Contact: Kay Fike Jones
For a small annual fee, any Mississippi State student or employee with the urge to wet a hook can try their luck in the university's Chadwick Lake.
Now beginning its second year of operation, the Office of Recreational Sports-run lake offers faculty, staff and student anglers the opportunity to hook bass, sunfish or catfish.
Once caught, however, all fish must be released unharmed back into the lake.
Located on the north side of campus adjacent to the Joe Frank Sanderson Center, the 12-acre lake was drained and its shoreline cleaned nearly three years ago. University personnel then stocked it with largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, grass carp, and channel catfish, according to Mark Peterman of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station's South Farm Aquaculture Unit.
Peterman, Recreational Sports' outdoor consultant, said the catch-and-release program is designed to "keep the fishing intact and let more people enjoy it and enjoy it longer."
All involved with the restoration and management efforts must be doing something right--the unofficial record catch, to date, is a 10-pound bass. With some 80 permits sold since the renovation, the number of those lured to the lake's shoreline has reached as high as 25 at one time, Peterman said.
Each employee and student--and up to three of their family members--who have a valid Mississippi fishing license may purchase the $10 permits. Persons without fishing gear can check out a rod-and-reel and lures from recreational sports in the Sanderson Center. Also available are $3 one-day permits.
In addition to daily fishing, the lake is the site of fall and spring catch-and-release tournaments, as well as seminars on angling ethics and safety education.
Future plans for the facility include a possible fishing course for academic credit and a walking trail around the lake.