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Section
SANDY OREGON, THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1979
The Sflndy Post
Sports
and Recreation
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Farming water can be a fishy business
by St E lz\E KV
(»ary Brian is a farmer
Unlike many farmers, Brian doesn t
bold his breath whrn the winter freezes
come, or pray for rain during the long
hot summer
Brian raises rainhow trout
His farm , located southeast of Sandy
the Dover area, is naturally equipped
with the most important ingredient for
a successful harvest
water
and
plenty of it
••If you have water, that's a good
start for this business, said Brian, who
has both a 300 foot well and a spring on
his property “ And, of course, you
need the water rights
What started out as a backyard hobby
for Brian's fattier has turned into a
thriving full time business for his son
Brian's Trout Ranch is the largest and
oldest in < »regon. supplying more than 1
m illion trout annually to businesses and
ponds as far as 330 miles aw ay
Brian manages five acres of ponds on
the fam ily's 40 acres of land adjacent to
Publishers Paper forest near the North
Fork of Eagle ( reek “ We're going to
put more ponds up the canyon next
week or the week after. Brian said
We still can't raise enough, tie
noted “ This is one industry that needs
competition It's Just like if there was
only one strawberry grower around
Brian graduated from Jesuit High
School and earned a degree in business
and marketing from Portland State
University lie learned about trout
from reading the few books available
on the subject and working with his
father, laiwson Garrett Brian II, who
started raising trout as a part time
business in 1958
Brian s parents still live in the white
house overlooking what was once their
private fishing pond The yoinger
Brian lives on Wildcat Mountain Drive
with his wife Susan and 7 week old
hi
daughter Kelly
B rian worked as a sales re
presentative for Kraft Hoods before
entering the business full time in 1970
" I decided to gamble,' he said. “ So
far it ’s been fun
Brian beats nature's odds during the
November to March hatching season
Rainbow trout eggs in river gravel beds
have around a two percent chance of
becoming fingerlings
• We shoot fo r a 95 percent
hatch,” said Brian “ It's almost the
complete reverse of what it's like in
streams ”
nearby Eagle Creek It was December,
and Brian hud 600 brood fish ready to
strip of eggs “ Two days later they
were gone, said Brian, shaking his
head.
They come in here five, six... seven
at a tim e.“ he added "Each otter eats
from 5-7 pounds of fish per day
They'll eat until they’re full and,then
k ill for sport
The farm 's busiest season lasts from
March to September, when most of the
deliveries are made in oxygen fed
tanks loaded ,n the back of Brian's pick
up
“ It's a rare occasion when we lose
‘I occasionally even go fishing on the
Deschutes. A lot of people can’t
believe I do that.” - - Gary Brian
Every six weeks a semi truck full of
commercial fish feed arrives at the
farm The rainbow trout go through 150
pounds of feed a day in the summer, but
their appetites drop off in the winter
“ The colder the water, thv lower the
metabolism."
A handful of feed brings hundreds of
shimmering fish to the water ssurface
“ They'd probably bite a bare hook."
observed Brian
The trout also have a tendency to bite
each
other.
“ They’re
p re tty
cannibalistic," said Brian, who keeps
each hatch in a separate pond.
Brian also works to protect the fish
from natural predators like otters,
water snakes, heron and an occasional
kingfisher
Brian remembers when the first
otters came three years ago from
even one fish." said Brian, who usually
takes charge of deliveries
Access to custom er ponds is
sometimes difficult, so Brian brings a
bucket just in case "That takes quite
awhile and the fish try to jump out
During the winter months Brian can
lie found stripping his 1.200 brood fish of
their eggs The best eggs, he said, come
from fish three to five years old Brian
counts on 1 .(M
X) fingerlings for every
brood fish “ That's a conservative
estimate.”
The eggs first float in baskets, and
Brian handles the tedious task of
picking out the bad eggs with tweezers
“ Otherwise, the yolk sac w ill break,
said Brian, adding that bad eggs
contaminate the others
It takes a week to 10 days for the eyes
to form, a critica l time in the egg
development The eggs are protected
from light and movement. “ Even
bumping the trough — just the shock
could kill every one of them “
When the eggs hatch, the young trout
eat their sac Then Brian makes sure
the fish are fed 24 times a day — with an
automatic feeding system which keeps
Brian fronrhaving to come out once an
hour w hen the fish are young
As the fish grow - “ about one inch a
month“
Brian reduces feeding time
to twice a day.
Brian sells his fish live, and charges
by the pound and distance of delivery A
typical cast for 1.000 nine-meh fish is
$700, he said
Brian usually estimates numbers by
weighing instead of counting, and is
usually close to what the customer
ordered “ We'd be down there a week
counting," he noted
• W e put in a few extra in case we lose
a few on the w ay over '
He remembers one rancher who
ordered 2.500 nine-inch trout “ It was
way out in the boomes He kept moving
the planks as I went across the bridge
The rancher wanted Brian to count
the fish before the deal was completed.
