Arkansas’ White River, a premier trophy brown trout destination across the world, has been at the center of growing concern and controversy ever since the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AGFD) approved an emergency order that cuts back the daily trout possession limits on the White and Norfork Rivers.
The entire Norfork River will be under mandatory catch-and-release regulations, while the White River will face the same restrictions from Bull Shoals Dam to its confluence with the Norfork.
These restrictions are in response to water quality problems at the Norfork National Fish Hatchery, the nation’s largest fish hatchery, which supplies significant rainbow trout to the White and Norfork Rivers.
“Christy Graham, the AGFC Trout Management Program coordinator, presented the Commission with four options during Wednesday’s committee meetings at the AGFC’s Little Rock headquarters. Rob Finley, Commission vice chairman, said he believed the best approach would be the ‘more restrictive option’ for a 120-day emergency order to allow the Commission to revisit the problem in January and see where trout production was with the hatcheries,” AGFC wrote in a press release. “The AGFC can issue a second 120-day emergency order if deemed necessary.”
Floods and water quality problems have plagued hatcheries along the river system, which has led to the decline of rainbow trout production in those hatcheries. In turn, those rainbow trout can’t be stocked at the usual numbers. Most rainbow trout stocked in the White and Norfork become food for the giant brown trout, although many are harvested by anglers looking to fill the freezer.
What has some worried, though, is that the water quality and flooding problems in these hatcheries might lead to problems within the White River system, potentially putting the trophy brown trout fishery, and its enormous economic impact, at risk. Specifically, fish kills at the hatcheries have occurred due to low oxygen content, which will impact rainbow trout before brown trout, since brown trout tend to tolerate slightly warmer water.
Problems in the hatcheries might impact the White River system in the short term, Rob Woodruff admits, but he doesn’t think it will impact the river in the years to come. Woodruff is a retired guide and entomologist who still lives near the White River, and spoke about this issue recently.
“In terms of insect life and hatches, sure, this might hurt things for a while,” he said. “But there are some nutrients now in the river after the floods and long-time water releases earlier this year, things that have been locked up behind the Norfork Lake dam for years. I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see more plant life growing in these rivers in the coming years, and if so, that will help increase insect populations and the hatches that result.”
Other anglers, however, aren’t so sure that things will work out. Some point to the repeated fish kills in past years at the hatcheries as the canary in the coal mine, that water quality issues need to be addressed before it’s too late. In addition, if the hatcheries can’t deliver more rainbow trout to feed the river’s large browns, the brown trout population could suffer, regardless of how productive its insect life is.
Many eyes will likely be on the White River and any attempts to mitigate this situation in the future.