Gunnison County’s Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery raises Kokanee salmon, supports local economy

(GUNNISON COUNTY, Colo.) — Fishing is a popular pastime in Colorado and according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), angling contributes $2.4 billion to the state’s economy every year. One fish, in particular, supports $29 million of that revenue, and fall is a great time to try and catch one of Colorado’s Kokanee salmon in Gunnison County.

“The Kokanee here at Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery come from Granby in northern Colorado and those fish come from Flathead Lake in Montana,” said Seth Firestone, the Roaring Judy Hatchery Manager for CPW.

CPW has been spawning Kokanee salmon for decades.

“They provide a great recreational opportunity, great table fare,” said Firestone. “They’re real popular with anglers and they’re unique in that you can chase them throughout the year.”

The annual spawn takes place at the Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery in Almont.

“So, kind of the start is bringing in a fertilized, what we call a ‘green egg,’ into the hatchery,” he explained. “On average, we collect up to eight million Kokanee eggs here at Roaring Judy and bring them into the hatchery. We use a Von Bayer trough to figure out how many eggs there are per ounce, and then we’ll take a volume measurement.”

The eggs are then stored in incubator trays for about 30 days. After that, they are sorted and the fertilized ones move on to the next phase.

“Once we pick those eggs, we load them into hatching jars that are mounted right on our fish tanks,” said Firestone. “Those hatching jars hold up to 150,000 Kokanee eggs.”

The eggs take about 26 days to hatch and once they do, the fry are dumped into a larger tank.

“Once they’re in the tank, they’ll just lay at the bottom of those tanks for about three weeks or 21 days,” he said. “Once they absorb their sack, their swim bladder starts to develop and they’ll start swimming up. And then, we start them on fish food. So, that takes us from about the spawn in October all the way up to around February.”

From February until mid-April, Firestone and his crew care for the fish, feeding them and cleaning their tanks daily.

“It’s a lot of work. We have 44 tanks and 44 troughs,” he added. “Our goal is to raise 3.1 million two-inch Kokanee to stock back in the East River.”

Once the salmon are in the river they begin their long dangerous journey to their “ocean,” which in this case is the Blue Mesa Reservoir.

“It’s a 28-mile journey from here to Blue Mesa,” said Firestone. “They make that trip when we release them in about nine hours. But, we do have a lot of fish that are eaten by the browns and rainbows that are in the Gunnison and the East River.”

Those lucky enough to make it to the reservoir remain there for about three years.

“The majority of the fish come back as three-year-olds,” said Firestone. “We’re actually in that time frame now, we’re in September, so we do have fish that are already running up the Gunnison up the East River and trying to get back to where they’re born here at Roaring Judy.”

The journey is instinctual.

“Kokanee salmon are a landlocked sockeye salmon, so they are imprinted on our water source here,” said Firestone. “But, also the journey from the hatchery into the East River down the Gunnison to Blue Mesa, that is also imprinted as well. It’s amazing that after three years they can remember that trip they made down the river to get back up.”

Once the fish arrive, it’s all hands on deck.

“In October, that first week is when we’ll start to spawn,” he said. “So, we get a big crew together, both hatchery personnel and biologist personnel will come to the hatchery. We spawn as many days as we need to, to work through the fish that are ripe that week.”

Kokanee salmon die after they spawn so the hatchery holds “Fish Fridays” to make sure they don’t go to waste.

“We have giveaways every Friday starting about mid-October through the end of the spawn,” he said. “We give away all of the fish that we spawn for that week on that following Friday. So we ask people to be here at 9 a.m., bring a valid fishing license, bring a cooler, and it’s just a great way to not have those fish go to waste.”

The Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery stocks Kokanee salmon in 25 bodies of water throughout the state and now is a great time to try and hook a big one.

“There’s a lot of opportunity throughout Colorado,” he said. “You can always ask your local CPW area office, your biologists, or call the hatchery to get information on where the good places are to go.”

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