Saturday, July 12, 2008

First bass delivered to Elephant Butte

Local angler one of many who worked to acquire funds to build new warm-water hatchery

Nat Holland El Defensor Chieftain Reporter, nholland@dchieftain.com

Nearly a decade ago, local Bass Club president Ron Gilworth, among others, began working toward the state having its own warm-water hatchery.

Two years ago, work on an $8 million dollar addition to the Rock Lake Hatchery near Santa Rosa, which already raised trout as a cold-water facility.

The first phase of the project has since been completed and the payoff began with a release of the first 77,000 largemouth bass raised in New Mexico into Elephant Butte Lake on Tuesday.

"I promoted it with a lot of other people," said Gilworth, who is also the Conservation Officer for the New Mexico Bass Federation. "We worked hard to get it to happen."

A report from the Department of Game & Fish showed that 56 percent of those who were fishing in the state were warm-water anglers, according to Gilworth.

"There were no warm-water hatcheries but seven (cold-water hatcheries) that raised trout," said Gilworth. "It just seemed like it was tilted the wrong way."

The hatchery should help to benefit fishing tourism in the state and make it easier to promote quality lakes and revive interest from young anglers.

"More successful trips makes it more interesting for the youth," Gilworth said.

The Socorro Bass Club, which has about 35 active members according to Gilworth, desires to promote fishing among youth. The club sponsors events such as the kids fishing derby at Escondida Lake.

Anyone who is interested in joining the local Bass Club can contact Gilworth at 575-835-1200.

Elephant Butte Lake is already well known for its fishing, particularly for bass. It hosted the 31st Junior Open Bass Anglers Tournament in June and holds regular competitions sponsored by the American Bass Association.

The first release of largemouth bass paved the way for many future stockings as the hatchery uses its 11 new 1-acre ponds to raise bass, catfish, walleye, bluegills and other warm-water fish species.

The bass were hatched at the Las Animas Hatchery in Colorado and arrived at Rock Lake on June 13 when they were about a half-inch long. A steady diet of zooplankton helped the fish grow to about 1-1/2 inches. Warm-water Fisheries Biologist Casey Harthorn said the bass should grow to 14 inches in two to three years.

The $4 million first phase of the hatchery project was completed last fall. Since then, hatchery crews have been working to create pond environments suitable for raising a variety of fish species.

Fish are placed in the ponds once the water is producing enough phytoplankton and zooplankton that the fish need for nourishment and growth.

Once the fish eat all the available zooplankton, they are removed from the ponds and stocked in one of the state's lakes.

The Rock Lake Hatchery ponds also currently hold about a million catfish that should be ready for stocking later this summer, Rice said.

Funding for the first phase of hatchery construction included $2.5 million from the state Game Protection Fund, which comes from hunting and fishing license sales; $900,000 in federal grants; and $300,000 from the state's General Fund, authorized by the 2004 Legislature.

The Rock Lake Hatchery has been in operation since 1964 and is also one of the state's top producers of a larger, catchable size of rainbow trout. With its constant flow of 3,500 to 4,000 gallons of cool, clear spring water per minute, the hatchery raises about 300,000 trout a year in its raceways for stocking in the state's streams and lakes.

The hatchery also raises about 20 million walleye every year, about half of them from eggs collected from Conchas and Ute reservoirs.

The hatchery welcomes visitors at its facilities two miles south of Santa Rosa along the Pecos River. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

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