Hatching and Rearing Process

What came first, the fish or the egg? The fish! The eggs are collected from a brood stock female and fertilized with the
male’s semen and shipped over night from the Ennis National Fish Hatchery in Ennis, Montana. Usually, about 80,000
eggs are sent to the department and delivered

immediately by hatchery staff to the hatchery compound. Once the eggs arrive, they are immediately disinfected and
evenly distributed into incubator trays in the hatchery building. Eggs will spend 3-4 weeks in the incubators trays and
once the eggs are incubated the fry (young fish) will remain in the incubator trays until all are hatched and the fry have
started to absorb their egg sacks. Then the fry are transferred to three raceways. The fish are considered fingerlings
(1 inch size) at this point and will remain in the inside raceways from December until as late as May. Fingerlings will
remain in the raceways until the they have reached a length of 2-3 inches, then will be transferred to the upper pond.
Water quality is to be assessed and fish feed everyday.

Stocking >