Open ‘roads’ complete on Lake Conway, renovation in high gear 

MAYFLOWER — Anglers anxiously anticipating the completion of the Lake Conway renovation will have 28 miles of stump-free boating lanes waiting on them when the project wraps up, which still remains within the original 5-year estimated timeframe.

During the last four months, contractors equipped with an amphibious trackhoe and stump-grinding head have been working nearly 16-hour days to chew up 60-foot-wide lanes throughout the lake. They’ve placed temporary markers on the lanes, and will return once the water returns to drive massive telephone poles into the lakebed to permanently mark their work.

Reid Phifer, AGFC assistant chief of operations, said floating the poles to their locations on barges will be much more efficient than trying to haul them by truck.

“The temporary markers placed now will ensure the contractor puts each pole exactly where it needs to go once the lake fills,” Phifer said. “The marked lanes will be 50 feet wide, but we’ll have a little buffer on each side for added safety. There could still be a log or two float into the lanes from time to time, so people still need to use caution, but we’ve removed all of the stumps and permanent obstructions from the paths.”

Although the renovation’s primary goal was to rebuild the infrastructure of the lake’s 75-year-old dam and spillway, the possibility of creating clean, marked boating lanes in “Old Stumpy” was one added benefit that grabbed the attention of many anglers hesitant to fish the lake for fear of damaging their boats or falling overboard from hitting underwater hazards.

According to Nick Feltz, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Fisheries Supervisor in Mayflower, who is overseeing the project, the agency made a major effort to work with the public and determine the best possible placement of the new boat lanes.

“The lake had boat lanes that existed for decades, but they never were fully cleared and still presented a challenge for boating,” Feltz said. “We held two public meetings where people could attend and offer suggestions on new boat lane routes.”

Feltz said the final lanes were determined using a mix of pre-existing lanes, public input from the meetings and aerial photography of the dried lakebed.

“We didn’t want to cut any live cypress that were in the lake, and some of the suggested lanes ran into a few shallow spots, so we rerouted them as close to what people suggested as we could,” Feltz said. “We also got a lot of input from anglers who pointed out popular fishing locations so we could prevent cutting a path right through one of those.”

Feltz says completion of the boat lanes is a major milestone in the public-facing portion of the renovation, but it is by no means the only change that has occurred since the AGFC began lowering the lake in September 2023.

“A lot of the first year-and-a-half is the status quo for what a lot of our renovations look like, and what Mother Nature has been able to accomplish in that time frame is magnitudes more than anything staff could do,”  Feltz said. “Right as we started the renovation, you could walk out to these areas and sink pretty darn quick into the muck, and now you can walk and even drive a side-by-side into the lake for a lot of the work we’re doing in those same spots. There’s a lot of changes that are taking place in the ecosystem and habitat that really don’t have much to do with us; it’s just Mother Nature doing her thing.”

In addition to the natural soil consolidation, which has reached an estimated 8 inches in some portions of the lake so far, the lakebed has undergone substantial changes through the hard work of many agency staff members. Staff have planted hundreds of cypress trees in areas where the lake’s typical water levels will support them, adding to complex cover in the lakebed. Many fish attractors have also been constructed on the lakebed to deliver additional long-lasting cover different from the stumps that pockmark the majority of the 6,700-acre waterbody.

“We’re learning so much as an agency during this project,” Phifer said. “It’s really letting us bring together some of the expertise we have in our construction team with our biologists in our Fisheries Division to come up with some interesting solutions to get things done successfully and efficiently.”

Phifer points to recent gravel bed work throughout the lake as testimony. The agency airlifted more than 300 tons of gravel and nearly 100 concrete culverts to various portions of the lake for spawning habitat using helicopter contractors.

“We wanted to bring gravel out to the lakebed, but there was no way you were going to get it in by truck or boat,” Phifer said. “Trucks would have stayed stuck out there, and the stumps would make it impossible to float the rock out there by barge. Jeff Haun and I have both worked with helicopters in previous jobs to set rooftop units, and we knew that was the way to solve the issue. All that gravel is now in the lakebed to serve as spawning habitat for fish and will benefit that lake for years once the project is completed.”

Feltz says local landowners and anglers will again be able to play a role in the renovation by placing even more spawning habitat, distributed by the AGFC, in the lakebed.

“We have about 800 concrete spawning disks that people can use in the lake to create a hard surface for bream and bass to spawn on,” Feltz said. “They’re about the size of the top of a bird bath, and people can place pea gravel in them to make fantastic spawning beds, especially for bluegill and redear sunfish.”

Feltz says landowners can also sign up to have gravel spawning beds placed in the lake in front of their properties.

“We have a limited amount of gravel for this effort, so the spawning beds will be done in the order we receive sign-ups,” Feltz said. Between the spawning disks and the gravel beds, we’re hoping landowners take advantage of this opportunity to establish excellent fishing locations right off their back porches. “We’ll be announcing the signups soon for those opportunities.”

Phifer also says work to remove the lake’s spillway should begin soon. All permits are in place, and a contractor has been selected through the state bid process for the work.

“Once the final contracts are signed, we’ll be able to hit the ground running,” Phifer said. “It will still be weather-dependent, but we’re still on schedule to be turning dirt by the end of the year.”

Stay tuned to the Lake Conway renovation web page at www.agfc.com/lakeconway or text CONWAY to 56548 for updates. You can also listen to Feltz and Phifer on a recent episode of the Arkansas Wildlife Podcast.

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CUTLINES:

CUTTING GREEN PATH
More than 28 miles of paths now crisscross Lake Conway to allow boaters safe passage across the lake nicknamed “Ol’ Stumpy.”

LONG BOAT LANE ON MUD FLAT
An amphibious trackhoe was needed to reach many areas of the lake and clear all stumps from the proposed lanes.

MAP
AGFC Fisheries Supervisor Nick Feltz hosted two public meetings to gather input on placement of the lake’s boat lanes. 

GRAVEL DISK
Concrete spawning disks have been created to make ideal bream and bass beds once filled with pea gravel and placed on the lake bottom.