264 Commercial Aspects of Sport Fishing 



muskellunge, northern pike, walleyes, channel catfish, panfish, and hybrid 

 sunfish. Often live delivery is guaranteed. Much of the business of these 

 hatcheries is with lake and pond owners who know nothing of lake- 

 management techniques and who expect stocking to answer all of their 

 fishing problems. Consequently, their money and the fish are often wasted. 



Sometimes marshes and low swampy areas can be converted to fish 

 farming by killing aquatic plants and by raising and controlling water 

 levels. Most kinds of young fishes may be carried through the first sum- 

 mer in relatively shallow waters, even if they cannot be held over winter. 

 The largest problem is that of moving the small fish from these shallow 

 areas at the end of summer. If the areas may be drained, fish may be 

 concentrated and seined in deeper channels near the outlet or caught in 

 a Wolf weir below an outlet. In the South where winters are mild, fish 

 may be allowed to winter in the same shallow areas used for summer 

 growing of fish. 



Within the early 1950's, some rice farmers in the Mississippi delta 

 ( Arkansas ) discovered that they could alternate crops of rice with crops 

 of fish.- After the rice was harvested, fields were reflooded and planted 

 with carp, buffalo, and channel catfish. After two years the fields were 

 drained and the fish crop (commercial) harvested. The results were so 

 promising that the practice expanded rapidly and research was begun 

 in an attempt to improve and perfect the rice-fish crop rotation. While 

 this was primarily a commercial food-fish-production operation, it did 

 show some possibilities for sport fishing and sport fish production. Rice- 

 fish farming has spread from Arkansas into parts of Texas, Mississippi, 

 and Louisiana, but is still centered in the state of Arkansas. 



Delta land cleared of trees, leveed and brought into rice cultivation is 

 very fertile, producing about 100 pounds of rice per acre the first season. 

 However, in each successive year the crop decreases until by the fourth 

 it is so low that the land must be fallowed or planted to some other 

 crop.^^ A good part of this problem is related to the encroachment of 

 native grasses and weeds which compete with rice for nutrients and light. 



Rice fields used for fish production range in size from 10 to more than 

 600 acres, but about 40 acres or less is considered optimum. Maximum 

 water depth is usually less than 5 feet— shallowest water depth is 18 inches. 

 Where buffalo fish are used, yields of 500 pounds per acre are common. 

 Buffalo fingerlings are stocked at the rate of 125 per acre in order to 

 produce fish with an average weight of about 5 pounds. 



The sport-fishing aspects of rice-fish farming appeared when largemouth 

 bass fingerlings were stocked with the buffalo fish in order to control 

 other undesirable fish that might gain entrance. Buffalo fish grew fast 

 enough to prevent predation by bass. At the end of the 2-year fish- 

 growing period, the fields supported 20 to 125 pounds per acre of 



