SHREVEPORT, La. – Employees from Dunn’s Fish Farms of Monroe, Ark., stopped by Stoner Boat Launch in Shreveport Saturday to begin the first of a several fish stocking efforts to be completed in the Red River over the next several years. The stocking program, which is funded in part by $25,000 in combined grant money courtesy of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Red River Waterway Commission, looks to introduce some 40,000 Florida-strain largemouth bass to the Red River.
The stocking program began with the FLW Tour’s $5,000 donation, which was then matched by a $5,000 donation by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Then the Waterway Commission kicked in an additional $15,000 to the program.
Spearheaded by FishAmerica Foundation, the conservation arm of the American Sportfishing Association, the grant will enable the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to stock all five pools of the Red River with faster- and larger-growing Florida-strain largemouth bass.
“We’re not necessarily stocking more fish. A lake or a river can support only so many fish,” said Tom Marshall, managing director of FishAmerica. “We’re looking to introduce a bigger and better breed of bass, and the Red River is prime for having these big bass.”
The first official stocking began shortly after morning takeoff in the final round of FLW Championship competition on Saturday. Some 7,700 3- to 4-inch Florida-strain fingerlings were released into the Red River, costing an estimated $5,000.
“When the FLW comes into a community, it shows the community that it is tremendously dedicated to the future of fishing,” Marshall said. “It wants to put its money where its mouth is.”
The Red River Florida-strain stocking effort is part of a $35,000 partnership between the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and FishAmerica to benefit fisheries visited by the FLW Tour this year. Various other restoration, enhancement and education projects initiated by the partnership were also performed at all six other FLW Tour event sites this year – the Pascagoula River in Mississippi, Lake Murray in South Carolina, Beaver Lake in Arkansas, the Mississippi River in Tennessee and Pickwick Lake in Alabama.
Marshall applauds the FLW Tour and Operation Bass for its involvement in fishery enhancement during the season, and says FishAmerica is glad to have such a strong partner in Operation Bass helping to achieve its ultimate goal – to promote the sport of fishing.
“What FishAmerica likes to do really is put money into the hands of the doers,” he said. “It’s about more than putting something back into the fishery; it’s putting something forward into the fishery. Can you imagine the Red River with Florida-strain bass? I want to be here in six or seven years when they’re mature.”
Related stories:
Wal-Mart FLW Tour, FishAmerica pledge funds to place Florida-strain largemouth bass into Red River – 22.Aug.2000
Reeling in a record in Louisiana – 5.Sep.2000