Wilson Brake Fishing Spot

• Mean Depth: 4'
• Max Depth: 12'
• Last Modified By: vinny60 on 09/14/09 08:50 AM
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Wilson’s two concrete boat ramps are on Arkansas Highway 902 just south of Portland and east of U.S. Highway 165. Signs mark turnoffs on Highway 165. The Game & Fish Commission maintains two concrete boat ramps on the lake – one near mid-lake on the east side and one near the west side dam. Camping and picnicking are permitted in unimproved sites along the lake’s south side. Fishing supplies and restaurants are available in Portland, with motels in nearby Hamburg, Dermott and Lake Village. Lake Chicot State Park near Lake Village offers a variety of facilities including 127 modern campsites, 14 housekeeping cabins and a marina/park store. Once a bed in Bayou Bartholomew, cypress-shrouded Wilson Brake forms an almost complete circle in the south Arkansas river bottoms. A trip from one end of the lake to the other takes you back close to your starting point. Though Wilson Brake is relatively unknown outside a cadre of local fishermen, a scarcity of man-made impoundments in southeast Arkansas makes this and other natural lakes some of the region’s most popular fishing waters. A brake is an area overgrown with dense brush, trees or other cover, and the term is appropriate for this picturesque oxbow. Wilson Brake’s shallows are choked with tight-knit stands of buckbrush and cypress trees providing feeding and spawning sites for bluegills, crappies, largemouth bass, channel catfish and a complement of other favorites such as pickerels, flathead catfish, redear sunfish, spotted bass and warmouths. Fishing this cover is the Key to success for most visiting anglers.