Arkansas fishing rules

Legal gear

• Hooks and barbless rules

  The statewide lengths page and the alternative-methods page do not set a statewide barbless-hook rule. The July 1, 2026 regulation announcement does set one local rule: on the Little Missouri River (Narrows tailwater), artificial lures with more than one hooking point may be used in catch-and-release areas, and every hooking point must be barbless. The winter catch-and-release area on that tailwater was removed. Trotline and limbline drops or hooks may not be less than 24 inches apart.

• Rods per angler

  The pages checked do not list a statewide limit on the number of rods. Passive and set gear is capped by device. Up to 25 jugs or similar floating devices may be used per person, marked with a name and address, driver's license number, or current vehicle tag number, and they may be left unattended only from sunset to sunrise. Up to 25 yo-yos or similar mechanical devices may be used per person. Yo-yos may not be left unattended, meaning out of sight or hearing, during daylight hours. The July 1, 2026 announcement says an angler is not required to be within hearing or sight of limblines. Between the main levees of the Mississippi River, an angler may not fish more than 100 hooks at a time. Trotlines and limblines must be labeled and removed when they are no longer in use, and the catch must be removed every 48 hours.

• Nets

  A Resident Recreational Netting Permit, added to a resident fishing license, allows up to a combination of five hoop nets or fiddler-sized hoop nets or slat traps, or 100 yards of gill and trammel net webbing, or 100 yards of trotlines or snaglines, on waters open to commercial fishing, without commercial tackle tags. The alternative-methods page does not describe a general recreational cast-net or minnow-seine rule. Gigging is not allowed, unless the guidebook says otherwise, in areas limited to rod or pole.

• Snagging

  Snagging means taking fish with rod and reel by a repeated drawing motion rather than by enticing the fish with bait or a lure. Snagging game fish may be done only from a bank within 100 yards below a dam, with listed exceptions. Boat snagging is limited to the Arkansas River from 100 yards below a lock and dam to the downstream entrance of the lock, and from 100 yards below Dam No. 2 to the boat ramps immediately below that dam. Snagging is prohibited below Upper White Oak Lake Dam. Bank snagging below Beaver Dam, from the posted sign to the first boat ramp, is allowed only April 15–June 15. A winter catfish snagging season, January 1–February 15, is allowed on listed reaches of the Black and St. Francis rivers, with a daily limit of five catfish, no more than two flatheads, and no more than one paddlefish. Where game fish may be snagged, a snagged game fish must be kept and counts toward the daily limit. Only half the game-fish daily limit, or the lesser whole number nearest one-half, may be taken by snagging, except a full limit of catfish and paddlefish. Snagging must stop when a limit of any species is reached.

• Spearing and bow

  Bowfishing, with a bow and arrow on a line, may be used for rough fish (gar, bowfin, common carp, grass carp, bighead carp, silver carp, sucker, buffalo, bullhead, and drum) and catfish. Catfish may be taken by bowfishing from noon July 15 to noon May 1, and the bag is half the statewide daily limit or half the limit of the water, whichever is smaller. Alligator gar may be taken by bowfishing under the gar rules. Gigging is for rough fish only, and game fish may not be possessed while gigging. Spearfishing for game fish is open June 15–March 15, sunrise to sunset, only on the lakes and Arkansas River pools named on the alternative-methods page. Bass spearing is closed on Beaver, Bull Shoals, Norfork, and Table Rock, and smallmouth spearing is closed on Ouachita. Spearfishers may take half the game-fish daily limit, must stay within 100 yards of a diver-down flag, and must leave the water before cleaning fish.

• Bait and live transport

  The license, statewide-limit, and alternative-methods pages checked do not print a statewide live-bait transport rule or a list of legal bait species. AGFC's guidebooks page points live-fish trade and baitfish rules to a separate commercial page that was not used for the figures in this file. The July 1, 2026 announcement does not add a bait-transport number. Do not treat a missing figure here as permission to move live fish.

