Ten Arkansas Fishing Regulations Changes Go Into Effect January 1st

First posted on 10-22-2009

At the regular monthly meeting of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in August, 10 changes in fishing regulations were approved.

These were recommendations from the AGFC’s Fisheries Division staff, and all seem to be minor as far as effect upon large numbers of anglers.

The rule changes will go into effect Jan. 1, 2010. They are:

1) Defining “shad” as gizzard shad or threadfin shad, eliminating confusion about alewife and blueback herring, types of shad sometimes brought into Arkansas as bait.
2) Remove the catch and release rule for largemouth bass on Lake Ashbaugh in Greene County and begin a daily limit of six fish.
3) Changing the due date and reporting period for reports by alligator farmers and dealers.
4) Removing the community fishing program from T.J. House Reservoir, Mulberry’s water supply lake in Crawford County.
5) Clarify rules to require licenses for taking all aquatic wildlife. Current rules list “fish, frogs, minnows and mussels.”
6) Increase the daily limit of catfish for bowfishers from two to five.
7) Remove the daily limit on northern pike. Once stocked in a few lakes, these fish did not thrive in Arkansas and have virtually disappeared.
8) Reduce the daily limit from two to one on alligator gar, set a season for taking them and create a permit for alligator gar fishing.
9) Spell out a boundary for the South Fork of the Ouachita River in Montgomery County.
10) Remove limits on channel catfish and blue catfish on the Sulphur River, Red River and Little River in southwest Arkansas. All have exceptionally high numbers of catfish.

Alligator gar are fabled fish in Arkansas but have declined in numbers, but enough are still in some Arkansas rivers so that people go out specifically for them. Many bowfishing enthusiasts often have alligator gar at the top of these priorities.

The reduction in the daily limit and the other alligator gar rule changes came out of meetings of AGFC fisheries personnel and bowfishing organizations.

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