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Vol.IV No 2.
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The University of FEE FISHING ON AND NEAR THE BLUE When it comes to Jimmy Joy's Blue River Trout Farm, getting there is half the fun. You can see why folks fleeing the summer heat of Greater Phoenix or greater anyplace else will go there for a little fee-fishing for Rainbow trout. After a 4 hour drive from the Valley up to Springerville, go on another half an hour or so to Alpine. Just outside of town, the real merriment begins: 21 unpaved miles of it, twisting due south alongside the Blue River in the bottom of a narrow, steep-walled, heavily-forested, breathtaking mountain canyon. A lot of wilderness and hardly any people; maybe two dozen families along this whole long reach of the Blue, Jimmy Joy says. You keep going alongside the river, close enough to New Mexico to hit it with a rock (at one point you actually cross into it for a mile or so), go over a few little bridges and a lot of cattle guards, until you have to ford the shallow river to get to the other side. And that's where Jimmy Joy's Blue River Trout Farm is. On the other side. Fur trappers used to work the river and Joy's family homesteaded here around the turn of the century. A very small river-rock building still stands by the riverside. This was the saloon," Jimmy says' And a post office once. And a gasoline station; see the old pump over there? Liquor license is still good. I think it's the oldest continuing license in Arizona." You wonder where in the world the saloon's customers came from. Or who drove by to get gasoline out here in the middle of nowhere. This is still back country. The canyon bottom isn't really wide enough here for cattle or much farming; the family, as it has for years, works mostly at being guides and outfitters for deer, elk, lion and bear hunters. Fish farming is something new for them (Arid Lands Fish Farming, Vol II No 3). Jimmy and his wife Cassie have their hands full with all this, plus raising two daughters, aged 8 and 15, and an 11 year old son. The fish farm is a hatchery, 4 raceways and 8 fish ponds full of Rainbow trout. Some are for market, some are for the urban fishing lakes of Phoenix and Tucson, the Joys have the current Game & Fish stocking contract, some are sold to stock local ponds (see below) and the rest are for on-site fee-fishing. 'The cold water comes right out of the Blue upstream of the farm and after it cascades through the raceways and ponds, the Joys make sure it goes back into the river better than it was to begin with: less nitrogen, more oxygen. Most farm water moves by gravity flow, with no pumping. The only thing indoors is the hatchery; it isn't very big as such things go, hatching out about 240,000 fry per year from eggs shipped in from Idaho, but it is as modern, well-designed and tidy as any you can find. In the raceways and ponds are nearly a quarter million Rainbows from the most recent hatch, plus about 3000 bigger fish (some very big indeed)left over from last season. You pay for what you catch: $3 per lb as this is written. Last year they had 1,500 fishermen come down the Blue to try their luck at the farm and grossed $21,000; this season ought to be better. Are they open now? Sure. They're always open. Year round, 7 days a week, from 8 am to 6 pm. You need to bring your own poles and gear, and your own food, too: the nearest store is back in Alpine. Grass and trees beside the fee-fishing ponds provide shade and picnic spots for family outings. To show there's a place for those who don't care to drive that far off the asphalt, Jimmy takes you to Fite's Fishery back up in Alpine: turn east off the highway between the Alpine post office and the Sportsman's Motel, and signs direct you around a couple of street corners to Bob Fite's place. There's a big open pasture with some cattle and show lambs; the little trout ponds are up at the east end where the forest begins. Beautiful setting, terrific view. Bob Fite and his son Chase buy their Rainbows from Joy's hatchery, and they are friends more than competitors. ("We got to stick together," Joy says, "if we want to keep this kind of thing going.") Fite's small, spring-fed ponds are open weekends for fee fishing from 8 am to 6 pm, and will be open every day from Memorial Day to Labor Day. They have about 300 fish in the two ponds, left over from last season. "They run two to eight pounds," Chase says. "Real monsters." Come their full season on Memorial Day, they'll be getting fish from Joy every two weeks. The cost is $4 per lb for what you catch; you can rent poles if you don't have your own gear. The Fites have a bulletin board covered with photographs of happy fishermen of all ages proudly holding up their trophies. "We get folks from all over stopping here," Bob Fite says, "not just from Phoenix, and not just from Arizona." Chase adds that more of their customers come from the Safford area and Silver City, New Mexico, rather than Phoenix, because "we're a lot closer for them. Only two and a half hours from Safford, while we're more like five from Phoenix." From any direction, looks like a good year. EDITOR'S NOTE Dick Young, principal founder of the Arizona Aquaculture Association, has resigned as its executive secretary. He has been the lobbyist for the Association and was chiefly responsible for Arizona aquaculture functions being transferred to the expanded State