A Mostly Muddy Lake, Blue Bird Skies and Hot Temps Await LBAA Anglers
OutdoorHub 05.16.12
The second tournament of four regular season tournaments on the Lady Bass Anglers Association’s 2012 year is this week and Arkansas’ Lake Dardanelle is the destination. Thursday, and Friday May 17 and 18 are the dates, as some of the best women anglers from around the nation will blast-off from the Lake Dardanelle State Park in search of a limit of bass from Dardanelle’s 34,300 acres.
The anglers of the Lady Bass Anglers Association find themselves facing a lake in which the main lake and some tributaries are primarily muddy with a lot of floating debris. However, clear water is available in many arms of the lake and many creek channels.
In addition, the hot weather pattern residing over the Arkansas area the past couple of days will continue through the week. A weak cold front passing through the area overnight prior to day one of competition will do little to change or affect that pattern other than to bring the possibility of a “pop up” thunder shower into the afternoon forecast. Forecast highs for competition days will be in the upper 80s with little or no wind.
However, the anglers of the LBAA are good at the art of adaptation and one who is currently succeeding in moving from a co-angler to a pro angler is Simpsonville, South Carolina’s Martha Goodfellow. Goodfellow who had a successful run on the co-angler side of the LBAA converted to a pro angler for this year’s events.
She started out at Texas’ Lake Ray Hubbard by not only wowing everyone with her 3rd place finish on the pro side, but also astounding herself. “It was so much fun I surprised myself, “a smiling Goodfellow commented. “I always plan to win, but to get that good a finish was surprising – to even me.” To others thinking about making a plunge into the pro ranks Goodfellow offers the following advice, “Ask plenty of questions. Get comfortable with it, and then don’t hesitate — just do it!”
“Dardanelle,” Goodfellow pondered. “It might take close to 20 pounds a day to win it. There are several patterns on the lake that people are currently catching fish on.”
Waxahachie, Texas pro Patti Campbell agreed with Goodfellow that “several patterns” should come into play over the tournament, and she predicts in the neighborhood of 15 pounds of bass per day to win. “That might be high though as I haven’t found a big concentration of anything (during my pre-fishing),” Campbell went on to say.
The Lake Dardanelle ProAm goes from “safe light” until 3 p.m. CDT on both competition days. Pro anglers may bring in a five legal bass limit and co-anglers a three legal bass limit to the scales each day.
Launches and weigh-ins will take place at the Lake Dardanelle State Park Visitors Center at 100 State Park Road in Russellville, AR. The Lake Dardanelle State Park Visitors Center’s phone number is 1-479-967-5516, and they are on the World Wide Web at http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/
The LBAA usually has a charity tournament on the Saturday after the LBAA Pro/Am but at Lake Dardanelle, there was a scheduling conflict, so there will be no LBAA charity event on Saturday. However, the LBAA will still be supporting the Main Street Mission with a raffle of items donated by local and national sponsors that will occur at the conclusion of Friday’s weigh-in.
The Main Street Mission’s mission and purpose is to demonstrate Christian love to people in need as they provide meals, food boxes and other necessities to help meet their physical needs while also striving to address their spiritual needs. The Main Street Mission is located at 1110 East 2nd Street Russellville, AR 72801. Phone 1-479-968-8303. World Wide Web http://mainstreetmission.org/v2/
The Russellville Tourism and Visitors Center is hosting the LBAA’s upcoming tour appearance. They are located at 708 West Main Street Russellville, AR 72801. Their phone number is 1-479-967-1762 and they have a presence on the World Wide Web at http://discoverrussellville.org/
Lodging headquarters for the LBAA Lake Dardanelle event is the Best Western Inn 2326 N. Arkansas Avenue Russellville, AR 72802. Phone 1-479-967-1000. World Wide Web at http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwestern/US/AR/Russellville-hotels/BEST-WESTERN-Inn/Hotel-Overview.do?propertyCode=04077
