winona lake

I squirrel hunt in the national forest near lake winona and it looks like a great place to fish. has anyone ever had any success there. I would like to give it a try someday

Where is it?

it is near paron off highway 9 in the oauchita national forest. look on google earth or maps to the west of paron.

i was looking at your other thread LRJOE and saw lake norrel but i have never fished it but it is just east of lake Winona. Winona is probably less than a 40 minute drive from little rock.

A few tips I can give on Winona are first its a water supply lake so no swimming. I didnt know the first time I went and the locals had shot the sign up so bad you couldnt read it. Thank goodness I didnt get caught.

Second I see someone posted its a 40 min drive from LR. Its not and in fact may be a 40 min drive from hwy 9 to the launch. Its one of those drives that seems 10x longer than it realy is but the road can get rough at times after a rain so watch out.

Finaly Winona is one of the lakes on the mercury warning list. They say dont eat more than so many meals a year and no prego's should eat fish from there.

Finaly its a beautiful lake worth a trip if you have never been out there. There are some big brush piles again thanks to the locals with chain saws and at times the fishing is great. I used to work with a guy that mopped up on the bass in the summer out there

The road Gooch mentioned is one of my therapy spots. It is a dirt road that goes between hiwy 7 and hiwy 9 and is about 20 miles long. Great for just looking and stopping to do some hiking or exploring.
One time I was PO'd about something and just went to this area to hide. They had dammed up a draw to collect water, so I stopped to investigate any animal tracks or activities around this new pond. I heard a distictive "grunt" behind me and turned to see a bear stood up on her hind legs. She was between me and my truck. I thought to my self "I came here to find some peace and now I am going to get my a-- whipped by this bear." I don't have much bear experience; so, we just stared each other down. Finally she got bored of looking at me and mosied on away.

If you live in Little Rock then Winona is your drinking water supply. It is piped all they way to L.R.

The only time I have been was to hunt and the road was the pits. And lots of other hunter as well.

I haven't made the trek out there since they closed it down for 9-11. Would love to hear a report. Caught very few crappie but there's some huge bream and bass in there. We'd always fish till dark then get out the frog gig and limit out on legs. Take a tool kit cause that washboard road will test the torque of every bolt/nut on your truck/trailer.