Contractors with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) began removing old infrastructure at Lake Conway Dam in late October 2025 to make room for a new water-control system and weir as part of the lake's rejuvenation efforts.

The old dam in the town of Mayflower, north of Little Rock, was built in 1948 and used metal gates that required manual operation to raise or lower the lake's water levels. After 77 years, the dam's infrastructure was in dire need of replacement, which the AGFC saw as the perfect opportunity for a lake-wide reset.

In its place will be a new water-control system that uses a concrete labyrinth weir to maintain a single water level throughout the lake as water passes over it.

According to Reid Phifer, the state agency's assistant chief of operations, the design of the weir will allow as much water as a traditional 600-ft.-wide spillway but will fit within the footprint of the existing dam structure.

"We've gated off access during the construction for safety, and contractors have built a turnaround there," Phifer said. "Contractors have already torn out the old log-catcher in front of the dam and are putting in the coffer dam this week."

Installing the coffer dam allows AGFC's crews to continue working despite rising water levels.

"It's just like every other job we build in a hole: it's susceptible to water," he said. "It's a coffer dam, so it's not meant to hold back a 20-year flood, but it will keep them going unless we have a significant rain event. We're in really good shape and we're pleased with the contractor doing the job."

The Arkansas agency hired Mobley Contractors in Morrilton to take on the project, and Phifer is confident the work will be done within its initial 5-year timeline.

"We'll need two good, dry summers to complete the work, but even then, we're still a year ahead of the first estimated completion date," he said. "And a lot of other work can be going on while the dam is being rebuilt."

Phifer also said he is confident that the public will maintain the same sort of lake access they have always enjoyed once the work is finished.

"We know there are people who have enjoyed access to a part of Bell Slough wildlife management area by the old dam, and we're already planning how to maintain and even increase that access once we're finished with the construction. We've got a good plan and a good contractor, so I'm pretty excited."

Lean-To Shelters, Concrete Disks Help Promote Fish Spawning

Nick Feltz, the AGFC fisheries supervisor in Mayflower, said his staff recently mobilized to complete another habitat project on the lakebed in Palarm and Pierce Creeks, Gold Lake, Paradise Landing and the dam area.

"[Our] staff gathered together to build 148 wood ‘lean-to' structures in early October," he said. "We had about 20 members help out over four days. We actually ran out of materials we'd gathered for the project and cut the build short by one day, but we plan to have more in the next few months when we can gather more supplies."

Adding wood structures to a lake like Conway may seem redundant due to the quagmire of tree stumps that litter the lakebed, but Feltz noted that not all stumps are created equal.

"You obviously have some stumps that are great, with gnarly roots and cavities to provide good cover [for fish], but you also have a lot of stumps that are just a simple vertical stick in the mud," he said. "These ‘lean-to' builds offer more horizontal cover that fish can get underneath and use as shelter or ambush points. We've also seen where these structures catch some of the floating debris and become even better by becoming larger and more complex. As some of the debris floats around after the lake is refilled, some of these structures will become fantastic brush piles."

Feltz also pointed out that the AGFC's gravel spawning site projects are rolling full steam ahead as well, with much of the most recent work being done by dedicated landowners who want to create fish spawning habitat near their shoreline or boat houses.

The AGFC has created hundreds of concrete disks that can be filled with gravel to offer ideal spawning beds for bream and bass.

"These fish need a hard bottom to spawn, and the silt buildup in the lake wasn't allowing fish reproduction to reach its potential," he said. "We got the idea for the spawning disks from a person in New Mexico who is heavily involved in habitat enhancement on public reservoirs. We just needed to increase the scale of the project to benefit a lake as large as Conway, and it was a perfect opportunity to get landowners involved."

As a result, the spawning disks have become immensely popular with anglers, with hundreds of lakeside landowners registering to reserve their portion. Each recipient is limited to 30 spawning disks, and they are going quickly.

"We know there are a few people who signed up who may not be able to get their disks, but we can't hold them back if someone else who's registered shows up," Feltz said. "But we'll be pouring more as soon as we can work out the logistics.

"We poured 800 disks in the first round and our partnership with SRM Concrete [which has locations nearby in Conway and North Little Rock] has up to 1,200 more disks worth of donated concrete to use; it's a matter of finding the time and manpower to get those done."

Lake Conway's renovation has already reached a few major milestones along its path to recovery. Earlier this year, contractors completed mulching more than 29 mi. of boat lanes through the sunken forests of the reservoir to greatly increase the safety of boaters visiting the lake, according to the AGFC.

"Those lanes were a major accomplishment and one area where we were really able to work hand-in-hand with the public to plan the best outcome," Feltz said. "As the lake level rises, we'll be able to mark all those lanes with wooden utility poles that will be easy to see."

He also points to the massive amount of natural regeneration taking place on the lakebed as future complex cover for bass and other sport fish.

"We're seeing cypress and other water-tolerant trees up to 5 feet tall in some places. If we even get [a fraction] of those trees to survive post-flood, it will mean a lot to Lake Conway. The areas where live cypress remained were historically the most productive, so expanding that live tree component could really help the fishery in the long-term."

The project also grabbed many people's attention when the state's game and fish agency used helicopters to haul hundreds of tons of gravel to various spots on the lakebed to increase spawning success.

"The gravel will help bream and other sunfish spawn successfully, instead of their eggs being covered by silt," Feltz said. "We also airlifted a bunch of concrete culverts that make excellent spawning habitat and ambush cover for catfish."