Anglers on Hamilton, Catherine can hook prize fish starting today
“Big Al is worth $20,000. So if you catch Big Al, you are the lucky winner of the year, but even our smallest reward is a whopping $500. So there’s a lot of money out there that can be won.” — Alexis Hampo, special events coordinator for Visit Hot Springs
Starting today, anglers on lakes Hamilton and Catherine can land prize fish worth a total of $110,000 in the 10th annual Hot Springs Fishing Challenge through July 31.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission tagged the 66 prize fish at the Andrew H. Hulsey State Fish Hatchery Monday and Tuesday for the annual challenge, which started in 2012 and returned last year after a three-year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Four species are tagged and released between Lake Hamilton and Lake Catherine,” Alexis Hampo, the special events coordinator for Visit Hot Springs, said. “Those four species are the catfish, the largemouth bass, the redear sunfish and the bluegill.”
The distribution of the species of fish and their bounties are a closely guarded secret, but prizes range from $500 to $20,000, Hampo said.
“Big Al is worth $20,000,” she said of the grand prize fish named after gangster Al Capone, who frequented the city during the heyday of mobsters. “So if you catch Big Al, you are the lucky winner of the year, but even our smallest reward is a whopping $500. So there’s a lot of money out there that can be won. There’s also $10,000 fish, $5,000 fish and $1,000 fish.”
In addition to Big Al, one tagged fish is worth $10,000, four are worth $5,000 each, 40 are worth $1,000 each, and 20 garner a $500 prize. The prizes for the 20 fish with the smallest prize are doubled during the state’s Free Fishing Weekend, June 7-9.
“We’re providing channel catfish, largemouth bass, bluegill and redear sunfish,” Brett Hobbs, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s District 8 Fisheries Biologist, said. “So these fish are tagged here at the fish hatchery, and the bass were tagged out on the water (Monday), so all these tagged fish, the remaining portion, are going to be distributed (Tuesday). After tagging, we’re going to take them out by boat and spread them throughout the lake. By moving them throughout the lakes, folks will have a good chance to catch
these fish most anywhere on either Lake Hamilton or Lake Catherine.”
Hobbs said electrofishing is used to capture the bass on the lake, which helps enhance the survival of the fish.
“Netting and moving fish can be pretty stressful on them, and in past years, we have had a few mortality problems where fish succumb to the rigors of the tagging operation,” he said. “So in order to keep the fish as fresh as possible, especially the bass, we have decided it’s easier to just tag them out on the water. So we electrofish them at various locations and tag them and put them in different areas of the lakes as well.”
Fish are distributed throughout the two lakes, Hobbs said, to try to keep several tagged fish from congregating.
“Bass are sporadically distributed, so when we electrofish and collect them, we might find a decent number of bass in a small area,” he said. “But then we tag the fish and readily distribute them throughout the lake.”
Hobbs said the challenge fits within the mission of the AGFC.
“The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is in the business of encouraging fishing, and this whole fishing challenge promotes the sport of fishing,” he said. “We know that by our involvement in this project as a partner with the city that it encourages folks to fish, and there’s nothing like having an opportunity to catch fish maybe worth up to $20,000. That’s encouragement enough to get people, a lot of people to go by their license and go fishing on Lake Hamilton or Lake Catherine just because of this challenge.”
The challenge runs through 5 p.m. on July 31. This year’s tags are red and have a phone number along with a prize number, and anglers who catch one of the prize fish must present the fish with the tag still attached.