Arkansas Sportsman

Striper guides furious about proposed baitfish regulation

Striper fishermen just heard about a proposed regulation about transporting live shad, and they are not happy.

Before we start, we must get something off our chests. We covered this regulation in detail two weeks ago here at the Pine Thicket Bureau.

Word of the proposal is just now starting to work its way through the striper angling community grapevine. We're half a month ahead of the grapevine and half a month ahead of social media. If you want to know what's going on in the Arkansas outdoors, you'll see it first in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The proposed new regulation reads: "It is unlawful to use wild caught baitfish unless the bait was caught within the water body being fished or in its watershed above the lake."

It will be a Class 2 violation, and the commission will vote on it July 20.

Striper guides are upset about the restriction on catching shad in the Arkansas or Ouachita rivers and using them for bait in lakes Ouachita, Hamilton, Norfork and Beaver.

The regulation will not prevent anglers from transporting farm-raised bait purchased from licensed bait dealers.

Bill Posey, a Game and Fish Commission fisheries biologist, said the regulation is designed to prevent the spread of silver carp, bighead carp and black carp.

"Dams are favorite harvest locations because shad and other baitfish aggregate below dams," Posey said. "The Arkansas River has silver carp, and young-of-the-year silver carp can be in the same area."

Young-of-the-year silver carp can easily be mistaken for gizzard shad, Posey said. He displayed a slide showing young gizzard shad and various carps. They are distinguishable in proper light in certain numbers, Posey acknowledged, but it would be easy to overlook undesirable invasive species in a seine containing scores of fish at night or in low light.

Posey said accidental introductions aren't limited to carp. They also can include yellow bass, zebra mussels and Asian clams, as well as nuisance aquatic plants like alligator weed and water hyacinth.

Striper guides say the regulation will put them out of business. Ron Waymack, a striper guide on lakes Ouachita and Hamilton, said live shad are essential bait for fishing in the summer when stripers are in deep cover.

Waymack said that fishing with shad is easy for children and novices, and that shad are the backbone of the summer striper fishing business.

To get the amount of shad that guides need for their charters, Waymack said that striper guides catch their shad from the Arkansas River. That goes for guides on Beaver Lake, too, according to the wife of a striper guide who I know. She said that prohibiting the transfer of bait between watersheds will push a lot of guides into bankruptcy.

Striper guides have tens of thousands of dollars invested in shad harvesting gear, Waymack said. They don't use their striper fishing boats because shad are such slimy, filthy creatures. That boat has its own outboard motor and trolling motor and aerated shad tanks, as well as six to nine batteries to run the equipment.

It's common, Waymack said, for striper anglers to fish for shad in the Arkansas River all night and be back at Lake Ouachita to run a charter at dawn.

They don't use all their shad in one trip, Waymack said. Most guides also have substantial investments in shad tanks, aerators and chemicals for keeping wild-caught shad alive at home.

Waymack said guides prefer gizzard shad, and that he inspects every shad before putting it in his tank. He said he only dips them three to five at a time to prevent injuring them, and he checks each shad for damage or disease. If it's not in perfect condition, he said, he throws it back into the river.

Waymack said that only an idiot can't tell the difference between a gizzard shad and a carp.

Smart people can make mistakes, too, and it only takes one to introduce the genesis pair of carp to Lake Ouachita. As evidenced on the lower White and Arkansas rivers, they will overwhelm a waterway in a short time.

That would be the end of recreational boating and tournament bass fishing on lakes Ouachita, Beaver or anywhere Asian carp proliferate.

This proposed regulation is an attempt to prevent it, but like chronic wasting disease in deer, it might be inevitable, with or without a regulation.

Sports on 06/04/2017

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