PINE BLUFF, Arkansas - Access restoration for the Arkansas River's legendary Coal Pile received a much needed budget increase in fall 2014, thanks to a $70,000 Fish Passage Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"Our goal is to improve fish and boat access," said Jeff Quinn, a fisheries biologist with Arkansas Game and Fish (AGF). "We anticipate the work to be completed by April 3, 2015.
"The project design is minimal due to funding constraints," he said, adding that the total cost will be $241,000. When completed, the canal into the 528-acre backwater will be 0.8 miles long, 25 feet wide and more than 3 feet deep. An estimated 9,630 yards of sediment will be dredged out.
"Coal Pile is the most popular backwater for fishing for black bass in the lower Arkansas River. The winning fish from the Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza, the largest tournament in Arkansas, often comes from this backwater," said the Southeast Aquatic Resource Partnership (SARP), which provided a $50,000 grant to help with restoration. But since 1970, an estimated 9,000 acres of backwater habitat has been lost to sedimentation on the Arkansas. Openings into Coal Pile filled with dirt and debris, making fish and boat passage difficult most of the time. SARP estimates that the river has lost 9 percent of its total aquatic area from 1973 to 1999, much of that in backwater areas, which is critical for spawning and nursery habitat.
Not surprisingly, those backwaters also hold big bass. Until 1975, Coal Pile owned the state record largemouth, 13-2. That reputation prompted competitors during the 1984 and 1985 Bassmaster Classics out of Pine Bluff to make the long run downstream each day, although it yielded little during those August dog days. More recently, David Shopher boated a 6.27-pound bass there to win the 2012 Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza.
AGF received title to the water in 2009, following complex negotiations with a private hunting club that owns land near the backwater. At the time, the agency said, "We need to work on getting the entrance to Coal Pile dredged out. It is dangerous now. Bass boats get up on plane and go in at 50 miles an hour if they know the exact spot to hit." The area's name, meanwhile, has endured for centuries, with speculation being the Coal Pile is called that because fuel for steamboats was stored there.
