When the Doc looked at me sweetly (such a rare occasion) and said, “Honey, let’s stop by Blue Ridge on the way back.”, I should have pulled his license to buy fish right then and there! The idea originated when we were “having a few” with our buddies from Blue Ridge Fish Hatchery at our hotel in Chantilly, Virginia while attending MAKC’s Koi America. That’s when we were invited to their Virginia farm to hand select some premium koi. Normally Blue Ridge picks out nice fish for us and ships them as we order them. This time was special, however, because we were able to pick them out ourselves — straight from the mud ponds!

As some of you have noticed (and made comments about) our selection of koi this year hasn’t been quite up to our regular par. Normally it’s the Doc that stays on Blue Ridge about not having the fish we want available. I must admit this time I started getting a little frustrated by not receiving as many of those beautiful butterflies and “as good as imported” American Koi we’ve been spoiled with during the last couple of years. The reason why, as I understand it, has to do with availability of certain sizes. We demanded so many of one or two sizes that it created gaps in their stock that needed to mature.

According to Rick, Fish Farm Production Manager of Blue Ridge Fish Hatchery’s Virginia koi farms, his grandfather who started the farms, always said he wouldn’t sell a fish until it was “hard”, meaning having gone through a season of growth. The good news is now the fish are “hard” and ready to ship!

There was no rest for the road-weary crew from Blue Ridge who had battled driving through a thunderstorm on mountainous highway to finally make it back to the farm by about 3 am Monday morning. The kids had to get up for school while the crew had to deal with the likes of people like us who wanted to hand-select koi that morning. If I didn’t take the opportunity to properly thank them all — I want to thank them now for the great hospitality they showed — and for their patience with us!

I should have known by the look in the Doc’s eyes when he saw his first taste of the finest koi Blue Ridge had to offer that I would need to put a governor on his wallet. He rushed us all through lunch so he could go to the mud ponds to pull fish then jumped on the back of Terry’s 4-wheeler and off they went across the river leaving the rest of us piled up in the back of Rick’s truck in their dust.

The ponds at Blue Ridge are nothing like what we have at home. They are small, mostly square lakes that are each about 1 to 3 acres in size and lined up in rows. We try to get rid of algae bloom —– they try to keep it. Feeding is not an easy chore and they rely on industrial-grade automatic feeders to throw food out to the koi several times during the day. Aeration of the ponds are done by huge paddle wheels and aerator fountains. A percentage of the koi each year are taken by blue herons that thrive on the farm. This presents a huge problem for Blue Ridge since the percentage of loss can be as high as 30%. While harvesting one of the ponds I saw a heron take off with a nice Kohaku.

This was my first experience with “harvesting fish” and I definitely got an education. A corner of Double X Pond had already been baited so that most of the fish were gathered eating inside the corner where a net was strung ready to be pulled across. Men in rubber boots walked the seine in toward the side of the pond as a few fish jumped the net to get away.

The Doc donned rubber boots as well and jumped in to pick out the prettiest koi for us while I stood by taking pictures and “supervising” — in other words — telling the Doc which ones I wanted for my personal collection. Several people, including the Doc, created a flurry of activity as the best-looking fish were pulled and loaded onto a truck outfitted with tanks designed to keep the fish cool while in transport.

While this was happening Andrei Buten (from Russia) and Toshi (from Japan) noted the quality of the koi and culled special ones for further growing and possible breeding stock. Toshi is “on loan” from Japan and will be going back in September to return next season. We’re hoping Andrei becomes a permanent fixture because we believe Andrei’s trained “breeding eye” is one of the reasons we are getting such beautiful koi. Rick’s wife, Sheila, seen also “supervising” in the picture on the right, pointed out to me just how international their team is.

The problem with the koi selection we saw at Blue Ridge was that there were so many excellent koi from which to choose! That’s where the Doc ran into problems. He was like a kid in a candy store. He couldn’t stop himself, nor could he help himself. He pulled so many fish that we do not have enough room for them at the store! In fact he pulled 3 times the fish we would have normally ordered.

That’s what prompted us to have a GREAT BIG KOI WEEKEND in September. By then, these hand-selected premium koi will be out of quarantine and ready to sell. If you want really pretty and healthy 6 to 8” and 8 to 10” butterfly and regular koi you DO NOT want to miss this opportunity! We do not wish to hold them over the winter so prices will be lower than what the Doc normally charges for them.