View Full Version : visited hatchery today
necrocanis
10-31-2005, 10:44 PM
I went to the hatchery here in great falls montana today. It was pretty awesome. They had about a 20,000 gal cement pond with albino rainbow trout and regular rainbow trout. They looked to be over 3 ft. long and were as thick as my leg(I have very thick legs :naughty: ) I put some of their food in and it was awesome to see those huge fish fighting over little bitty pellets. I don't really think that the cement ponds are the best for them. Most were missing either their fins or parts of their heads. Some were just strangely deformed. Probably comes from low gen pools from hatchery fish. They had very long troughs they raised the fry in until they were of a good size to release. They claim not to use any hormones or artificial means of fertilization. Just thought I would share. After our visit we went and caught some of these fish. None were caught over 1ft. We were fishing in a small pond though. Amazing how active they are with the water soo cold.
sandtiger
10-31-2005, 11:17 PM
Aquaculture was my college major so I would visit a lout of hatcherys on feild trips and there was an on campus hatchery where we took practicum. Very fun and interesting, I would love to do it for a living (it WAS my major after all). Great hearing about your experiance.
BTW, the long troughs are called run-ways.
necrocanis
11-01-2005, 5:21 AM
yeah, run-ways makes sense. They are like 50 ft long or something like that. They only had very few fingerlings when we went there though.
A lot of hatchery fish are missing parts of fins because they are cropped when young to enable fish and game departments to recognize and track fish that are weighed in, stocked,etc
rayman45
11-01-2005, 10:46 AM
and you dident get pics :(
zennzzo
11-01-2005, 11:50 AM
and you dident get pics :(
yeah DooooooooH! :naughty:
sandtiger
11-01-2005, 7:29 PM
A lot of hatchery fish are missing parts of fins because they are cropped when young to enable fish and game departments to recognize and track fish that are weighed in, stocked,etc
Hatchery fish never look as good as wild fish, here is a side by side comparison of two trout. The top fish is wild, the bottom is hatchery raised.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y58/sandtiger/trout.jpg
At the on-campus hatchery where I worked we would cut off the adipose fins but they did grow back.
ballsmcgee1234
11-03-2005, 11:18 AM
sounds like fun...
kentobizmol
11-06-2005, 9:17 PM
i've seen albino rainbow trouts in dA wild in Japan but i thought they were golden koi from above!
BUT THEN I SAW ONE IN A TANK, AND THE TROUTS WERE HUGE!! LIKE CLOSE TO 3'!
the albinos kinda looked like catfish to me.
sandtiger
11-06-2005, 10:26 PM
You mean like this guy?
http://www.hedley.ca/albino.jpg
necrocanis
11-07-2005, 1:40 AM
I can go back for pics anytime. I will be home from work in a couple of days so I can maybe have some posted then.
kentobizmol
11-09-2005, 1:17 AM
You mean like this guy?
http://www.hedley.ca/albino.jpg
no it looked more catfishy.
the color was the same though...i took pictures actually let me find them
necrocanis
11-14-2005, 12:42 AM
Hey everyone. I went back to the hatchery and got those pics I promised. Enjoy. Oh, yeah, I would say the largest ones are over 36". I guess that's big, but I don't know much about rainbows cept the largest one I caught was 28".
DeLgAdO
11-14-2005, 12:50 AM
THOSE ARE SOME BIG MO****IN TROUTS!! :WHOA:
sandtiger
11-14-2005, 7:10 PM
Awsome trout man, those guys are beasts.
benzjamin13
11-14-2005, 7:24 PM
Maybe I'll keep those instead of koi when I build my pond...again :drool:
redtailfool
11-14-2005, 8:04 PM
Those are awesome ! :thumbsup: I love trouts like that.