What Are They Doing?

[fishinwrench]

Hadn't been inside the park in quite awhile but was in the area from Wed.-Sat.

Hatchery raceways all torn up, machinery sitting there amonst piles of busted concrete and dirt....but nobody doing any work !

Not even a wet spot under the stocking truck Friday night or Sat. morning. Are they not producing fish now, or not stocking fish daily during the weekends anymore? What's the scoop?

My daughter caught some dinks fishing drys over weedbeds but neither myself or anyone else in sight of us were doing much good at all. I couldn't find a single fish over 12", although I admit we only fished a short stretch of Z2.

[laker67]

Hi Fw, sounds as if they are doing little to nothing. The project must have been bid in phases, and it's not time for the next phase as of yet. We sure wouldn't want it completed ahead of schedule.

[Wayne SW/MO]

They only thing I thought of was maybe the heat isn't compatible with the concrete they want to use.

[NoLuck]

Some contractors shut down if it's over 100deg. I was there Friday and caught some decent fish actually for a change. It almost appears that they got some fish from Sheppard of the hills. They just look different. I know they were working Friday , while fishing below the high bank hole it was pretty annoying listening to the back up alarms and slamming of metal on concrete.

I figure it's worth listening to if they get it done and get some fish growing.

[daboone]

I talked with a guy that fished on Friday too and he said the same thing about them getting them from SH or Montauk.

[Gavin]

Piss poor results at the quickie mart, LOL...What's your gripe?

[fishinwrench]

I ain't griping, just hadn't been there in awhile and was curious as to why all the high-dollar "upgrades" still haven't improved anything around there yet.

"Back in the day" the hatchery was 1/4 that size, had twnenty-some less staff members, almost everyone who fished kept 5 fish a day (at least), and the quality of the fishery was consistently GOOD year round, and the fish were really pretty.

Now the hatchery is bigger, staffed by a whole covey of highly trained fish raising badasses with the best equipment money can buy, hardly anyone keeps fish anymore...... And the best you can expect to find on a random trip to Bennett is a bunch of 10-12" colorless cookie cutters with an occasional battle scarred and half-blind biggun roaming about like he/she just came down off a bad acid trip.

Seems to me that the whole place was alot more desirable when it was run and maintained by a handful of tobacco chewin' bib overall wearing hellians with an 8th grade education, and driving in rusty 1/2 ton trucks with faded triangles on the doors.

I guess I'm just too dang ignert to recognize the benefits of extra funding, a highly educated and well tooled staff, and all this improved technology on display.

I'll give'em credit for one thing though, those lawns at the nature center and the RV area is nice...that there is some pretty grass !

But I'm gonna take equal credit away for the condition of the old wooden (Dip) bridge, that puppy is about to collapse. LOL

[laker67]

"Back in the day" the hatchery was 1/4 that size, had twnenty-some less staff members, almost everyone who fished kept 5 fish a day (at least), and the quality of the fishery was consistently GOOD year round, and the fish were really pretty.

Now the hatchery is bigger, staffed by a whole covey of highly trained fish raising badasses with the best equipment money can buy, hardly anyone keeps fish anymore...... And the best you can expect to find on a random trip to Bennett is a bunch of 10-12" colorless cookie cutters with an occasional battle scarred and half-blind biggun roaming about like he/she just came down off a bad acid trip.

Seems to me that the whole place was alot more desirable when it was run and maintained by a handful of tobacco chewin' bib overall wearing hellians with an 8th grade education, and driving in rusty 1/2 ton trucks with faded triangles on the doors.

I guess I'm just too dang ignert to recognize the benefits of extra funding, a highly educated and well tooled staff, and all this improved technology on display.

I'll give'em credit for one thing though, those lawns at the nature center and the RV area is nice...that there is some pretty grass !

. LOL

Yep, them boys in the bibs knew what people wanted and how to maintain that. They left the grass mowing to the professionals.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Wrench you got to give them credit for moving all the tents, tackle shops, Henry's cabins and the riff raff away from the stream an putting up the high dollar places so the nice people could be close to the stream.

[NoLuck]

You cynical people kill me......LOL No really it will get better in time I hope.