As per Mojo I am Ward Gardner and tried to fix this screw job by the dock owners of your area. Simply put the Dallas District office via Colonel Jackson and the marina owners lied and cheated. For many years(2?) MPWD and AGFC worked to an agreement with marina owners and anglers and usace. Agreement was made by all!- allowed fishing to continue to occur on docks. Marina owners then UNILATERALLY went behind the backs of all other parties and whined above Little Rock District to Dallas office who was more than happy to IMO put it in and break it off. The marina owners took Dallas office USACE and Little Rock District USACE folks back to marinas(USACE more the happy to go back) and basically showed them vinyl damage and cowling damage and claimed without evidence all was from anglers. USACE then screwed us all and changed the rules and INFORMED NO ONE OF THE CHANGE- until a dude got a ticket for fishing NEAR- NOT IN- a dock. I tried to undo it as an angler representative(Arkansas Bass Association). Met with USACE LR. They were as expected uninterested in being anything other than a complete ogre. I give them credit for the meeting but Col Jackson's approach was to take the fishing away from ALL parties at this point.
Docks that cannot be fished are the ones registered in Washington DC with USACE. That's why interpretation is so very tough/random to an angler. Only way to know which docks are restricted is to contact USACE district for Table Rock and ask for a list. We have some docks are Arkansas River that I can fish in and some I cannot. Theres no way to intuitively know which ones it is. Sure all fuel pumps are out but lots of plain old slips and docks are too. A ton of dock owners WILL THINK they are on the list but aren't! Have had to deal with that on Arkansas River at Pine Bluff- dude was running folks off. I double checked and let him know. LOL- was an enjoyable quick conversation-
Enforcement- AGFC wont use their own enforcement folks to enforce this law. Only folks left are county sherriff or USACE park rep who better be a good swimmer to write me any ticket I would openly accept. Not sure about MPWD temperature of enforcement.
My advice to all bass anglers is in NO WAY should you EVER buy or get anything from any of the docks if you can avoid it. They are the ones that either hosed us all willingly or passively. Additionally- I would demand citations be written for dock owners, slip owners, ANYONE who fishes any of those docks. It wont happen but id feel free to raise hell.
Government only responds to pain or money.
