identified at least two
species of milfoil, Brazilian elodea, sev-
eral species of coontail and pondweed
in the upper section of Hamilton.
The Flow
Life is right below the Blakely
Mountain Dam, which, according to
Lusk, is regulated with a minimum flow,
meaning there’s always some water
coming through. Otherwise, water is
pulled when electricity needs are high
or water levels must be adjusted.
On some satellite images, the effects
of the inflow are visible. The narrow
upper end is clear until the lake opens
up just past the bridge and the dirtier,
warmer waters of the main lake start to
mix. Finding this transition line and
staying within the clear-water zone was
critical for Austin Felix, who finished
sixth. Though Felix didn’t fish all the
way to the base of the dam like third-
place pro Dakota Ebare and fifth-place
pro Scott Martin, Felix stayed on his
bite by moving closer to the dam each
day as the clear-water line receded. For
Ebare and Martin, the flow itself was
more important than the clarity.
“It was changing daily, and that was
working against us,” says Ebare. “When
we got there on Sunday to start practice
it [the cold, clear water] was probably
about to that last bridge. And then each
day it seemed like they cut back the cur-
rent a little more. When we first got there
it was running pretty much nonstop.”
FLWFISHING.com I FALL 2019