Staff at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission hatcheries throughout the state work in the colder months to improve future fishing conditions.
More than 4 million threadfin shad have been raised in hatcheries and nursery ponds this year and are being released into lakes throughout the state.
Threadfin shad are a favorite forage of game fish such as bass, walleye and crappie. These morsels can be in short supply if the predator-prey relationship in a body of water is out of balance.
"There is no silver bullet for improving populations of sportfish," said Ben Batten, chief of fisheries with the commission. "All lakes go in cycles. Our role as fisheries managers is to monitor those fluctuations and use the tools that we have to improve things," he said.
"We often hear people ask for increased stockings of largemouth bass, crappie and other sport fish, but in truth, most lakes with good habitat have healthy bass spawns that can produce more fingerling bass in a lake than we could in our entire hatchery system. By stocking threadfin shad in lakes where we believe forage levels are low, we're trying to help."
Raising forage species is not new for Game and Fish hatcheries. Fathead minnows and golden shiners are raised to feed fish in nursery ponds and occasionally stocked in smaller bodies of water. Bluegill and redear sunfish are raised for anglers, but also are important food sources for large predator fish.
Shad are a relatively new challenge.
"We started production of threadfins in 2016," said Tommy Laird, Game and Fish assistant chief of fish culture. "It's been a big challenge, but we're adapting and learning how to be more efficient every year."
Hatcheries brought in 775 pounds of shad last winter to use as brood stock to begin this season, Laird said. By the time the last shad was stocked, more than 4 million fish had been raised to supply lakes.
"We stocked shad in lakes as large as Bull Shoals, Greers Ferry and Beaver Lake and in small lakes like Mallard Lake near Manila," Laird said.
Highland impoundments such as Beaver, Maumelle and Greers Ferry can be very infertile, which causes slow growth rates in fish. The boost to the food chain by stocking can help those lakes.
"Not only do we want to put these shad out as food, which is helpful, but the hope is that more importantly, the shad that survive will act as brood stock," Batten said. "That will increase the next generation of shad during the next spawning cycle."
Sports on 11/19/2019
"fish" - Google News
November 19, 2019 at 02:10PM
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Stocked threadfin shad benefit game fish - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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