Little Rock, AR - Southwestern Regional Fisheries biologists initiated a Largemouth Bass movement and habitat use study on Millwood Lake over a year ago. Fish were tagged at five different study sites and tracked monthly. After a year of data collection, biologists wanted to confirm accuracy and precision of fish locations.
We are observing that most Millwood Largemouth Bass stay close to where they were captured, and don’t move around very much. However, a handful of fish are making large movements. The largest movement we have to date is 2.76 miles as the crow flies. The tracked bass have preferred Giant Cutgrass and Lotus as habitat so far.
After tracking fish at the Millwood State Park study site in April, biologists went and electrofished areas where they marked locations on tracked fish and were able to collect tagged fish! The surgery incision from tagging had completely healed up, however, the pink tag had been worn off with just the cable sticking out of the top of the fish.
The study fish are normally identifiable by a pink tag affixed to their dorsal fin rays on the top side of the fish. We request that anglers who capture a tagged fish please report the location by calling the number on the tag and release the fish.
We will continue to share updates as tracking continues and we continue to learn about the dispersal, movement and habitat use of Largemouth Bass on Millwood Lake!