Friday, June 17, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.
URSINE -- The parking lot at the Eagle Valley Resort was still muddy and mostly empty Saturday afternoon, and inside, owner John Crosthwait's only customer was a young man looking for a restroom.
It wasn't the Free Fishing Day outcome he was looking for, thanks in large part to heavy rains that had dampened Lincoln County early in the morning.
But free fishing, coupled with a kids' fishing derby at nearby Echo Canyon Reservoir, combined for something a little more exciting than an average June afternoon.
The Free Fishing Day program, implemented in 23 states including Nevada, opens up fishing without need for a license.
It was a perfect situation for Bryan Hildebrand -- no relation to the Sun motorsports writer -- who was fishing at Echo Canyon with his 4-year-old daughter Bella.
"Today, my daughter caught her first fish," he said. "It was actually pretty awesome. I've been waiting for that day. She wasn't scared at all. I thought she'd be all squeamish."
Hildebrand saved $18 because of the free fishing program.
A self-described longtime Las Vegas resident, he was making his first visit to Echo Canyon, and was surprised by what he found.
Echo Canyon Reservoir, full after the surplus of winter rains, sets on the Meadow Valley Wash at the top of a small valley filled with ranches and lined with sage. A country road goes through farmland and open range to the hamlet of Ursine, about 10 miles north.
Just upstream from Ursine on the Meadow Valley Wash is Eagle Valley Reservoir, a 65-acre lake in a narrow canyon rimmed by junipers and part of Spring Valley State Park.
On the lake's earthen dam, Mel Oman brought his family of four out to enjoy the afternoon while saving $36 in the process. He caught a bass and his daughter came out with a trout.
"This is the closest thing Vegas has to really do anything as far as something like this," he said. "If they did a little more, made people aware, they could probably improve the economy for these little towns a lot, too."
The campground at Spring Valley State Park was full Saturday -- not an unusual sight in June, said park supervisor Pete Gill.
He said that although the Saturday event was a success, visitation as a whole has been down this summer.
"It was down a little bit from last year and we attributed that to the weather. A little girl caught an 18-inch German brown (trout) on a hot dog, and another man caught a 4-pound rainbow," Gill said. "Visitation does seem to be down a little this summer. We attribute that to the price of gas or a combination of a late spring with rainstorms and thundershowers moving through the area at times."
Gill said that although visitation has increased as more people move to Las Vegas and discover Lincoln County's two blue gems, the park itself has essentially the same facilities it did when first developed in the 1960s.
"We didn't see ATV's, we've had $300,000 Greyhound buses pull in here with their living room and bedroom and they've had to pull out there barrier post to make the vehicle fit," he said. "It's a different clientele. People who are retired are not going to do tents anymore. They want to bring a studio apartment to the campsite."
Most of the land in Lincoln County is owned by the Bureau of Land Management, including a lot the terrain that sounds Spring Valley State Park.
"We addressed the BLM about the potential of turning the land over to us and the Lincoln County Commission protested. They said that the state parks can't manage what they have," Gill said. "The majority of the land where people want to recreate on in Lincoln County is federal government land. What little the state parks have is at capacity right now."
Regardless of the conditions, Bryan Hildebrand said he and Bella will be back to their newfound urban escape.
"I've lived in Nevada forever. I've trekked across Nevada a million different ways," he said. "I've never stopped in Pioche. It turned out to be a really nice part of it."
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