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Arizona grant for reef balls

61K views 38 replies 26 participants last post by  crazy cranker 
#1 ·
Was the Saguaro project ever completed?


Apr 18, 2012
MESA, Ariz. — The effort to enhance Arizona’s bass fisheries with man-made habitat received a big boost recently, when the Arizona B.A.S.S. Federation Nation (ABFN) was awarded a $12,600 grant.
That money from Arizona Sportsmen for Wildlife Conservation (ASWC) will be used to assist Arizona Game and Fish (AGF) in making concrete Reef Balls.
Reef Balls are the Arizona chapter's answer to the state's lack of habitat in its fisheries. Made of 3/4 yard of concrete, a Reef Ball looks like a half-sphere of Swiss cheese, according to Chris Cantrell, AGF fishery manager. He added that ecosystems form in and around the balls, which were popularized for marine fisheries. "It’s really good habitat that’s there for a long time," said Cantrell. "A Reef Ball is thought to take more than 500 years of saltwater.”
Compare that to five to 20 years for most artificial habitat.
“Money will be spent to create additional molds to allow bulk concrete purchases to mass produce Reef Balls in one fell swoop instead of hand-mixing the concrete,” said Don McDowell, ABFN conservation director.
“This will allow us to build 12 additional three-piece molds,” he continued, adding that this is the first time that the organization has provided a grant for fish habitat.
“Looks like our fish are getting much needed new furniture much sooner than we had hoped for,” he continued. “Our deepest gratitude to the ASWC.”
Sometime this fall, Saguaro Lake probably will be the next fishery to receive Reef Balls, which ABFN volunteers will help build, load, offload and place. The first was Tempe Town Lake.
Other funding so far has included a $910 donation from Midweek Bass Anglers from the club’s Holiday Open.
“Once we’re to the production phase, we can go anywhere,” Cantrell continued. “The concrete, renting the forklifts, moving the habitat, getting volunteers — all of that will be the easy part. The hard part is getting the molds created.”
Lack of habitat in Arizona waters is the No. 1 limiting factor for anglers.
“It’s like a bathtub out there,” Cantrell said of Arizona’s impoundments.
“We don’t have a renewable resource,” McDowell added. “We have to babysit the fish. And we have to take care of the habitat before we can have the fish.”
 
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#3 ·
Sept/Oct 13

Both Cantrell and McDowell were at the TBF meeting last night. Apparently they need 30 sheets of 3/4" plywood and some volunteers in the upcoming months yo build 30 reef balls and have them planted in Sag in Sept/ Oct of this year. Once they see how building, delivery, and installation goes they will start working on Bartlett and Rosy for the next set of reef balls.

Some of our construction guys will be able to get the plywood donated! G&F is supposed to post when labor will be needed publicly and we can get these made.

Hope it happens on time!!

Dave
 
#15 ·
Article says the reef balls are made from 3/4 yard of concrete. A yard of concrete averages 3,300# so the reef balls weigh 2,475 each. Who has the barge to move them out to the drop spots?

Actually 4000 pounds per yard, shotcreate is 3800 pounds, that's what pools are made with. Pontoon boat or the like, with a hole in the middle to lower the units down with. Or call Army Flyer and tell him you have some free training time. His rig will lift that in the cooler weather.
 
#9 ·
what is TBF?