Bag and size limits

These are the statewide or default limits. A named lake, river, or marine area can replace every figure below.

• Black bass

  The statewide lengths page lists black bass (largemouth, spotted, and smallmouth combined) at 10 a day, and smallmouth, including hybrids of smallmouth and other bass, at 4. It lists a 12-inch minimum in the Ozark Zone and a 10-inch minimum elsewhere. The July 1, 2026 announcement, which is later, sets a tighter smallmouth rule on flowing water: 10 named Blue Ribbon streams allow 1 smallmouth a day, and it must be longer than 15 inches (Buffalo, Caddo, Crooked Creek, Current, Eleven Point, Illinois, Kings, Spring, War Eagle, and White). On all other flowing waters, the announcement sets the smallmouth daily creel at 2, and those fish must be longer than 12 inches. Lake Monticello largemouth are 5 a day, and only one may be 16 inches or longer. Lake Wilhelmina is catch-and-release until further notice. Other named lakes on the older code excerpts, including Millwood at 6 and several small lakes at 5, 2, or 1, still have to be checked on the current guidebook because this file did not re-fetch every lake exception.

• Crappie and bream

  The statewide page lists crappie, black and white combined, at 30, and bream (bluegill, redear, longear, warmouth, and other sunfish combined) at 50, with no daily limit on bream shorter than 4 inches. The July 1, 2026 announcement sets Lake Monticello and Lake Cargile crappie at 15, and no more than seven of those may be 12 inches or longer. Crappie shorter than 10 inches must be released in the Ozark Pool (Pool 12) of the Arkansas River and in Horseshoe Lake in Crittenden County. The statewide page says special, area-specific regulations replace the default.

• Catfish

  Channel, blue, and flathead catfish combined: 10 a day on the statewide page. Bullhead catfish have no daily limit on that page. The July 1 announcement says Horseshoe Lake in Crittenden County and Tommy L. Sproles Lake Pickthorne allow 10 channel catfish in addition to the daily limit. Bowfishing, gigging, and hogging catfish bags are half the daily limit of the statewide rule or of the water, whichever is smaller, during the seasons on the methods page.

• Trout

  The statewide page lists trout at 5, with no more than 2 brown, 2 cutthroat, and 2 brook. The July 1, 2026 announcement, adopted until further notice after hatchery losses, is tighter on four tailwaters. The entire Norfork tailwater, and the Bull Shoals tailwater from the dam to the Norfork Access boat ramp, allow only two rainbow trout, and every trout longer than 14 inches must be released immediately. From the Norfork Access boat ramp to the Highway 58 bridge at Guion, anglers may keep two trout, only one of which may be over 14 inches, and the minimums for brown, cutthroat, and tiger trout (24 inches) and brook trout (14 inches) still apply. Greers Ferry and Beaver tailwaters allow only two trout, and both must be under 14 inches. The Spring River brown trout minimum is 16 inches. A trout permit is required to fish the named tailwaters or to keep trout anywhere.

• Walleye, striped bass, white bass, and gar

  The statewide page lists walleye at 6, sauger at 6, saugeye at 6, striped bass and hybrid striped bass at 6 combined, and white bass at 25. The July 1 announcement raises the walleye minimum on Greers Ferry Lake and its tributaries from 14 inches to 16 inches. Alligator gar under 36 inches: daily limit 1, and every harvested alligator gar must be reported and tagged by a fisheries biologist before it is moved from the water. Alligator gar over 36 inches require a drawn Alligator Gar Trophy Tag, one fish a year if drawn, and may not be taken from noon May 1 to noon July 1. Paddlefish: 2 on the statewide page. Shovelnose sturgeon: no daily limit on that page, a 21-inch minimum, and every sturgeon caught between the Mississippi River levees must be released immediately.

Sources

• AGFC statewide lengths and daily limits
• AGFC fishing license descriptions and fees
• AGFC alternative fishing methods
• AGFC July 1, 2026 fishing regulation changes
• AGFC Free Fishing Weekend, June 12–14, 2026