Snappy's pond 14 years old

“This is the first live fish I’ve held in my hands in over 30 years,” said the excited lady standing next to the fish pond in the courtyard of Snappy Sports Senter in Evergreen.

She had just caught the fish on a fly at the end of one of my fly-casting classes.

“That’s why I did it,” said BJ Lupton, Snappy’s owner. “It’s always been a dream of mine.”

Every student in the class caught at least one trout. Most caught several, including a few fish over 8 pounds.

The pond was built in cooperation with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and, according to Lupton, has provided the opportunity for hundreds of people of all ages to catch their first fish.

“Through FWP’s Hooked on Fishing Program and other events, between 4,000 and 5,000 kids every year are taught fishing in our pond,” Lupton said. “One of the spin-offs has been providing breakfast, lunch and dinner for the ospreys that roost on nearby cottonwood trees. And we’ve been treated to some absolutely awesome aerial combats between ospreys and bald eagles.”

Lupton built the fish pond and well-groomed courtyard 14 years ago. A 700 gallon per minute well provides the 660,000 gallons needed to fill the 18-foot deep pond.

“Dealing with algae was a learning process,” he said. “We tried suckers, but now we drain the pond every two weeks.”

The pond is stocked with rainbow and cutthroat trout, hybrids and a few kokanee salmon. The fish are purchased from private sources, with FWP often providing fish from area hatcheries.

“We call the underwater window ‘Vashro’s Window’ in honor of Jim Vashro (FWP Region 1 fisheries manager) who suggested it and greatly supported the building of the pond,” Lupton said. “Even though we built the pond in l998, there are many people, including long-term customers, who still don’t know about our courtyard and fish pond and haven’t walked out the backdoor to see it.”

Fish viewing is free and open to the public and the public is always welcome to feed the fish, Lupton pointed out.

“The fish pond has been a huge joy for us and, we hope, meaningful to the community,” he said.