Rural Missouri - August 2022 - 35

Neosho resident Crista Thompson watches a pallid sturgeon. Part museum and part aquarium, the visitor center serves as the entry point for
guests who want to learn more about the history of the federal hatchery system and see the freshwater animals they raise.
has created an enduring lure for anglers hoping to catch
the next record lunker. Blue Eye resident Bill Babler's
state record - a 40-pound, 6-ounce brown trout caught
in 2019 - fell less than 2 pounds short of the all-tackle
world record caught in New Zealand.
The Neosho trout are raised to about 10 1/2 inches before
they are released, growing at a rate of roughly 1 inch
per month once the eggs hatch. Eggs are brought in five
times per year spaced a few months apart so the restocking
numbers coincide with the peak of fishing action on
Taneycomo. The 18,000 to 20,000 trout stocked during
the winter months ramps up to as much as 80,000 in the
summer. Growing fish to the prescribed size is a constant
numbers game of graduating food sizes and organizing the
cubic feet of water required for thousands of rainbows.
" Ultimately, we're a trout hotel, but I've already rented
the hotel room out, so you're here for an inch a month, "
Nathan says. " If you don't eat or get stressed out and don't
grow for two weeks, I don't lose two weeks: I've lost the two
weeks you weren't growing plus the two weeks it takes to
catch up. "
Hatcheries also raise federally endangered species and
those which have difficulty repopulating in the wild. The
Neosho hatchery assists with a multi-state effort geared
toward improving numbers of the pallid sturgeon on the
Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and is presently rearing
lake sturgeon as well. Other species of note include the
Topeka shiner, a native of prairie streams in Missouri, and
the Neosho mucket. Roughly the size of a baked potato
when fully grown, this freshwater mussel will spend two
years growing to the size of a golf ball before being released
in the wild roughly two hours in any direction from the
hatchery.
" The Neosho River basin is largely what its range is, "
Nathan adds, noting the hatchery also raises the fish -
freshwater drum, flathead catfish, largemouth and smallmouth
bass - that Neosho muckets and other mussels
use as hosts to reproduce. " We're very well positioned to be
one of the major players in recovering that mussel. "
Alongside the day-to-day operations of the hatchery itself,
its other features are designed to connect guests with
nature. Locals come to walk the one-third mile loop that
navigates the ponds, while visitors can learn about everything
from the Ozark cavefish to the pipevine swallowtail
in the visitor center - and everyone loves feeding the fish.
With some assistance from its volunteer group, the Friends
of the Neosho National Fish Hatchery, the facility also puts
on four annual events for the public.
" Whenever we have a big event like the fishing days we
try to help out, " says volunteer Evelyn Eckhard, adding
the Friends also help run the visitor center gift shop and
spearhead fundraising efforts for special projects. " They
have an open house with the conservation department
during the Neosho Dogwood Tour, and people come out,
AUGUST 2022 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP 35

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Rural Missouri - August 2022

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