The fish belong to the state, but you can invite them into your pond.

JEFFERSON CITY-Many Missourians are unaware that their Department of Conservation runs a sort of finny adoption service. Each spring the agency goes looking for homes for several million largemouth bass, channel catfish and bluegill sunfish fingerlings housed in its warm-water hatcheries around the state. Apply by July 15 and you could be the foster parent to a catchable, delicious brood.

The Conservation Department's private pond and lake stocking program is designed to enhance Show-Me State fishing opportunities. It provides small fish at no cost to pond owners. The fish remain state property, but pond owners retain control over access to their property. They are not obligated to open their ponds to the public, but are encouraged to provide a reasonable amount of fishing. Most recipients of Conservation Department fish share their ponds with relatives, friends and neighbors.

Missouri has more than 300,000 farm ponds, so the program's potential effect on fishing opportunities is huge. Besides creating fishing spots close to home for thousands of Missourians, the program relieves pressure on public waters.

Applications for the program are available at Conservation Department offices, from conservation agents and at most agricultural agencies. Or you can visit www.mdc.mo.gov/fish/stock/ and click on "Applications for fish" to download an application form.

Completed forms are due no later than July 15. To qualify for stocking, ponds and lakes must be at least 8 feet deep. Ponds smaller than 5 acres must be fenced to exclude livestock. The Conservation Department will not provide fish for ponds that already have existing fish populations other than small minnows.

Conservation Department personnel inspect applicants' ponds for suitability. Those who qualify will pick up bluegills and channel catfish at central locations in each county in September or October. They will receive largemouth bass the same way the following June.

To receive the bass, pond owners must also pick up bluegill and catfish. This combination ensures that the bass will have food and the other species will not become overcrowded. Delayed bass stocking permits small bluegill and catfish to grow and allows the bluegills to reproduce before the bass grow large enough to eat too many.

Anglers can harvest bass in most ponds by the third summer after stocking. Natural reproduction replaces bluegill and bass removed by fishing, but catfish must be restocked periodically.

-Jim Low-