Kentucky / Spot Regulation Meeting Info - Date And Time

[1969Larson]

Jon,

Can you tell a little more about the nursery pond? How is it used? Bass only? Every year? How is the harvest done? Do you literally "pull the plug" and let the whole thing drain back into the lake? Thanks for all you guys do to help keep Beaver Lake so AWESOME!

[NWAfishbiologist]

The Beaver Lake Nursery Pond is 28 acres and is located near Blackburn Creek. The pond is used to stock fish into Beaver Lake and we have used it with very good success for the past 25 years. The previous Fish Biologist (Ralph Fourt) and my current supervisor Ron Moore worked very hard in the 90s to get smallmouth bass established in Beaver Lake and this was accomplished with the Nursery Pond.

We have used the pond to stock black crappie, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, redear sunfish, and walleye. I left the largemouth bass numbers off the list because we have not estimated the numbers yet.

Smallmouth bass 1,246,033

Crappie 2,762,017

Redear Sunfish 2,138,964

Walleye 198,826

Blue catfish 120,000

Largemouth bass

We use the nursery pond every year and here is how it works. We fill the pond in March or April and obtain adult broodstock from Beaver Lake or other sources. With the smallmouth bass, Ron obtained the fish from Bull Shoals Lake. This year we collected 575 adult largemouth bass from a NWA Cast Masters Tournament and the FLW Tournament on Beaver Lake. Once the pond is filled and adult fish are stocked into the pond, we enhance pond productivity by adding alfalfa pellets and old hay. The alfalfa pellets and hay increase zooplankton production, which is what small newly hatched fry eat.

For smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and walleye we hold the fish in the pond until they reach an average size of 2 inches (1.5 inches for walleye). We then open the gate that drains the pond and both the adult and fingerling fish are released into the lake. The reason we don’t let the fish get any bigger is because once they reach about 2 inches they begin to eat each other. If we held them until the fall we would stock a much larger fish, but there could only be a couple of hundred left in the pond.

For Crappie and Redear Sunfish we hold them over the summer and stock them in the fall. These species do not cannibalize each other as much as do largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and walleye. We do not use the Nursery Pond to stock many walleye or striped bass, because we have better success having them raised at the Charlie Craig Hatchery in Centerton (walleye) and at the Andrew Hulsey Hatchery in Hot Springs (striped bass).

Also, thanks for all the good comments on our managment of Beaver Lake. We do work hard to ensure good fishing, but keep in mind that the Beaver Lake fishery thrives during and after high water years. The high water increases productivity of many of the forage species and this leads to incredible numbers of sportfish. Beaver Lake experienced high water in 2008, 2011 and it looks like it will have another one this year. Fishing should be very good this summer. Good Luck.

Jon Stein

Fish Managment Biologist

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

2805 West Oak Street

Rogers, AR 72758

479-631-6005

jestein@agfc.state.ar.us

[wc1063]

^{Great info! Thank you very much!!}