SILOAM SPRINGS — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission recently approved changes in fishing regulations.

The rule changes will go into effect Jan. 1, 2010. They include:

• Defining “shad” as gizzard shad or threadfin shad, eliminating confusion about alewife and blueback herring, types of shad sometimes brought into Arkansas as bait.

• Removing the catch and release rule for largemouth bass on Lake Ashbaugh in Greene County and begin a daily limit of six fish.

• Clarifying rules to require licenses for taking all aquatic wildlife. Current rules list “fish, frogs, minnows and mussels.”

• Increasing the daily limit of catfish for bowfishers from two to five.

• Removing the daily limit on northern pike. Once stocked in a few lakes, these fish did not thrive in Arkansas and have virtually disappeared.

• Reducing the daily limit from two to one on alligator gar, set a season for taking them and create a permit for alligator gar fishing.

• Removing limits on channel catfish and blue catfish on the Sulphur River, Red River and Little River in southwest Arkansas. All have exceptionally high numbers of catfish.

Lifestyles, Pages 12 on 11/04/2009

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