Raising Hatchery Trout

True story.. I had a friend who worked at this hatchery...maybe 20 - 25 years ago... His job was to feed the fingerlings... This meant he had to walk around the perimeter of the ponds draining food out of a 50 lb bag... Being a lazy sod he came up with the bright idea of using an old hand bell he'd found in an antique shop in Scottsdale. He leaned over and rang the bell close to the surface of the water... Of course fish can't hear but they can feel the vibrations from the sound waves... The fish quickly learned to associate the sound waves with food and they came running - swimming - over to where he was... When the tank truck would suck the fingerlings up to take them off to a lake, my friend asked the driver where he was taking them... A couple months later my friend would take his boat out, with a fishing rod of course - and the bell... He'd ring the bell close to the water and always catch his limit... This is a true story...you can look it up...

I remember my last neighbor had a salmon hatchery in his garage. I don’t think it was legal, but it was cool nonetheless.

Im 47 years old my father took me to a place like this when i was 6 i remember it like it was yesterday. Gave me new respect for fishing

When I was a kid about 17 years ago, I've been to this very hatchery when I use to go camping up around that area. Those tanks they kept those fish in is something I'll always hold as cherished memories of my youth, even caught some of them rainbow trout in many lakes. Ponds and streams. Thanks for sharing the video.

Bald Eagle: "I'm the symbol of Freedom, Feed me!"

Huge respect to these guys and their organization. This would be an awesome job

I live in Washington state, I'm now 68 years old. I remember back when I was a kid and just got my drivers license me and my friends would go to the local trout hatchery in late summer and catch grasshoppers and throw them into the pens, what great fun that was, they were like piranha going after them. These days the pens all have netting over them, but I remember those fun days.

I appreciate these men and women who provided the opportunity for the rest of us to escape to the outdoors

Getting out of the Army here in about 10 months, looking into a possible career here. My school took a field trip there one year, I loved it.

Wow the fish eggs survive the mail kicking and throwing the eggs. Interesting video 👍🏻 it’s like breeding brine shrimp

My son Thor caught a trout for me on Mother's Day; I cooked it up it was so good, I'd forgotten how good! Now I'm obsessed 😉 Thanks for the great video!

My father was a member of a rod & gun club when I was growing up, and they had their own private lake that they stocked with rainbow trout that they raised on their property. From what I remember they had 3 separate "pools" with thousands of fish in each. They would stock them in the lake once they got big enough, which was usually around 8-10 inches I think. I remember going with him every week to feed them. The food looked like little brown pebbles and you'd take a bucket full of it and just hurl it into their pool and they'd go nuts, it'd be like a feeding frenzy. Just like what they showed towards the end of the video at 6:20. Same thing we did really. Was pretty cool and it's the first thing I thought of when I came across this video.

Been to the Tonto hatchery with the kids and now the grandkids, it's definitely worth the trip to go see. First went there myself when I was 10 years old and never forgot the experience.

I want to say that it was a great video! Also Thank you to all the hard workers who provide us with these great fish to fish for in these lakes!! You guys are awesome!!!

Wow that was really cool. No politics, no nonsense.. just a neat video. I like it

Thanks to Americans and Canadians for the their dedications to life itself

Thanks for sharing the great video and you are doing a fine job to help nature and fish sustainability. Time to cook.

Thank You Game in Fish, and Tonto Fish Hatchery! I fish the Rim a lot especially East Verde River.. AZ overall has a Awesome Stocking Program, much better then other states I lived in... I sincerely appreciate it!

Thank you for keeping these awesome rainbow trout and keeping them going thanks for your hard work

when i was younger, i used canned corn to fish for trout. they love it because thats what they feed them at the hatchery and they remember it.