Genoa National Fish Hatchery’s trout production is now underway for the upcoming year. Rainbow Trout eggs arrived from Ennis National Fish Hatchery (Montana). Genoa NFH received approximately 120,000 Shasta strain rainbow trout eggs from Ennis NFH. Ennis NFH is the largest facility in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Broodstock Program and specializes in rearing fish to adult size, then taking the eggs from those fish, incubating them, and shipping them to production hatcheries.
These Rainbow Trout are being raised to provide a cost recoverable recreational fishery at the Fort McCoy Army Base in Sparta, Wisconsin, as well as to increase recreational fishing opportunities through various federal, tribal, and state partnerships. In addition, they are stocked for recreational fishing opportunities for fishing events for people with disabilities, elderly adult and kids fishing days on hatchery grounds, the Veterans Administration hospital in Tomah, WI for their annual fishing event for veterans with disabilities, Chad Erickson Memorial Park for Hillview Nursing home residents and the public, Camp Decorah for Boy Scouts of America recreational fishing pond, multiple Red Lake Band of Chippewa Tribe lakes and other locations in Wisconsin and Iowa waters. Fort McCoy is a United States Army installation and is used primarily as a military training center and a support site for military personnel and their families. The site has multiple ponds for fishing opportunities for soldiers and their families. Genoa National Fish Hatchery raises rainbow trout for spring stocking to six Fort McCoy locations: Suukjak Lake, Sandy Lake, Big Sandy Lake, Stillwell Lake, Swamp Pond, and Sparta Pond. In 2025, Genoa NFH stocked 15,233 catchable size (11 inches) Rainbow Trout in Fort McCoy waters. The stocking of rainbow trout provides a great recreational fishing opportunity for military staff and their families as well as for Fort McCoy visitors. Currently, Rainbow Trout from the 2025-year class are in a pond and our Coldwater South building awaiting stocking in the upcoming months. Past studies have shown that when 15,000 fish are annually stocked on the base it results in 66,580 angler hours of fishing.
By: Orey Eckes
Photo: 1 year old Rainbow Trout feeding in a hatchery pond. Photo credit: Jadon Motquin/USFWS. Photo: Below: 1 year old Rainbow Trout in a hatchery pond. Photo credit: Jadon Motquin/USFWS.
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