Fishing_Content Page_Kettle Moraine Springs State Fish Hatchery

Kettle Moraine Springs State Fish Hatchery

Fishing Wisconsin

Kettle Moraine Sprngs
 

Hatchery information

The Kettle Moraine State Fish hatchery is a good friend to Lake Michigan, producing steelhead, Chinook salmon and walleye exclusively for the big pond. In fact, it's the only hatchery designated by law for purchase as a fish hatchery for Lake Michigan fish production.

Hatchery hours

The hatchery will be undergoing construction. It will be closed to visitors until the construction is complete.

Amenities

  • Visitor Center
  • Restrooms

Hatchery location

N1929 Trout S4pring Road
Adell, WI 53001

Contact

Call (920) 528-8825 or email Andy Hron

Visiting

Raceways
Outside raceways for rearing fish

 

The hatchery has fish year-round but some of the best times to visit are in March, October and November when eggs are incubating and also May and June when swim-up fry might greet you.

Year-round you can take a close-up look at steelhead in aquariums, fish mounts, displays and more in the visitor center.

 

History

When Ben and Gladys Winton arrived at Kettle Moraine Springs in 1954, cow pies, hayfields and a milking barn were the main features. But by 1955, this industrious couple had developed the farm into a fish hatchery.

The DNR purchased the hatchery in 1979, and with the purchase of additional land, the hatchery now produces around 500,000 fish annually.

Fish production

Kettle Moraine Springs Hatchery raises trout and salmon with eggs from wild fish and from other hatcheries in Wisconsin and other states.

Egg Tub
Tubs holding fertilized eggs

The fertilized eggs are held in tubs until the fishes' eyes can be seen through the eggshell, at which time they are transferred to special baskets that allow the newly hatched sac-fry to drop through openings and rest on the floor. When the sac-fry absorbs the yolk-sac, they swim up off the tank floor looking for food.

After their first month of life, the fish are moved to raceways until they're stocked out. Ninety-eight percent of the steelhead and salmon raised at Kettle Moraine Springs are stocked into the streams flowing into Lake Michigan.

 

Did you know?

  • A sharecrop program with local farmers is operated on hatchery lands. This benefits wildlife by providing nesting cover and food plants for pheasants, deer and turkey. A wonderful population of songbirds also resides on the property
  • Thanks to anglers' purchase of the Great Lakes Trout and Salmon stamp required for fishing these fish, millions of dollars of these funds have been used for the development of the hatchery including propagation of trout and salmon as well as habitat enhancement and protection.
  • The hatchery works very closely with Lake Michigan sportfishing clubs and inland walleye fishing clubs. In the past 28 years, these clubs have donated nearly $300,000 worth of equipment, labor and pond construction, etc.