Bass elites set

Many of the world’s best bass anglers will battle the toughest conditions of the season today through Monday when the Bassmaster Elite Series visits Lake Dardanelle. Lake Dardanelle is the fifth regular-season event of the series and will feature 109 anglers, who will fish today and Saturday, vying for a top prize of $100,000.

RUSSELLVILLE — Many of the world’s best bass anglers will battle the toughest conditions of the season today through Monday when the Bassmaster Elite Series visits Lake Dardanelle.

Lake Dardanelle is the fifth regular-season event of the series and will feature 109 anglers vying for a top prize of $100,000.

All 109 will fish Friday and Saturday, and the top 51 will compete in the semifinal round Sunday. On Monday, the top 12 will compete for the championship.

They will fish an Arkansas River that is swollen and muddy from a string of heavy rains that have soaked the river’s watershed from Kansas to Arkansas.

As a result, the water is much higher and muddier than when Mabelvale’s Quincy Houchin won the FLW Costa Series tournament

March 30-April 1.

“Everything I fished then is 12 feet underwater now,” Houchin said.

With the high-water conditions, the main river areas will be marginal at best, and irrelevant at worst, which means the bulk of the field will concentrate in the backwater areas.

Jerry Williams of Conway has fished Lake Dardanelle since 1970. He competed in the Bassmaster Top 100 and Top 150 circuits and qualified for the Elite Series twice. He will not fish this tournament but said he expects Lake Dardanelle to be challenging because of the red clay that is flowing downriver from Oklahoma. The clay has stained many of the backwaters to a large degree, and that will intensify competition for better quality water.

“There are still plenty of opportunities for big fish and heavy stringers,” Williams said, “but thanks to the persistent difficult conditions in recent years, the muddy water greatly restricts the needed sunlight, which impacts how well aquatic plants grow.”

“With the high-water conditions, the main river will be difficult to navigate, and the backwaters will be jammed with anglers,” Williams said. “There are plenty of great spots to consider on the main lake, but if the wind blows hard enough, the field will be forced to share the water along the shoreline.”

Williams said he expects it will take 12-14 pounds per day to win, but that’s probably generous. Houchin won the Costa event during the spawn with 15 pounds per day. However, each of those days featured dramatic weather changes and water level fluctuations that depressed the quality of fishing.

Weather for the Elite Series tournament will probably be fairly stable, but water will still be much higher and much muddier than usual.

Takeoffs will occur daily at 6:15 a.m. from Lake Dardanelle State Park. Weigh-ins will be at the same location beginning at 3:15 p.m.