9/19/2011
By GORDON D. FIEDLER JR. Salina Journal

Tommie Berger, for 38 years a district fisheries biologist for Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, could have grown up to be a poacher.

"My dad and uncles," Berger said, choosing his words delicately, "didn't always do things according to law. When we were out and about, my job was to watch for the game warden."

Farm-reared in northeast Kansas, Berger knew how to fish and hunt almost from infancy, but he also knew right from wrong.

"I decided in my early years I didn't want to have to look for the game warden all the time," he said. "I wanted to be one."

He said from the age of about 4 or 5, that was his life's goal, and when he told his father, it affected the old man.

"From that point on, Dad always pretty much did everything right," he said.

No more shooting rabbits from car windows, or blasting quail coveyed up in the snow along a hedgerow.

"That inspired him to maybe do things more within the law," Berger said.

Berger closed out his nearly four-decade career Sept. 16 when he officially retired.

"I started out as a fisheries biologist, and I'm ending up as a fisheries biologist," he said.

Wildlife at Fort Riley

The past 17 years, he worked out of the state park office at Wilson Reservoir, covering Russell, Lincoln, Ellsworth, Ottawa and Saline counties.

Before that, he spent 16 years in Dodge City and five years in Manhattan.

Berger seemed destined for this sort of work. He joined the Army after graduating from Kansas State University in 1971 with a dual degree in fisheries and wildlife and soon found himself overseeing the wildlife at Fort Riley.

He was taking officer basic training in Georgia when the call for a volunteer went out.

"They needed somebody to run the fish and wildlife on the post," he said. "Sure, I'll go to Fort Riley. That's home. I spent my last 18 months of my military career as the conservation officer."

In that job he met many of the state conservation officers and was hired by the state in 1973 when the then Kansas Forestry, Fish and Game Commission went hunting for added personnel.

"They hired in the neighborhood of 75 people at one time," Berger said. "They had a big surplus of money and they hired a whole bunch of fish and wildlife biologists and equipped all of us."

Making fishing better

While the agency may have changed names several times over the years, his duties varied little.

"My job," he said while still on the payroll, "is managing the fish in Kansas lakes to make fishing better for people."

One of his chores was figuring out how many fish of each species were in the various lakes in his district.

This he did by sampling the fish population using either gill nets or "shocker" boats that stunned the fish, which then conveniently bobbed to the surface for weighing and measuring. That's bad for bass.

Lake conditions ebb and flow with the weather and lake level, and fish populations varied accordingly, he said.

During the 1993 floods, Wilson lost a significant number of walleye, which escaped in the overflow.

In dry years, it's the bass that suffer.

"During droughts, bass don't do very good," Berger said. "They like the shoreline type of habitat, and when the water goes down, a lot of that vegetation is out of the water."

Neither is a problem today, he said.

"Right now, bass fishing is excellent," he said.

So are walleye, as their numbers have steadily increased since 1993.

"We've got one of the best walleye populations in the state," he said.

Wilson Reservoir is unique among Kansas lakes for its relatively clear water and elevated salt content because of the Saline River that feeds it.

Ocean fish in Kansas

This makes certain species, such as stripers, a fine fit.

"Stripers are an ocean fish and they come up fresh water rivers to spawn," Berger explained. Some 30 years ago, some stripers were impounded -- and survived -- behind a North Carolina dam.

"We found out stripers can live in fresh water year round," he said.

Unfortunately, they must be propagated in hatcheries and stocked.

"They don't reproduce naturally," Berger said. "They have to go way up river to spawn and their eggs have to float and tumble for eight days in order to hatch."

He said the flow of Kansas rivers is too languid for this to happen.

Moby Dick at Kanopolis

In his years of keeping a watchful eye on Kanopolis Reservoir, Berger was able to dispel -- sort of -- the aquatic legend of "Moby Dick"-sized catfish rumored to be lurking in deep water at the foot of the dam.

"There are 70-, 80-, 90-pound flatheads in all these reservoirs," he said.

Blue catfish, a cousin to channel cats, can top 100 pounds, he said.

The state record for a flathead is 123 pounds and the blue catfish record is 90, he said.

"Back in the '30s, through drought periods, the Kansas River dried up except for some of the holes, and there are historic records of blue catfish upwards of 150, 200 pounds."

But don't look for someone to haul one of these monsters up anytime soon.

Even if someone manages to set a hook, they'd never get it in the boat, Berger said. "They don't have equipment to hold a fish like that."

Outdoors, with kids

Don't expect Berger to spend his retirement inside.

"The outdoors is my life," he said. He hopes to instill that life in the younger generation by continuing his role as teacher.

"One of the important things to me throughout my career has been education," he said.

He is a safety instructor for aquatics, hunting, bow hunting and fur harvesting.

"I do a lot of education work with kids. I want to continue to do that. Unless you teach these kids about what's going on out here, they're going to sit in front of a TV and computer and play video games."

Children, he's noticed, don't play outside as they did when he was growing up.

"Unless you show them what's out there, give them a taste of it, they're not going to find out on their own. It's important for me to show them there's a whole lot out there they can enjoy for their lifetime."

Berger is one of those fortunate individuals who retired doing the job of his dreams.

"I loved every minute of it," he said.

--Gordon D. Fiedler Jr. can be reached at 822-1407 or by email at gfiedler@salina.com.

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