Fisher-Davis Guide Service
Mount Ida, AR
About 25 Minutes Away
Lake Ouachita
A sparkling jewel of clear water, and a playground for everyone who loves the lake.
A sparkling jewel of clear water, and a playground for everyone who loves the lake.
Celebrated for water so clear you can see straight to the bottom, Lake Ouachita is a haven for nature lovers. Spend the day boating to quiet coves, casting from a favorite fishing point, or simply floating in some of the cleanest water Arkansas has to offer. With hundreds of undeveloped islands to explore, every visit feels like a small expedition.
The Ouachita National Forest wraps the whole lake, a sanctuary for wildlife and a hub for hikers, bikers and horseback riders. It's all just a short, scenic drive from the homestead.
From how the lake was born to where to find the fish, pick a topic to dig in.
Lake Ouachita is the largest lake entirely within Arkansas, and it is entirely man-made. It was created by damming the Ouachita River with Blakely Mountain Dam, a project authorized by the federal Flood Control Act of December 1944 and carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. For decades before that, the lower Ouachita River valley had flooded repeatedly, and surveys dating back to the 1870s had recommended a series of dams to tame it. World War II era legislation finally turned those plans into reality.
Construction got underway in the late 1940s. Workers first built an emergency spillway to reroute the river, then raised an enormous earthen dam holding back nearly four million cubic yards of rolled earth, standing 231 feet tall and stretching about 1,100 feet wide. The dam was finished in 1952, a full year ahead of schedule, and the floodgates closed that July so the valley could begin filling. The power plant generated its first electricity in July 1955, and Blakely Mountain Dam was officially dedicated on July 4, 1956. Today the lake serves four purposes: flood control, hydroelectric power, water supply, and recreation.
When the water rose, it covered several small communities, including Old Buckville, Cedar Glades, Flea Bend, Oakwood and the White Plains area. Landowners were allowed to harvest their timber and move substantial buildings to higher ground. The Buckville Baptist Church was relocated about half a mile uphill and survives to this day as the only original structure to outlast the flooding. Cemeteries within the reservoir were carefully moved in the summer of 1952.
Unlike most reservoirs, the basin was not clear-cut before it filled, so a drowned forest still stands on the lake bottom. Some of those submerged trees top 60 feet, and the depth can change dramatically in a short distance, so boaters keep an eye out for shallow-water markers even where the surface looks wide open. The lake averages around 50 feet deep and plunges past 200 feet in places near the dam.
Because almost the entire shoreline is protected Corps of Engineers and national forest land, no private homes are allowed at the water's edge, which helps keep Lake Ouachita among the cleanest lakes in the country. That clarity supports life rarely seen elsewhere: non-stinging freshwater jellyfish, freshwater sponges and freshwater shrimp all thrive here, species that only survive in exceptionally pure water. Scuba divers travel from around the world for the visibility and a special spear-fishing season, and the surrounding hills hold one of the largest crystal veins on the planet.
The name itself reaches back centuries. "Ouachita," pronounced WASH-ih-tah, is a French spelling of a Choctaw phrase, "Owa Chito," meaning "big hunt." Tucked into the heart of the Ouachita National Forest about 13 miles northwest of Hot Springs, the lake sits on the doorstep of Mount Ida, the self-proclaimed Quartz Crystal Capital of the World.
Lake Ouachita is famous for world-class striped bass, plus largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass, crappie, bream, catfish and walleye. A local guide brings the boat, the tackle and the know-how to put you on fish. Here are seasoned guides who work the lake.
Trails around Lake Ouachita wind through Corps of Engineers land and the Ouachita National Forest, from short interpretive loops to long-distance treks. Always check at a local ranger office for current conditions and any temporary closures.
No boat of your own? Several marinas around Lake Ouachita rent everything from pontoons and kayaks to fully equipped luxury houseboats. Most include a captain or full orientation, and ages, deposits and fuel policies vary, so call ahead to reserve.
The Lake Ouachita Geo-Float Trail was the first water-based interpretive trail ever added to the National Trails System, a joint project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Arkansas Geological Commission and the U.S. Geological Survey. Following a string of yellow marker buoys, it guides boaters past a dozen remarkable geologic features and tells the story of how the Ouachita Mountains formed.
The route runs about 16 miles with 12 marked stops, from the Spillway Recreation Area to the Brady Mountain Recreation Area, and takes roughly an hour and a half depending on your pace and how long you linger at each stop.
Pick up the free self-guided map at the Spillway, at Brady Landing, or from the local Corps of Engineers office. For trail information, call the Corps of Engineers at 501-767-2101. To schedule a guided tour, contact Lake Ouachita State Park at 800-264-2441. Bona fide interest groups of 15 or more can arrange for a Corps ranger to ride along and narrate, as long as you provide the boat.
A cliff of 450-million-year-old sandstone tilted on its edge, named for the whirlpool that once churned at its base when the Ouachita River still ran free.
A jumble of boulders, pebbles and sediment left by an ancient underwater mudslide set off by an earthquake, later compressed into solid stone.
Milky quartz veins, the famed Arkansas diamonds, streak a dark sandstone cliff in one of the richest quartz-crystal districts in the world.
Layers of sandstone bent into a dramatic S-curve, squeezed and folded over by the collision of continental plates.
Millions of years of erosion wore away the softer shale and limestone, leaving the hard sandstone that forms these long, thin ridges.
Sandstone boulders resting on a shale beach, carried down either by ice-age freeze-and-thaw or by ancient flash floods.
Wide cracks between these boulders shelter baitfish, and the predators that follow them, making it a worthwhile stop on a fishing trip.
Cube-like blocks of sandstone, the result of rock bent to its breaking point as the mountains were forced upward.
The lake's youngest formations, tiny caves carved as waves wear away the soft lime that once cemented the rocks together.
Natural beaches of granulated Bigfork chert, a rock prized in these parts as one of the region's best aquifers.
A recumbent fold capped by a wavelike fault, a reminder of just how intensely this landscape was deformed when the mountains rose.
The final stop: pines grow on the sandstone soil to one side, while eastern red cedar takes over the poorer shale and slate soil on the other.
If you fish Lake Ouachita, it pays to understand the thermocline. It explains where the fish hold in summer and why the lake behaves so differently from one season to the next.
Sunlight is absorbed in the top few feet of the lake, which warms by day and cools at night. Waves stir that surface water and spread the heat downward, so the temperature stays fairly even for the first 15 to 20 feet, depending on wind and current. Below that mixed layer, the water settles into stable horizontal bands: warmer water on top, colder water beneath, separated by a transition zone called the thermocline.
That dividing layer is usually the most active feeding zone in the lake, which is exactly why anglers care about it. One scuba diver near the dam on a July day recorded three sharp temperature steps: about 73 degrees at 30 feet, 62 degrees at 60 feet, and 49 degrees at 100 feet.
The thermocline is deepest in summer and grows shallow or disappears entirely in winter. As summer wears on, the water below the thermocline never circulates back to the surface, so its oxygen steadily drops and fish avoid it. When fall arrives and nights cool the surface, that top layer eventually becomes denser than the water below and sinks, a mixing event known as turnover. Turnover stirs nutrient-rich water up from the depths and can trigger blooms of plankton.
Through winter a new, stable layering sets in, with the densest water on the bottom, and it holds until spring warming brings another turnover. Knowing roughly where the thermocline sits on a given day gives you a head start on finding active fish.
Spend the day on the water and the evening by the fire. Reserve your stay securely on Airbnb.