For the past 28 years, Slade’s Fish Hatchery in Lumberton has been a hot spot for fisherman and pond owners across South Mississippi and regions of Louisiana and Alabama.
Slade’s is owned by Randall and Hope Slade and is managed by their son Nicholas.
“I was born in New Orleans where my dad worked in the oil fields,” Nicholas said. “We moved here in the 1980’s when the oil fields shut down and my family bought this former hog farm. My dad said that aquaculture was the wave of the future.”
According to the NOAA Fisheries website, aquaculture is the breeding, rearing and harvesting of plants and animals in all types of water body environments including ponds, rivers, lakes and the ocean.
Nicholas said he planned to become a civil engineer and was working as a surveyor when his father began having health problems.
“After Hurricane Katrina I came back here to work,” Nicholas said. “It’s important to me to keep the business running for the family and I love it here.”
The Slade family raises an assortment of freshwater fish in their 24 concrete raceways and 36 ponds including:
• Channel catfish.
• Bream-Redear, coppernose, hybrid and native bluegill.
• Bass-F-1 tiger, Florida and native largemouth and hybrid striped.
• Carp-Dipioid and Triploid grass carp.
• Black crappie, fluffy minnows, goldfish and koi.
The hatchery offers a variety of bait including crickets, worms, minnows and goldfish.
The eggs are laid in the ponds and the babies are harvested, Nicholas said. If it is a hybrid fish, the eggs are injected.
The hatchery sells fish from birth to breeding age.
“We construct, stock, manage and repair ponds and electro fishing which is checking the fish population in a pond,” Nicholas said. “If the fish are dying in a pond, we offer a free water analysis and test the water’s Ph and alkalinity.
The pond’s chloride, nitrate and ammonia levels are also analyzed. We maintain ponds by checking water, filling feeders and fertilization.”
Texas Hunter fish feeders, fish food, aeration systems, fountains and pumps are available for purchase and special order.
Slade’s is located at 30 Sport Fish Lane.
The hatchery is open from 7 a.m. to noon Monday through Saturday.
Contact them by phone at 601-796-2000, email at sladesfish@yahoo.com and fax at 601-796-2006.
Visit the website at www.sladesfish.com.