SARATOGA — Between a recent February flurry of big bass and a steady showing in Arkansas bass fishing tournament trails, it came as no surprise to the Arkansas Black Bass Program team when Millwood Lake proved to be the best Natural State fishing tournament destination of 2024.
Alton Burton (left) and Taylor Murphy (right) holding four of the fish that made their 33.44-pound five-fish limit during a Brad’s Custom Rods and Tackle Tournament Trail event last July. Photo courtesy Brad Thomas.
The southwest Arkansas fishery was ranked number one through an assessment of fishing quality indicators in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s recently released Arkansas Tournament Information Program annual report.
“We compile information like number of fish caught by angler, total weights, winning weights and number of fish weighed that exceed 5 pounds,” Eric Naas, AGFC Black Bass Program biologist, said. “From that information, we can monitor a lot of trends throughout the tournament community and how it can help us manage the fisheries that we get data on.”
Naas says the overall results are similar to last year, but they continue to show small increases in some categories anglers always pay attention to.
Arkansas angler Jaret Rushing fishing with his youth team during a recent event on Millwood Lake. Photo courtesy Jaret Rushing.
“Across all bass tournaments we could gather records for throughout the state, average first-place weights went up slightly, as well as the average number of bass caught per angler per tournament day,” Naas said. “In 307 tournament reports, the average angler weighed 2.12 bass per day compared to 1.87 in 2023. Anglers also weighed an average of 4.31 pounds of fish per day in 2024 compared to 3.75 pounds per angler per day in 2023. That may not seem like much, but considering it’s stretched over 300 tournaments, it’s a nice increase.”
Naas stresses that figures pulled from the report can be affected by the low frequency of reports for certain lakes.
“Some lakes may only have six or seven tournament reports while others have dozens, and one bad tournament day can throw off the final results a lot if there aren’t many cards to balance things,” Naas said. “That’s why we only rank lakes with at least five tournament reports, but even then, we’d like to get more reports.”
Roughly 73 percent of the tournament results actually were tracked down by Naas, who spent many hours scanning the social media accounts and websites of tournament organizations and fishing groups.
“We can get a lot of the data we need from those posts you see of tournament results, but if organizers would add a few more details, like the number of fish caught over 5 pounds and the number of fish per angler, we could make use of a lot more reports,” Naas said. “Of course, filling out the online form at www.agfc.com/atip takes only a couple of minutes and they can do that right at the boat ramp, too.”
Millwood has been a mainstay near the top of the rankings since the ATIP report was created, but this is the first time since 2016 that it took top honors.
Anglers wait patiently for an early February Anvil Jaw Bass Club tournament at Lake Hamilton. AGFC photo by Randy Zellers.
“There are a lot of factors that go into Millwood’s high production for anglers,” Naas said. “For one, it has a vast amount of fishable water compared to the deep highland reservoirs in the state. Being a lowland reservoir, it’s also very fertile with a lot of nutrients in the lakebed and water. Combine that with south Arkansas’s long growing season, and you have a good combination of factors to grow a lot of fish and let them grow large. That and the (AGFC’s) Florida Bass Program.”
According to database records, Millwood bass have seen ample influence from Florida bass through the AGFC’s hatchery system. Since 1984, more than 7.84 million Florida largemouth bass have been stocked in Millwood to increase growth potential in the population.
“Millwood has one of the best contributions of Florida bass in the state,” Naas said. “Especially considering the size of the reservoir.”
Jeremy Risley, AGFC Black Bass Program coordinator, says Millwood is a perfect example of how the AGFC has used Florida bass in its stockings to increase overall growth in the lake.
“When we stock a Florida bass, we’re not just stocking those fish to grow big and be caught,” Risley said. “The idea is to get their genetics into the system and keep them high. We’ll actually have fairly few ‘pure’ Florida bass in the system, but the more genetics of Florida bass a largemouth has, the better its chances of having good growth when conditions are favorable.”
Among Millwood’s impressive stats last year was the largest five-fish limit weighed, a 33.44-pound sack caught during a Brad’s Custom Rod and Tackle Tournament Trail event. Unlike many prespawn tournaments with hefty weights, this 30-pound-plus sack was weighed in July, when many fish typically are entering their lowest weight period of the year.
“Last year was a good year for top weights, with 23 total derbies having winning weights over the 20-pound mark,” Naas said. “Only 15 tournament result cards with 20-pound-plus bags were turned in during 2023, by comparison.”
The effects of high water in the White River chain of lakes are also fairly obvious when you compare the last five years of reports. Beaver Lake, which has seen a pattern of higher water during spring for the last few years has climbed from a ranking of 15 in 2020 to the third-place spot in 2024, falling just short of Nimrod Lake (the top lake in the report during the last three years). Freshly flooded habitat has created a burst of productivity not only for the bass, but also for the forage in the lake, creating ideal growing conditions. During the same time frame, nearby Bull Shoals Lake dropped from the number one spot in 2020 to a ranking of 12 last year.
Millwood Lake receives a healthy portion of Florida bass from AGFC hatcheries. AGFC photo by Mike Wintroath.
“Bull Shoals is starting to see the same effect Norfork had with too many high-water years in a row,” Risley said. “It’s created too many mouths to feed and overall growth has slowed as a result.”
You can’t talk about bass tournament fishing without at least touching on forward-facing sonar. Risley and Naas both acknowledge the shift in fishing styles on many bodies of water, but the latest evidence indicates the overall impact of LiveScope on tournament weights may not be as drastic as once feared.
“We did track one tournament series last winter that had three tournaments allowing live sonar and three that the technology was banned,” Naas said. “The weights increased, but only slightly. Winning weights were an average of 3 pounds heavier and the average weight per bass caught was 0.5 pounds heavier, but the number of fish caught and number of 5-pound-or-larger fish was consistent between the tournaments. It’s a very small sample size, but that’s what we have to go on. The more data our tournament anglers and directors give us, the more we will be able to monitor any effects of the technology on bass tournament weights.”
Risley agrees and says he does see a slight increase in weights now compared to tournaments before forward-facing sonar became popular, but a lot of factors can go into tournament results.
“Timing, location, weather and local conditions have so much impact on tournament weights that it’s nearly impossible to make a blanket statement without a lot of data points to compare,” Risley said.
Visit www.agfc.com/atip to see the complete report and reports from the last decade. Tournament directors can also find an online reporting form to enter their tournament information on this page to help generate future reports.
