The Arizona Division of Fish & Game advised anglers that because of unanticipated problems with the July 1 channel catfish stockings, only 10 out of the 20 Urban Fishing Program lakes received fish. Consequently, fishing conditions at some lakes for the July 4 holiday weekend will only be fair to poor. Below is a listing of waters that were and were not stocked.
Urban Fishing Program waters STOCKED with catfish in fair condition include:
- Lakeside Lake (Tucson)
- Kennedy Lake (Tucson)
- Silverbell Lake (Tucson)
- Sahuarita Lake (Sahuarita)
- Red Mountain Lake (Mesa)
- Water Ranch Lake (Gilbert)
- Veterans Oasis Lake (Chandler)
- Kiwanis Lake (Tempe) (50 percent of normal)
- Alvord Lake (Phoenix) (50 percent of normal)
- Desert West (Phoenix)
Waters NOT STOCKED include:
- Desert Breeze Lake (Chandler)
- Riverview Lake (Mesa)
- Rio Vista Pond (Peoria)
- Chaparral Lake (Scottsdale)
- Evelyn Hallman Pond (Tempe)
- Cortez Lake (Phoenix)
- Encanto Lake (Phoenix)
- Papago Ponds (Phoenix)
- Steele Indian School Pond (Phoenix)
- Surprise Lake (Surprise)
The division indicated that many of the 1.5- to 3-pound catfish arrived in Arizona in a stressed, weakened condition early July 1. The vendor that has been delivering excellent fish for more than seven years explained that his fish pond supplier apparently hadn’t taken the usual measures to ensure the 14,000 pounds of catfish were strong, fit and unstressed at the point of loading into the two large delivery trucks. Consequently, the 8,000 fish grew weaker as they travelled the 1,600 miles over two days to get to Arizona Urban lakes.
Game and Fish biologists worked relentlessly with the delivery crews to sort out the strongest fish for release into the lakes, but many fish had to be removed from the lakes at the point of stocking.
The Division expects that the catfish vendor will return to Arizona next week around July 7-9 with a fresh load of catfish to stock all waters that did not get fish, and to add more fish to Alvord, Kiwanis and Veterans Oasis Lakes.
This is the first catfish delivery out of the last 36, spanning a three-year period, in which all lakes were not successfully stocked as scheduled. The Division publicly stated that they apologize for not being able to provide anglers with the high-quality level of fishing you would expect at our Urban Program Lakes this 4th of July weekend.
