Butler my adivce would be to not listen to me about night fishing. I grew up doing it on Greers Ferry when I was a kid. My dad would hang a lantern or two in some dead tree and we would move back and forth between them and catch fish. I have tried that same method for the past few years and it just doesent seem to work anymore. Since then I have learned almost everything that I could tell you about night fishing on crappie.com. I will say that our success at night fishing has dramaticaly improved since joining crappie.com. That being said here goes on my night fishing advice as I see it.
First light is the key at night. I think I remember you fish out of a flatbottom with a trolling motor so you will need a extra battery and at least one submersable light. The pros from the South Carolina use brinkmans.
Second you must have at least one good light for the boat. I have been using tiki torches and they work great and last all night on one fill.
Third you need a anchor for the front and rear of the boat. You need the boat stationary and not moving arround.
Fourth, leave the long jig poles at the house and get a 5 or 6 foot light action pole and paint the tip so you can see it with the light of the tiki torches. The night bite seems light so you need a soft tip that you can see and feel.
Fith, have your stuff ready to bait and start fishing when you leave the house. Night is not the time to be re spooling rods and pulling off jigs and tying hooks.
sixth, for bait use minnows. You can try a jig but we now catch 10 to 1 more fish off minnows.
Finaly location, We are fishing main lake points on Ouachita and starting to do good. We used to just go set up in 20 to 30 feet of water in a area with a bunch of dead timber thinking they would just be in all that cover. Since fishing main lake points we have started having pretty good success. Plus when the pole bends you never know what you have. Since you fish Lake Conway I would suggest looking for the Arkansas Sportsman website and look up the crappie fishing articles. There is one about a guy that lives a mile from Lake Maumelle and drives up to Lake Conway to night fish. He is very specific about his techniques and locations he fishes. I consider this a must read for you. I would also do a search of previous threads on nightstalking on this website especialy Kunes and Rango and Falcon Smitty. The most important thing is just to get a submersable light and go fishing. Keep me posted and let me know how its going.