Lake Conway Continues March Toward Completion

“Most renovations enable us to dry out a lake completely, which removes all of the rough fish and undesirable species, but Conway has so many of those old ponds that we knew we really wouldn’t be able to drain or remove the fish from,” Feltz said. “Some initial conversations about performing fish removals on these ponds were not feasible, as the amount of water to be treated would be too large to effectively cover, and the conditions of the lakebed would make getting to these areas with the right equipment nearly impossible. But the prolonged low water has done much of that work for us in these residual ponds.”

Feltz says the lake is actually a foot lower than the agency can drain with existing infrastructure, and it is even lower than that in some of the remaining pools throughout the lake.

“Fish sampling that we’ve been able to conduct this year has shown very few fish left in the system,” Feltz said. “That means the fish that we stock will be free from competition when the system fills back up and all the nutrients are available to boost the new population.”

The fish will also have quite a bit of newly constructed complex habitat and hard spawning surfaces to use, thanks to multiple major habitat projects completed in the last two years. In addition to gravel spawning beds and wooden lean-to structures, AGFC staff distributed more than 2,000 concrete spawning disks to lakeside residents to improve the spawning conditions in their favorite fishing locations.

“We had a great response from anglers and lakeside homeowners with the spawning disks,” Feltz said. “We distributed all that we were able to pour, and we’re excited to see those in action.”

Visit www.agfc.com/lakeconway for more information on the renovation of the largest lake owned by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

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CUTLINES:

AUXILIARY GATE
Contractors are completing work on the gates to go into the lake’s auxiliary water-control structure. AGFC photo.

SPILLWAY
A labyrinth weir will allow large volumes of water to pass without consuming a large portion of the dam. AGFC photo.

EXCAVATOR
Contractors who cleared 28 miles of 50-foot boat lanes are now marking those lanes with large utility poles, driven 8 feet into the lakebed. AGFC photo.

BOAT LANE
Boat lanes on Lake Conway will now be completely clear of stumps, and will be marked much more clearly for easy navigation. AGFC photo.

CONCRETE POUR
More than 2,000 concrete spawning disks were created for lakeside landowners to place near their property to improve the lake’s habitat. AGFC photo.

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