Lake Ouachita Management Plan

» Fishing » Fish Management » Lake Ouachita Management Plan

Lake Ouachita Management Plan

Do you like to fish in Lake Ouachita? Have you fished there and left unhappy with your experience? Would you fish more often in Lake Ouachita if the fishing were improved in some way? If you would like to have a say in how the fisheries in Lake Ouachita are managed, here is an opportunity. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission needs your help.

Using the facilitated workshop technique that was developed to resolve controversial and complex conservation issues, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Fisheries is involving people and anglers interested in helping in the process of creating management plans for fisheries around Arkansas. The process was first used by the AGFC’s Trout Program to develop a management plan for the Beaver tailwater in Northwest Arkansas.

Public Input Results

The Lake Ouachita Fisheries Management Plan is the fifth and most ambitious of these tailored, site-specific fisheries management plans being developed. On August 1, 2006, an initial citizen’s advisory committee was formed in Hot Springs, Arkansas, for the purpose of beginning the process of getting input to help in crafting options for management of LakeOuachita’s fisheries. This report summarizes the results of the August 1 advisory group meeting. This report also includes additional emailed comments received after the workshop, plus the results of a survey of non-resident anglers.

Click here to download the report of the August 1 meeting

On August 21 and 22, facilitated workshops were held to review the management options. A report from these workshops is now available. Click on the hyperlink below to view this report.

Click here to download the report of the August 21 and 22 meeting

Management Summary

Input from a variety of sources had positive results recently with the approval of the Lake Ouachita Fisheries Management Plan by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

The Ouachita plan was the latest product of the agency’s use of citizens advisory committees to focus on problems and solutions on a particular body of water. With 40,000-acre Lake Ouachita the largest of the lakes to be tackled by this method, the effort was even more complex because of the lake is owned by a federal agency, the U.S. Corps of Engineers, and its designated purposes are for power generation and flood control, not fishing.

It took 9 months from start to finish for the citizens group and AGFC personnel to bring the plan to completion. Focus was on three major categories – people, fish and habitat.

The plan’s highlights in these categories:

People – involve all groups including anglers, businesses and public agencies in the area; to seek open communication, understanding, acceptance and appreciation between varied angling groups; and to increase enforcement efforts to reduce fishing violations on the lake.

Fish – manage LakeOuachita’s diverse sportfisheries to provide a wide range of quality fishing opportunities.

Largemouth bass – achieve a quality fishery attractive to anglers. Spotted bass – provide a viable fishery relative to the lake’s habitat conditions. Smallmouth bass – establish a self-sustaining population of reservoir-strain smallmouth designed to produce a trophy fishery.

Striped bass – provide large fish at a population density attractive to anglers.

Crappie – maintain an abundant number of both species of crappie for angler harvest.

Walleye – provide a viable population available for angler harvest.

Catfish – provide a viable population available for angler harvest.

Forage fish – maintain a self-supporting population of forage fish.

Habitat – Achieve aquatic habitat that will support a healthy, balanced and robust sport fishery. Methods include increasing woody structure in the lake and the reduction of aquatic nuisance species in the lake.

The plan adopted by the AGFC is the result of input from more than 200 persons who attended workshops and the work of the 30-mmember Lake Ouachita Citizens advisory Group. Use the hyperlink below to view/download the Lake Ouachita Management Plan.

Download the Lake Ouachita Management Plan

Lake Ouachita 2006 Annual Fish Population Sampling Report

This report includes an executive summary, lake description, past fishery management, fish stocking history, sampling methods, results and discussion concerning sampling data and recommendations for 2007.