Arkansas Trout Stocking Schedule 2026

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) manages trout in the cold tailwaters below Corps of Engineers dams on the White, North Fork, Little Red, Little Missouri and Ouachita rivers, and on the Spring River below Mammoth Spring. Brown trout can breed there, but rainbow trout depend on stocking every year. From November through February AGFC also stocks rainbow trout in its Family and Community Fishing ponds in towns across the state. Trout have been short since 2025, when a flood at AGFC's Jim Hinkle Spring River State Fish Hatchery and a die-off at the federal Norfork National Fish Hatchery cut the supply. In winter 2025-26 the community ponds got one December stocking instead of several, and the four main tailwaters have had lower limits since February 2026.

From AGFC: Trout, AGFC: Trout Waters, AGFC: Beaver Tailwater, AGFC: Bull Shoals Tailwater, AGFC: Norfork Tailwater, AGFC: Family and Community Fishing Program (FCFP) Stocked Ponds, AGFC: Trout, Lake Monticello regulations most notable changes in 2026 Arkansas Fishing Guidebook (February 10, 2026) and AGFC: Trout shortage reduces winter stockings at Family and Community locations (November 14, 2025).

When Arkansas stocks trout

From AGFC: Family and Community Fishing Program (FCFP) Stocked Ponds, AGFC: Trout shortage reduces winter stockings at Family and Community locations (November 14, 2025) and AGFC: Ouachita River Tailwaters.

Rules on stocked water

• •Anglers 16 and older need a fishing license, and a trout permit as well to keep trout anywhere in Arkansas or to fish for trout in the tailwaters below Beaver, Bull Shoals, Norfork, Greers Ferry and Greeson lakes and on Spavinaw Creek east of Highway 59.
• •Residents pay $10.50 for a fishing license and $10 for the trout permit. Nonresidents pay $60 for a year, $30 for three days or $15 for a day, and $20 for the trout permit.
• •Until further notice, on the whole Norfork tailwater and on the Bull Shoals tailwater from the dam to the Norfork Access boat ramp, anglers may keep two rainbow trout and must release every trout over 14 inches. From Norfork Access to the Highway 58 bridge at Guion the limit is two trout, only one of them over 14 inches, with the usual minimums: 24 inches for brown, cutthroat and tiger trout and 14 for brook trout. Below Greers Ferry and Beaver dams the limit is two trout, both under 14 inches.
• •On the Spring River, brown trout must be at least 16 inches. Since July 1, 2026, Arkansas has no possession limits on fish, only daily limits.
• •At the community ponds the limit is five trout a day, fishing is with a rod or pole only, and largemouth bass must be released. Some ponds are only for anglers 15 and younger, 65 and older, or with a disability fishing license, and a licensed adult may help and fish with one of them.

From AGFC: Fishing License Descriptions and Fees, AGFC: Trout, AGFC: Arkansas 2026-27 Fishing Regulations Changes in Effect, New Guidebook Released (July 1, 2026) and AGFC: Family and Community Fishing Program (FCFP) Stocked Ponds.

How to hear about a stocking

• •The stocked ponds page shows the date each pond was last stocked with trout, so it is the place to check once the winter stocking starts in November.
• •AGFC's Wildlife Weekly Newsletter arrives every Wednesday afternoon, and its fishing reports come on Thursdays. The sign-up is at the foot of its news releases.

From AGFC: Family and Community Fishing Program (FCFP) Stocked Ponds and AGFC: Trout shortage reduces winter stockings at Family and Community locations (November 14, 2025).

Worth knowing before you go looking

• •A tailwater rises and falls with what the dam releases. For the day's generation, call the number on that tailwater's map, which each tailwater's page carries.
• •Guidebooks handed out in January 2026 may still be at license dealers. The current one has a green border and is effective July 1, 2026, the date Arkansas fishing rules now change each year.
• •Limits can change at a Commission meeting after a guidebook goes to press. AGFC says to check its site or call its hotline, 833-345-0398, for the current rules.
• •The federal Norfork National Fish Hatchery, which in a normal year raises 3 million to nearly 3.5 million trout, supplies all of the stocked trout for the Beaver tailwater and part of those for the Little Red River, which is why its 2025 losses changed the limits on both of those as well as below Bull Shoals and Norfork.

From AGFC: Trout Waters, AGFC: Arkansas 2026-27 Fishing Regulations Changes in Effect, New Guidebook Released (July 1, 2026), AGFC: General Fishing Regulations and AGFC: Commission approves emergency order for trout tailwaters (October 16, 2025).

Sources

Every sentence above was read on one of these pages, and a check re-reads each quoted line against the page it came from.

• AGFC: Family and Community Fishing Program (FCFP) Stocked Ponds
• AGFC: Trout
• AGFC: Trout Waters
• AGFC: Bull Shoals Tailwater
• AGFC: Norfork Tailwater
• AGFC: Beaver Tailwater
• AGFC: Ouachita River Tailwaters
• AGFC: Fishing License Descriptions and Fees
• AGFC: General Fishing Regulations
• AGFC: Commission approves emergency order for trout tailwaters (October 16, 2025)
• AGFC: Trout shortage reduces winter stockings at Family and Community locations (November 14, 2025)
• AGFC: Trout, Lake Monticello regulations most notable changes in 2026 Arkansas Fishing Guidebook (February 10, 2026)
• AGFC: Arkansas 2026-27 Fishing Regulations Changes in Effect, New Guidebook Released (July 1, 2026)