Trout Treasury of Tontoland

Like a heart pumping blood into human arteries, so Tonto hatchery produces recreational nourishment for trout streams lacing the forested playgrounds above and below Arizona's scenic and spectacular Mogollon Rim.

Built in 1937, it is one of three state-operated trout hatcheries. The others are Page Springs, near Cottonwood, and Sterling Springs, located at the upper end of Oak Creek. In addition, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service runs three other trout "assembly lines" at Willow Beach on the Colorado River, and at Williams Creek and Alchesay, both on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.

Trout hatcheries have a magic appeal for both young and old. There's something about the roaring water and mixed aroma of fish and pine needles that kindles fishing interest even among those who never baited a hook before. But of all Arizona's hatcheries, none is found in a more beautiful niche of the forest than the hatchery at the headwaters of Tonto Creek.

Here, in a pine-fringed clearing at 6,480 feet elevation, hatchery manager Al Fuller and his three assistants help keep anglers happy. And they are doing a great job of it as witness the fact that Tonto hatchery alone produces more trout today than all state hatcheries combined raised thirty years ago!

To get maximum production with minimum loss, hatchery personnel must be ever alert to oxygen count, temperature and the buildup of undesirable chemicals, while hand-feeding the trout special diets to promote rapid growth. The idea today is to push hatchery fish from infancy through adolescence fast, so a new generation can move into the crowded raceways.

Tonto hatchery is tucked into a wooded pocket of the Mogollon Rim just below Tonto Spring, five miles above Kohl's Ranch and Arizona 160. During summer months, the hatchery grounds abound with kids and adults who escape the desert heat by visiting Tontoland and its popular fish-rearing ponds.

Fuller keeps pelleted food available, so visitors can feed the fish themselves. This always proves the highlight of the day as youngsters watch the water boil with trout devouring tasty morsels.

But all too soon the crowds depart, leaving the woods empty of frolicking vacationers. As serenity is restored, wildlife lose their caution and wander unafraid through the hatchery grounds. It isn't uncommon on a crisp fall morning to see a flock of wild turkey ambling past the ponds, perhaps pausing for a refreshing drink.

Then comes the silent splendor of winter, with snowdrifts sometimes as high as the edge of the hatchery roof. Although the loneliest period of the year, it also can be the most beautiful.

The Hatchery is a popular attraction for summer visitors, who enjoy feeding the fish and viewing the "King-Size Whoppers" that manager Al Fuller keeps for his prime breeding stock.

In late February, the smell of spring sifts through the forest, as wild flowers begin pushing their tender young stems through melting snowbanks. This melting rapidly increases in tempo, providing the annual runoff so essential in filling the big downstream reservoirs of Roosevelt, Apache, Canyon and Saguaro Lakes. Hatchery days start early even in midwinter. With a yearly total of two million mouths to feed, fish production becomes a year-round job.

Eggs start arriving in late fall to begin the cycle. Rainbow eggs are purchased from commercial trout farms at Soap Lake, Washington, and Plymouth, Massachusetts. Brook trout eggs don't come from any regular supplier just wherever they happen to be available, while brown trout strippings also are flown in from Massachusetts. All eggs are fertilized before shipment.

A typical production year includes 1,725,000 rainbows, 200,000 browns and 100,000 brookies. The output is apportioned to nearby Rim streams and to newly constructed trout lakes atop the Mogollon Rim in Sitgreaves National Forest.

This bonanza of new lakes includes Wood's Canyon, completed in 1956, Knoll Lake (1963), Bear Canyon (1964), Black Canyon (1963) and the Phelps Dodge diversion impoundment on East Clear Creek. These new impoundments have opened a vast new fishing area where once there was nothing but wilderness streams (see Wilderness Odyssey of Chevelon Creek, ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, June, 1964).

Trout production is big business these days, and contrary to popular belief far more complicated and scientific than merely dumping fingerlings in a pond and watching them grow.

Trout production at Tonto hatchery is divided into two categories: streams and lakes. Stream fishing in Arizona is managed on a "put-and-take" basis, which means the fish are planted at catchable size for immediate harvest by anglers. With fishing pressure so intense on the state's limited number of trout-supporting coldwater streams, the Game and Fish Department has abandoned hope of maintaining populations through natural reproduction. Only the brown trout, which is extremely wary and difficult to catch, is able to hold its own in civilization.This means that the burden of producing catchables rests with the hatcheries. Tonto hatchery now turns out 75,000 pounds of catchable-size trout a year at about fifty-seven cents per head. Although the mass of these planted fish are creeled out of streams by fishermen, a surprising number become carry-overs, fattening up in their new home on caddis larvae and other insect life.

The number of carry-overs in a stream seems to balance with the fertility of the water, which in most cases is much less than during pioneer days when streams flowed free of siltation.The other phase of the management program involves raising fingerling-size trout for lakes. In fisheries terminEcology, a fingerling is a trout of two to four inches in length, while "catchables" measure seven inches or more. Actually, a seven-inch trout can hardly be considered sporting quarry, even on ultralight tackle.Fingerlings represent the major productive effort at Tonto hatchery, with most of the trout earmarked for lakes. Since Arizona trout lakes are more fertile than streams, they can be used as natural rearing "ponds." At Big Lake, Luna Lake and Ashurst Lake, a growth rate of one to two inches per month is not uncommon.By switching trout to lakes at an early stage, the hardpressed hatchery facilities are released to begin another production cycle.

Keeping the budding trout healthy is no easy chore for hatchery crews. The eggs, which arrive in late fall and early spring, are first placed in trays that fill a ceiling-high rack in the hatchery building. Here, the eggs get constant nursing care to ensure an even flow of temperaturecontrolled water circulating over them.After hatching, the tiny fry are placed in galvanized troughs and fed a fine blend of fish meal, meat, vegetables and vitamin supplements. Soon the delicate fish gain sufficient strength to endure life in one of the eighteen outside raceways. In addition to these modern cement rearing tanks, Tonto hatchery has several pools with overhead aeration systems and three large ponds for catchables.

The hatchery operation is fed frigid water diverted from Tonto Spring at the headwaters of the creek. A gravity-flow diversion system inhales the entire spring flow and pipes it through the hatchery. After making the rounds, the water is released back into Tonto Creek.

Thirty years ago fish management was far less scientific than it is today. The solution seemed simplejust stock more fish. Trout came from small hatchery operations at Sterling Springs, Indian Gardens near Payson, and from the old Pinetop facility in the White Mountains. Double Springs at Mormon Lake also served as a supplemental trout and warmwater fishery until the lake dried up in 1938.

The popular panacea of universal stocking covered everything from bass to rainbow trout, with most plants in the fry to fingerling class. Officials theorized that by putting them in young the fish would have ample opportunity to grow provided they were planted during the fall with a closed season protecting them until spring.

But what these early fish management people didn't realize was that only ten percent of the trout plantings survived the long winter and heavy spring runoffs.

Then, in the 1940's, came a shift in policy. The trout were planted as fingerlings or larger, and in spring rather than fall. This led to adoption of "put-and-take" trout management, which continues to this day.