AGFC Seeks Public Input to Revise Stream Bass Management Plan

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is sending out a survey to ask anglers and stream lovers for their insight in the next iteration of the agency’s Stream Black Bass Management Plan.

According to Eric Naas, Black Bass Program Biologist for the AGFC, the plan, which focuses on smallmouth bass, Neosho bass, largemouth bass and spotted bass in Arkansas’s free-flowing warmwater streams, complements the existing Reservoir Black Bass Management Plan to ensure these different families of fisheries have goals and strategies specific to their nature.

The agency uses management plans for specific programs and fisheries to ensure work being done on the ground prioritizes the needs of the state’s natural resources, but also strives to satisfy the preferences of anglers and other stakeholders whenever possible.

“As biologists and conservationists, our number one priority is always to maintain healthy habitats for the state’s fish and wildlife, but the real science of conservation is working within those parameters set by nature to allow for responsible use of those resources,” Naas said. “A critical component of that work is to gauge the preferences of the people using the resource to ensure we’re fulfilling their expectations as best we can with what the resource allows.”

The agency’s Stream Smallmouth Bass Management Plan was last revised in 2021, but Naas points out that the landscape of stream black bass conservation and management has changed significantly since that update.

“The AGFC has decided to develop a new management plan that focuses on all black bass species, including smallmouth, Neosho, largemouth and spotted bass populations in Arkansas’s wadeable and floatable streams,” Naas said. “This plan will exclude major river systems like the Mississippi, Arkansas, Red, St. Francis and the lower sections of the White and Ouachita.”

Naas says the plan will be the result of collaboration between AGFC Fisheries Division staff and a Stakeholder Advisory Committee that will consist of volunteers who represent a variety of public interests pertaining to angling and stream management.

“It won’t be only bass anglers contributing, but outfitters, paddlers, land owners and local business owners who benefit from visitors to these streams,” Naas said. “The plan will include management goals that reflect stakeholder values, along with specific objectives and strategies designed to achieve each goal. This will provide broad guidance on policies addressing complex management challenges and issues related to producing high-quality stream black bass fishing experiences.”

Responses to this survey will directly inform the committee and staff as they draft the plan. The draft will then be circulated for public comment, and adjustments will be considered from that final comment period before the plan is submitted to the Commission for adoption.

The survey will be available until Aug. 9, and all responses will remain confidential. Take the survey at agfc.com or click the following link to get started: Stream Black Bass Management Plan Survey

Contact Naas at eric.naas@agfc.ar.gov or Jeremy Risley, Black Bass Program Coordinator, at jeremy.risley@agfc.ar.gov for more information on this survey and bass fishing in Arkansas.

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CUTLINES:

ANGLERS IN BOAT
The AGFC is gathering input to revise its stream smallmouth bass management plan to include management for all black bass species and anglers who pursue them.

RELEASING SMALLMOUTH
Fisheries in Arkansas’s warmwater streams are drastically different from those in reservoirs, prompting special focus for the black bass that rely upon them.