Arkansas game and fish report
Source: The Associated Press
June 06, 2007
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission report for June 6:
JASPER, Ark. (AP) _ Though it is weeks away, residents of Newton county are busy preparing for the annual Buffalo River Elk Festival.
The festival begins Friday, June 29 and continues through Saturday, June 30.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission uses the festival as the site for their drawing to award elk hunting permits. In previous years, thousands of hopeful elk hunters applied for the hunting permits. The two-segment 2007 season will be held Sept. 24-28 and Dec. 3-7.
An added attraction for this year's hunt will be an onsite drawing for someone who submits an elk hunting application at the festival. The hunter must be present to win, and like other public land elk permits to be drawn, entrants must be Arkansas residents.
The majority if festival activities will be at the courthouse square in Jasper with a kids' fishing derby on the banks of the Little Buffalo River. There will also be a talent show, turkey shoot, Arkansas State Championship Elk Calling Contest, Miss Elk Festival Beauty Pageant and a Dutch oven cook-off sanctioned by the Arkansas Dutch Oven Society.
LITTLE ROCK (AP) _ Although twice as many alligator hunting permits will be issued by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the agency says the Temporary Alligator Possession Tags will be a bragging right for hunters.
Forty TAPTs will be available only to Arkansas residents and will be divided into three categories. Seventeen private land permits will be assigned directly to private land owners in Alligator Management Zones 1 and 3.
Another eight at-large private land permits will be divided between Alligator Management Zones 1 and 3. At-large permits will be distributed by random draw to applicants with written permission to access private waters in the management zones and cannot be used on public waters.
Five public land permits in Alligator Management Zone 1 and 10 public land permits in Alligator Management Zone 3 also will be issued through a random draw. These permits are for designated public waters and cannot be transferred to other public waters.
Alligators are a federally managed species and must be registered with federal officials once they are harvested. The TAPT will confirm the hunter's legal right to the alligator from the time of harvest until a federal Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species permit is issued.
Hunting will take place only at night during the last two weekends in September. The season will begin one-half hour after sunset on Friday, Sept. 21, until one-half hour before sunrise on Monday, Sept. 24. The second season will begin one-half hour after sunset on Friday, Sept. 28, until one-half hour before sunrise on Monday, Oct. 1.
Alligators must be caught and subdued using a handheld snare or handheld harpoon before being dispatched with a shotgun or bang stick (a shotgun-like device used for sharks and similar hunting in saltwater areas).
Alligators must be restrained before dispatching to prevent loss of the harvested animal in deep water. Allowing hunters to shoot or otherwise attempt to take an unrestrained alligator would likely result in the loss of many alligators without a successful harvest.
The alligator permit application period is under way and will end midnight June 29. Applicants must have a valid resident big-game license and must be 16 or older by June 29, 2007, to apply for a permit. Nonresidents may participate only as assistants to the hunter. Each hunter will be allowed up to three assistants.
Persons convicted of AGFC regulation violations totaling 12 or more points in the last three years are not eligible. Only one application may be submitted per person.
Successfully drawn applicants will be notified by mail. They will be required to pay $35 for the permit and must attend a training workshop, where they will receive instructions for the hunt.
HOLIDAY ISLAND, Ark. (AP) _ A portion of an old, outdated highway bridge at Holiday Island is functioning as a fishing pier on Table Rock Lake in Carroll County.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission used a portion of the decommissioned bridge to build the fishing pier. The older bridge had its center span removed which left two ends that worked as piers for a handicapped accessible fishing spot.
A new bridge was built near the old structure.
The Holiday Island Improvement District asked the AGFC to consider utilizing the old bridge as a fishing pier. State Sen. Randy Laverty, D-Jasper, secured $10,000 in state grants to help with the project. The project started earlier this year and was completed in March at a cost of just over $29,000.
The Holiday Island Fun Fishermen also added brush and Christmas trees around the pier to help improve the fish habitat.
LITTLE ROCK (AP) _ Another record tilapia was caught recently when Jerry Tindall snagged a tilapia weighing 2 pounds, 10 ounces on May 31.
Tindall, of Little Rock, caught his prize on Lake Jewitt at Camp Robinson while bottom fishing with red worms. The fish was over 14 inches long. The old record was 2 pounds, 7 ounces caught by B.F. Glover of Guy on Win Meadow Lake.
The tilapia was verified by fisheries biologist Andrea Daniel and was weighed on certified scales at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Headquarters.
Tindall was fishing with friend Mary Mathis when he landed his prize. Tindall said that Mathis was the first to see the fish.
"I tried to catch it one time and missed, so I tried again," he said. When Tindall got the fish close to the edge of the water he told Mathis to get the net _ he knew he had it.
Tilapia is a nonnative fish to Arkansas, according to Andrea Daniel, an AGFC Fisheries Staff Biologist.
"We routinely stock two lakes, Lower Lake Hogue and Mallard Lake, in spring or early summer," Daniels said. She said tilapia are used as forage fish for bass and during the summer can reach a weight of one or two pounds.
Tilapia were first introduced by the AGFC in Arkansas during spring 2001. These fish cannot survive when water temperatures drop below 45 degrees for a continued amount of time, and their immune system stops functioning at about 55 degrees.
During cold winter months these fish die-off and can be collected with a dip net. Lakes are restocked during the warmer spring months.
"Records are made to be broken and I am certain it won't last too long," Tindall said.
LITTLE ROCK (AP) _ Registration is open for the Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza, the country's largest amateur big bass tournament.
The tournament, which will be held on the Arkansas River for the eighth consecutive year, is scheduled for June 22-24. Fishermen can register online at http://www.arkansasbigbass.com.
The angler who lands the largest fish in the three-day tournament will take home $100,000, with other cash prizes available throughout the weekend. Approximately 3,000 fishermen are expected to compete in the event.
Total prize money will be determined by the total number of registrants in the tournament. In 2006, tournament officials distributed nearly $275,000 in total prizes.
The tournament begins at 6 a.m. on all three days, with the first hourly weigh-in at 8 a.m. and subsequent weigh-ins at the top of each hour until the final 1 p.m. weigh-in. Cash prizes will be awarded for the biggest fish in each pool each hour.
Big Bass Bonanza is sponsored by the Arkansas Hospitality Association, and the contest spans 300 miles of eligible fishing from Fort Smith to Dumas _ the entire length of the Arkansas River within the state's borders.
The entry fee for each day of the tournament is $80 until June 8, when the fee increases to $90 per day.
WEST FORK (AP) _ Bat-O-Rama, an annual feature at Devil's Den State Park near West Fork and Winslow, is scheduled for Friday through Sunday, June 8-10.
Participants can take in a variety of programs, including a talk on bats by Michael Ray Taylor, a Henderson State University professor. Taylor has explored bat caves around the world. His program will start at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday.
There will be a program on building bat houses, and a crevice cave walk is scheduled Sunday night.
For more information, phone the park at (479) 761-3325.
