THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607040299
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 145 lines
SEBNEM McINTYRE was yelling across the water at Pungo Ponds as her rod buckled and quivered with the weight of a wriggling catfish on the line.
``I caught a fish! I caught a fish! It's a big one!'' she hollered as she struggled with her rod and reel.
Pond manager Rodger Burns, who was afraid the fish might escape, rushed over to help McIntyre out. Together, they landed the large catfish in a net.
``It's a big one,'' McIntyre shrieked again. ``I win a prize!''
Burns estimated the fish weighed more than 3 pounds. McIntyre's prize really was big, probably a holdover from last year's stock of catfish, Burns said.
``And this is my first fishing trip,'' the excited woman added.
McIntyre was having just as much fun as 3-year-old Byron Coleman, also on his first fishing trip. He had just caught a smaller catfish on his very own Mickey Mouse rod and reel. Byron also enjoyed the baby goats in a small petting ``zoo'' nearby.
Folks of all ages are having fun at Pungo Ponds, where they can fish from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, paying for only what they catch at $2.25 a pound. Most of the farm-raised, grain-fed channel catfish at Pungo Ponds are in the 1 1/2 pound range (about the size of the fish little Byron caught), good one-person eating size, Burns said.
Before too long the anglers can be picking blueberries, too, because the fishing holes are nothing more than two, 1/2-acre farm ponds that were dug last year to provide frost protection and irrigation for thirsty blueberry bushes at Pungo Blueberries Etc. The blueberry farm down on Muddy Creek Road is a popular pick-your-own spot run by Robert and Juanita Burns, Rodger Burns' parents.
When the family dug the ponds on low land where blueberries failed to thrive, they decided the ponds could do double duty and be an aid to agriculture as well as an aquaculture enterprise.
Among the first commercial fish ponds in Virginia Beach, Pungo Ponds are part of a trend toward unusual farm crops. Rather than grow traditional crops like corn, wheat and soybeans, some farmers are experimenting with specialty fruits, vegetables and even fish to try and make a small amount of land in rapidly urbanizing, highly taxed areas pay off in the way huge acreage paid off in the past.
In general, aquaculturists stock their ponds by purchasing fish from a hatchery. They may buy either adults or young fish, which they raise on their own. The adults are then sold as ``catch-your-own,'' as Burns does, or by seining out all the fish at one time and selling the whole lot to markets and restaurants.
It's not as easy as it sounds. An irrigation pond alone is a lot easier to manage than a fish pond. The ponds are shallow, 8 to 12 feet in depth, so fish can be easily netted out at the end of the season to make room for next year's fish.
Water quality management becomes very important in small, shallow ponds. Burns tests the water every day for temperature, oxygen concentration and other water chemistry factors that indicate the water's health. A fish farmer's biggest fear is waking up one morning to a pond full of dead fish, belly up on the surface.
A farm fish pond can do strange things. For one, on hot summer days, algae can bloom heavily, die and deplete the water's oxygen. When the oxygen level gets too low, all the fish in a pond can die overnight.
A pond also can turn over or ``flip,'' a phenomenon that occurs in summer when the water is hot, too. When much cooler rain falls on warm pond water, the pond literally flips, as the hot water rises to the top and the cold water drops to the bottom.
The fish can't adjust to the temperature change fast enough. They die quickly then, too, the same way a goldfish dies when its water bowl is changed and the new water temperature is much colder or warmer than the old.
Like small fountains, aerators bubble up in the center of Burns' ponds. Aerators can stave off the disastrous results of heavy algae blooms by injecting oxygen into the water and they also help maintain circulation to gently mix hot and cold water in the event of a thunderstorm. But an aerator isn't always the answer.
As Burns said, ``It's more of an art than a science.''
Farm-raised fish must be fed every day. Burns uses catfish chow, which looks like dry dog food, but is actually a mixture of soybeans and corn, thus the origin of the phrase, ``farm raised and grain fed.''
Burns has two fish cages in one pond, full of little 4-inch fingerlings, which will grow up on the chow to be the catfish that folks will catch next summer. He purchases the youngsters from a fish hatchery in South Carolina.
``I eventually would like to get into hatching fish, too,'' Burns said.
He ``double crops,'' by stocking one pond with fully grown catch-your-own rainbow and golden trout in spring and fall. To make way for each season's fish, he seines his ponds three times a year and sells the surplus to restaurants. With Burns on one side of the pond and a helper on the other, they walk the edges, hauling up the fish in a 12-foot-tall net stretched across the water.
Burns, a master at recycling, sees that nothing goes to waste at Pungo Ponds. For example, fishermen can have their fish cleaned at the bait house for 50 cents a pound and the fish waste is composted. The high-nitrogen compost goes to fertilize tasty elephant garlic that also is raised at Pungo Blueberries.
``Without a compost bin, the fish waste would have to be carried off and disposed of every day, according to EPA regulations,'' Burns explained.
For fish bait, he also is experimenting with raising red worms in the compost. For now, he sells night crawlers that he purchases from a bait farm for $1 a cup.
In another ongoing experiment, Burns has begun raising one more farm pond crop. He's stocking the ponds with crayfish, which would be available in spring. Folks would be able to call ahead and order up a mess of crayfish, which Burns would catch in traps, much the same way blue crabs are caught, and have them ready for pick up.
But for now, catfish get the main billing. Fishing at Pungo Ponds is easy. No fishing license is required, and customers can bring their own rods and reels or rent them for $2.50 a day. Nets and stringers are provided free.
There are only three rules: No alcohol. No wading. No throwbacks.
Burns also hopes to start catering fish fries for groups or businesses. His concept is for groups to catch the fish and then Pungo Ponds would clean and cook them on the spot - tender, sweet, white-meat catfish straight from an outdoor fryer.
Before the summer gets underway, Burns will have finished building a raceway, an above-ground holding tank, where some catfish will be kept for sale and for education purposes. He sees the raceway as the last component he needs to offer tours to Boy Scouts and other groups who will come out and learn the life cycle of a farm fish pond. With the raceway, you'll even be able to purchase more catfish if you need more than you catch.
But for some, like Sebnem McIntrye, one big fish is satisfying enough. MEMO: GONE FISHING
Pungo Ponds at Pungo Blueberries Etc. is at 3477 Muddy Creek Road.
Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays through Sundays and July 4.
Call 426-FISH ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including color cover, by D. KEVIN
ELLIOTT
Sebnem McIntyre of Virginia Beach...
The Quane family, John, Doreen and Kevin, of Chesapeake, relax on
the bank of Pungo Pond, one of two, 1/2-acre irrigation ponds at
Pungo Blueberries Etc. on Muddy Creek Road.
Byron Coleman, 3, making his first fishing trip, caught a small
catfish with his very own Mickey Mouse rod and reel. Byron also
enjoyed the baby goats in a small petting ``zoo'' nearby.
The ponds are shallow, 8 to 12 feet in depth, so fish can be easily
netted out at the end of the season. Rodger Burns, above, works hard
to keep the pond management in balance.
Sandra Peterson of Virginia Beach, left, pulls a catfish she caught
from a net held by Sebnem McIntyre at Pungo Pond.
KEYWORDS: FISH FARM AQUACULTURE by CNB