BY MIKE STEVENS
ROOSEVELT, Ariz. – The fish population including but not limited to smallmouth bass has been adversely affected by a golden algae bloom at Apache Lake in central Arizona, but an effort to restock the popular fishery quickly followed, and it a WON BASS pro helped with the most recent delivery.
“This place used to be full of smallmouth, and we had a golden algae kill that killed a lot of the them,” said six-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier, Brett Hite of Phoenix. “So (Arizona) Game and Fish got a lot of smallmouth and we released them here (Apache Lake) and hopefully they’re going to flourish.”
Back on April 14, Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) biologists announced they were monitoring water quality and the presence of golden algae at central Arizona reservoirs including Saguaro, Canyon and Apache Lakes. This after AZGFD confirmed the presence of golden algae in Saguaro Lake following a minor fish kill that also affected threadfin shad in February. Similar golden-algae-related fish kills have occurred in those three specific lakes at times since at least 2003, and no adverse health impacts have been determined for humans, pets and other “non-gill-breathing” wildlife.
AZGFD was able to import 55,000 fingerling smallmouth from Sunfish Fish Farms in Nebraska, and those 1.5- to 2-inch fish were dumped into Apache Lake on June 2. The word is that supplier in Nebraska will be able to take any surplus smallmouth from its operation and continue to provide AZGFD for even more stocking in the future.
Funds for purchasing those fish consisted entirely of donations, and upon learning that, Sunfish Farms will be offering a discount for future purchases made for these efforts in Ariona.
This recent delivery included larger sub-catchable smallmouth bass in the 4- to 6-inch range, and Hite was personally scooping them out of a container on his boat with a catch-and-release trout net into their new home in Apache Lake.
