Recent Floods Shouldn’t Affect Arkansas’s Fisheries

LITTLE ROCK – There has been some concern among the state’s anglers regarding the recent floods and its effect on Arkansas’s waters. Not to worry, say Arkansas Game and Fish Commission fisheries biologists.Trout, bass, crappie, bream, catfish and other Arkansas fish have ways of adapting to flood conditions.

Jeff Williams, the AGFC’s trout program coordinator, explained that since Arkansas doesn’t have much natural reproduction of trout, he’s not overly concerned that fish may be washed downriver will be washed away due to the flooding. “We’re not going to have a great deal of newly deposited eggs or young fry swept away,” he said. “We haven’t received any reports of mortality and since we stock trout heavily in the state’s coldwater fisheries any trout lost would be quickly replaced. So there should still be plenty of trout out there for anglers to catch. Trout are holding closer to the banks of the river and around cover and staying out of the main channel.”

Fishermen have already returned to the upper portions of the White and North Fork rivers, Williams said. “Above Crooked Creek and the Buffalo River, the flooding was not nearly as bad as farther down the river where flooding has been a real problem.”

Arkansas’s warmwater fisheries have been in the bull’s eye of floods during the last few weeks. In the big picture, that’s a plus according to Mark Oliver, the AGFC’s assistant chief of fisheries. “More water means more fish,” Oliver said. “We haven’t had a big spring flood event in a long time. In reservoirs and the backwaters of our streams, largemouth bass, spotted bass, bream, crappie, redear and bluegill all do better when floods stir up large amounts of nutrients. This creates more phytoplankton and zooplankton, which in turn feed the forage fish the larger fish feed on.”

The only fish that may be adversely affected by the floods is the state’s stream walleye populations. “Walleye spawn earlier than other fish in Arkansas. Their spawning peaked in March and their eggs and fry were likely washed away,” Oliver said. That may mean a short drop in the walleye population, but the AGFC stocks walleye because they don’t reproduce well in Arkansas. “They don’t protect their eggs or fry, so other fish usually get them. The muddy water will help hide some of the eggs and young fish, but we don’t rely on natural reproduction to sustain our walleye fisheries.”

If the flooding continues into April and May, then biologists may see a drop in the warmwater fish populations in streams. “If this should continue for the next couple of months, then we may have a problem since the eggs and fry, especially of smallmouth bass, could possibly be washed away or smothered with silt,” Oliver added.

Although the floods have been catastrophic to Arkansans living near rivers, the overall picture appears bright for the state’s anglers. “We’ve needed something like this in several of our lakes and rivers. The large lakes have flooded into areas where there’s new habitat available and the flooded rivers will recharge nearby oxbow lakes and other backwaters,” Oliver said. “It may not look like it now, but this should be a bumper year for Arkansas anglers.”