Arkansas fishing - Lake Hamilton

Never seen or heard much about it. Trying to just find some basic info on it! Heard it is heavily pressured by "pleasure" traffic.. How is the fishing?

It can be good and the BIG boat traffic should be slowing down, there is also Walleye in that lake.

Had my honeymoon there 10yrs ago...I planned to fish the whole time while honeymooning...Lake was very low and I caught 1 drum the entire trip...going for Bass.

Wife still wont let me live it down...

Kind of like cedar creek. Lots of docks.

I'm from Arkansas and fished Hamilton a few times. It's kind of like Lewisville Lake here as far as traffic goes. If you are going to fish there I would fish De Gray or Ouachita. MUCH better fishing opportunity and much less traffic. Plus, view is outstanding. If you must fish Hamilton, lots of docks to fish around.

Sounds like somebody's fishing the college tournament up there??

Yessir. Just trying to get a feel for what they like to bite on! Will probably stick with some finesse dock fishing till I can get a limit. I wish I could just hop down to degray!!

Make sure to check your rules on getting info on sites like this. This may not be considered public information. Not sure of the rules for that one though.

tough lake. try to find some brush under docks or try to find some shoreline grass and throw a spook or buzzbait

Thats what i've been gathering. thanks! hopefully I can get a good early topwater bite.

Head 20 mins up the road to Lake Ouachita

haha yeah I wish! Or degray...

Ok so I talked to my cousin who lives off of Lake Hamilton and he says it's full of algae growth. He doesn't fish there much for bass bc it's a tougher lake and the aforementioned lakes are much better for bass.

that sounds like the common answer. Basically it's gonna be a tough day of fishing for me, because I can't exactly just move lakes. Thanks for the info though!

Degray sucks. I hate it. I have done good there but i dont like it.

Hamilton is a good lake. A person could take a pop r and a shaky head and catch fish.

Ouachita is probably the pretiest lake anywhere.

QUACHITA is the better lake in the area. The spots have just about de pleated the largemouth population there. There are striper and whites there. When BASS had a tourney there a few years ago, it was the lowest weight brought in. Over 1/2 of the field didn't catch a keeper fish in 3 days of fishing.

Have fished Hamilton many times. I do best fishing points that have rocks on them.

I called FLW for the last college tournament about this issue, and forums like this are accessible to anyone and there no rule against asking for info on here.

You can sometimes get lucky and find the LMB's schooling, but that is no kind of pattern to plan for a tournament with. There is plenty of grass and rocks. If I can't catch something in either of those areas or around boat docks, I'm just not gonna have a good day. A spook or a puppy on points early during the summer can produce when the conditions are right, but that is no secret either. Good luck, and if you can stay around an extra day or two, try to hit either of the other lakes, you won't regret it.

I live on Hamilton. Have since 86. When are you fishing? Someone mentioned grass growth in a reply, man, that's the truth. I believe it's Niad, which is nuisance grass. It's really stringy and slimy. Bring a shakey head, topwater, and a crank bait. There's not a fish in the lake you can't catch on 12lb test. No real need for 17-20lb test. The water is clear, if we don't get some rain, it will get even clearer. The pleasure traffic will be less of a factor from here on out, since we are beyond Labor Day. Not to mention, hunting season is around the corner. One thing Hamilton is not short on is brush piles. There is brush around 9 out of 10 docks on the lake. Some produce, some don't. I know that's kind of a broad overview, but, drop me a line, I'll help any way I can.

whacky worm chart/pepper rattle snake you'll be surprise.

Try plum apple,or plum colored worms fished up there couple years ago caught plenty of fish till a ran out of those colors.

see ya'll there

Thanks for the advice! Should shape out to be a good day of fishing hopefully