Arkansas Smallmouth Alliance

[remi74]

If you are from Farmington, and it looks like you fish the streams in that area, I would avoid starting up a new club or chapter. I have been fishing streams in NWA for ages - before they started closing bridges on the Illinois. A lot of spots on streams have been closed off due to the population boom, housing developments and golf courses. The fishing here on streams is good and sometimes great. It also varies from year to year based on rains, floods, droughts, etc. I feel that by making a smallmouth alliance in this area, it will only cause more people to crowd what accesses we have left in this corner of the state. If you wanna push it to be in another part of the state, so be it. But as a former member of a fly club and having been related to a past president and such, watch out. It's a huge piece of pie. If you want good smallies fishing, go to Missouri or fish the Illinois west of 68. I understand why you want to do it but it's gomna kill whatever privacy and good fishing we have left here in this part of the state. You are going to have some people join who may help and a possible dedicated fellows. However, most will be folks with money and social titles who do it to say they are members. It reek of yuppies and gear heads who don't know how to catch fish without having a guide. You will end up pointing the way to the fish. They will expect you to bring fish to the masses and put them on a fish. Trust me. I've seen it. I've been a member of clubs and want to have no part of them anymore. AGFC started breeding smallmouth bass in Centerton and released a ton of fingerlings this spring into War Eagle, Kings and Beaver. There was a big story in the paper. They tried before and finally succeeded at breeding a pair which came from the Kings and released back. I understand your eagerness and you may think me a jerk for which I do apologize. Please be careful on Mud Creek. It used to be decent in certain spots when the mall was the only development nearby. Large bass here and there . . . now, it's sad. Further down west of it all, you may see a few surprises. We used to be able to fish the mill too but folks crowded it and trashed it. The two dollar hole got shut down for a while due to littering. Gar hole too. I have had the heck of a time trying to keep fishing on good, local water much less fight the crowds.

[Smalliebigs]

If you are from Farmington, and it looks like you fish the streams in that area, I would avoid starting up a new club or chapter. I have been fishing streams in NWA for ages - before they started closing bridges on the Illinois. A lot of spots on streams have been closed off due to the population boom, housing developments and golf courses. The fishing here on streams is good and sometimes great. It also varies from year to year based on rains, floods, droughts, etc. I feel that by making a smallmouth alliance in this area, it will only cause more people to crowd what accesses we have left in this corner of the state. If you wanna push it to be in another part of the state, so be it. But as a former member of a fly club and having been related to a past president and such, watch out. It's a huge piece of pie. If you want good smallies fishing, go to Missouri or fish the Illinois west of 68. I understand why you want to do it but it's gomna kill whatever privacy and good fishing we have left here in this part of the state. You are going to have some people join who may help and a possible dedicated fellows. However, most will be folks with money and social titles who do it to say they are members. It reek of yuppies and gear heads who don't know how to catch fish without having a guide. You will end up pointing the way to the fish. They will expect you to bring fish to the masses and put them on a fish. Trust me. I've seen it. I've been a member of clubs and want to have no part of them anymore. AGFC started breeding smallmouth bass in Centerton and released a ton of fingerlings this spring into War Eagle, Kings and Beaver. There was a big story in the paper. They tried before and finally succeeded at breeding a pair which came from the Kings and released back. I understand your eagerness and you may think me a jerk for which I do apologize. Please be careful on Mud Creek. It used to be decent in certain spots when the mall was the only development nearby. Large bass here and there . . . now, it's sad. Further down west of it all, you may see a few surprises. We used to be able to fish the mill too but folks crowded it and trashed it. The two dollar hole got shut down for a while due to littering. Gar hole too. I have had the heck of a time trying to keep fishing on good, local water much less fight the crowds.

darn, you guys are paranoid down there....lol..... I feel the same way to a very, very small degree about the MSMA but, I got over it and love the MSMA now. I just don't take people fishing very often or go with many people.....so I guess I'm just as paranoid as you???

[Dan Kreher]

Ok. Haven't heard from you so I'll go ahead and post this.

The Arkansas Smallmouth Alliance and the Arkansas Fly Fishers have been operating under the same umbrella for quite some time.

When I contacted them in 2008 the head of the group at that time was William McMillan. They were open to splitting off a separate ASA or working with it.

AFF still has an active web page. http://arkansasflyfishers.com/

I don't know these people or work with these people but it's pretty clear there is already an Arkansas Smallmouth Alliance. You'd do well to talk to them.

As Tim suggests, I'd go ahead and contact the Arkasas Fly Fishers club. Back a few years ago, we MSA 'leadership' guys in MO were very interested in getting any group to take up the Smallmouth Alliance banner in Arkansas. I came into contact with the conservation director of this organization, McMillan, and he expressed interest in taking up the Alliance name. We crowed about it a bit in our MO newsletter but, admittedly, I'm not too sure how much focus they are really putting on the Alliance effort.

They seem to be much more of a flyfishing club to me -- that has historically and continues to do very good habitat related work on several streams in Arkansas -- and supported the imposition of more restrictive regs on Buffalo River and Kings in years past. They've done work on both the Little Red and Caddo over the years as I recall. Pretty instrumental in getting some self-sustaining brown trout production going on Little Red if I recall correctly.

Again, you'd be best to contact them directly and see how they want to work together to really get the efforts going on behalf of Smallmouth Bass. They started the initiative back about 4 years ago, but some additional energy to these efforts would likley be welcomed by them. I apologize for not being as up to speed on their activities as I should be. Regardless, MSA is certainly willing to help get ASA chapter going/strenghtened in any manner that we are able to assist.

Please contact me if you have any questions or requests.

[Tim Smith]

As Tim suggests, I'd go ahead and contact the Arkasas Fly Fishers club. Back a few years ago, we MSA 'leadership' guys in MO were very interested in getting any group to take up the Smallmouth Alliance banner in Arkansas. I came into contact with the conservation director of this organization, McMillan, and he expressed interest in taking up the Alliance name. We crowed about it a bit in our MO newsletter but, admittedly, I'm not too sure how much focus they are really putting on the Alliance effort.

They seem to be much more of a flyfishing club to me -- that has historically and continues to do very good habitat related work on several streams in Arkansas -- and supported the imposition of more restrictive regs on Buffalo River and Kings in years past. They've done work on both the Little Red and Caddo over the years as I recall. Pretty instrumental in getting some self-sustaining brown trout production going on Little Red if I recall correctly.

Again, you'd be best to contact them directly and see how they want to work together to really get the efforts going on behalf of Smallmouth Bass. They started the initiative back about 4 years ago, but some additional energy to these efforts would likley be welcomed by them. I apologize for not being as up to speed on their activities as I should be. Regardless, MSA is certainly willing to help get ASA chapter going/strenghtened in any manner that we are able to assist.

Please contact me if you have any questions or requests.

Quick follow up on the flyfishing angle. Don't let the gear differences hold you back.

The Illinois Smallmouth Alliance has a flyfishing wing, Bass Buggers, that operates under the auspicies of the ISA. They are huge contributors to the overall group.

You need members, manpower and money to get this thing off the ground to a level it can survive over the years...and hopefully make a positive contribution. A cooperative group will get you miles down that road and clearly, the AFF has already proven they are productive group. There are plenty of ways to incorporate both fly fishing and spin casting preferences into an Alliance.