FORT RILEY, Kan. -- Looking for the best spot on post for a day of fishing? Staff of the Environmental Division of Public Works have it covered.
Each summer, the staff conducts electrofishing of a few of the 29 lakes and ponds on Fort Riley. Electrofishing uses electricity to stun fish so they can be caught for a scientific survey of sampling of the fish.
"We sample the main lakes of Moon Lake and Breakneck Lake every year because they get the most fishing pressure," said Shawn Stratton, supervisory biologist. "We'll do about 10 lakes each year. We rotate so each lake or pond is done once every three years."
Staff conducted electrofishing at Breakneck Lake July 7. The process takes three to four hours for this particular lake.
Biological technicians Derek Moon, Brett Parsons and Steven Wahle took the boat onto the lake and drove around to inform fishermen of what they were doing.
They also recorded information such as depth and temperature of the water. Moon and Parsons directed rods, which look like metal jellyfish tentacles, into the lake and Wahle began driving the boat around the bank, and as he drove the boat, the electricity moving through the rods stunned fish.
Parsons and Moon used nets to catch stunned fish and put them into live tanks, where they went back to normal. The team took weights and measurements of the different species caught. Moon noted the fish do not take long to go back to normal as they began squirming while he measured them. After they took data from each type of fish, they put them back into the water.
"This information shows us how healthy the lake is," Wahle said. "We put this information into a computer program which is able to take the number of fish caught during the time and give the density of fish in the pond."
The environmental division has been working with Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism for 20 years and they will provide them with the information collected.
"We utilize the information we get from each pond and put it into a database, which we send to the state of Kansas," Stratton said. "The fish we stock in our lakes we receive from the state for free. In return, we don't require and charge for a Fort Riley fishing license. We only need a Kansas fishing license to fish on post."
At Breakneck Lake, staff stock channel catfish, largemouth bass, bluegill, green sunfish and redear sunfish. They also stock a variety of other fish such as crappie, carp and flathead catfish across the ponds and lakes on post.
For more information about fishing opportunities on post, contact the Environmental Division at 785-239-6211.
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