With the opening of spring comes the beginning of fishing season for Dallas County residents.

Those who fish in East Selma will not have to travel far in order to cast their lines and catch catfish and tilapia.

Selma’s Parks and Recreations Department will open the East Selma pond on April 2.

“We are opening the park at 7 a.m. for all the people in the community to come out and take advantage of this great spot in East Selma,” Parks and Recreations director Elton Reece said. “The pond will be open from 7 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays all the way from the opening until May 14.”

Former city councilmember James Durry said the pond in East Selma has always brought joy to people in the area.

“For the longest time this area was baseball fields,” Durry said. “Then they put the old flowing wells in and filled it up. It became a great place to come and fish until the wells dried up, but then the city came in and refilled it again.”

While the pond has been refilled, its fish came into trouble two years ago when a virus infected the fish shortly after it was stocked and struck a blow to the population.

“The really bad part about that was, we had just put about 2,000 pounds (of fish) in there,” Reece said. “It’s taken a lot of work to get it back to this point, but now we have it back.”

Fishermen will be put at a five-fish per day limit and only people ages 55 and up are allowed to fish on Tuesdays.

“We don’t want them to take out all the fish too soon,” Reece said. “That’s why we put the limit on, but we still want everyone to have a good time.”