If the Park Board wishes to discuss this recommendation and its expected benefits, DFW personnel are willing to attend a board meeting and explain this further. Only a very small percentage of the largemouth collected were 14 inches or longer. Recruitment of bass to the population has not been a problem as there has consistently been many age 3 and younger bass found during surveys of the lake. However, there are not very many keeper size bass ever collected. In order to provide a higher quality bass fishery where anglers have a chance to catch more bass over 14 inches, catch and release of largemouth bass is strongly encouraged.
Channel catfish provide anglers with a more diverse fishery and added angling opportunities.
Without continued stockings of channels, anglers will not be able to enjoy fishing for them at Rockville Lake because of their lack of reproductive success. Therefore, the next stocking of catfish should be in the fall of 2000, when 1,667, 8-inch fish should be stocked. There is no need to perform any weed control in the near future at Rockville Lake. Grass carp continue to keep submergent vegetation from reestablishing in the lake and cattails and bulrush are nowhere near nuisance levels. Hopefully as the grass carp grow older, their effectiveness at controlling vegetation will diminish.