Making fishing possible: What goes into raising trout for Roaring River
Hatchery manager Paul Spurgeon looks over the fry swimming inside the hatchery building, still too small to go outside.
October 14, 2015
Charlea Mills
Fishing the cool, calming waters of Roaring River means anglers bringing in hearty, healthy trout year after year. But for most, the fish pulled from the river are taken for granted with little knowledge of how much effort goes into raising those fish and keeping the waters stocked year-round.
Roaring River State Park’s trout hatchery is operated by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). Hatchery manager Paul Spurgeon is in charge of the lengthy process that starts with planning and ends two years later when the fish are finally released to be caught and served as someone’s dinner.
Hatcheries have existed in the Roaring River area since the 1800’s. In the 1930’s, MDC took over the hatching, and in 1938, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the current hatchery building that is still in use. Spurgeon said, “We still utilize a great portion of what the CCC built in the park.”
The Roaring River Hatchery sits at the far end of the park, behind pools of trout of varying sizes, including a circular pool of their breeding stock. At any given time, the hatchery has between 600 and 800 breeder trout on site.
To keep the 32 holes stocked at the park, the hatchery staff calculate how many trout they’ll need in a given year to stock approximately 2.25 trout per tag sold. For 2014, that meant 251,400 trout were stocked in the waters. Of those, over 198,000 were hatched and raised at Roaring River.
Spurgeon said, “From egg to fish is 14 months, but we start planning two years in advance; then, we feed them at a rate that will get us what we need at the right time.” Essentially, the whole process comes down to a time line and formula for getting exactly the number of rainbows to release for the season.
The actual spawning aspect starts in January when the breeders are harvested for sperm and eggs. Once mixed together in the old hatchery building, an original from the CCC days, the hatchery ends up with hundreds of thousands of fry. In 2014, the hatchery had 381,000 fry either raised there or sent to other hatcheries. The five trout hatcheries across the state work together.
Spurgeon said, “We are always trading out fry and fish to help each other out. But we like to keep fish here if we can, because we have a better grip on controlling the quality.” Certain imports are essential, like replacing part of the breeders each year with new from the Shepherd of the Hills hatchery.
After that initial spawning process, fry take 21 days to hatch. From then, the fry are kept indoors and fed every hour around the clock for two weeks. Before moving outside, the fry are dipped into a vaccine for red mouth disease and 30 days later, move outside into the pools and raceways.
Starting out, 30,000 fish are kept in the initial pools and thinned out as time passes. By the end of the process when the trout are released into Roaring River, each raceway has around 7,000 fish ready to swim in the waters of the park.
With two years of planning and the work of eight full- and part-time employees giving 24-hour care to the trout in the hatchery, Roaring River’s waters are stocked with healthy, vibrant trout ready to bite the lures of anglers who come from all over the country.
The team taking care of the trout consists of hatchery staff, a stream biologist and a stream management team with representatives from the hatchery and the state park. The waters are stocked, gravel is maintained, baffles are repaired and so on. It isn’t a one-step process to keep the operation moving smoothly.
Spurgeon said, “We all get together as a team to make this happen.” The next time you cast a line into Roaring River, take a moment to think of the people make your fishing trip possible.
Charlea Mills
Fishing the cool, calming waters of Roaring River means anglers bringing in hearty, healthy trout year after year. But for most, the fish pulled from the river are taken for granted with little knowledge of how much effort goes into raising those fish and keeping the waters stocked year-round.
Roaring River State Park’s trout hatchery is operated by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). Hatchery manager Paul Spurgeon is in charge of the lengthy process that starts with planning and ends two years later when the fish are finally released to be caught and served as someone’s dinner.
Hatcheries have existed in the Roaring River area since the 1800’s. In the 1930’s, MDC took over the hatching, and in 1938, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the current hatchery building that is still in use. Spurgeon said, “We still utilize a great portion of what the CCC built in the park.”
The Roaring River Hatchery sits at the far end of the park, behind pools of trout of varying sizes, including a circular pool of their breeding stock. At any given time, the hatchery has between 600 and 800 breeder trout on site.
To keep the 32 holes stocked at the park, the hatchery staff calculate how many trout they’ll need in a given year to stock approximately 2.25 trout per tag sold. For 2014, that meant 251,400 trout were stocked in the waters. Of those, over 198,000 were hatched and raised at Roaring River.
Spurgeon said, “From egg to fish is 14 months, but we start planning two years in advance; then, we feed them at a rate that will get us what we need at the right time.” Essentially, the whole process comes down to a time line and formula for getting exactly the number of rainbows to release for the season.
The actual spawning aspect starts in January when the breeders are harvested for sperm and eggs. Once mixed together in the old hatchery building, an original from the CCC days, the hatchery ends up with hundreds of thousands of fry. In 2014, the hatchery had 381,000 fry either raised there or sent to other hatcheries. The five trout hatcheries across the state work together.
Spurgeon said, “We are always trading out fry and fish to help each other out. But we like to keep fish here if we can, because we have a better grip on controlling the quality.” Certain imports are essential, like replacing part of the breeders each year with new from the Shepherd of the Hills hatchery.
After that initial spawning process, fry take 21 days to hatch. From then, the fry are kept indoors and fed every hour around the clock for two weeks. Before moving outside, the fry are dipped into a vaccine for red mouth disease and 30 days later, move outside into the pools and raceways.
Starting out, 30,000 fish are kept in the initial pools and thinned out as time passes. By the end of the process when the trout are released into Roaring River, each raceway has around 7,000 fish ready to swim in the waters of the park.
With two years of planning and the work of eight full- and part-time employees giving 24-hour care to the trout in the hatchery, Roaring River’s waters are stocked with healthy, vibrant trout ready to bite the lures of anglers who come from all over the country.
The team taking care of the trout consists of hatchery staff, a stream biologist and a stream management team with representatives from the hatchery and the state park. The waters are stocked, gravel is maintained, baffles are repaired and so on. It isn’t a one-step process to keep the operation moving smoothly.
Spurgeon said, “We all get together as a team to make this happen.” The next time you cast a line into Roaring River, take a moment to think of the people make your fishing trip possible.
