Wild Rose Fish Hatchery historic raceways, October 26, 2023. PC: Fox 11 Online
WILD ROSE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A seasonal celebration is gearing up for an annual event in Waushara County.
The Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery is holding its open house on Saturday.
It’s meal time for these brown trout inside a large aquarium.
“We’re feeding them a dried pellet. It’s high in protein, vitamins and minerals,” said Joan Voigt, Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery Naturalist.
Joan Voight says the routine is one of the activities during the Saturday open house. She says there will be scientific displays, trivia questions and games for all.
“The kids’ favorite place is the match-your-catch activity fishing pond. So they catch a fish, and try to match it with a picture,” said Voigt.
Guided tours are on the schedule.
“We’ll go into one of the buildings. We’ll do a drive-through to see some of our coho salmon. We have about 250,000 coho salmon that were eggs back in November, 2022. And they were hatched in January, and now we’re raising them. They will be stocked out beginning in March,” said Voigt.
On the grounds near the Education Center, Voigt says nostalgia may be found, all around.
“People will be able to go down and stroll through time, through the old, historic part of the hatchery, where it all began in 1908. We still have a few of our remnant brown trout down there,” she said.
Voigt says there are about a dozen brown trout are getting ready to spawn in the concrete enclosures called raceways. She says visitors are able to feed the cautious fish, and connect with nature.
“People love to come out and reminisce from when they were kids. They came with their grandparents, and they might be bringing their grandchildren now,” said Voigt.
Saturday’s open house is free and open to the public.
The event runs 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.
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