By the end of the week, anglers will no longer be able to enter the Hagerman Wildlife Management Area from U.S. Highway 30 at night. That’s because not all the fishing that’s occurred there has been legal.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is moving a padlocked gate from a fence near its Hagerman Hatchery, in the center of the management area, to the fence along the highway. It will shut off three-quarters of a mile of road between the highway and the fish hatchery between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Hatchery Manager Joe Chapman said the hatchery buildings and ponds have been vandalized repeatedly. When the gate was near the hatchery, Chapman said, vandals would park and climb the gate only 100 yards from the show pond, where they would fish illegally for trophies. The hatchery borrowed cameras from the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office and have film of people fishing in the pond at night, he said.

A few years ago, $1,200 worth of tools were stolen out of a building, Chapman said, and vehicle batteries are often stolen. Fish and Game officials hope moving the gate farther out will be more of a deterrent.

“This will hopefully save money because the cost of all the vandalism comes back on the people who buy licenses,” Chapman said. By using the same gate and doing most of the work in-house, he said, the modification will cost between $1,000 and $5,000.

Pat Taylor of Hagerman said he’s mad that Fish and Game is putting up the gate.

“I’m getting tired of them cutting off access to public land,” Taylor said.

Chapman said hatcheries normally lock up long before 10 p.m., but most aren’t in the middle of a management area. And while most wildlife management areas are always open, most don’t experience as much vandalism.

“We’re not trying to keep people off public land,” Chapman said. “If they really want access at night, they can still come in from the Wendell side.”