Join us at the Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery

Scott Bunde and his daughter teamed up to land this 20-pound Chinook while fishing Lake Michigan. The big pond relies on stocking from Wild Rose.

Wild Rose is a reliable workhorse that's been delivering fishing fun and enhancing and restoring fish populations in Wisconsin for more than a century.

Wild Rose State Fish hatchery grows more trout and salmon than any other and will eventually produce musky, sturgeon and walleye to test anglers statewide.

Wild Rose Brochure [PDF 5MB]

Come Solve the Fall Fish Migration Mystery - Oct. 29, 2011!

Investigators of all ages are invited to the Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery on Oct. 29, 2011 to solve the
Fall Fish Migration Mystery - "Why did the fish leave Lake Michigan?" [PDF 279KB]
Please report between 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

New! Wild Rose Fish Hatchery Video

Watch fish production from start to stocking at Wild Rose!  [VIDEO Length 10:13]
And learn how the century-old workhorse of the state's hatchery system has been
brought into the 21st century to produce fish for Lake Michigan and other waters.
See all fisheries videos »

Wild Rose Renovation

After carrying up to 50 tons of fish every year for more than 100 years, Wild Rose was showing it's age. With much needed renovation now underway, the historic memories are being preserved and a new era is beginning.

• The first fish released in Wisconsin waters from the newly renovated Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery.  [VIDEO Length 2:05]

• Hatchery renovation is coming up roses

What can I do at Wild Rose?

There's a lot to do at Wild Rose! Come and see the new Wild Rose Hatchery Education Center, where you'll find two large aquariums, interpretive displays, activities, and games that help tell the story of the fish hatchery then and now.

You can also take a peek at hatchery production from the coldwater (trout and salmon) observation room, then stroll down to the historic village where Wild Rose first began and fish still swim in the raceways.

Pack a picnic lunch and enjoy the scenery in the historic village, a tradition since the early 1900s.

Fish Production

With the completion of the new coldwater facilities, Wild Rose is currently producing brown trout, Chinook and coho salmon and in the near future, rainbow trout. When the coolwater facilities are completed in 2009, Wild Rose plans to resume production of northern pike, walleye, lake sturgeon, tiger and great lakes spotted musky, in addition to raising suckers and minnows for forage.

With both cool and coldwater capabilities, Wild Rose is able to raise a variety of fish.

Stocking

John Aschenbrenner hauled in this 50-inch spotted musky on the Fox River near downtown Green Bay.

Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery is critical to Wisconsin's $2.75 billion sport fishery. The hatchery is particularly important to great Lake Michigan fishing; 100 percent of the coldwater fish (trout and salmon) raised at Wild Rose are stocked into the big pond. Lake Michigan has been considered a "world-class" fishery and thanks to the renovations of Wild Rose, we can be confident that it will live up to its reputation.

Cool Facts

• Year in, year out, Wild Rose produces more than 2 million trout and salmon for stocking; and
• It's one of only 3 hatcheries to raise both cold and coolwater fish.