FARGO (AP) - Though the terrain doesn't conjure images of "A River Runs Through It," residents here now have the opportunity to fish for rainbow trout amid city streets and suburban homes.

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department has stocked 200 trout in a small water-retention pond in southwest Fargo's Woodhaven development and plans to stock more next month.

"The idea is to provide education and recreation opportunities," said Fargo recreation director Clay Whittlesey, who pushed the project.

Fargo's recreation department has already scheduled fly-fishing and kayaking classes for the pond, and the department will hold Trout Fest at the pond in June. Whittlesey said he hopes to have school science classes use the pond.

The trout, measuring between 10 and 12 inches, should be catchable after a short adjustment period, Whittlesey said. Anglers must possess a resident or nonresident North Dakota fishing license.

The pond has several special regulations meant to extend the time anglers can catch the trout. The pond is catch-and-release only. No live bait is allowed and only barbless hooks may be used. No gas-powered motors are allowed, but canoes, kayaks and float tubes are OK.

"We're trying this on an experimental basis. We want to give residents something they've never had," Whittlesey said. "We hope to try it for three or four years and see how things go. We want to see if it works."

The project faces challenges, Game and Fish Department fisheries chief Greg Power said. The pond is small at one-third of an acre and is filled with storm-sewer runoff, meaning the pond's water quality might not be good enough to sustain a fishery.

Warmer summer weather will kill the trout stocked in the spring, so the pond will have to be stocked each spring, Power said.

"It is a short-term fishery," Power said. "When we stock a body of water like this, the idea is to have an immediate return for kids."

Game and Fish has stocked small ponds in other cities, including Bismarck, Wilton and Glenburn with mixed success, Power said. The ponds that have shown the least success are ones that take storm-sewer runoff, he said.

"But we're willing to try this because we want to do everything we can to encourage fishing," Power said.