“ So I made him a deal I ’d give him
the whole load for nothing if the count
was under He'd have to pay $2 a fish
for each one over "
The man was embarassed when he
had to fork over $50 to Brian w hen the
count was finished Brian had the last
laugh on the way home.
"It's fair, I suppose, to question
someone But he'» never done it since.
He takes my word for it.'
W hen Brian isn't working on the tra it
farm, he manages some nursery stock
He takes time off to go hunting w hen the
season is right
“ 1 occasionally even go fishing on the
Deschutes," he said and laughed “ A lot
of people can't believe I do t hat
«
J* £
5T
Photo« by Mark Floyd
Ghosts of last season return to haunt hoopers
and reveal some of the points a few
individuals might need to work on
The Sandy High summer basketball
team is no exception Its m»*t recent
game was 59 45 loss to Marshall High
School, a game which contained some
positive
a ttrib u te s
but
some
disturbing likenesses to last year’s
by M U tK E IO Y h
problems
Suninwr btishH twill <*«tn b<* liKcnpd
Sandy started off well against
to the traditional garbage time at the
Marshall,
using some crisp passe»
end of regular season games there
and
a
lot
of
movement away from the
are a lot of fouls, a lot of ball control
Kill I Mike Kiley drove the lane for the
violations and some of the most
game's opening bucket, I«ee Godfrey
unusual shots a coach would hope not
hit a 20 foot jumper and then Riley
to see
found Godfrey and Kent Reick
But summer basketball is also
underneath with a pair of picture
revealing
Despite a somewhat
perfect paste» to give the Pioneers an
undisciplined nature, the summer
league held at Columbia High S< hnnl H 5 lead in the early going
So much lot the good I be Sandy
should i»c very beneficial to
attack came to a rapid stall after that
participating conches It can help
point, as Marshall aw<Ae from its
point out general areas of strength
slumber and some ghosts from
and weaknesses a team might have
Ibis Is the first In a series of three
articles dealing with Sandy High
school's summer teams. Articles on
the Pioneer baseball team and girls
basketball team
will appear In
upcoming issues of The Post.
Sandy's past ar<*e to haunt them
One of those ghosts was foul
trouble Time after tim e the* Pioneers
let their aggressiveness get out of
control and committed blatant fouls
In fact, several times Sandy players
had to be warned by the referees to
control their play
With the fa ils came a steady stream
to the free throw line Luckily, the
Marshall players were no Rick Barry»
from the charity stripe or the final
margin might have been greater
The second ghost arose as Sandy
was forced to play catch up
basketball The Pioneer» tried to
break downcourt at every oppor
tunity. but often as not, it was a
post man that decided to bring the hall
aeries the midcourt line Sandy *as
hampered against Marshall by Ihv
absence of Rick Martin, who may
inherit the point guard position next
winter Much of Sandy’» ragged play
offensively shaild be eliminated by
Martin, a good ball control guard,
while the rest could be attributed to
the very
nature of summer
basketball
The final problem to haunt the
Pioneers was a throwback to nearly
every league game in which Sandy
played last season giving up to open
shot Marshall scored 30 of its 59
points on w ide open shots from aitside
of to feet The Pioneers choked off the
inside attack, but gave up too much on
the outside in doing so
Several other points were given up
w hen a Pioneer defensive player tried
to recover from heing out of position
and committed a fa il Marshall
scored 13 points from the free throw
line.
Although Marshall went on to
control the second half of the game.
some bright spots began to re-emerge
for the Pioneers One of the brightest
was the steady play of Mike Riley, the
Moot-3 forward center who was
Sandy s leading scorer last season
Riley scored 11 points and swept
down a number of rebounds More
important, he played a consistent
defensive game and screened out
well
Another pleasant surprise was the
outside shooting touch displayed by
Scott Weninger Outside shooting has
been a thorn in Sandy's side for a
couple of seasons, but the Pioneers
appear to have a p otentially
dangerous outside attack Weninger
hit three shots from outside the 18 foot
mark Godfrey is gaming confidence
in his shot and the return of Martin,
who is a better than average shooter,
should give Sandy the shot in the arm
it needs
Another bright spot may be the
emergence of Kent Reick as a swing
man Reick. who can handle either the
small forward or the big guard
position, displayed surprising inside
quickness and rebounding ability
Overall, the Pioneer team is packed
with potential It has four or five 6-3
post men. although no dominating
man in the middle The Pioneers
appear to be getting stronger in the
backcourt with M artin and Weninger-
—Allan lx)we should also contribute
when recovered from an injury And
Riley is a potential all league post
man
The basic problems confronting
Sandy appear to be defensing the
outside shot, maintaining discipline
and eliminating the silly fouls that
have plagued it for the past two
seasons
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