the crappie club along with bass federation guys and others built a bunch of the reef balls in the parking lot at tempe town lake (if you look at g and f video archieves) for wildlife views you will see the segment on them. Was a trial run to see how easy they are to build, move and deploy. They aint real easy to build and weigh a ton almost flipped a fork lift putting them on a pontoon boat that looked like the titanic so we finally floated them out with huge rubber inflated buoys till the drop area. I recommended to Chris that they switch to light weight cement a little more costly but much easier to manage. Last I heard g and f was caught up in "cease and stop" order from the manufacturer of the molds as there were some things dealing with patents etc. and everything was on hold, maybe they worked it out. Bartlett is getting habitat now from TNF if you saw the lake before it filled the county jail inmates built a bunch of the plastic habitat and it was taken out all over the lake on angled shore lines, only thing I didn't like is they quit using the banana plant structures just the cages with plastic mesh. I personally am not real sold on the reef balls, they are not that tall and with all our silt in the lakes I see them being covered in muck with in a couple years and additionally unless you mark them well they are like a large cement ball with holes in it, if you put them up shallow (where they should be for small fish to hide etc.) I think the liability if someone hits one of those things with a lower unit might be bad it would be like hitting an unmarked reef or rock? I still think the plastic habitat is the way to go the first generation at bartlett lasted for 20yrs and until it was exposed for a long time to ultra violet sunlight that broke down the plastic and idiots kids playing on the habitat and breaking it all the hell it worked well in bartlett. All the habitat they are building and installing in havasu I think is all plastic and if not exposed to sunlight often will last a long time.
 
#12 ·
anyone tell me why we need reef balls?let's say we save the money,so next time SRP kills the fish in the lakes,we can restock them with out us fisherman having to donate.fish are survivalists,they are not like 48% of the population that are not.what a waste of money!
 
#20 ·
anyone tell me why we need reef balls?let's say we save the money,so next time SRP kills the fish in the lakes,we can restock them with out us fisherman having to donate.fish are survivalists,they are not like 48% of the population that are not.what a waste of money!
SRP does not kill the fish.

"We can restock them with out us fisherman having to donate"

Actually that fat grant and donation from the TBF will pay dividends in the years ahead.

Liquid wanted to place structure in certain parts of Saggy. He wasn't too far off in his thought process.

Big cement balls with holes will work.

No reason to restock, Saguaro will reproduce on it's own ( dam lake is a survivor and fishing is off the hook lately with quality fish) .Those fry will hide near those big balls. All they have now is the cattails and grass on Saggy, but that's better than Bartlett right now. More structure will definitely help any lake right now.

Bartlett can definitely benefit from these reef balls. I would pick Bartlett first over Saguaro. Saguaro has natural living cover, Bartlett has boulders and needs more of them.

Who's going to step up and volunteer and help out build these things and place them?

I know I will.

Splitshot, just sit back and watch. These reef balls will work where ever they are placed.


They provide an awesome place to dropshot in and around which fits your strength! :biggrin:

Take care dude! :D
 
#25 ·
Bartlett probably needs them most, but where do you put them where in a month they wont be out of the water?

Also, why do our lakes not have spotted bass in them? Is there something with the heat that they wouldn't take, or money, or that out Game and fish is slightly behind on stocking spots in our bigger lakes.
 
#27 ·
donation of materials

I have been in contact with a local electrical supply company that has a good deal of conduit piping (PVC) that they are willing to donate to game and fish for the constuction of structure.

I called Chris C. of G&F and am just awaiting the final word on what to do next in order to begin the acquisition process.

We are going to need volunteers for constuction and placement. I am awaiting calls from other district managers so we can work all of this out. I am sure the structure placement idea is still in the planning stages.

Sure hope we can make a bunch of structure to help with our lakes that are devoid of places for those baby fish to hide.

PM me if you want to think about volunteering as an individual or club. We can start a call list, but again, I have no idea when this project would begin.
 
#32 ·
I have seen pictures of artificial structure made out of ABS plastic. The material was set into concrete basses and when done looked sort of like a spider. The pipe is flexible and fairly inexpensive. The flexibility reduced hang ups.
Bill Dance used to sell some artificial structure devices which looked sort of like Jacks (the kids game) He also sold center sections to which your could attach your own pipe. The Pyramids are cheap and surely lighter than the reef balls but since they are made of pallets, they do rot away.
 
#34 ·
I love to hear so much about reef balls, the bigger balls the much better for tourists and all of the peoples like me to enjoy the waters and a have a fun on a vacation such as this to maybe catch a fishes, do they also have a reef balls on the beach to enjoy as much for the peoples on shore. Sounds like maybe it might be a fun trip.
 
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