Craig D. Campbell Lake Conway Reservoir
- Access
Exit 135 (Mayflower) on Interstate 40 offers access by way of Arkansas Highway 365 to docks on the west side of the lake, or Arkansas Highway 89 and Clinton Road to docks on the east side. The upper lake can be reached by roads branching off Arkansas Highway 286. Signs mark access routes on major roads.
Handicapped-accessible fishing piers are available.
- Aquatic Vegetation
Water lilies
- Area Specific Regulations
- Crappie shorter than 10 inches must be released immediately.
- Legal to take game fish with spear guns during season.
- Area Type
Lake
- Bottom Features
Creek channels; inundated ponds; mud, rock and shale bottom
- Constructed
1948
- Depth
Average depth 4.5 feet; maximum depth 16 feet.
- Description
Lake Conway is the largest Game and Fish Commission lake and the largest lake ever constructed by a state wildlife agency. Because of its large size, central location and excellent fishing, it has been one of the state's favored fishing spots since it was built on Palarm Creek in 1948. Lake Conway was the first lake constructed by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Conway is best known for its seemingly endless supply of bluegills and redears. Creel surveys indicate that bream are not only the most popular fish, they account for the most poundage taken by anglers.
Bass and crappie fans also flock to Conway, hoping to catch one of the lake's lunker largemouths or a mess of big slabs. Big blue and channel catfish are abundant, and Conway is a hotbed for monster flatheads.
Fishing is good around logjams, brushpiles, stumps, cypress trees, lily pads buckbrush, inundated lakes, creek channels, private docks and the Highway 89 bridge.
Numerous boat trails are cleared and marked. Boaters leaving the trails should navigate cautiously. Many stumps and logs lie unseen just below the water's surface, making spare shear pins essential gear here.
An east-side nursery pond permits stocking millions of crappies, largemouth bass and catfish directly into the lake. Fingerling fish from hatcheries are fed until they reach sizes ensuring safety from most predators. The fish are then released into the lake through a canal. Before the nursery pond was constructed in 1968, crappie were almost non-existent in Lake Conway.
- District Information
Fisheries District 10
213 A Highway 89 South
Mayflower, Arkansas 72106
1-877-470-3309- View the current water gauge information on Lake Conway
- Click here for information about land-use policies on AGFC-owned lakes
- Fish Successfully on Lake Conway
- View the Lake Conway Water Level Management Plan (Updated in 2014)
- Fish Forage
Shad, small sunfish
- Location
Faulkner County
3 miles south of Conway
- Major Sportfish
Blue catfish, bluegill, channel catfish, crappie, flathead catfish, largemouth bass and redear sunfish
- Management Plan
- Other Fish
Bowfin, buffalo, bullhead, chain pickerel, common carp, drum, grass carp, green sunfish, hybrid bream, longear sunfish, longnose gar, warmouth and white bass.
- Ownership
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
- Points of Interest
- Motels and restaurants are available in nearby Mayflower and Conway,
- Adjacent Camp Robinson Wildlife Management Area offers excellent deer, turkey and small game hunting opportunities.
- Camp Robinson Special Use Area also offers good deer and small game opportunities as well as a upland bird dog field trial and training area and a retriever trial area with ponds.
- Dr. James E. Moore Firing Range at Mayflower includes an archery range, a rifle/pistol shooting range with trap and skeet facilities,
- The Camp Robinson SUA Woodlands Auto Tour offers watchable wildlife opportunities without leaving the car.
- A half-dozen or so lakeside bait shops provide fishing supplies, boat and motor rentals, picnic grounds, camping areas and restaurants. There are numerous boat ramps around the lake where anglers can launch at no charge or for a small fee.
- Size
6,700 acres
- Visible Cover
Stumps, buckbrush, cypress trees, log piles and boat docks.