Flooding and poor water quality killed more than 2 million fish last year in trout hatcheries in north Arkansas, sending ripples of concern through the fishing industry.

But the impact of the die-offs on the health of regional tourism remains unclear. The fish died at the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission’s Jim Hinkle Spring River State Fish Hatchery in Fulton County and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Norfork National Fish Hatchery in Mountain Home.

Some officials told Arkansas Business that the deaths will be a blow to tourism, while others don’t think anglers will stay away from the Arkansas rivers, such as the White, long known for their large brown and rainbow trout and fly-fishing.

In October, about 90% of the trout and all of the trout eggs at the Norfork hatchery died. The trout that were in the Arkansas rivers at the time, however, weren’t affected by the deaths.

Meanwhile, others are looking for ways to avoid trout deaths in the future.

“A lot of what happened is in the hands of Mother Nature,” said Christy Graham, AGFC trout program coordinator. But preventing future deaths would cost millions of dollars, she said.

In response to the deaths and to prevent the trout population from being depleted, the AGFC in October barred anglers from keeping any trout they catch. The daily trout limit had been five.

Last month, however, the AGFC relaxed the ban and said people could keep two trout a day, although there are some nuances to the limits.

Trey Reid, the AGFC’s assistant chief of communications, said that the two-trout limit will be in place for the “foreseeable future.” He didn’t have an estimate for when that might change.

Game & Fish eased its initial emergency regulation as a compromise for the people coming to the area to keep the fish they catch.

Trout anglers “will have that opportunity, albeit at reduced limits, and [the limits] still maintain a quality fishery where people can go out and enjoy it, whether it’s catch and release (or) catch and keep,” Reid said.

Some around the north Arkansas fishing industry, however, say that limiting the number of trout caught discourages anglers from coming to Arkansas.

“It is going to have an impact. It already has,” said Dani Pugsley, president and CEO of the Mountain Home Area Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve seen a reduction in stays. People have canceled their reservations because of it.”

The tourism industry could feel the results of the fish deaths at the Norfork hatchery for a year or more, she said. It takes between 18 and 22 months for a trout egg to become an adult, ready to be restocked.

“Tourism is one of our largest revenue sources here on the White River,” Pugsley said. “It’s world-renowned for trout fishing. So … people come from all over, not only the United States but the globe, to trout fish on the river.”

Others expect Arkansas streams to continue attracting people who enjoy the fishing experience and don’t mind releasing the trout back to the water.

John Bracey of Little Rock, the president of Trout Unlimited Chapter 722 in Heber Springs, said he didn’t think the two-trout limit would bother people who fly-fish, which is generally catch-and-release fishing, in which anglers immediately release the fish.

“What we’ve seen is people are still coming to the river, and we’re hopeful that changes in regulation actually improve the fish size and fish numbers in the river, and ultimately we will make it a better fishery,” Bracey said.

But not every angler practices fly-fishing.

“If you’re a conventional tackle guide that relies on people catching some fish and taking them home, they’re getting hammered,” said Steve Dally, owner of Steve Dally Outfitters in Mountain Home. Dally is a fly-fishing guide on the White River system and Ozark waterways.

The AGFC’s Graham said concerns from resorts have eased after the AGFC allowed anglers to keep two trout a day.

“I don’t think a whole lot of people are going to change their plans,” she said. “Really, the message is, there’s still fish in the river. There’s still really good fishing opportunities, and I hope people don’t cancel their trips just because of this.”

And Trout Unlimited’s Bracey said that most of the fishing guides promote catch-and-release for brown and rainbow trout.

“They’ve realized that the people that are really coming and booking trips and staying at lodges are not here to fill up a cooler anymore,” he said. “That’s a thing of days past. They’re here to try to catch a trophy fish, get an amazing picture, get some measurements, maybe have a replica mount made of the fish.”

Arkansas’ trout population relies on hatcheries because the species is not native here.

Several types of trout were introduced in Arkansas through the mid-20th century as the Army Corps of Engineers built dams on a number of rivers in north Arkansas.

The cold water discharged from those dams into the rivers wiped out the native warm-water fish, but the cooler water created a suitable environment for trout.

While brown trout can reproduce in Arkansas tailwaters, rainbow trout populations require annual stockings.

Emergency Regulation

In April, major flooding on the Spring River was “devastating” to the Jim Hinkle Spring River State Fish Hatchery, Reid said.

The AGFC lost about half of its fish production, from egg to adult fish, as a result of the flooding.

