Recently Aaron Batterbee, the head of the fishing club, got the Kansas Department of Wildlife to help him and students out with funding and getting cooperation with the state.
“So getting the department (KDWP) involved opens up the door for more funding, so getting cooperation through the state and looking at grants, so I’m just trying to find greater ways to try to fund things on campus,” Batterbee said.
Having the KDWP help out with the pond will help Batterbee and the students have a better experience when they go out fishing, but the process to get help from them wasn’t the easiest.
“I had to convince the administration that this was a good deal, kinda benefits everybody, and then kinda get everybody to the table to talk about it, go over any questions. Once everybody figured out that it’s a good deal then we just had to pass it through the board,” Batterbee said.
Batterbee said that it would benefit everyone, and he was not lying about that, that having the upgrade to the pond will be beneficial to the community as a whole, especially the people really involved with fishing in and out of school.
“The pond was already public fishing, so it still is public fishing, but now the state of Kansas will stock it, we’re talking about what to stock, which will involve some sampling, so the state of Kansas will help us to fish sample to figure out what’s in there, and then what we could do to put better fish in there,” Batterbee said
With having the state of Kansas stock the pond, there will be better fish swimming in in there ready to be caught
“I think we’re just talking about bass, and bluegill, catfish, and maybe something else besides that, it’s just initial talks, were just talking about whats in there before we can figure out what to put in there,” Batterbee said
There are some crappies in the pond, and you are encouraged to fish them out of there, there is a 50 catch limit on the crappie though, they wipe out the other species in the pond which is why you are happily encouraged to catch as many crappie as you can
