Arkansas Sportsman

I have noticed with the exception of a few, that all the lakes they mention in the Arkansas Sportsman are rarely the ones everyone is mentioning on this board. Are the areas that we mention little pots of gold that no one gives credit to, or are the people that write the articles kind of like that Pace picante commecial from "New York City?" I know that they are a nation wide magazine with other states having their Sportsman magazine. Are they using true Arkansas Sportsmen to fill out these articles or is the information gathered by someone out of state and written for us? Just wanted to know.:confused:

The articles that are written by Keith Sutton are really good, he is a local that has a book out about where to fish in the state month to month. It does seem that they write about the bigger lakes, partly b/c they are the lakes most people know or hear about, but they also get inside info from the game and fish commission. Like where things are sunk, streams, old creeks, and all that good stuff. A lot of the people on here talk about places they have fished for years and have honey holes that are baited up, so you hear them talk about them all the time. Just like writers in the magazine have their popular places. I hope this makes a little bit of sense

I know that some of the reports on hot lakes are based on sampling done by the AGFC. They determine what year-class is the strongest. They make some assumptions based on this (ex. this lake should be outstanding in the next year because there is a surplus of 9" crappie).

I have suscribed to the Arkansas Sportsman for years. The only problem I have with the magazine is the fact they run the same articles on a yearly basis with a few variations. I have the where to find bass/crappie feb/march issues from the last three years and they have the same lakes with the same information in them.

With that being said, Keith is very knowledgeable about fishing and where to go. Me and my wife have been to nearly every lake in Arkansas at least once. Most of the time his articles are right on the money. Check out the Austell article in this month's issue. We fished Austell last weekend and wore them out. Like anything, we all have our own ways of doing things so we just use it to get a better understanding of places we seldom visit. The more information the better right.:)

Michael