Rainbow Trout eggs arrived at the hatchery on January 19th. Our friends at Ennis National Fish Hatchery, a Rainbow Trout brood facility for the Service, shipped us over 100,000 eggs overnight. After confirming the count and a quick disinfection, the eggs were placed in flow-through egg jars to finish their development. On January 26th, we noticed a few fry that had hatched in the jars, meaning it was about go-time! The eggs were placed on screens in raceways and hatching began almost immediately. By January 28th, most of the eggs had hatched. The new fry will feed off their yolk sac for the next few weeks. Next, we will watch for the telltale sign of hungry fry swimming up in the water column looking for food, our cue to start feeding. The trout will live at Genoa until next Spring, when they will hopefully be approaching 12 inches and ready to put a bend in some lucky angler’s rod. These trout will be stocked at Fort McCoy, several tribal lakes, and several fishing ponds including ours used for fishing events. Now the work begins to fatten these guys up! By: Nick Bloomfield

Rainbow Trout eggs in jars

A raceway with wire mesh screens holding eggs and fry in the water. Photo credit: Beth Glidewell/USFWS.