John Wright, a former Dallas businessman turned avid Pecos River fly fisherman, has found one way to elicit screams of delight from elementary students — fish eggs.

"When you deliver fish eggs to elementary school classrooms, you need earplugs. The kids are so excited," he said.

Wright has mustered support in Pecos, Eldorado and three other schools for a program called Trout in the Classroom, where students watch the fish go from eggs to fry and finally into a river. Wright has been named the 2010 Aquatic Education Resource Volunteer of the Year by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

"Wright has donated countless hours to bring cold-water fisheries conservation and angling skills to Northern New Mexico youths," the department said in announcing the award.

Wright, a member of the Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited, is chairman of the chapter's Youth Education Program — and its sole volunteer. Trout in the Classroom is one of the most successful programs of the national Trout Unlimited organization, which claims 150,000 members devoted to reviving and protecting cold-water fisheries.

The Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited has more than 500 members and has focused efforts the last few years on restoring habitat for the native Rio Grande cutthroat trout. The group added the youth outreach program a little more than a year ago.

While he was fishing on the Pecos River in New Mexico after he retired from his orthopedic equipment business in Texas, Wright said, he saw the "tremendous increase in use of the river every year."

He thought area youth could benefit from a few lessons about cold-water fisheries, how humans impact them, and make it fun through fly fishing. "This is really about cold-water conservation," he said. "If you take care of the water, everything else falls into place."

Wright helped teachers raise about $1,500 each to buy an aquarium, chiller and other equipment needed for the trout the first year. The state Department of Game and Fish provides the fish eggs and helps take the trout to a select spot on a river months later to release them with the kids.

An after-school trout program evolved at Pecos, where middle school students are learning about trout anatomy and life cycle, fly tying and casting. They'll test out their new skills May 19 by fishing at Monastery Lake.

Wright said it takes a dedicated teacher to add Trout in the Classroom into the curriculum. But he said Trout Unlimited provides a wealth of information about the program on its Web site.

Still, things don't always run smoothly. Seventh-graders in Pecos found all their trout dead in the aquarium after power went out at the school for several hours during the winter.

Wright also has designed a kids' guide to fly fishing that the Department of Game and Fish will print.

Wright said his main goal is to get more kids outdoors.

He hopes a few more fly fishing adults will help bring Trout in the Classroom to more schools. "It's been pretty much me," Wright said. "I'm maxed out. I just need some people who could work an hour or so a week."

The Truchas Chapter's annual banquet is Saturday at the Inn and Spa at Loretto. The featured speaker will be master-level fly casting instructor and photographer Brian O'Keefe, featured in Outdoor Life, Fly Fisherman and Men's Journal. For tickets, go to http://truchas-tu.org/.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.