Trout fishing in Arkansas

Meet Nick Nicholson, 63, of Jonesboro. I found him fishing from the dock at Walcott Lake in Crowley’s Ridge State Park this afternoon.

It was 2:30 p.m. and he’d caught a good-sized bass and a rainbow trout.

The lake was stocked with 500 rainbow trout recently for a Boy Scout event, but it rained that weekend and the scout fishing event was pretty much a washout. So the public is invited to angle for the trout before the water warms up and they die. Trout aren’t found in lakes around here because they can’t take the heat.

Here’s the press release:

Area residents are invited for a limited time to fish for rainbow trout at Crowley’s Ridge State Park. As part of the Boy Scouts of America Quapaw Council camporee, which was held this past weekend, rainbow trout was stocked in Walcott Lake to introduce Scouts to fishing. Although many of the boys participated in the activity, there are still trout available for local residents to catch. Please remember anyone 16 and older needs to have a fishing license plus a trout stamp. Both are available at the park’s visitor center.

This is a one-time only event and Arkansas State Parks does not plan to stock trout in Walcott Lake in the future.

For more information, you can contact the park at 870-573-6751.