How Far would you Go?

[FishnDave]

The list of where I haven't fished is infinitely longer than where I have fished.  But the "sphere of inclusion" reaches from Canada to Costa Rica, Hawaii to Puerto Rico.  Only the Canada trips were specifically for fishing, but fish were caught everywhere.

[Quillback]

24 minutes ago, bfishn said:

So was I. He had a spring fed pond about an acre in size way out in the boonies. I delivered about this time of year, so the water temps should have been OK till at least spring, but he told me he planned to feed them out on catfish feed. I told him that wouldn't work, but he didn't seem to care. I think he was just a richie rich that thought it would be cool to be the only guy with a pond full of trout that close to the Mexican border. 🤔

After I warned him of the risks involved and he still wanted to go, I decided I didn't care why. He said 2 other trout farms in Missouri had turned him down due to the haul distance, and I knew those guys had liquid OX which is the only way anyone in their right mind would haul that far. It was just the perfect storm, he had the money to blow, and I was just desperate and crazy enough to do it.

I live hauled to customers with various plans and desires. Made regular winter trips to a couple striper guides on Quachita that used them for bait back when Quachita had net pens with winter releases. Obviously it wasn't legal to use them for bait, but it was legal for me to sell them, so I didn't care. Hauled many loads to a guy in Kansas, OK that had built a series of dams on a ravine stream on his place that was really a leak from the nearby pumpback lake just over the ridge. He charged the Tulsa TU chapter to fish there thru the colder months. His last check bounced, then he died owing me about $3k.

That's interesting.   I assumed that guy in Uvalde must have had money to blow, because by the time those trout got big enough to be worth catching, they'd die in the heat.  You'd think he would've ordered a load of 12" fish.

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, Quillback said:

That's interesting.   I assumed that guy in Uvalde must have had money to blow, because by the time those trout got big enough to be worth catching, they'd die in the heat.  You'd think he would've ordered a load of 12" fish.

Maybe he knew enough that larger fish were likely to not make the trip.

[bfishn]

4 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Maybe he knew enough that larger fish were likely to not make the trip.

If you're calculating by the pound as most live haulers do, it's the other way around. I had no qualms hauling 500 lbs of 1 to 2-pounders, but I'd cut that in half or less for little ones, especially if it was more than a couple hour haul. Once you've got the O2 handled, ammonia buildup is the big issue. Agitators help with that, where OX-only doesn't. The only factor that affected the bigger fish more than small ones is bugeye, which happens if you get carried away with the O2 (similar to gas bubble disease). First time that happened to me, I thought it was pretty cool that 2 lb trout were leaping out of the tank as soon as I lifted the lid, until I realized that about half of them had one or both eyes bulging out. Bought a medical grade flowmeter to accurately dial in the O2 rate right after that. 

Added; if you lose fish while hauling, that's on the hauler, the buyer doesn't pay for dead/dying fish. Hence the sphincter factor for the hauler. If my load would've croaked 20 minutes prior to arrival, I'd have spent all that time and money for nothing and been out 250 lbs of fish.

[Ham]

10 hours ago, bfishn said:

His last check bounced, then he died.

Jeez, I hope you didn’t kill him over a bounced check.

[bfishn]

16 minutes ago, Ham said:

Jeez, I hope you didn’t kill him over a bounced check.

Ha! It did read that way, didn't it? Nah, I admired the guy. He capitalized on an unintended windfall from the GRDA with the leak from the pumpback lake. He and a D7 built a series of ~20 pools of various sizes spanning about 1.5 miles of previously dry, rapidly falling holler, and a decent road thru the whole thing. Unique spot that had a Colorado feel about it. Think he was stroking his TU connection pretty good for it too.

[Ham]

All good things come to an end I guess. 

[Quillback]

10 hours ago, Ham said:

Jeez, I hope you didn’t kill him over a bounced check.

Brutal business, that trout farming is.

[bfishn]

2 hours ago, Quillback said:

Brutal business, that trout farming is.

Especially if you're married to a psycho like I was at the time. She could clean a trout in 14 seconds, but I really hated letting her have that sharp knife...

[BilletHead]

3 hours ago, bfishn said:

 I really hated letting her have that sharp knife...

    At least you didn't say you regretted letting her have that sharp knife. then we would have known you had physical scars to go with the psychological scars 🤪.