re: Best lakes around Hot Springs?

Just got back from Hot Springs. Took the boat and spent a day on Ouachita and about 10 min. on Hamilton. Ouachita was great. It is a corp of engineers lake, so it was well taken care of. All the coves were marked. Shallow water markers were everywhere if the water got below about 20 feet. Most of the lake was about 100' so there weren't many shallow areas.

Hamilton is highly developed, but none of the water hazards are marked. We hit a shallow spot right in the middle of the lake within about 10 minutes and ruined my prop. It's a nice lake, but I don't if I'll take my boat back to it, but I would go back to Ouachita in a heart-beat.

If you take your boat to Hamilton, look at Google satellite, and you can see shallow spots in several areas of the lake. Just be careful. And hitting your prop on Hamilton, is gonna tear something up, because it is a rocky bottom.