Urban fishing pond ready for fall opening

Carson City's urban fishing pond has filled with water and will be ready for use by fall, said Park Planner Vern Krahn.

"It is our department's expectation to have a project acceptance meeting with the Public Works Department and contractor late next week," Krahn said. "There still are a number of things our department needs to do over the next couple of months in preparation for pond opening, but the contractor's work will be completed and signed off."

Parks and Recreation Director Roger Moellendorf said that plantings at the site need more time to become established before people start using it and in order to provide good fish habitat.

The city plans to work with the Nevada Department of Wildlife to stock the pond with rainbow and brown trout, possibly by Labor Day, he said.

The one-acre pond at the base of Clear Creek just south of Bodines will be accessible from Fuji Park's parking lot. It will be fairly shallow - about 15 feet at its deepest point, Moellendorf said.

Krahn said sagebrush and rabbit brush is planted on the upland banks, as well as dogwoods, willows, serviceberries, alders, junipers and cedars. Around the pond and in the water are a variety of grasses, sedges and rushes.

Clear Creek is being diverted in and out of the pond, but it also has a groundwater source. The Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California and the Washoe Environmental Protection Department will provide Carson City with monitoring for the pond's water quality treatment facilities.

As of early last year, NDOW had provided Carson City with $450,648 in non-matching grants for the project, and the city's parks department had acquired more than $330,000 in grants and private donations.

"It has been a long time in coming but it appears we will have a wonderful fishing pond for the public to use this fall," Krahn said.