Friends of the Upper Mississippi

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry’s Chatsworth and Normandale Fish Culture Stations staff(left) Riley Hotrum and (right) Steffi Krauseholding an adult lake trout. Riley is a technician with the Upper Great Lakes Management Unit, and Steffi isChatsworth Fish Culture Station’s Operations Coordinator. Photos provided byMatthew Brailey, Manager, Chatsworth Fish Culture Station and Normandale Fish Culture Station,OMNRF.

Genoa National Fish Hatchery received lake trout eggs from our partners in Ontario, Canada (Chatsworth and Normandale Fish Culture Stations). Staff from these facilities collected wild adult lake trout from Big Sound, Lake Huron. Eggs were incubated at their facilities until they were eyed and shipped by mail to Genoa National Fish Hatchery. Upon receiving eyed eggs, they were disinfected with iodine and incubated in heath trays at water temperatures between 7-8 °C in an insulated recirculating system in one of Genoa’s regional isolation buildings. Once these eggs hatch the fish will remain on station for a year and a half until they clear three fish health inspections by the La Crosse Fish Health Center (La Crosse, WI). Once all testing comes back clear, the fish will be transferred to their forever home at one of our broodstock facilities (Pendills and Sullivan Creek National Fish Hatcheries, MI) where eventually they will be used to produce eggs for the lake trout hatcheries to grow into yearlings for restoration stocking efforts in Lake Huron.

By: Orey Eckes

As production season winds down, things start to slow down a bit at the hatchery. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t have fish on station. We hold on to several species for different reasons throughout the winter. We currently have four of our ponds set up to overwinter fish.
One of these ponds is dedicated to finish growing out the Rainbow Trout hatched last winter. These will be grown as much as possible until the end of April when they will be stocked out as catchable sized trout. Another pond is dedicated to keeping our “fishing day” fish, mainly Rainbow Trout with some fun surprises sprinkled in. There are some absolute monsters in there, partially due to the fishing day cancellations in 2020. The next fishing event will be epic, whenever that might be!
Another pond is dedicated to all the broodstock sportfish on station, including Yellow Perch, Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, and Black Crappie. They will be divided into their own ponds come spring. Finally, a pond is used by some of this years’ Walleye and Smallmouth Bass crops. These are destined to become host fish for the mussel program in 2021. More current and future mussel host fish can be found inside the buildings. Channel Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Walleye, Golden Shiner, and Flathead Catfish are all waiting their turn to carry around some baby mussels. Never a dull moment!
By: Nick Bloomfield

One of the broodstock ponds with the 20-21 season’s first dusting of snow. USFWS photo

Feeding the Rainbows- an automatic feeder distributes feed to hungry Rainbow Trout. USFWS photo.

The Fish and Wildlife Service celebrated November as Native American Heritage Month, a time the Service used to reflect on the rich history and cultures of Native Americans both past and present, and their importance to natural resource conservation in the future. The Genoa National Fish Hatchery, along with our Fish and Wildlife Conservation Offices work very closely with tribal conservation offices to assist in the conservation mission of the tribes on their tribal lands and waters. This is part of our nation’s tribal trust responsibilities, many spelled out in treaties signed by the U.S. government with the tribes sometimes many years ago. The Genoa (WI) National Fish Hatchery actively works with 12 Midwestern and Northeastern tribes to assist them in the Recovery of Threatened and Endangered Species, the Restoration of Native species of fish, and the creation of sport fisheries that are enjoyed by tribal members and non-members alike.
All of this happens over a large landscape of sovereign tribal lands and waters. Endangered species such as the freshwater mussels are supplied and propagated in tribal hatcheries. Lake sturgeon and Coaster brook trout are supplied to tribes through targeted restoration plans in order to assist in species recovery over their historic range. Also recreational fish species such as Walleye, Rainbow trout, Brook trout, Bluegill, Black crappie, and Largemouth bass are also supplied to tribes to meet their fisheries management objectives.
The Genoa staff always consider meeting our tribal commitments with a measure of respect and honor, and while November is specifically chosen as Native American Heritage Month, it is celebrated year-round through the cycle of life at the Genoa facility.
By Doug Aloisi

(Top) A Tribal biologist fin clips hatchery Coaster brook trout recaptured from a wild fish population survey. Photo Credit: FWS photo. (Below) A Tribal biologist holds hatchery lake sturgeon recapture. Photo Credit: Pat Brown

GNFH truck at the stocking site at Devil’s Lake, Forest County. Photo by Nick Bloomfield/USFWS.

September and October were busy months at Genoa National Fish Hatchery. Pond harvesting and distributing those harvests kept us on the move for a couple month stretch of time. One of those trips was made up to our tribal partners in the northern part of Wisconsin with a load of Black Crappie, but there was truly nothing crappy about them. These little gems are destined for life in smaller lakes ideal for panfish. On 9/24, I set out for the long round trip to two lakes. Devil’s Lake is located on Forest County Potawatomie lands in northeastern Wisconsin. Oneida Lake is just west of Green Bay on Oneida Nation lands. Each lake received 2000 Black Crappie and some Fathead Minnows to grow on. It gave me a chance to break out of Vernon County for a day and get a nice preview of the fall colors that were working their way towards our neck of the woods. Hopefully some of these fish will find the end of a fishing rod in the next few years!

By: Nick Bloomfield

When things are left in the river they become habitat for all of the animals that live there. Mussel cages are no different. Despite our best efforts, a handful of cages were left in the St. Croix River for more than 4 years. There wasn’t much left except the bases that still provided excellent habitat for native mussels. It’s unlikely that the mussels crawled in themselves, instead it’s likely that their host fish were hiding in the structure provided by the bases and the juvenile mussels dropped off and grew there. Species found included Endangered Higgins Eye, Plain Pocketbook, Fatmucket, Paper Pondshell, Giant Floater, Pink Heelsplitter, Threeridge, White Heelsplitter, Mucket, Creeper and Cylindrical Papershell. While we were recovering the cages we also looked for Higgins Eye broodstock and found some displaying mussels and some natural surfaces providing habitat as well.

By: Megan Bradley

The remains of a mussel cage.