The 2019 Eagle Lake rainbow trout spawn took place at Story Hatchery March 6 through May 7. Eagle Lake trout are the largest brood stock at the hatchery with approximately 3,000 fish. On Wednesdays during this time, hatchery personnel collected eggs from ripe females and mixed them with milt from selected males. Each female can produce 1,800 to 2,600 eggs and this year, 2.1 million eggs were spawned.
 
In coming weeks, hatchery personnel will ship the eggs to Speas, Clark’s Fork, Dubois and Wigwam hatcheries for incubation and rearing. In addition, some eggs will be shipped to a hatchery in Colorado as part of our trading program with other states.
 
The fish will later be stocked in waters throughout Wyoming, with some returning to Sheridan Region fisheries, including Lake DeSmet. The species was stocked in DeSmet beginning in 1985, but in the early 2000s, they were reduced in favor of stocking fall rainbows. However, since 2017 they have been regularly stocked in DeSmet again to provide anglers with a shore-running species in the spring.
 
A special selection of genetically-diverse eggs was collected during the spawn and will be raised at other hatcheries before returning to Story Hatchery to serve as future brood stock.