Work progresses on Loch Lomond fishing dock
State OKs walleye release; 100 out of 100,000 survived
Several special events became topics at the Oct. 19 meeting of the Joint Advisory Committee on Lakes. The committee discussed a potential fundraiser for an area swim team, a fishing tournament for the University of Arkansas fishing teams, a Kids’ Fishing Derby and the possible return of Paddles in Paradise.
The group endorsed events for both the swim team and the fishing teams, leaving them to Lakes and Fisheries Superintendent Rick Echols to coordinate. While the fishing tournament is scheduled for next month, the swim team’s event will take place next summer.
The committee will help with the Kids’ Fishing Derby and the Fly-Tyers Club will also be recruited, but Echols was asked to check into the feasibility of stocking a portion of Lake Avalon. For a similar event in 2015, a portion of Lake Avalon was enclosed by a net borrowed from the state Game and Fish Commission. Echols will see if the net is still available.
Board liaison John Nuttall said he believes the Paddles in Paradise event was actually put on by a kayak store in Rogers. He thinks they moved their event to Beaver Lake.
Lake Avalon resident Dick Francis, a former member of the Lakes Committee, used the open forum to report a number of improperly registered boats on the lake. He also reminded the committee that there were problems at the fishing dock last summer with noise and unauthorized usage. He asked how the POA will be able to police the new swimming beach proposed for the other end of Lake Avalon.
Next year’s budget will include money to pay for two attendants at the beach, Echols explained. There will also be more money for Lake Rangers who can check registrations.
An extension that will move the Loch Lomond fishing dock into deeper water has been delayed, Echols told the committee, but work did finally begin last week. Because of unexpected delays to get the project going, he didn’t want to say how long the project would take.
The November and December meetings will be combined and scheduled for Nov. 30 at the Country Club. In January, the committee will go back to the third Thursday of each month.
The first attempt to raise fish in Bella Vista for Property Owner Association lakes was at least a partial success, Fish Biologist Rick Echols told the Lakes Committee last week.
Last winter two ponds on the Berksdale Golf Course were drained and prepared to become fish nurseries. One pond was dedicated to crappie. Brood fish were captured in a nearby lake so they could reproduce in an environment safe for their offspring.
Recently, Echols and his staff moved 3,700 crappie, each between four and six inches long, to Lakes Avalon, Brittany and Rayburn.
The second golf course pond was dedicated to walleye, which would be a new species for Bella Vista. Echols went looking for walleye fry to raise in the pond, but it wasn’t easy.
Arkansas Fish and Game regulates fisheries in Arkansas and controls fish being moved across state lines. Echols found some fish in Iowa and purchased 100,000 tiny walleye to raise in the pond. But after the transaction was complete, he was told it had not been approved. All the POA lakes are public waterways, but not the golf course ponds. The walleye could be put in the pond, but could not be moved to a Bella Vista lake. They were quickly outgrowing the pond.
Earlier this month, the Game and Fish Commission staffers reversed course, Echols said. Echols said he didn’t know why the state had changed its position on moving the fish, but he began moving walleye.
The ideal time to move walleye was early June, when they were large enough to escape some predators, but still small enough to be eating plankton. By July they had outgrown plankton and were eating each other. When Echols began removing them in early October, he found about 100 walleye out of the 100,000. They all went to Lake Avalon.
Echols said he had hoped to have about 50,000 walleye to move.
Although walleye can live in Bella Vista’s lakes, it’s not an ideal habitat. Walleye usually spawn in moving water. When eggs are released, they stick to rock near the surface so there’s plenty of oxygen. In the lake, the eggs will sink to the bottom and get attached very deep, where there isn’t enough oxygen, he said
In the future, if they can capture walleye big enough to reproduce, they will hold them outside the pond until they spawn and then move the fry into a pond to grow for the first few months. He is also considering moving some fish from Hot Springs Village lakes to spawn in Bella Vista. If the Hot Springs fish do well, he can send them some of the offspring for their lakes. Hot Springs, Echols said, doesn’t have a program to breed their own fish.
Over the winter, if the program is going to continue, he would like to install drains in the two ponds. Now they have to use a pump to empty the ponds each winter.