MAYFLOWER, Ark. — Throughout the week, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) has dropped over 600,000 pounds of gravel onto the currently drained Lake Conway.
"What we're doing today is using a helicopter to place a heavy, large volume of gravel in some of our more remote, harder-to-get-to parts of the shoreline of the lake,” explained Nicholas Feltz, the District Fisheries Supervisor for the AGFC.
Feltz also added that his team has been hard at work to complete the project. They only stopped briefly on Wednesday when conditions were a bit too foggy for the helicopter pilot to see the ground below.
Other than that, it’s been full speed ahead with this project to try and drop as much of the gravel as possible.
“This gravel is a pretty particular, specific size gravel,” Feltz said. “That's going to benefit several of our sport fish species in the lake in their spawning and their reproducing."
Feltz explained that the gravel will create a habitat for the fish once the lake, which was drained beginning in September 2023, is filled.
Teams will go out and spread the gravel now that it's been dropped, but the helicopter was the quickest way to move the gravel without maneuvering around trees or getting equipment stuck.
“We'd be building temporary roads in the lake bed to get that equipment around,” he said. “And by and large, when you look at it, this is just a more efficient, cost-effective way to get that material where it needs to go."
The gravel-dropping project isn’t the only thing going on at Lake Conway.
Since 2023, it’s been drained to replace the dam and clear some stumps to create safe lanes for boaters.
Feltz explained how currently, there are around half a million stumps in the lake.
“The stumps do provide habitat. So we're not going to mulch and get rid of every stump in the lake, but at least help get people from point A to point B around the lake safely," he added.
As for the gravel habitats, Feltz said once they’re established, they should take care of themselves.
"The more these fish use these things they kind of keep it clean for us. So year after year they stay really viable locations for fish to spawn in if they keep using it," he said.
Feltz added that these projects won’t just help fish, but also people.
It’s obvious how the new boating lanes would have this effect, but he said the new gravel habitats could also concentrate fish in one area, making things easier for any would-be fishermen.
An AGFC spokesperson said that the entire Lake Conway project is expected to wrap up in the Fall of 2028, although that could change based on weather conditions.
The spokesperson added that when the lake is opened back up, there will be fishing restrictions for a year or two as the fish repopulate.