June 11-13 Free Fishing Weekend in Arkansas

Gov. Asa Hutchinson makes proclamation for Father’s Day Weekend

AGFC Communications LITTLE ROCK – Thanks to a proclamation by Gov.

Asa Hutchinson announced today, anyone may fish in Arkansas without a fishing license or trout stamp from noon Friday, June 11, through midnight Sunday night, June 13. The proclamation was read at today’s commission meeting by Megan Perkins, agriculture liaison to Hutchinson’s office.

An annual tradition sponsored by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and approved by Gov. Hutchinson, Free Fishing Weekend gives many people the opportunity to enjoy the amazing angling The Natural State has to offer. Residents and nonresidents may fish without a fishing license or trout permit. All other regulations, such as daily limits and size restrictions on certain bodies of water, still apply during this weekend.

The AGFC will host special fishing derbies at four of its freshwater hatcheries June 12 in celebration of the annual event.

“This year we are excited to announce that not only youth, but the entire family may come out and fish with us at our warmwater hatcheries,” said Ben Batten, chief of the AGFC’s Fisheries Division. “Unfortunately we will not be able to conduct a fishing derby at the Spring River trout hatchery in Mammoth Spring, but all other hatcheries will be available to Arkansans. People will

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need to register in advance to ensure we have adequate space and parking on the hatchery grounds, but we look forward to a return to the hatchery derbies after they had to be canceled last year.”

Visit agfc.com/en/education/ calendar/annualevent/ free-fishing-weekend- statewide-2022 for more information on Free Fishing Weekend and the hatchery derbies planned.

• AGFC biologists recently added more fish habitat to Lake Dardanelle (right).

Twenty-two stake bed structures made of pallets were sunk at five sites in both Dardanelle and Delaware bays. The pallets were recycled following a delivery of fertilizer. These structures should attract game fish such as largemouth bass, crappie, and bluegill. Coordinates for the structures will be made available on AGFC’s Fish Attractors page in the coming months.

• Employees and contractors with the AGFC will be conducting herbicide applications to Craig D.

Campbell Lake Conway Reservoir, Lake Overcup and Lake Atkins beginning in May and ending in September (see photo below).

The EPA-approved aquatic herbicides cause no harm to wildlife, people or aquatic life, but water irrigated from these lakes could kill gardens, flowerbeds and lawns if used on neighboring lands. By federal law, these herbicides have up to a 120-day irrigation restriction after application. The AGFC asks adjacent landowners to NOT irrigate for lawn or garden use with water from these lakes from May 30 to Feb. 1.

The use of aquatic herbicides is necessary to control the current problems with alligatorweed, a nonnative invasive aquatic plant species that can infest these lakes, restricting access to boathouses, ramps and fishing locations, and hindering native wildlife and fish populations.

For more information, please contact the AGFC Fisheries Office in Mayflower at 877-470-3309.