HAGERMAN - Sometimes, fish need a little something extra to meet new partners, get in the mood and make baby fish.

And, no, the answer isn't R&B music.

But it could be fish ladders, devices that help fish bypass hydroelectric dams en route to prime spawning areas. Idaho Power Co. is building a fish ladder - the company's first in 60 years - at its Malad power facility between Hagerman and Bliss, in hopes fish in the Snake River might move farther up the Malad tributary to spawn in cool spring water.

"The Malad River has some of the highest densities of trout in the West," said Steve Brink, a fisheries biologist with Idaho Power. "This project could double the size of their spawning area."

The project is part of a relicensing agreement with the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission, and is expected to be completed in January. Company and federal government studies, which began in 1998, indicated area rainbow trout populations could be increased if the ladder was built.

Here's how it works:

Fish approaching the dam from the river will be funneled toward the device, which looks similar to an aqueduct. They'll swim into a series of narrow, shallow ponds in the ladder that become increasingly higher, until they're around the dam - a 280-foot swim to climb about 13 feet.

Fish returning from spawning areas follow the same process in reverse.

"It's a series of ponds that function basically like an escalator," Brink said.

The Malad project will feature the company's first functioning ladder built since the 1940s, when a similar project failed.

But Idaho Power officials expect this ladder to be more fruitful. A 10-year monitoring program will gauge its success, and if all goes as planned, another ladder will be built farther upstream.

The first fish ladder will cost the utility about $3 million.

Idaho Power generates about 23 megawatts of electricity each year at two hydropower facilities in a three-mile stretch of the Malad River. One megawatt is enough electricity to power about 650 residential homes.

Matt Christensen may be reached at 735-3243 or at matt.christensen@lee.net.