Before moving small fish into larger water areas at the hatchery, rearing ponds are filled and treated with fertilizers. Organic fertilizers consist of hay, alfalfa meal and soybean meal while inorganic fertilizer contains nitrogen, phosphorous and potash. As the fish grow, food is provided by continued pond fertilization or by adding small goldfish or a commercially prepared food. Pond management also includes the application of chemicals for algae or disease control, monitoring dissolved oxygen levels, feeding the fish and collecting them for transport and release. The ponds all have sloped bottoms to permit thorough draining.
Collection is done by slowly draining the water and netting the fish.
Then they're taken to the holding house for grading according to size, weighing and inventory. Finally, they're loaded onto special trucks for distribution statewide. Recent hatchery renovations improved the water supply system and added a new hatching house complete with lab and computer warning system. If a problem develops in the hatching building, such as a change in water temperature, the computer is set to call, in sequence, the hatchery manager, hatchery biologist and various fishery personnel on down the line until someone responds. Besides the new hatching house, the hatchery also has rearing and brood ponds, an office building, feed house, storage building, garage and three residences for staff.