Department of Agriculture. Jimmy Joy, who will serve another year as President of the Association, says Young has been replaced as Secretary by George Brooks Jr. and that Jim Warkomski will continue as Treasurer. Joy says the position of Vice President, previously occupied by Mike Frimer, is temporarily open. Asked for comment, Frimer suggests there is a regional warmwater/coldwater dichotomy among Association members and that "it may be that we need to reform ourselves on a more local basis." Dick Young, in Florida at this writing, says only that aquaculture queries previously addressed to him be directed to Jimmy Joy (520-339-4404) or to Kevin Fitzsimmons, at the UofA Environmental Research Lab (520-741-1990). AQUACULTURE AND ROUND VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL, SPRINGERVILLE This laboratory has been a saving grace for our whole agriculture program," says Robert Holland, vocational ag teacher at Round Valley High School, in Springerville. He means the little greenhouse attached to the shop room, just past the welding machines, where Rainbow trout swim lazily in two dozen small, circular, blue plastic tanks. "We'll continue to have agriculture here in southern Apache County, but it's going to be a different mix from what we've seen in the past. Some people are bringing in ostriches; there's talk of an ostrich processing plant. We felt that fish farming was one of the things we ought to help people explore." Springerville is up at 7000 feet in the high grass cattle and timber country just north of the Apache National Forest and the White Mountains. What Holland refers to, and what people here worry about, as they do in other parts of Arizona where land ownership is mostly Federal or State, is the environmental activism which seeks to shut down logging and grazing on public lands. This is deadly serious business where people make their living from lumber mills and beef animals. We had our first aquaculture class last year," Holland continues. "We received a grant from the State Department of Vocational Education. Seventeen junior and senior students designed the facility, ordered the equipment, put it all together and made it work. Because of this program, our enrollment in vocational agriculture has almost doubled. It's been our saving grace." Who were some of these students? "Well," Holland says, "Ty Rising was a big asset to us; she's now a freshman at Cochise College. Jeramy Plumb was a great help; he's now a freshman at the UofA. Also Lane LeSeur, who is now serving a mission for his Church. And some of the others who are seniors here this year, including Mike Rogers, Traci Lund, Nikki Simpson, Bret Bigelow, Traegan Knight, Tammy Nicoll, Travis North and Kayde Wilkins." After they built the 28' x 48' greenhouse and installed the tanks, their first trout hit the system a year ago (May 13th). The last of the crop came out in mid-December at about 1.75 lbs. They didn't consider fee- fishing, as John Morgan does at Chino Valley High School, because there are commercial trout fee-fishing facilities around Springerville. So the students processed the fish themselves; sold some, kept some. They still have broodstock of several sizes and have started to feed out about 375half-pounders. "The students get excited and pitch right in with all the work," Holland says. Then, with a grin, "They do get tired of cleaning fish tanks, though." The cost of feed has been "astronomical" at 46 cents per lb, but last year the program's feed conversion ratio was 1.25:1. "Very, very efficient converters," Holland says with admiration. In addition to Arizona's standard trout and catfish, he would like to try to grow out some other species. Smallmouth bass, maybe, or whatever. Holland was born in Safford, raised in Willcox, graduated from the UofA. He is married and has two daughters. How old are they? "My oldest daughter would be very angry if I told that. Let's just say I have two grandsons." He taught for three years down around Phoenix, where most high schools have a lot of students and as many troubles. He has been at Round Valley High School, which has an enrollment of around 500, for the past 22 years. Does he plan to stay awhile? Holland chuckles. "You never know." LAST ITEM The Aquacultural Information Center (AIC) was set up ten years ago at USDA's National Agricultural Library in Beltsville Maryland. It is an information clearinghouse for existing or prospective aquafarmers, as well as processors, consumers, scientists, students, libraries, associations, government agencies, the media, whoever. Whatever you want to know about aquaculture, AIC can help track down reference material by searching through all kinds of databases. They do this free of charge. If your best bet is something you have to purchase, they can tell you where to find it. AIC not only collects all kinds of stuff--books, magazines, newsletters, reports, audiovisuals, software--but has cooperative programs with NOAA and other US and foreign agencies, and collaborates with universities and the private sector. If anybody has written about it or filmed it, they can tell you. Phone, fax, e-mail or write: The Aquaculture Information Center Ph: 301-504-5558 ====================================================================== The University of Arizona Arid Lands INTEGRATED AQUA SYSTEMS MERLE JENSEN PhD ROY RAUCHKOLB, PhD EUGENE MAUGHAN PhD
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