If you’re being lured by spring to get in a boat and have a “reel” good time, there’s a number of businesses in Oxford selling fishing products and supplies.

Jeremy Lipe, an employee of Hunters’ Hollow at 658 Highway 6 West in Oxford, said the store carries a number of big brands like Lew’s Fishing reels.

“Right now, crappie fishing is really big,” Lipe said. “They are biting in every lake, or they were before it rained. I assume they still are.”

Lipe said Hunters’ Hollow carries Mr. Crappie Wally Marshall and B’n’M fishing rods.

“That’s all crappie stuff,” he said. “Later on, we will be getting into bass.”

He said the store also carries Slater’s Jigs crappie poles.

If you’re looking for something to lure the fish, he recommends NetBait for Bass and products from Zoom Bait Company.

“We carry a new company called LiveTarget Lures,” he said. “Those are fairly new. They are mostly top water. They are taking plastics and making really neat baits that look like live existing animals.”

Lipe said if he had to pick one, he’d choose the B’n’M Sam Heaton Jig Rod. He’d also look closely at the Strike King Lure Company and Mr. Crappie Wally Marshall products.

“They are just making the best stuff right now,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to explain, but to say the least, they catch fish.”

Monica Contini, a sales associate at Oxford Farm and Ranch at 95 Highway 30 East in Oxford, said they sell fish food for your pond.

“We sell the Sportsman’s Choice Wildlife and Deer Feeds, and we also carry the Purina Game Fish Chow,” she said.

Contini said the Game Fish Chow is for smaller fish.

“It’s a little smaller pellet that they can eat easier,” she said.

Sportsman’s Choice is floating catfish feed, but she said you can feed it to other fish too.

“Either would work fine depending on the kind of fish you are putting in your pond for stocking it,” she said.

If you’re too busy to feed your fish, these days there’s a device for that.

“We also carry the automatic fish feeders that you put on your dock that will automatically feed them,” she said. “It has a timer on it. The Moultrie FeedCaster casts the feed out there.

“That is a really good thing, and it makes it a whole a lot easier than having to go to your pond every day and feed them, especially those of us who work every day.”

Brittany Barnes helps run her husband’s business, The Barn Trading Company at 2657 West Oxford Loop in Oxford. She said they also sell fish food and pond fertilizer.

“We sell two different kinds of fish food,” she said. “One is for bass and bream, and one is for catfish. It depends on what kind of fish they have in their pond, and if they are putting it in a feeder, or if they are just throwing it out. Because you want to make sure the feed you use floats so that the fish can see it.”

The store carries Purina Game Fish Chow and Sportsman’s Choice Floating Catfish food.

The Barn Trading Company also welcomes Arkansas Pondstockers about once a month.

“They bring in aerated tanks with water in them, and they bring different varieties of fish,” Barnes said. “People come, and they can get fish for their pond. It is pretty neat to watch.”

Barnes said she believes most people have bass and bream in their ponds.

“There are people who do different varieties of crappie, but I think a majority of people have bass and bream, and maybe a little catfish,” she said. “The great thing about Arkansas Pondstockers is a lot of people have koi ponds, and you can get koi through them as well.”

According to the Arkansas Pondstockers website, all of their fish are grown in Arkansas by family-owned fisheries.