The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has reported two 50-pound catfish were caught in Lake Conway Sunday.
According to the post from AGFC, Haylee and Logan Applegate have had some amazing memories in Arkansas’s outdoors, but the brother-and-sister duo might have capped off a perfect summer two weeks ago with two of the biggest flathead catfish they’ve ever caught.
According to their father, Roger, the two 50-pound flatheads the pair wrangled during a night-fishing foray on Lake Conway are far from the biggest fish swimming in the lake.
Will Lancett, AGFC habitat biologist in Mayflower, said the lake has the potential to create massive catfish in addition to being one of the top spots for crappie in the state.
“Lake Conway is undoubtedly a premier destination for Arkansans to land a trophy flathead. When we survey Lake Conway, among other lakes, we see evidence in the way of passive gears (limblines and trotlines mostly) that people are targeting them, as well as angler reports that get sent in to us. We also get these kinds of reports fairly regularly at Lake Overcup and Harris Brake Lake.”
In addition to being extremely fertile, the seemingly endless supply of underwater snags and stumps in these AGFC lakes gives flatheads, in particular, a leg up.
“They provide great cover for flatheads to ambush prey from,” Lancett said. “Flatheads are also cavity spawners, which means they will burrow into any kind of hole or hollow tree that they can fit into to lay their eggs. This is likely the reason we see these good numbers and large sizes of flatheads in these lakes.
Logan Applegate also speaks to the large amount of food the fish eat in these lakes.
“While we’re fishing at night, we’ll see tons of shad up at the surface,” Logan said. “They can get so thick that you can just dip your hand down and grab them sometimes.”
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