Stephen P. Filipek, Brian K. Wagner, Leslie G. Claybrook, Ralph Fourt, Robert Limbird, Mark L. Oliver, Tom Penniston, Carl Perrin, and Stuart Wooldridge, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, #2 Natural Resources Drive, Little Rock, AR 72205

Richard Standage, USDA Forest Service, PO Box 1270, Hot Springs, AR 71913

Rex Robbins, Arkansas Smallmouth Bass Club, 4711 Arlington, AR

Smallmouth bass are found in almost half of Arkansas counties and are a popular sportfish. These fish inhabit only the clear, cool waters of the Interior Highlands in the state composed of the Ozark, Ouachita, and Boston Mountains. Historically, smallmouth bass were managed as just another black bass with no specific regulations put on them until the early 1980's. At that time, a statewide length limit of 254 mm TL was imposed in combination with a reduction in the daily creel limit from 10 to 6 fish/d. Work by Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) personnel demonstrated that fish communities in the six different physiographic, or ecoregions, were noticeably different and this difference was attributed to the difference in soil types, fertility, vegetative communities, land uses, and land surface forms. AGFC biologists took this ecoregion concept one step further and demonstrated a difference in the densities and growth of smallmouth bass from the Ozark Highlands, ecoregion and the other ecoregions of the state inhabited by smallmouth (Ouachita Mts., Boston/Arkansas River Valley). A management plan based on these differences across ecoregions was formulated for smallmouth bass in Arkansas. Higher minimum length limits were imposed on the more fertile Ozark Highlands ecoregion, while less productive areas had lower length limits, matching the streams capacity.