3 Million Fish Were Stocked

3 Million Fish Were Stocked
In Arizona Waters This Past Year

Stocking three million fish into Arizona waters this past year was just one of the innumerable activities by the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s fisheries program.

Fisheries Chief Larry Riley explained to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission on Oct. 20 that the fisheries program is very broad and department personnel throughout the agency are directly or indirectly involved in the team effort.

Riley provided the commission with an overview of accomplishments this past year. "By no means is this an exhaustive list, and probably inappropriately gives short shrif to many of the every day activities that we take for granted," Riley said.

The accomplishments are:

· The hatchery program traveled more that 120,000 miles and stocked more than three million fish for fishing recreation in Arizona.

· Completed a second reintroduction of Gila trout in Raspberry Creek in November of 2000.

· Made good headway on the recovery of the Apache trout through a continuing partnership with anglers, the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

· In partnership with the Northern Arizona Flycasters and the Coconino National Forest, worked to refurbish Middle Tank by draining and re-excavating the lake along the lines of the very successful JD Dam Lake project completed a couple of years ago with the same partners.

· Completed refurbishing Rose Canyon Lake in partnership with the Coronado National Forest, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the Seabees.

· Continued a fisheries management initiative at Fortuna Pond near Yuma in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management.

· Worked with the City of Tempe for initiating a winter trout stockings on the 224-acre Tempe Town Lake.

· Worked with the White Mountain Flycasters and others to make considerable improvements along Silver Creek. The winter catch-and-release program on Silver Creek has caught fire with local anglers and visitors to the Show Low area.

· Installed spawning substrate in Lee Valley Creek in partnership with a number of fishing groups,

· Traveled to Wyoming to gather arctic grayling and stocked them into Lee Valley Lake.

· Continued the partnerships with Anglers United, Bureau of Land Management, California, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and MWD on the Lake Havasu Fisheries Improvement Project. This is the largest freshwater habitat improvement project in the United States.

· Completed a commitment to stock 30,000 razorback suckers into the Lake Havasu. Progress is being made by our partners to meet a similar commitment for bonytail.

· Worked in partnership with the Flagstaff Arboretum to provide a refugium for Little Colorado spinedace.

· Worked on watershed improvements on East Clear Creek and reintroduced Little Colorado spinedace in partnership with the Coconino National Forest, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and affected permittees,

· Dedicated a brand new fishing pier at Bartlett Lake this past summer – a cooperative venture with the Tonto National Forest and the Arizona Department of Transportation.

"I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that the department, along with the AZ-New Mexico Chapter of AFS and the Western Division of AFS, hosted the 131st annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society in Arizona this past summer. This meeting brought more than 1,100 prominent fisheries scientists from around North America, and the world, to Arizona. One prominent fisheries scientist termed one of the symposia at that meeting as ‘historic,’" Riley said

Riley added that the Fisheries Program in Arizona serves more than 400,000 licensed anglers that spent nearly eight million days fishing, contributed about $9 million dollars of license revenue to the department, and spent more than $330 million in Arizona on fishing, contributing more than $660 million to the state’s economy.

"The Fisheries Program also made significant contributions to the conservation of topminnow, pupfish, little Colorado spinedace, Apache trout, Gila trout, razorback suckers, and many others," Riley said.

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