[bhays]

I've been to some of these small watersheds in the mountains over by Hollis while turkey hunting, but it has been several years ago. I remember thinking they looked like a good place to fish, but haven't been back. In Arkansas Sportsman magazine last month it listed them as good channel catfish spots. The reason I'm looking for some info is a small group of guys from my Sunday school class are wanting to get together and camp out one night and fish somewhere. We are really leaning toward a smaller lake out in the boonies so we can sit around and talk and run trotlines or yo-yos all night rather than camping at say Greer's Ferry. Have any of you guys been to any of these small lakes and if so do you remember if there were any decent spots for camping there? I think I remember Cove Creek Lake looking like some people had camped there before, but like I said, it's been a few years. Also, I know they are small, small lakes, but do you remember if there is any type of place to get your trailer to to put in say a 14-16 foot flatbottom boat? I looked up Dry Fork is 90 acres and the other 2 are 30-40 acres each. Just curious if anyone knew anything without me having to go make a scouting trip over there in the next few weeks. Thanks for any info.
Bryan

 

[buckhorn]

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/ouachita/natural-resources/fisheries/locations.shtml

I was wanting to go to some of the forest service lakes this summer so I dug around and found this site a while back. Click on the lake and it will give you a preview and a few pointers. I have personally fished dry fork. There are places that people camp and best I remember there is a dirt ramp. Bear creek Lake is not real angler frindly. It has a extremely steep boat ramp that your average vehicle will not come out of and not ideal for camping. I have never fished it. I have never been to Cove Creek but from what I have read it seems to be a pretty nice little place.
Cedar creek Lake is also close to Hollis. I beleive it is between Bear Creek Lake and Dry Fork. You can call the Ranger
station at Jessieville and they will send you a map and info sheet on all of the Jessieville Ranger District water shed lakes.

Hope this helps.

 

[bhays]

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/ouachita/natural-resources/fisheries/locations.shtml

I was wanting to go to some of the forest service lakes this summer so I dug around and found this site a while back. Click on the lake and it will give you a preview and a few pointers. I have personally fished dry fork. There are places that people camp and best I remember there is a dirt ramp. Bear creek Lake is not real angler frindly. It has a extremely steep boat ramp that your average vehicle will not come out of and not ideal for camping. I have never fished it. I have never been to Cove Creek but from what I have read it seems to be a pretty nice little place.
Cedar creek Lake is also close to Hollis. I beleive it is between Bear Creek Lake and Dry Fork. You can call the Ranger
station at Jessieville and they will send you a map and info sheet on all of the Jessieville Ranger District water shed lakes.

Hope this helps.

Yeah, that helps alot buckhorn, thanks for the great info. I've been to another little lake by Cove Creek before, I think it is Rock Creek Lake and it didn't look real bad either. Thanks again for the help.
Bryan

 

[FroMan]

I fished Dry Fork outside of Hot Springs Village about 3 years ago. That day it was dang hot, but a buddy and me ended up catching about 30 crappie, casting off the bank, and 3 catfish. It was at a spot on the lake where there was a campsite and the trees had wooden cross pieces put on em near there for yoyos.

I remember thinking, dadgummit I wish I had a canoe right now...

I was really impressed with that hidden watershed lake.

However, next time, I will bring a bottle of water with me.

 

[FroMan]

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/ouachita/natural-resources/fisheries/locations.shtml

Bear creek Lake is not real angler frindly. It has a extremely steep boat ramp that your average vehicle will not come out of and not ideal for camping. I have never fished it.

I've fished that lake also. He ain't kiddin about the steep ramp. I walked down from the top where I'd parked my truck, I didn't think my two wheel drive would go back up that steep hill.

I didn't catch any fish off the bank, but I did take pictures. It was beautiful.

It is also another lake with a pretty big shoreline to fish given that you have a canoe or small boat with a trolling motor. It might be a but to get the boat down there, but I doubt it is fished alot since the access is kinda tough.

Beautiful area though...

