Thread: New Species of fish in Arkansas

Are we talkin native species to the river that pre-existed the lake or are we talking native to the state of arkansas?

Walleye were native to Arkansas before the lakes were built. The AGFC even have admitted that they messed up stocking northern strain Walleyes because our native Walleyes grow bigger . Lots of fish can't be stocked just anywhere because of temperature in our waters get too warm or to cold for some of them . Hard to put the jeanie back in the box if it don't work out stocking most exotics .be Be careful what you ask for cause we are learning how Stripers and Hybrids impact natives .

Matt, I admire your humility. Much respect bro!

something that will eat all the asian carp and then DIE!

I only wish everyone agreed with D10 then we wouldn't have all these non native Stripers in Beaver Lake.

Hey... just discussing the transplant of yellow perch here...not trying to test someone's humility or trying to turn the thread into a tail spin. Just making a case for it, as the title of the thread says New fish in Arkansas. I know D-10 is the fish biologist here and respect his opinion, I may not totally agree with it, but I know he don't take it the wrong way when I state my case on a topic. Lord knows we don't need to bring another fish into the state right now anyways. It would not surprise me if a Yellow Perch is caught in Greers in the near future. If I offended anybody in this thread then I apologize. Anyway I have said my peace on the Yellow Peach.

I don't doubt that yellow perch are tasty. I have even heard they taste better than walleye. But as Nimrod stated walleye are native to the White River drainage, including the Little Red River. They are also native to some of the southern drainage a such as the Ouichita River. Believe it or not, there are native populations as far south as Alabama! To my knowledge the yellow perch's native range doesn't come close to Arkansas. The old school way of "Johny Appleseed" stocking of some species of fish is coming to stop or a huge reduction at the least. I for one am not afraid to admit that some of the past stocking practices of the AGFC could have been improved. Sometimes it takes mistakes to learn a hard lesson. I won't be repeating similar mistakes in my district. I also agree to disagree on this issue. Fortunately we can all agree that eating crappie is almost as good as feeling that lightning bolt thump on the end of a jig pole. See you on the water soon Russ!

Sounds good Matt thanks for your input.