Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Effort ongoing to bring back fish
Anglers and bowfishing enthusiasts are asked to help bring back the alligator gar, one of Arkansas’s oldest trophy fish
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission created a statewide bag limit of one per day under 36 inches long to help conserve the fish. Any gar longer than 36 inches must be immediately released. Anyone keeping a small alligator gar also must have an alligator gar harvest permit, which is available as a free added code to their fishing license through the Game and Fish licensing site.
A limited number of trophy alligator gar harvest tags have been issued to anglers interested in keeping alligator gar longer than 36 inches. The tag is good for one alligator gar longer than 36 inches per year.
Tags were issued to anglers through a random draw in February.
“Every angler who had a valid alligator gar permit in January was automatically entered into the free draw,” said Eric Brinkman, Game and Fish fisheries supervisor in Hope. “One hundred tags were issued randomly to these anglers. We plan to continue this method of drawing next year as well, based on angler input.”
Permit holders who harvest a trophy alligator gar must contact Game and Fish at 800482-9262 to check the animal. Biologists will then meet the angler at the lake to attach a transportation tag and gather biological information critical to the agency’s effort to rebuild populations.
Game and Fish also reclassified alligator gar last year strictly as a sportfish. Until then it had lived under the heading of “rough fish,” and then as a “commercial-sportfish.”
Only Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi allow commercial fishing for the species, according to Game and Fish biologists. Remaining populations in Arkansas are spread thinly across much of the state or have been eliminated. Two of the known remaining populations of alligator gar in Arkansas may total only 300 individual fish each. While other pockets are known to exist, none are documented to be any larger.
Alligator gar are found in the state’s large rivers such as the Arkansas, Mississippi, Ouachita and Little Red.
Recent surveys with alligator gar permit holders indicate a small number of anglers still target alligator gar with hook and line, but bowfishing is the most common method of taking the species.
If an angler catches a trophy-class gar but does not have a permit, he should handle the fish carefully, take a few photos and get it back to the water quickly.