The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission unanimously approved at its Oct. 15 meeting changes to Arkansas' regulations on recreational fishing, commercial fishing and aquaculture.
The changes to recreational sportfishing were announced to commissioners during the March meeting and were circulated in a public comment survey on the Game and Fish website beginning in March. The responses from that survey were then presented with official proposals during the commissioners August meeting.
Ben Batten, chief of the fisheries division, said 80% of the 46 regulation changes were clarifications, simplifications or reductions in regulations. The other 20% were changes backed by scientific evidence or public input aimed at improving sportfish populations and angler experience.
A few notable changes include:
• Requiring boaters to remove drain plugs from vessels while being trailered to and from water bodies.
• Requiring trotlines and limb lines to be checked every 48 hours or removed when not in use.
• Standardizing the number of free-fishing devices and yo-yos being used to 25 of each per person.
• Increasing the possession limit on fish from two daily limits to three daily limits.
• Allowing rough fish harvest by gig year-round.
• Removing the requirement to possess an alligator gar permit. A trophy alligator gar tag is still required to keep alligator gar longer than 36 inches.
• Adding a 10-inch minimum length limit on crappie for Lake Dardanelle.
• Allowing 10 additional spotted bass to the daily limits for Ouachita, DeGray and Greeson lakes.
• Allowing twice the statewide limit of channel catfish on the Arkansas River, regardless of size.
In commercial fishing and aquaculture regulations, commercial fishing on the Strawberry River was modified to allow it only on the 13-mile stretch of the river from its mouth to Arkansas 25.
A complete list of changes is available at agfc.com/en/education/calendar/commission-meetings/monthly-commission-meeting-2020-10. All regulations will go into effect Jan. 1.