 

[fish]

Bear Creek does'nt really have a boat ramp. Folks in 4wd's launch off the far side of the dam. Dry Fork has a small concrete ramp. Cove has a steep dirt ramp. The best ramp is on Cedar ,it is nice enough to launch a Bass boat.
If I was going for Catfish ,I'd fish Nimrod backwaters. The South Fourche below Cove can be good for Channels and small Flatheads . The river crossing called Rocky crossing is just below Coves dam.
Oh yea , Froman . Dry Fork lake is near Hollis , not Hot Springs Village.

 

[bhays]

Thanks for all the info guys, that narrows it down a bit. I'll probaby still try to drive over and look at a couple someday when I'm off work between now and then and decide which one to try. Thanks again.
Bryan

 

[VALES]

I fished Dry Fork outside of Hot Springs Village about 3 years ago. That day it was dang hot, but a buddy and me ended up catching about 30 crappie, casting off the bank, and 3 catfish. It was at a spot on the lake where there was a campsite and the trees had wooden cross pieces put on em near there for yoyos.

I remember thinking, dadgummit I wish I had a canoe right now...

I was really impressed with that hidden watershed lake.

However, next time, I will bring a bottle of water with me.

Can you give me directions to Dry Fork Lake. I grew up hunting that area and i know where Little Bear Creek Lake is but i can't find anything to give me directions to Dry Fork Lake.

 

[ArkArcher]

Can you give me directions to Dry Fork Lake. I grew up hunting that area and i know where Little Bear Creek Lake is but i can't find anything to give me directions to Dry Fork Lake.

If you know the shape of the lake, you can see all of them from google earth. Just put in Hollis, and there are 3 or 4 east and a little south east of there that I was just looking at. They aren't named on the map, but all the roads leading to them are marked. Just an idea. :thumb:

 

[FroMan]

I have one of the in-depth Arkansas atlases with all of the backroads and stuff. That's why I used to find Dry Fork. I know that coming from Hot Springs, north on 7 you will make a left turn on a highway...and coming from Rsvl the turn is a right turn.

I don't know where my atlas is, but they're 20 bucks at Wal-Mart. I used the crap out of that thing for turkey hunting, fishing, etc. It's a great investment and you can keep it in the truck with ya---which you can't do "yet" with Google Earth unless, you have an in-truck GPS, which I don't.

I'm not much help on the directions...:smack:

 

[VALES]

If you know the shape of the lake, you can see all of them from google earth. Just put in Hollis, and there are 3 or 4 east and a little south east of there that I was just looking at. They aren't named on the map, but all the roads leading to them are marked. Just an idea. :thumb:

Me and my wife rode up there yesterday and it is a nice little lake. I will probably try to fish it sometime soon. Also rode to Nimrod and man that thing is flooded.

 

[ArkArcher]

I have one of the in-depth Arkansas atlases with all of the backroads and stuff. That's why I used to find Dry Fork. I know that coming from Hot Springs, north on 7 you will make a left turn on a highway...and coming from Rsvl the turn is a right turn.

I don't know where my atlas is, but they're 20 bucks at Wal-Mart. I used the crap out of that thing for turkey hunting, fishing, etc. It's a great investment and you can keep it in the truck with ya---which you can't do "yet" with Google Earth unless, you have an in-truck GPS, which I don't.

I'm not much help on the directions...:smack:

Yeah I have one of those too. Great tool! :thumb:

 

[fish]

Me and my wife rode up there yesterday and it is a nice little lake. I will probably try to fish it sometime soon. Also rode to Nimrod and man that thing is flooded.

It's already dropped several feet!

 

[PapaBear]

I have fished Little Bear creek and Little Bear Creek lake. Definitely a spot for a canoe or kayak or small flat bottom boat. Friend of mine has a 10 foot that we would haul down the so called boat ramp. Got my two wheel stuck once and got to take a walk into Hollis to get someone to haul me out. We never caught a lot of fish but it is one of the prettiest little lakes around and no fishing pressure.