Raising Trout
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Get A Behind The Scenes Look At Raising Trout
February 10, 2010
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Brad Rice
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This is both the beginning and end of the trout raising cycle here at the Bowden Fish Hatchery. These brood trout produced nearly a million trout fry, soon they'll be released into West Virginia waters. These are some of the little guys who'll be stocked next year.
Frank Williams, a biologist with The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, says it all starts here. "These are our brown fingerlings, they are in what we call the swim up stage, just starting to feed. These fish are about a month old. We progress to the brook, they are about the same age but they're more dispersed, the brook mature faster than the brown."
Williams and the folks here know their stuff. They have to to be able to track all these little guys, it's a big job. "In this facility, we put out between 250-270,000 catch-able fish and the cost overall for state facilities averages about $2.50 per pound. You can see this whole first process, we feed the fish 3 times a day, every day. These are still small right now, but these will be the fish we put out in April and May, these fish are probably 15 months old" says Williams.
Just perfect to put in the Cranberry or maybe the Elk. No matter where they're stocked, now you know what goes into getting them into the waters you love to fish.
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