🎣 The fishing state with no sea

Start with what these fish are for, because it is not eating. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas defines baitfish as small minnows used as fishing bait to catch predatory game fish such as crappie, catfish, walleye and largemouth bass — and feeder fish as small fish sold as live food for fish and animals in aquariums and zoos. A whole farming industry exists so that a fish can be eaten by another fish.

Basis: Encyclopedia of Arkansas (Central Arkansas Library System), “Baitfish Industry”: “Baitfish are small minnows used as fishing bait to catch predatory game fish such as crappie, catfish, walleye, and largemouth bass. Feeder fish are small fish sold as live food for fish and animals in aquariums and zoos.”

Why here? Not luck — the ground. The encyclopedia says Arkansas became the center of baitfish production through abundant land with water-holding soils, sufficient water, a favorable climate, and transportation facilities, together with inventive fish farmers. A pond is only a pond if the soil under it will hold the water instead of drinking it.

Basis: Encyclopedia of Arkansas, “Baitfish Industry”: “Arkansas became the center of baitfish production through the juxtaposition of appropriate physical factors—such as abundant land with water-holding soils, sufficient water, favorable climate, and transportation facilities—and innovative fish farmers.”

The star minnow was a local. The golden shiner, the encyclopedia says, occurred naturally in the waters of Bayou Meto — a bayou in the same part of Arkansas — and turned out to adapt well to being raised in ponds. Nobody had to send away for it: the fish was already there, occurring naturally in Arkansas water.

Basis: Encyclopedia of Arkansas, “Baitfish Industry”: “The golden shiner occurred naturally in the waters of Bayou Meto, and this species was found to adapt well to pond culture techniques.”

A baitfish pond is bigger than you are picturing: usually five to twenty acres for golden shiners, and smaller ones, typically two acres, for goldfish. Harvest is a trick, not a chase — farmers drop sinking feed into one corner of the pond, and when the fish crowd in to eat, a fine-mesh net called a seine goes around them.

Basis: Encyclopedia of Arkansas, “Baitfish Industry”: “Ponds for golden shiners are usually five to twenty acres, while goldfish are often raised in smaller ponds, typically two acres”; harvesting is done by “placing sinking feed into a corner of the pond as bait. When fish gather to feed, they are surrounded with a fine mesh net (seine) and captured.”

Then they have to arrive alive, which is the hard part. Baitfish usually travel by truck, in special hauling rigs whose tanks are supplied with oxygen. Feeder fish often go by air, in plastic bags with oxygen, packed inside insulated boxes. The cargo is breathing the whole way.

Basis: Encyclopedia of Arkansas, “Baitfish Industry”: “Baitfish are usually shipped to market by truck, in special hauling rigs equipped with tanks supplied with oxygen. Feeder fish often are shipped by air, in plastic bags with oxygen, protected by insulated boxes.”