Cobalt tours Smoke in Chimneys trout farm and follows the process of stocking a private trout stream from the water source at the hatchery, hatchery plumbing and logistics, and the trout from egg to stocker.
One of the most fascinating videos I’ve seen in 2023. I would love to have a spring dump 1000 gallons a minute of 50 degree water here in California. Amazing operation!
My great-grandfather built a hatchery like this and stocked a lake right next to it. He raised a family of 14 and ran the hatchery while having a farm in back of it and he did that until his death in 1972.
That’s a very cool family history to have, our grandfather’s and our past generations were a special breed of Men and women who held the families together.
Awesome video. I have no experience, no knowledge of it, but really enjoyed the fact that this is a clean business. Water is recycled back to the stream and fish stocking. No significant impact to the environment and the product is healthy food. That is great😊 Probably one of the few industries we can and will have confidence in the near future. Food is getting contaminated these days. 😕 Thanks for sharing! 👍
I could tell just from this video that he is very good people. When you see him next, suggest maybe adding wheels to the "contraption" that he built. Should be easy to do, not expensive and will save him from having to jump in the raceway every time.
I have visited a fish weir for steelhead, king and coho salmon in Traverse City Michigan many times while they were hearding the fish up ladders into the weir. Like this video it was an educational experience. I fished the Bordman river for steelhead and salmon every fall and many limits were caught. Stocking is now critical for sustainable harvest for public consumption and maintaining good levels for fisherman that contribute the dollars needed to run state research and stocking programs. Keep up the good work!
Yes. He’s very passionate about what he does. I work at another trout hatchery and we know him. Really an awesome dude that is doing sone majorly cool stuff at his hatchery with trout
I loved this video! Brought back so many great memories working with salmon, steelhead and trout hatcheries all over the world - Chile, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and State hatcheries. The simplicity of this operation is awesome - no drum screen filters, LHO's, ozone, UV...just an amazing aquafer. The up-well incubator caught my attention - so much better than those damn trays. Ours was substantially larger and had a conical bottom with a diffuser which (at the correct flow) suspended the eggs up throughout the column...gently tumbling them. I miss this work!
Ohhh my! this is just unbelievable hats off to that man !! the way its all simply done with abit of care and knowledge, makes it just beautifful to wach ! saw many hatchery vids from Eastern Europe tiny vilages, and also from fameous ridicilus money English chalkstreams also, but Cobalt Trout Farm gonna stay forverev in my memories
Clever Guys. Wild Cat Fish taste delicious Chinese style steam soy sauce. Another premium delicious river fish is challenging to rear is Malaysia Soon Hock Fish. Super delicious steam
Great video, I worked on a number of gravity fed hatcheries and farms in Southern England and am officially an "old timer", as we used to strip the individual male and female trout and mix the ova and the sperm together with the flight feather of a goose. Great days
I'm an avid trout fisherman in Missouri USA and I really never had any idea how trout were raised. We have several hatcheries around the state and you can actually walk around the rearing impoundments to see what you might be catching during your stay at the trout park.
Coming from the northeast and have visited a few fish hatcheries the danger of predators like bears,raccoons, fisher cats is always present as I feel they have those problems there also. Thanks for the video
Back in the 70s a bunch of buddies and I would camp and fish the streams in the wilds of the hills of WV, fishing was so popular with folks that the State would stock the streams every 2 or 3 weeks. One of the guys got his hands on a bag of fishery food pellets and made bait balls with loose cotton, since the fish were fishery raised and that was the only food they knew of and he would literally slay the fish getting limited in just a few hours. It was kind of cheating really, and he got brow-beaten into stopping the practice! Thank God the locals never figured that out!
Wow, that’s impressive…. Imagine all that free spring water flowing and the whole system is mostly gravity fed. In Canada we do a lot of yearling spring stocking, 6-8” trout and they grow quickly and become basically big wild fish in our lakes and sometimes creeks. Not sure if that would work in highly fishing pressured areas, anyhow cool operation.
lake arrowhead in california uses the same water level system to change the level of the big lake with the same control as the small pond!! amazing jimmy houston in his oklahoma lake as well incredable?
What a cool place that guy has, would have like to know how he got there, sounded like he bought the place and brought the hatchery back from not being used.
Saw an operation like this in PA. Run by the state. Often wondered if anyone bought it when the state stopped using it and put it in operation. Used to visit as a kid.
Yes, the state and federal government own the water and the land under the water. You can fish any navigable body of water. Just DONT GO ON THE DRY LAND! As long as you access the water by public land, or a easement. Easement is like at a bridge over the water.
Maryland law states the land under the water belongs to landowners. You can float through but cannot walk in water. My brother in law got a ticket for that in Bear Creek Garrett County.
This dudes a VIP. WE NEED HIM DOWN IN THE EASTERN SIERRA CA. 3 yrs straight they found a way to kill off the fish before stock,because of bactieria. From the water temp,the feed, to the brute stock. They cant seems to find whos fault it is. Its a bum deal. Hope they can find a way to keep it simple.
We finns put eg boxes in creeks in autum so the fish will born in the creek and that way most of them return to the same creek after few years to reproduse.. No need to stock all the time. We figured out adding fingerlings aint working as well.. Alot cheaper to ad those boxes for few years and let nature do the rest.
I don't like hatcheries, but these days there wouldn't be much fishing. I believe in genetics or wild fish, to have them there 1 year is max.I live by Lake Michigan. Rainbow and brown trout some states use genetics summer run steelhead ect. They said the fish will only go to the river they came from, they forgot to tell some of the salmon, if the river isn't good they try another. Many strains are extinct. Only a couple streams produced 100lb king salmon, some are gone forever. NOW A DAY'S 50 is big. The lake trout went extinct so they stocked anything and then they find out a small pocket exists.
That's true the landowners do own the land under the water. My brother in law got a ticket because he was wading and thought he was safe as long as he didn't go on dry land. That was in Western Md. Not sure what Virginia law states. Game Warden told him if he was floating he was safe.
This hatchery is like the one in South Dakota The crazy part of that it’s Cleghorn fish hatchery which is my last name. Scottish decent ? Ask who and how that hatchery came about ?
It would have been much more interesting if you'd have show more pictures of the fish. Especially when you were netting them, you didn't have to just focus on his face.
Poor fishies. They're losing their happy home. Maybe they're new home will be even more happy. Sooo... Why didn't they stock the stream with fingerlings like the hatchery guy said would be best?
I did not know you can own a stream in the USA. Ones i bought a Idaho fishing licence and I could fish in any stream or lake in Idaho. Maybe he is the owner of the land around the stream but i could still wade in his part of the river as long i stay in the water. With the risk he could shoot my ass. Or am i misinformed? I am from Europe and having a lease on a piece of river happens a lot and is very annoying. It makes fishing expensive and a big puzzle who owns what?
