VIDEO: One million Florida-strain largemouth bass fry stocked into Apache, Canyon, Saguaro lakes
The Arizona Game and Fish Department stocked more than 1 million Florida-strain largemouth bass sack fry into Saguaro, Apache and Canyon lakes on the Salt River-chain this past weekend.
We expect a survival rate of around 2 percent, or 20,000 fish, that could survive into adulthood. Florida-strain bass have been known to reach sizes up to 20 pounds.
Here’s video of some of the roughly 500,000 fry that were stocked into Apache Lake:
This was the ideal time to stock these fish for many reasons, including:
- We expect the Salt River Project to start moving water through these impoundments around May 10, pumping much-needed fresh water throughout these impoundments, which should reduce water conductivity and chances of golden algae occurrences.
- Occurrences of golden algae in these impoundments are lowest during the summer months. Golden algae is most prevalent during the winter, fall and early spring.
- Texas Parks and Wildlife made the sack fry available to us for free — we only paid for shipping, and staff time to stock the fish.
The fry were stocked into select shoreline pockets where there was ample vegetation to help protect against predation.
Golden algae levels are low at Apache Lake. At Canyon Lake, we stocked the bass fry into areas with good water quality. (There was a recent fish die-off at Canyon.)
During the past 5 years, Florida largemouth bass sack fry and fingerlings have been stocked into Roosevelt Lake.
Future stockings of Florida-strain largemouth bass are possible, but would primarily rely on public donations.
To contribute to thriving bass fisheries, mail checks or money orders with “donations for Florida-strain bass” in the memo line to: Aquatics, AZGFD, 5000 W. Carefree Highway, Phoenix, AZ, 85086.
