Arkansas

HOT SPRINGS – Complaints about unsafe operation of boats in confined areas of Lake Hamilton have resulted in increased enforcement efforts by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Garland County Sheriff’s Office. An area of particular concern is the Big Mazarn basin.

LITTLE ROCK – Most Arkansas fishermen, young old and in between, know that springs means plentiful nightcrawlers for fishing – if you get out and look for them.

Nightcrawlers are right at the top of natural baits for fishing, and most anything will go for them – bass and bream to catfish and including walleye and trout.

BATESVILLE - The Arkansas Prescribed Fire Council is conducting a prescribed burn workshop for private landowners beginning at 9 a.m. on April 19, at the UA Livestock and Forestry Branch Experiment Station near Batesville.

HUNTSVILLE - During the 1940’s fifty-five deer from Wisconsin and Sylamore, Arkansas were released on approximately 15,000 acres in Madison County. The McIlroy’s, a prominent family in Fayetteville, owned the land that the deer were released on.

LITTLE ROCK – Helping and encouraging Arkansans to learn more about deer and other wildlife is one of the segments of the new Strategic White-tailed Deer Management Plan of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

LITTLE ROCK – Continued high water throughout east Arkansas has forced the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to close spring turkey seasons on many public hunting areas in the impacted region.

POWHATAN - If kayaking appeals to you but you have doubts about it, learn the basics of recreational kayaking when Lake Charles State Park in Powhatan offers the Kayaking Basics Workshop, Saturday, April 12.

LITTLE ROCK – Are you in a hurry for some information from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission? A good starting point is the agency’s Web site – www.agfc.com. Arlene Green, AGFC webmaster, said timely information is listed on the left side of the home page and often is a direct route to the answers Arkansas sportsmen need.

LITTLE ROCK – For effectiveness in catching catfish, it’s hard to beat trotlining. Multiple hooks baited and in the water are the basics. Trotlines catch fish. They usually catch catfish, but crappie, carp, drum and an occasional bass may be hooked.

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.