It’s the tractor-trailer from Dunn’s Fish Farm loaded with catfish, perch and bass parked in the Temple Feed & Supply parking lot Friday.
On this clear and cold February morning, the two-man crew from Fittstown, Okla., sold fingerling fish by the hundreds to people for stocking in nearby ponds.
“It’s like a portable aquarium on the road,” Allen Anderson, a two-year employee, said.
Standing on the back of the flatbed rig, Anderson said he’d rather babysit the bluegill and bream, keeping an eye on oxygen and water levels, than monitor paperwork like his partner who has to call in a daily fish report to the home office in Oklahoma.
Anderson said he yuks it up with the fish buyers and their children.
“I talk to my fish. I set out a catfish and it kind of barks back.”
Anderson said the kids love it.
Regarding the cool blue water inside the fish tanks, a result of a chemical that removes chlorine, Anderson said he likes to pull some people’s legs.
“We tell them it’s our Oklahoma ocean water. Some people fall for it,” the husky grandfather, wearing a do-rag, sunglasses and waterproof apron, said.
This extraordinary fish-hauling rig is a customized flatbed trailer mounted with a row of large insulated boxes with latching top doors that look like ice cream freezers. A network of hoses that carry oxygen to keep the fish alive as they bounce down both interstate and back roads connects these portable fish tanks.
Channel catfish is the biggest seller. People raise them for food, driver John Peters said.
“They put them in ponds to eat. It’s the same stuff where you go to a restaurant and order a catfish plate,” Peters said.
Winter is the best time for fish stocking, the fish haulers said. To keep the fish alive on the road, the men have to keep the water between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping fish cool in summer is a challenge. Peters said they buy a lot of ice when the weather turns warm.
“We’ve cleaned out some stores. When I walk in a Wal-Mart and want 160 bags of ice, they look at you like you are crazy,” Peters said.
The two fish haulers spend weeks at a time on the road, making scheduled stops on a pre-determined route. If they run short of fish, another driver will bring a load from the Oklahoma fish overnight. The two trucks rendezvous at a predetermined point and the fish transfer is completed.
Both men said many of their customers buy fish for their children and grandchildren to catch.
Lance Crews, a local veterinarian, bought 200 perch and 15 bags of fathead minnows, to feed the fish he has swimming in one of the 10 ponds on his property near Rogers.
“They’re going to feed bass. The big ones are going to get the little ones,” Crews said.
To transfer the fingerlings to his pond, Crews said he sets the large, clear plastic bags in the water and removes the rubber band. The fish then swim away.
The fish haulers also stopped at Cameron and Belton on Friday.
