Bass, crappie and most other game fish species at Beaver Lake reproduce fine on their own, thank you, but these fish that anglers love to catch get a boost when the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission stocks more of them.
The Game & Fish stocking program at Beaver supplements natural spawning that take place each spring at Beaver Lake. Most game fish would do fine without the help, said Jon Stein, the area's fisheries biologist with Game & Fish.
Anglers Pay Their Way
No matter what species an angler prefers, every fisherman 16 or older must purchase a state fishing license and, if they fish for trout, a trout permit.
License sales have been steady over several years, according to sales figures provided by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. Here are some figures from fiscal year 2012-2013:
• 369,822 — Number of resident annual fishing licenses sold. There were 365,122 sold in fiscal year 2007-2008.
• 99,358 — Resident trout permits sold.
• 55,663 — Non-resident trout permits sold.
• 26,580 — Non-resident annual fishing licenses sold.
• 420 — Lifetime hunt and fish licenses ($1,000) sold.
• 7,154 — Over 65 hunt and fish licenses sold.
• 4,502 — Over 65 fishing only licenses sold.
• 23,253 — Number of fishin license sold in Benton County, where the most annual resident fishing licenses in the state are sold. Benton,
Source: Arkansas Game & Fish Commission
The exceptions are striped bass, hybrid stripers and paddlefish. These are the only species that don't spawn on their own. They're stocked.
Largemouth bass are the most popular game fish at Beaver Lake. During spring seasons when Beaver Lake is high, the largemouth spawn is generally excellent, with millions of newborn fry produced. It's those springs when the lake is low that spawning is less successful. Game & Fish might lend a helping hand.
"If we have consistent low-water years, we can raise largemouths in the nursery pond," Stein said. That's the 30-acre fish-rearing pond that Game & Fish operates on the east side of the lake north of Horseshoe Bend park. Fish are raised to fingerling size in the pond and released into the lake.
Largemouth bass were raised in the pond during 2013. Stein said about 300,000 fingerlings were released into Beaver Lake. Not all grow to catchable size. A lot are eaten by adult fish.
Crappie are being raised in the nursery pond now. That should result in 500,000 fingerling crappie for the lake, Stein said.
Walleye and smallmouth bass are two big success stories made possible by the fish-rearing pond. Both were native to the White River before Beaver Lake filled.
Years ago, smallmouth bass were raised at the pond and stocked for several consecutive years. Smallmouths were slow in establishing themselves at Beaver Lake, but they're abundant now. Anglers routinely catch big, hard-fighting smallmouth bass.
Walleye are the new fish on the block at Beaver. Game & Fish raised and released walleye for several years. Today walleye spawn on their own and are plentiful, but Game & Fish occasionally stocks them.
Biggest In The Lake
Anglers travel to Beaver Lake from across the nation to fish for trophy striped bass that dwell in the reservoir. The fish can reach weights of 40 to 50 pounds, so it's no wonder fishermen enjoy catching them.
Stripers need river current to spawn successfully and don't spawn naturally in a reservoir like Beaver Lake. Game & Fish stocks about 170,000 striped bass fingerlings in the lake each year. Again, all don't grow to become adult fish. Larger fish eat them, as they would if stripers spawned naturally.
Every third year, Game & Fish stocks hybrid stripers in Beaver Lake, Stein said. These are a cross between a white bass and a striper. Pound for pound, hybrids are among the hardest-fighting fish, but they don't spawn naturally in Beaver Lake.
Paddlefish grow even larger than stripers, up to 100 pounds.
"We've gotten reports from people who say they saw a shark in the lake," Stein said. "What they're seeing is a paddlefish. When they swim on the surface their dorsal fin looks like a shark's fin."
Game & Fish stocked paddlefish through the 1990s, Stein said. They're now well established in Beaver Lake.
Paddlefish eat plankton. All other game fish, once they're large enough, feed on threadfin shad. The small-sized threadfin shad are the main forage for the lake's game fish. As a result, Game & Fish monitors their numbers closely.
High water years usually mean an excellent shad spawn, Stein said, as well as a good spawn for bass and other fish.
There's one species that needs no help at all. White bass are so abundant in Beaver Lake that there is no daily limit. Anglers may catch all they care to clean. Game & Fish encourages anglers to keep and eat lots of white bass.
"There are huge numbers of white bass in the lake and they can eat enormous amounts of shad," Stein said.
"Another reason we don't have a limit is that white bass only live six or seven years," Stein said. So if a fisherman keeps a mess of good-sized whites, those fish wouldn't live much longer anyway.
White bass grow fast. They can grow to 6 inches long their first year. A 2-year-old white bass is 10 to 12 inches long.
Cold Water Means Trout
On the other side of Beaver Dam at the White River, trout are the name of the game in the ice-cold water downstream from the dam. Water is released from the deep down in Beaver Lake. That keeps the river cold all year, which is ideal for trout.
Thousands of rainbow trout are stocked by Game & Fish below Beaver Dam each year. Rainbow trout don't reproduce naturally in the river so they're stocked. Stocking began not long after the big dams were built on the White River. Trout stocking was designed to replace the smallmouth bass fishery that was renowned before the dams were built.
White River below Beaver Dam gets about 96,000 rainbow trout each year, according to Game & Fish stocking figures. The heaviest stocking months are March, April and May when 11,250 rainbow trout are stocked each of those months.
Brown trout do reproduce naturally in the river, so Game & Fish stocks far fewer brown trout, about 500 per year.
How does Game & Fish know how many to stock?
Creel clerks survey fishermen at the river to determine the fishing pressure and catch rates, said Melissa Jones, cold-water coordinator with Game & Fish. The average catch rate below Beaver Dam is 0.8 trout per hour, she said. Knowing how many people are fishing and how many trout they're catching helps Game & Fish determine stocking rates.
Cold water or warm, anglers benefit from a boost in numbers when more of their favorite fish are stocked.
Outdoors on 10/02/2014