 GREERS
FERRY - A new facility on popular Greers Ferry Lake is being rushed to
completion for a Nov. 4 grand opening.
The Devils Fork Tournament Fish Life Support Center is nearly complete
near the center of the lake. It’s a permanent weigh-in facility that
will be used for both bass tournaments and walleye competitions and for
other assorted purposes, meetings and get-togethers.
The Greers Ferry Chamber of Commerce is heading up the center and its
operation, but the project is a multi-partnership one.
Ownership lies with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since Greers Ferry
is a Corps lake and Devils Fork Park, where the new center is located,
is a Corps facility. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is helping
with the work on the center, and Greers Ferry Bassmasters and Greers
Ferry Anglers are involved.
Building of the Greers Ferry weigh-in center follows one constructed
about three years ago on Lake Dardanelle, a facility of Lake Dardanelle
State Park. It is has been used extensively, including by two national
bass competitions.
Peggy Harvey, treasurer of the Greers Ferry Chamber of Commerce and
chairman of the Devils Fork project, said, “We used the Dardanelle
weigh-in center a lot for our ideas and planning. They really helped
us.”
 The
basic idea behind the center is to improve chances of surviving for fish
caught and brought to tournament weigh-ins. Also near the forefront is
convenience. Instead of tournament officials having to haul in stages,
platforms, holding tanks and all the other gear needed for a weigh-in,
they’ll have it already on hand and in place at Devils Fork.
Construction of the center is well underway and is due to be finished in
time for an inaugural bass tournament on Saturday, Nov. 4. This
tournament is the Greers Ferry Bass Challenge, and all of the entry fees
will be returned to competitors in the form of prize money. Winner is
guaranteed $1,000 plus a percentage of the entry money. A formal opening
ceremony for the center is planned at 3 p.m. that day.
The Arkansas Bass Federation is planning to hold its annual get-together
and tournament at the facility in the fall of 2007, Harvey said.
Gene Eddleman is president of the Greers Ferry Chamber of Commerce. He
said, “There have been anywhere from seven to 20 guys working on this
center every weekend. The Game and Fish Commission really helped out
with its construction crews clearing the land and shaping it with their
heavy equipment.” Cleburne County and the city of Greers Ferry have been
involved too, he said.
The center includes a metal building, 30 feet by 40 feet. With a covered
porch or front where the weigh-in stage activities will be and the
covered side with holding tanks, also 12 feet wide, is 12 feet wide, the
center will be 52 feet by 42 under roof. The parking lot will
accommodate 200 vehicles with boat trailers. Devils Fork Park launching
facilities can handle 12 boats at once. The parking lot is gravel at
present but will be paved later, Eddleman said.
The holding tanks will have aeration and circulating water. They will
drain directly downhill to the lake.
Harvey said, “This project started two years ago. The Corps of Engineers
has a program to work with local people on projects, and Tommy Park
(Corps’ Greers Ferry manager) has been behind it all. The Corps got a
$20,000 grant for the building.”
Greers Ferry Lake, 31,500 acres, was completed in 1963 on the Little Red
River, a tributary of the White River. The lake was the fourth of five
major impoundments in the White River system, with Beaver Lake following
it two years later.
Greers Ferry has produced the world record walleye, 21 pounds, 11
ounces, and the world record hybrid striped bass, 27 pounds, 5 ounces.
The world record brown trout, 40 pounds, 4ounces, was caught just
downstream below Greers Ferry Dam on the Little Red River.
For more information on the Devils Fork center and the Nov. 4 bass
tournament, go to
www.greersferry.com. |