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Home › Waters › Arkansas › Bayou Meto
Bayou · Central Arkansas, Lonoke and Arkansas counties, the Grand Prairie and the flooded timber of Bayou Meto WMA · Arkansas

Bayou Meto Fishing Guides

The Grand Prairie bayou that feeds Arkansas's great flooded green timber, fishing hard for bass and crappie between duck seasons.

A slow bayou channel under overhanging live oak and Spanish moss
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Bayou Meto

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About the Bayou Meto

Bayou Meto runs southeast out of the Grand Prairie country near Lonoke and eventually reaches the Arkansas River, and along the way it passes through one of the best known pieces of public bottomland in the South. Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area covers roughly thirty-three thousand acres of flooded green timber, and while it is famous nationally as duck country, the same water holds a serious warmwater fishery for most of the year. The gauge near Lonoke sits on the upper bayou above the management area.

The fishing follows the water. When the bayou is up and the timber is flooded, largemouth bass spread out through the oaks and the fishing becomes a matter of covering a great deal of water with a spinnerbait or a soft plastic worked slowly around the trunks. When it drops back into the channel, bass, crappie and catfish concentrate in the deeper bends and the fishing gets far more predictable. Crappie are the local favorite, and they stack around any laydown or brush pile the current has assembled.

Catfish are the other constant. Channel and blue catfish work the main channel holes and flathead catfish hold in the log jams, and the bayou has a long reputation for producing heavy fish on cut bait through the summer. Bluegill, redear sunfish and warmouth fill the shallow margins, and bowfin and gar are plentiful enough to be a routine part of the day.

Anyone planning a trip should check the waterfowl calendar first. The management area’s water levels are managed for ducks, and access rules change with the season. Outside of the flooded months the bayou is straightforward small-boat water, with the usual Delta hazards of stumps, shifting timber and low bridges.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Bayou Meto.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Lonoke - the gauge reach at the upper end, with highway crossings and bank access.
Bayou Meto WMA - the main public access, with numerous gravel roads and ramps.
Halowell Reservoir - a managed impoundment within the WMA with a developed launch.
Highway 165 crossing - road access to the middle bayou below the prairie.
Stuttgart - the nearest town of size for supplies and lodging.
Arkansas River confluence - the downstream end, reached by boat from river landings.
Wrightsville - the upper bayou above Lonoke with county road crossings.

Seasons

Spring: the peak season, with crappie in the brush and bass spread through any flooded timber.
Summer: catfish in the channel holes and bream along the shaded banks as the water drops.
Fall: fishing sharpens as water falls, but check waterfowl management rules before going.
Winter: access is limited by waterfowl season and flooding, with catfish the steadiest target.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Bayou Meto?

As of Sep 17, 5:45 am, the USGS gauge Bayou Meto near Lonoke, AR reads 1 cfs, with water temperature 81.1 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Bayou Meto?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Blue Catfish, Bluegill, Bowfin, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Largemouth Bass, Longnose Gar, Redear Sunfish, Spotted Gar, Warmouth, White Crappie on the Bayou Meto in Arkansas.

Where can you access the Bayou Meto?

Lonoke - the gauge reach at the upper end, with highway crossings and bank access. Bayou Meto WMA - the main public access, with numerous gravel roads and ramps. Halowell Reservoir - a managed impoundment within the WMA with a developed launch. Highway 165 crossing - road access to the middle bayou below the prairie. Stuttgart - the nearest town of size for supplies and lodging. Arkansas River confluence - the downstream end, reached by boat from river landings. Wrightsville - the upper bayou above Lonoke with county road crossings.

When is the best time to fish the Bayou Meto?

Spring: the peak season, with crappie in the brush and bass spread through any flooded timber. Summer: catfish in the channel holes and bream along the shaded banks as the water drops. Fall: fishing sharpens as water falls, but check waterfowl management rules before going. Winter: access is limited by waterfowl season and flooding, with catfish the steadiest target.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Bayou Meto?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Arkansas agency site: https://www.agfc.com/regulations/general-fishing-regulations/