AGFC stocks nearly half-million shad into Greers Ferry Lake

Sept. 13, 2023

HEBER SPRINGS — Biologists with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission boosted the food chain at Greers Ferry Lake this week with the release of at least 476,000 threadfin shad from the lake’s nursery pond near Mill Creek Recreation Area.

The Charlie Craig State Fish Hatchery in Centerton stocked 4,760 adult threadfin shad into the pond April 17.

According to biologist Paul Port at the AGFC’s Mountain Home Office, the nursery pond was fertilized monthly throughout the shad’s spawning season to boost zooplankton, the main food source for the adult shad and their offspring.

“The abundant food supply and lack of aquatic predators enable the pond to produce shad with considerably higher survival rates than they would be able to accomplish outside the nursery pond,” Port said. “The estimated 476,000 fingerling shad produced in the pond averaged 2.3 inches at the time of their release. These fish, in addition to the adults that were originally stocked, should help improve the growth and body condition of sport fish in the lake.”

According to AGFC biologist Justin Homan, a similar stocking of shad is planned at Lake Maumelle in November from the adjacent nursery pond near this central Arkansas fishing destination.

Visit https://www.agfc.com/en/news/tag/greers-ferry-lake for more information on the AGFC’s efforts on Greers Ferry Lake.