Golf course nursery ponds doing well

The Joint Advisory Committee on Lakes heard from fisheries biologist Rick Echols about a surprising development in the POA's golf pond fish nursery. The meeting was held on Wednesday, May 18, at Riordan Hall.

Echols brought two Mason jars with tiny fish to show the committee. Both species -- crappies and walleye -- seem to be doing well in the golf ponds on the Berksdale course, but he ran into an unexpected problem.

After the ponds were drained and prepared to become nursery ponds, Echols couldn't find walleye fry to raise in one of the two ponds. The crappie were hatched in the other pond, with the parent fish captured in a POA lake, but walleye would be a new species in the village.

He was about to give up and dedicate both ponds to crappie when he found a source in Iowa. About 150,000 walleye fry were put into the pond in April.

The state regulates fish being moved across state lines, and there are several areas that can't export fish to Arkansas. When Echols bought the Iowa fish, he thought the state had approved the transfer, but as the fish thrived in the pond, he was told that the transfer wasn't approved. When he spoke to members of the Lakes Committee, he was waiting to hear if he would be allowed to move the walleye into a POA lake.

All the POA lakes are public waterways, he explained, but not the golf course ponds. That's why moving the walleye needs state approval. Because the fish are from out of state, that approval may not come, he said. But the state officials realized they had put him in a difficult position and offered to replace at least some of the walleye fry.

Meanwhile, the Iowa walleye were just about to outgrow the nursery pond. The original plan was to move them in early June, before they were large enough to cannibalize each other. Echols expected to hear from the state within a few days.

The crappie will probably remain in the pond until fall, he said. It's difficult to move crappie during hot weather and they don't need to be moved as urgently as the walleye.

Echols reported to the committee that his other spring project, sampling all seven lakes for fish, is complete and successful. He said they found some large saugeye in Lake Windsor that had probably survived for about two years. Saugeye are a hybrid fish that is stocked in some Bella Vista lakes.

The committee also heard from Lakes and Parks Superintendent Vern Olafson, who was able to answer some questions about docks on the lakes. Although he has used Lakes Committee volunteers to help inspect docks in the past, it's really the city's responsibility to permit docks. If docks need extensive work, it's the city that can condemn them, he said.