In 1923, a Berryville resident fished alone. He caught 55 fish. This number of fish was not uncommon before 1925. Anyone who dropped a line in Arkansas waterways could catch fish. Good-sized fish and lots of them. However, dynamiting, pollution, and overfishing destroyed Arkansas’s aquatic population. Even as early as the 1890s, some Arkansawyers started restocking the waterways to replenish the millions of fish that once lived there. By 1925, the Arkansas Game And Fish Commission made restocking Arkansas fish part of their conservation program.
Arkansas Wildlife History 