STATE FISH HATCHERY

State Fish

The state fish hatchery at Pinetop is a lovely place high in the Ponderosa pines of the White Mountains in northeastern Arizona. Trout for the lakes and streams of the entire White Mountain area are hatched here during December and January. The eggs are shipped to the hatchery from Yellowstone Park, where they were stripped from the female and then mixed with milt taken from the male. Fertilization of the eggs takes place after they have been discharged from the female and therefore can be performed as well artificially as by the fish themselves.

The eggs are placed in long, shallow tanks through which a stream of pure water is constantly flowing. The water must be kept at fifty-two degrees or below, as the eggs will not hatch if the water is allowed to rise above this temperature. The water temperature is very important.

After an incubation period of twenty-eight days the eggs hatch. At this stage the fish are barely visible to the naked eye, but they grow rapidly on the five feedings each day. After a few weeks the fish have grown larger and are placed in shallow tanks just behind the hatchery building. Here ground meat is also fed five times a day until the fish reach an average length of two inches. At this time the fish are segregated and placed in larger ponds according to their size. This is necessary to keep the larger fish from eating the smaller ones. It also gives the small fish a better chance in obtaining food, which is now fed only twice a day. Fresh water is kept running through all the ponds and they seldom freeze over, although the temperature drops to below zero almost every night in the winter. On the nights when the ponds do freeze, holes must be cut in the ice to feed the trout.

The fish know when it is feeding time and gather at the sides of the ponds in anticipation of dinner. It is a spectacular sight to see thousands, forty thousand in fact the number in each pond-fighting and jumping for the ground meat as it is tossed into the water.

Y. W. Butler, superintendent of the hatchery, does most of the feeding personally, as well as helping with all the other tasks. He does jobs ranging from caring for the eggs to chasing away small boys who have come to the conclusion that the ponds with the larger fish would make wonderful fishing.

The native Arizona trout found originally in the White

Hatchery

Mostly rainbow trout are hatched instead of the native trout as they grow faster and are easier to raise. A few cutthroats and browns are raised to give variety to the fishing.

The feeding and raising of the trout in the hatchery in no way lessens the ability of the trout to obtain their own food once they are planted in the streams and lakes. The docility displayed in the hatchery is also lost once they are placed in their natural habitation.

The trout spend most of the day hiding among the rocks in the deeper pools and come out for food in the mornings and evenings. They take to anything from the lowly worm to the fancy artificial flies. In their unmolested moments they feed mostly on midges, fresh water crustaceans, flies and fish eggs.

It takes an expert fisherman to catch his limit, as the trout become expert in detecting the presence of man. Trout are a worthy foe and always put up a good fight. These are some of the reasons trout fishing is the thrilling and exciting sport it is.

Part of the fish reach the legal minimum size of seven inches, or one-fifth pound, in one year and are ready for planting. The smaller ones are kept at the hatchery and thus obtain a free meal ticket for another year. The two-yearold fish reach a length of ten to twelve inches before planting and are the inspiration for all fishermen's stories of the big sixteen-inchers that were hooked but finally got away. Planting is done by trucks with large tanks in which the water is kept in circulation by means of pumps. It is necessary to do this or the fish would die of suffocation. These trucks travel along the streams, placing about a hundred fish in the water every few miles. Previously a truck would dump its entire load of twenty thousand fish in one spot, but this lessened the chance of survival for the fish, as news got around before the fish had time to travel far.

Two trucks are kept going almost every day from the first planting in early May to the last of September. In one year the hatchery at Pinetop will plant twenty-five tons of fish, numbering three hundred thousand trout. That is a big mess of fish and it means a lot of fine fishing for sportsmen during trout season and a lot of fun.