AGFC family fishing program adds West Memphis pond

WEST MEMPHIS - The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Family and Community Fishing Program is adding West Memphis’s Tilden Rodgers Sports Complex as a new program location. The pond that is located within the sports complex is currently being stocked regularly with hundreds of channel catfish every month.

Over 1,300 catfish were stocked in April and thousands more are scheduled to be stocked throughout the summer.  The Family and Community Fishing Program will team up with the West Memphis Department of Parks and Recreation on Saturday, June 4 to co-host the Annual West Memphis Catfish Rodeo.

Registration begins at 7 a.m. and fishing is from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.  Donations from the Arkansas Wildlife Officers Association and the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation were used to help purchase one hundred new rod-n-reels that will be given to the first 100 children 15 years of age and younger that attend the event.

There will also be several door prizes awarded to event attendants.  There will be plenty of AGFC staff on hand to help beginning anglers. The pond is located at 825 North Airport Road in West Memphis. Participants should bring their own bait, tackle and fishing gear as well as other helpful items like cameras and ice-chests for the rodeo.

In advance of the fishing rodeo will be a beginner catfishing clinic at the Wonder City Boys and Girls Club in West Memphis on Thursday, June 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  The Boys and Girls Club is located on 412 South 25th Street in West Memphis.  Clinic participants 15 years of age and younger will receive free rod-n-reels. For more information on the program call (501) 223-6428.