But the situation worsened for the trout fishing industry. Every fall Norfork Lake has terrible water quality, Graham said. “And some years it’s worse than others as far as how extensive the poor water quality gets,” she said. “And, of course, this 2025 was a really bad year.”

In October, at the federal Norfork hatchery, fish were dying at an alarming rate.

Reid said it was not unusual for fish to die in the cold water hatchery in the fall because rising temperatures and environmental factors decrease the amount of oxygen in the water available to fish, “but this was something more significant than that.”

He said the floods in the spring had washed debris such as logs and leaves into the hatchery.

“As all that stuff settles out and starts decomposing over the summer, it very likely contributed to the water quality issues at the Norfolk fish hatchery,” Reid said.

The hatchery lost 90% of its fish, which numbered in the millions. Not all that died were trout; some were fingerling fish that were 2 inches to 3 inches long.

“I don’t know that we’ve seen a loss of this magnitude or scale at those federal hatcheries in the past,” Reid said.

Graham said that there are ways to prevent the fish dying by the millions at the hatchery, but the solutions are expensive.

One fix would be to install an oxygen diffusion system at the Norfolk hatchery, which would cost tens of millions of dollars. “Basically it’s running a bunch of tubes through the lake and then pumping liquid oxygen into the lake at certain times of the year,” Graham said. “That’s one of the types of fixes, but outside of that, there’s not a lot that can be done.”

She said that other suggestions involve moving the hatcheries, but that comes with problems too. “And of course, funding to build new facilities is not out there,” Graham said.

She said that she knows it would be an expensive fix, but trout fishing brings millions into the state annually. “So $30 [million] to $40 million isn’t that much when you’re considering hundreds of millions of dollars spent on trout fishing every year,” Graham said.

FAYETTEVILLE – Billy Richmond III continued his strong play with 21 points and Darius Acuff Jr. added 20 to lead #20 Arkansas to a 94-86 victory over Missouri Saturday afternoon at Bud Walton Arena.

Arkansas improved to 20-7 (10-4 SEC). With that, Razorback head coach John Calipari moved into sole possession of third place in NCAA history with his 31st season with at least 20 wins. (Jim Boeheim leads with 38 and Mike Krzyzewski had 37.)

The first half was back-and-forth before Arkansas went on a late run to end the first half and held the lead the rest of the game. Missouri got to within one (57-56) with 14:59 left. Richmond scored the next eight points for Arkansas, a 3-pointer, a jumper in the lane and a 3-pointer, to put the Hogs up seven and force a Mizzou timeout.

The Tigers kept hanging around and trailed by five (78-73) with 6L:28 left. At that point, Meleek Thomas took over. He grabbed back-to-back defensive rebounds. On the first one, he went coast-to-coast for a jumper in the lane. On the second one, which came off a Richmond blocked shot, led to a pass to Acuff, who returned the ball to Thomas for a 3-pointer on the right wing for the first double-digit lead of the game (83-73).

Missouri answered with a dunk to get to within eight, only to see Arkansas go on a 6-0 run – an Acuff layup, a Trevon Brazile layup and a Malique Ewin dunk – to give the Hogs their largest lead of 14 points (91-77) with 2:02 left. Arkansas held a double-digit lead until a Trent Pierce dunk with seven seconds left provided the 94-88 final.

Richmond continued to stuff the stat sheet. It was his third game in a row to score at least 20 points while adding four assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

Acuff took over the scoring lead for the SEC with his 20-point performance. He is looking to join Pete Maravich as the only player to lead the SEC for all games in both scoring and assists in a season. Also, with available records dating back to 1991-92, Acuff is looking to be the only player to lead the league in scoring and assists in SEC games only.

In addition to Richmond and Acuff, the short-handed Razorbacks had a well-balanced night. Malique Ewin scored 16 points with eight rebounds, Meleek Thomas scored 14 points with eight rebounds and Trevon Brazile had 12 points with a career-high six assists.

Missouri was led by Mark Mitchell and Trent Pierce. Mitchell scored 26 points with eight assists. However, he was limited to just eight second half points as he scored 18 over his 26 points in the first half. Pierce finished with 22 points.

Arkansas stays at home to host Texas A&M on Wednesday (Feb. 25) at 8 pm. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

FIRST HALF: ARK: 47 – MIZ: 42

• The first half featured five ties and seven lead changes.
• Arkansas was down seven (35-28) with 5:20 left before the Hogs ended the half on a 19-6 run. Arkansas made its last five shots of the half.
• Both teams shot it well. Arkansas shot 59% and Missouri shot 55%.
• Darius Acuff Jr. and Malique Ewin led Arkansas, each with 11 points. Ewin added five rebounds.
• Mark Mitchell led Mizzou with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 at the line.
• After time expired in the first half, Billy Richmond III was assessed a flagrant 1 foul, allowing Mizzou to open the half with two free throws and the ball. Jacon Crews missed the first and made the second, which officially made the halftime score, 47-42.

