Saturday, January 17th, 2009

UAAF received the AZ Game and Fish Commission Award of Excellence Saturday night "for our support and outstanding contributions to the conservation of Arizona's wildlife".   We are truly humbled by this recognition from the Commission and sincerely thank them for their encouragement and support during the last two years.  We also recognize without the support and donations from individuals and businesses we would not have received this recognition.  In particular we would like to thank all our individual contributors and volunteers and specifically Anglers United, Sportsman's Warehouse, Bass Pro Shops, and Monterey Bass Tournaments and the hundreds of bass tournament anglers who have donated money thru the MBC fish fund to help us buy bass for Saguaro, Canyon and Apache lakes.

Friday, October 31st, 2008 - The Salt River lakes got a real treat on Halloween!  6,439 three to five inch bass were stocked by volunteers working with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.  The trick was to get it done with only 6 days notice.

UAAF had ordered 2,000 smallmouth bass and 5,000 Florida largemouth bass back in September with an expected delivery date during the first week before Thanksgiving.  But things don't always happen as planned.  UAAF received a phone call on Friday, October 24^th saying, "Your fish will be here next Thursday the 30^th."    They will be delivered to the AZ Game and Fish Bubbling Ponds Hatchery (BPH) near Camp Verde, AZ to be tagged before being added to the Salt River Lakes fisheries.

With most all of G&F's fisheries staff dedicated to a huge effort the following week doing a comprehensive fish survey at Roosevelt Lake, tagging the fish on Thursday and moving the fish on Friday would not be an easy task to accomplish.

Thanks to G&F Hatcheries Program Manager Scott Gurtin and G&F Research Biologist Bill Stewart, a do-able Halloween stocking plan was assembled with a skeleton crew of G&F employees and UAAF volunteers.  All 7,000 bass would get a Coded Wire Tag on Thursday. On Friday, two G&F hatchery trucks would deliver the bass to the lakes.  One truck going straight to Apache Lake and the other truck going first to Saguaro Lake and then continuing on to Canyon Lake.  UAAF and volunteers were responsible for distributing the bass at each lake.

UAAF member Ron Schofield tagging bass.

The plan worked!  BPH staff were up before dawn on Thursday to take delivery of approximately 2,000 smallmouth bass and 5,000 Florida largemouth bass and move them to holding ponds.  The G&F Phoenix staff and UAAF volunteers all arrived by 7:30am and tagging began.  Each bass was partially anesthetized in a sedative bath for easier handling, tagged, checked twice to verify the tag held, and then moved to separate raceways.  This process continued all day at the rate of 660 bass per hour until the job was done at 5pm.  Friday morning, the BPH crew moved the bass to the hatchery trucks and they headed for the Salt River Lakes at 8am.

G&F fisheries biologists round up some smallmouth for tagging

Two tagging machines were used

Meanwhile, the second hatchery truck pulled into the Apache Lake Burnt Corral launch ramp at 11:15am.  It was met by two volunteer boats from Phoenix and one volunteer boat from the Del Norte Bass Anglers club that had made the extra long trek to Apache from Tucson.  A special thanks from UAAF goes to members of Del Norte Bass for their generous contribution to specifically purchase smallmouth for Apache.  Thanks guys!

It was around 12:45pm when the first hatchery truck pulled into the Palo Verde ramp at Canyon Lake.  Two volunteer boats took care of the off-loading and distribution of bass to various habitat locations in Canyon.

Its truly amazing given all the moving & handling these bass underwent during the tagging and stocking process, less than 25 bass were lost.  That's a credit to the BPH staff and UAAF volunteers for taking great care of the fish, and a special recognition to the excellent condition of the fish delivered by Roger "Mr. Fish" Coffman from Arkansas.  A follow-up delivery of 1,500 bass to complete the UAAF order will happen early in December and includes a contribution of an extra 1,000 Florida largemouth bass from "Mr. Fish".  Thank you Roger!

Many thanks again to all the G&F Bubbling Ponds Hatchery staff, G&F Phoenix fisheries staff, and to the UAAF volunteers at each lake:

Saguaro: Jim Patterson & John Mergener, Jerry Powell & Sam Shattenberg, Dave Scott & Denny Anderson
Canyon: Justin Seay & Gary Wolkovitz, Dan Veazey & Russ Laird
Apache: Ron Schofield & Lyle Dalby, Jerry & Karen Nelson, Ray Hitt & Leo Longoria from Tucson Del Norte Bass Club

Hundreds of Florida strain largemouth bass fingerlings swim away after being placed into Canyon Lake

On Monday, June 30th 2008, another big step was taken on the road to recovery of Saguaro and Canyon lakes fisheries.  Money donated by local anglers, businesses and fishing groups over the last 10 months, plus matching money from Anglers United and AZ Game and Fish were used to buy 46,000 Florida strain largemouth bass and 2,200 Smallmouth bass.

Skyler Clark carefully nets Florida largemouth bass and places them into Canyon Lake

The fish were purchased from fish farms in Arkansas, loaded onto a huge hatchery truck on Saturday, then transported and delivered to Saguaro lake early Monday morning.  All the bass were in excellent condition.   The week before the stocking, the AZ Game and Fish Department performed water quality tests to check for Golden Alga and reported the lakes were both in very good condition.

Nikole Holverson stocking 3 inch smallmouth bass into Canyon Lake

After AZ Game & Fish employees adjusteded the ph and temperature of the water in the hatchery truck to match the lakes, volunteers in their boats distributed 23,000 Florida largemouth bass fingerlings at many locations at both Canyon and Saguaro Lakes.  The same procedure was followed and 1,200 smallmouth bass were dispersed around Canyon Lake while 1,000 smallmouth were distributed in Saguaro Lake .  The Florida largemouth bass fingerlings were about 1 3/4 inches long and the smallmouth bass were between 3 and 4 inches long.

Matt Shura puts Florida largemouth bass into the Bagley Flats area of Saguaro Lake as his Dad Greg and friend Greg Bell look on.

This stocking of Florida strain largemouth bass marks the first time Florida bass were stocked in any Arizona lake since 1981.  That's 27 years!  UAAF thanks all the anglers, bass clubs, and businesses for donating the money that made this day possible.  And a huge thanks to our partners in this effort, Anglers United and the Arizona Game & Fish Department. Finally, thanks to the volunteers who spent their time and money to be at the lakes to stock the bass:

 At Saguaro:

Matt Shura - Bass Pro Shops Pro Staff, Greg Shura, and Greg Bell 

Ray Ritchotte - UAAF, and Dave Colbourn

Brian & Debbie Carnahan - UAAF

 At Canyon:

Justin Seay - boater, Skyler Clark & Steve Ortiz - Sportsman's Warehouse

Jim Patterson - UAAF, Nikole Holverson - Bass Pro Shops 

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 - Approximately 150,000 largemouth fingerlings that were purchased by Arizona Game and Fish were stocked in Apache, Canyon and Saguaro lakes on May 14, 2008 as part of the AZ G&F two year recovery plan. UAAF coordinated the volunteer effort to help to get the fish out to their new homes. We strategically placed the little fish in grass and watched them run for cover. Among the volunteers for the Saguaro Lake stocking were three Sportsman's Warehouse managers: Bruce Gibson, Southwest Regional Manager; and Kim Polfus and Seth Powell, Mesa store managers. Mark Russell, Avondale manager, was unable to attend at the last minute.

Left to right: Seth Powell, Bruce Gibson and Kim Polfus of Sportsman's Warehouse present a $5,000 donation to UAAF's Ron Schofield and Jim Patterson