HOT SPRINGS - Arkansas bass fishermen continue to do their part in helping improve Lake Ouachita's bass fishery. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's fisheries division, along with the Arkansas Black Bass Coalition, have recently completed scheduled stockings of largemouth bass and smallmouth bass into Lake Ouachita.

The group assisted AGFC biologists by distributing the fingerling size bass throughout Lake Ouachita. ABBC members provided the use of their fishing boats in carrying the young bass, in stock tanks, to select habitat sites.

According to AGFC biologist Brett Hobbs, over 66,000 fingerling smallmouth bass were stocked into sites on the east end of the lake, while 62,000 fingerling size largemouth bass were released into mid-lake sites. "These hatchery-reared young bass should add to a good natural spawn present throughout the lake," Hobbs said.

Prior to bass stockings, AGFC fishery biologists sampled shoreline fish cover at numerous locations around Lake Ouachita, Hobbs said. "With rare exception young largemouth bass are present in shallow vegetation from one end of the lake to the other," he explained.

Additional largemouth bass will be stocked into the western end of Lake Ouachita in early July through the AGFC's nursery pond. These approximately 40,000 largemouth bass will be about 5 inches in length when released.

The smallmouth bass fingerlings were produced at the AGFC's Andrew Hulsey State Fish Hatchery near Hot Springs while the largemouth bass fingerlings stocked were produced at Joe Hogan State Fish Hatchery near Lonoke