SECOND HALF: ARK: 47 – MIZ: 44

• Missouri shot above 50% from the field in both halves, making 55.6% of its shots in the second half. Arkansas was 46.9%. Both teams made 15 field goals and both teams were 5-of-12 from 3-point range.
• Both teams had 10 assists. However, Arkansas only had one turnover while Mizzou had four.
• The difference was that Arkansas was 12-of-14 at the line while Mizzou was 10-of-15.
• Pierce led Mizzou with 15 points and Jayden Stone had 10.
• Richmond scored 14 of his 21 in the half while Thomas scored 10 of his 14 – while getting six of his eight rebounds – in the final 20 minutes.

NOTES:

• For the fourth-straight game, Arkansas’ starting lineup was Darius Acuff Jr., Meleek Thomas, Billy Richmond III, Trevon Brazile and Nick Pringle.
• Missouri won the opening tip.
• Missouri’s Mark Mitchell scored the game’s first points, a dunk at 19:06. Meleek Thomas scored the first points for Arkansas at 18:44.
• Arkansas’s first sub was Malique Ewin.
• This was the 65th meeting between Arkansas and Missouri all time and the first of two this season. The teams will play again in the regular-season finale (Mar. 7) — 14 day span.
• Arkansas leads the all-time series, 37-28, and has won 10 of the last 13.
• Since Missouri joined the SEC in 2012-13 the border rivals have played 28 times with Arkansas owning a 18-10 advantage.
• Arkansas leads 22-10 in games playing in Fayetteville, including a 12-2 mark since the Tigers joined the SEC.
• Karter Knox missed the game after he underwent a successful procedure (Feb. 19) to repair his left meniscus, performed by Dr. Walt Lowe in Houston. No timetable has been set for his return.
• Coach Cal now has 897 on-court wins and is three shy of reaching 900 wins as head coach at an NCAA Division I program. Currently, only five coaches have at least 900 wins as head coach while at NCAA Division I programs: Mike Krzyzewski (1,202); Jim Boeheim (1,116); Rick Pitino (907); Roy Williams (903) and Bob Knight (902).
• Cal will likely be the third-fastest to 900 wins. Coach K did it in 1,183 games to rank second. At best, Cal could do so in 1,184 games. Cal has a 36-game cushion over Pitino to be 3rd fastest.
• Coach K won 900 games at the age of 64. Cal (turned 67 on Feb 10) will likely be the 2nd youngest to 900 (Bob Knight was 67 and 2+ months).
• Darius Acuff kept climbing several lists in the Arkansas record book.
• Acuff owns the UA freshman record for points scored, now with 599.
• Acuff owns the UA freshman record for most field goals made, now with 212.
• Acuff is on pace to shatter the UA freshman record for points per game. He is at 22.2 and the current record is 18.7 by George Kok (1944-45).
• In SEC games only, Acuff is on pace to set the record for scoring average. He is at 25.4 and the current record is 23.6 by Mason Jones (2020).
• In SEC games only, Acuff has scored 355 points to rank third. Second is 368 by Todd Day (1992) and first is 424 by Mason Jones (2020).
• In SEC games only, Acuff has made 124 field goals to rank fourth. Third is 128 by Todd Day (1992), second is 129 by Corliss Williamson (191) and first is 424 by Mason Jones (2020).
• In SEC games only, Acuff has 87 assists to tie for seventh.
• For the seventh time this season, Arkansas has at least 20 assists with single-digit turnovers.
• Arkansas is 8-0 this season (13-0 under Cal) when his teams have at least 20 assists.
• Arkansas is 14-1 this season (18-5 under Cal) when his teams have single-digit turnovers.
• Both teams shot over 50% from the field. Entering the game, Arkansas led the SEC and ranked 15th in the NCAA in field goal percentage at 50.4%. Mizzou entered the game 27th in the NCAA in FG% at 49.0%.
• Arkansas has shot at least 50% from the field in 9 of its 14 SEC games – 7 of the last 9 – and has shot at least 50% from the field 16 times this season.
• Arkansas is 15-0 this season when shooting 16-0 this season and 27-0 under Cal when shooting at least 50% from the field.

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