Fish sought in Oklahoma ponds now full with water

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An extremely wet spring has refilled central and western Oklahoma’s once dry farm ponds with water.

As a result, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has been flooded with requests from Oklahoma landowners for fish so those ponds can become fishing holes again, The Oklahoman (https://bit.ly/1haDgdr ) reported.

“We had two years of drought then we had all the rain this year and everybody’s pond filled up,” said Barry Bolton, chief of fisheries for the Wildlife Department. “We have had a record number of applications this year (for fish). We have never seen anything like it.”

The Wildlife Department operates four hatcheries across the state where they raise fish to put in Oklahoma’s lakes and rivers for state anglers to pursue.

The hatcheries also set aside enough fry and fingerling-size fish each year to stock at most 1,000 acres of farm ponds statewide, free of charge to Oklahoma landowners. Normally, the Wildlife Department doesn’t have a problem fulfilling all the requests it gets for free fish.

However, this year the Wildlife Department has received more than twice the number of applications as normal for farm pond fish. The agency has been asked to provide fish for 2,171 acres across the state but does not have enough fish to do so.

“Some people will not get fish,” Bolton said.

The Wildlife Department provides bluegill, bass and channel catfish free of charge to Oklahoma landowners who own a state fishing license and meet the guidelines of the fish stocking program.

The free fish are provided only for new or reclaimed ponds. State wildlife officials will not add fish to a pond that already has fish in it.

“The ones (fish) we give you are just going to be about 2-inches long,” Bolton said. “If you’ve got adult fish swimming out there, you would just be throwing groceries out there to your bass. It’s just wasting our time and yours. That’s why we insist the pond has to be new or reclaimed.”

The Wildlife Department has provided free fish through its farm pond management program for at least 40 years, Bolton said.

John Davenport, hatchery manager, said the Wildlife Department on average receives about 300 applications per year for farm pond fish, although that number has been lower in recent years because of drought.

This year the agency received 626 applications for farm pond fish and more than half of them came from southwest Oklahoma, which was mired in severe drought before the heavy spring rains. The deadline to apply was May 31.

The Wildlife Department will not be able comply with all of the requests due to the large number and because the fish hatchery in Medicine Park is currently not operational, Bolton said.

The line that provides water from Lake Lawtonka to the Manning Fish Hatchery must be replaced or repaired so the hatchery in Medicine Park, which is responsible for providing fish to southwest Oklahoma lakes, will be unable to raise fish this year.

Bolton said the other three hatcheries in the state will help fill the void for southwest Oklahoma lakes, but the requests from landowners for fish for their farm ponds will have to be treated on a first come, first served basis.

Davenport said the Wildlife Department normally provide enough fish to each landowner for 10-acres of ponds, but that number will probably be reduced to five acres this year.

Bluegill and channel catfish are stocked in the fall, around Labor Day weekend, while bass are provided to farm pond owners in the late spring or early summer, around Memorial Day, he said.

Davenport said it takes about 18 months once bass are stocked in farm ponds before they get big enough to catch.

“You don’t want to take them out until you they are about three years old,” he said. “You want them to get a spawn off.”

If farm pond owners want bass, they also need to stock bluegill with them, he said.

“Bluegill will spawn quicker, the next year, and will spawn four or five times in the summer,” Davenport said. “They need the bluegill because the bass have to have something to eat and they are going to eat the fry off the bluegill.”

Ninety percent of applicants want all three species the Wildlife Department provides for farm ponds: bass, bluegill and channel catfish, he said.

“If you just leave them alone and let them do their business, you will usually have a well-balanced pond when you are done,” he said.

___

Information from: The Oklahoman, https://www.newsok.com