Touring FWP's hatcheries a fishfull experience

Last week I had the opportunity to tour two local Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks fish hatcheries with members of Flathead Wildlife, Inc.

Biggest surprise was the largest fish we saw was the 4-inch pet crappie of hatchery manager Mark Hornick!

According to Hornick, rather than growing catchable-size salmon and trout for stocking in area lakes, both the Somers Fish Hatchery and Rose Creek Fish Hatchery supply fingerlings statewide.

“Our job is to take eggs and grow fish to a stockable size,” said Hornick.  “We do all the kokanee egg-taking for the entire state.”

Somers and Rose Creek are now supplying over 2 million kokanee salmon, 200,000 west slope cutthroat trout, 150,000 grayling and 20,000 brook trout annually.

Rather than counted individually, hatchery fish are counted by the number of eggs per quart.

“Kokanee tolerate high densities in the rearing tanks, so we can grow lots of them,” Hornick said.          

Hornick also explained, that while the grayling living in several area lakes are hybrids, the hatchery will plant genetically unique Red Rock grayling from the Centennial Valley into Handkerchief Lake.

First stop was Somers, where tiny fish are raised in 104-year-old tanks. 

Water, which until l991 was carried by an oak pipe patched with pieces of coffee cans, comes from a spring a half mile west of Highway 93.

Comparing the aging Somers facility to the modern Rose Creek, Hornick explained how fish culturing is an evolving science.

“For years, Somers hired dozens of housewives to meticulously sort out dead and sickened eggs from tanks.

“Now we harden the eggs with iodine and treat kokanee eggs every other day with hydrogen peroxide to kill bacteria and fungi.

“The dead eggs are automatically removed by water flows which also remove fish wastes, which are composted.”

Rose Creek Hatchery, a small shack in 2003, was expanded in 2011 with the construction of a state -of-the-art hatchery building, designed by Hornick. 

The hatchery sits on a 1,700 gallon a minute artesian well.  The water is pure but requires aeration through a passive Hornick-designed system.

“In the old days, we had to take 4 million kokanee eggs to raise 1 million stockables, now we can take 2.5 million eggs to get 2 million fish to stock.

“Our job is to get’em in, raise’em, and get’em out as fast as we can,” Hornick said.  “These kokanee go out in April, then the cutthroat eggs come in.”

“Our hatcheries are in good hands,” commented Jim Vashro, FW, Inc., president and former FWP Region One fisheries manager, “We’re extremely fortunate to have Mark Hornick on board.”