Petit Jean State Park lake a hotspot of sorts for fishing

Good fishing, meaning bountiful catches, is often where you find it and not where the drums are beating loudest and longest.

Today's example came from a visit to Charley's Hidden Harbor on the Arkansas River near Oppelo. Operator Charley Hoke is a veteran who keeps an eye on what is going on in his area.

He told a visitor, "Fishermen are coming in here and buying lots of crickets. They are tearing up the bream on Lake Bailey." He went on to tell that both bluegill and red-ear bream are being taken, and the red-ears especially are running good size. "They are catching a lot of one-pound red-ears," he said.

Lake Bailey is the little lake in Petit Jean State Park. Yep, a lake on top of the mountain, where you usually don't find fishing lakes.

Lake Bailey is 170 acres at normal level, and some anglers complain that lily pads are spreading over much of the surface. Along the edges of these lily pads are where some of the bream catches are being made.

The lake was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, part of its project to build Petit Jean State Park in the 1930s. The lake was named for Arkansas' governor at the time, Carl Bailey.

A side note: From 1936 to 1941, Arkansas had Gov. Carl Bailey and Lt. Gov. Robert Bailey. They were not related.