Millwood Lake in Arkansas Being Stocked With Florida Bass

If you love to fish the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is stocking Millwood Lake in Southwest Arkansas with a quarter of a million Florida bass.

Hatchery trucks like the one below were seen delivering the fish to Millwood and other lakes around the state. There will be more fish headed to Millwood according to AGFC, there are expected to be 400,000 fingerlings to be shipped later this year.

Approximately 1.8 million Florida bass fingerlings have been stocked in Millwood lake in the last decade.

Millwood is one of many lakes in the state being stocked this year with Florida largemouth bass fingerlings that will grow to be pretty darn big like the fish in the picture.

Jason Oliver chief of fisheries with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says they choose Florida bass for their faster growth rate with the hope of creating a better fishing experience for anglers.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is very careful about how they handle and distribute the fish into the lake. They choose not to back down a boat ramp and open a valve to release them they staff-load nets of fingerlings to boats waiting to distribute them straight into the cover. This allows the fingerlings to hide from predators and find food. Typically, shallow lakes with great vegetation and good fertility tend to receive the bulk of the Florida bass fingerling that the hatcheries produce.

The fish were raised at Andrew Hulsey State Fish Hatchery in Hot Springs.

Here's how the process works.