Durango Fish Hatchery

So far this year Durango Fish Hatchery has stocked over 97,000 catchable sized rainbow trout in over 20 different water bodies such as the Dolores River, Animas River, Jackson Gulch Reservoir, Andrews Lake, Big Molas Lake and more! Before those fish are big enough to be stocked out as 10" fish, they are much smaller.
Today Durango Fish Hatchery moved next year's catchable rainbow trout into the raceways where they will grow to 10" by next summer.
In total over 54,700 fish were moved weighing in at over 3900 lbs!
That's alot of net fulls of fish for the crew at Durango Fish Hatchery!!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Colorado Parks and Wildlife - Durango

Last week Durango Fish Hatchery stocked Poage Lake with over 4000 three inch Cut-Bows! (Cutthroat/Rainbow Hybrids)

Senior Durango Hatchery Technician III, Sarah Gump and District Wildlife Manager, Jeremy Gallegos worked together to get these fish to Poage Lake via four wheeler.
These two have teamed up almost every year in recent history to make this a success. This Colorado Parks and Wildlife duo has their "fish in a row" so to speak, with Sarah bringing the fish, cooler, nets and water chemistry tests, and Jeremy with his four wheeler and chainsaw! Yes, he even clears the trail so they can get their precious cargo to the lake with ease.
One cooler load at a time they made sure every fish got to the water safely.

The stocking was a success and they both went home wet and muddy!

Thank you to all who made this day possible!
Tight Lines Everyone!

Colorado Parks and Wildlife - Durango

Within the past two weeks Durango Fish Hatchery has been busy stocking waters throughout southwest Colorado.
Groundhog reservoir received over 2990 catchable cut-bow trout (cutthroat rainbow hybrids)! More information about Groundhog Reservoir can be found here: https://cpw.state.co.us/swa/Groundhog%20Reservoir%20SWA

The San Juan River through Pagosa received over 800 catchable rainbow trout, while the east fork of the San Juan River received over 340 catchable rainbow trout! Wolf Creek received over 240 catchable rainbow trout as well.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible!
Tight Lines Everyone! Happy Independence Day!
Colorado Parks and Wildlife - Durango

The Durango Wildlife Museum is now open for the season! Come and learn more about the local wildlife species that can be found across Southwest Colorado. The Museum will be open 10:00am to 4:00pm Monday through Saturday and on Sunday's 11:00am to 3:00pm. For questions about the museum please call the Colorado Parks and Wildlife office in Durango at (970) 247-0855.

Durango Fish Hatchery has had such wonderful opportunities interacting with youth across our region!
The annual Water Festival at Fort Lewis College, held by the Southwestern Water Conservation District was a huge success! There were 15 schools and 31 classes, totaling close to 600 - 5th grade students! Durango Fish Hatchery has participated for over 10 years now and it's such a valuable way to reach out to our youth in a fun and interactive way!
On April 25th, Durango Fish Hatchery attended a Career Field Day at Mancos State Park. This event included over 40 high school students from Mancos, Dolores, Dove Creek and Cortez.
These students are interested in careers in the outdoors and they had the opportunity to dive into different outdoor career opportunities.
Different stations included:
Water Sampling/Quality & AmeriCorps- with Mountain Studies Institute
CPW Internships & Bear Aware Education- Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Fish Hatchery Management- Durango Fish Hatchery, Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Park Ranger- Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Durango Fish Hatchery has also hosted over 100 people this year with guided tours for regional schools and Colorado Parks and Wildlife Volunteers.

Durango Fish Hatchery is open every day from 8am to 4pm for self guided tours and the Wildlife Museum is open Mon - Sat 10am to 4pm and Sun 11am - 3pm. Remember to bring some quarters for the fish food machines and come feed the fish!
Durango Fish Hatchery asks that visitors obey all rules and signs at the fish hatchery during your visit.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife - Durango

Happy Spring!
So far this year Durango Fish Hatchery has stocked over 46,304 catchable sized fish through out south west Colorado, with a total weight of 16,286 pounds!
Lakes that have been stocked so far this year include but are not limited to:
Jackson Reservoir (Mancos State Park)
McPhee Reservoir
Echo Canyon Reservoir
Haviland Lake
Joe Moore Reservoir
Twin Spruce Ponds

On a side note, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife - Durango wildlife museum will be opening May 15th! Come on over and check it out!

Get out there and get fishing! Tight Lines Everyone!
Colorado Parks and Wildlife - Durango

This week wrapped up the stocking of Haviland Lake. This year Haviland Lake received over 14,300 catchable rainbow trout averaging 10.2" in length, which comes out to a whopping 6290 pounds! Durango Fish Hatchery had some help from an enthusiastic helper who cheered them on as they unloaded the final 3696 fish this week. Thank you to all who made this possible!
Tight Lines Everyone!
Colorado Parks and Wildlife - Durango

Durango Fish Hatchery has stocked the Animas River with catchable Cutt-Bows! These fish are Cutthroat Rainbow Trout Hybrids that are raised here at the Durango Fish Hatchery! So Far this year the Animas River in town has received over 1800 Cutt-Bows with an average length of 11.16 inches. That's about 1000 pounds of fish so far this year!

Waters that have been stocked this week with catchable sized Rainbow Trout include:

Dolores River through Dolores
Dolores River through Rico
San Juan River through Pagosa
East Fork of the San Juan River
West Fork Lakes

Thank you to everyone who made this possible!
Have a great weekend and Tight Lines Everyone!
Colorado Parks and Wildlife - Durango

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