BassBlaster

AR DNR Says AR River Hurting

Is the Arkansas River hurting? That’s what the Arkansas DNR says. Here’s some excerpts from a news article, followed by an observation about pro tourney weights that hopefully you can add to:

> Heavy winter and spring rains in Oklahoma for the last 4 years have created tough living conditions for fish downstream in the Arkansas River.

> “Normally, high water is a good thing, but it doesn’t help with the bass population over time,” said Colton Dennis, a black bass biologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

> More water results in a swifter flow, creating muddy conditions…. “They are expending more energy to capture their prey, which are smaller fish,” Dennis said. “Whatever food they get isn’t going into growth but rather they are just trying to maintain themselves.”

> The spring rains this year did help to fill backwater reservoirs where fish often breed. But even the backwater areas [are hurting]. One solution to help…is the backwater restoration project. But it’s not cheap. At least three projects are needed to dredge sediment…. Each project cost about $1.5 million.

> A 2008 study showed Arkansas River anglers contribute about $20 million a year to the state’s economy.

> Jeff Quinn, stream fisheries biologist for the Game and Fish Commission, worries that without restoration, anglers will stop going to places along the river to fish. “From a fisheries biologist perspective, we would like to invest in the river where we could get bang for the buck,” he said.

Tourney Weights

As we all know by now, “Dennis” Brauer (all of a sudden he’s Dennis in the official BASS sheets – he’s been Denny for 30 years til now) won the recent Arkansas River Elite Series derby. His weight was 52-02, or a daily average of about 13 pounds, meaning a less-than-3-pound average.

A quick look at FishingGold! data shows summer AR River winning weights weren’t really any higher in years past. For example, Rick Clunn did catch 75.5 pounds there in the ’84 Classic – but 2nd place was 50 pounds.

Has anyone who fishes that river regularly noticed tourney weights going down?

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Dwain

    July 6, 2011 at 10:50 am

    to get his winning weight, and most of the other decent weights they fished an area that is more like a lake than a river. You need to look at the weights for the rest of the field not just the winner. How about that bottom 1/3?

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