Growing fish faster: State hatcheries turn to aquaculture to help stock lakes

Game Fish & Parks using indoor tanks to keep up with angler demands for walleye, bass and other sporting fish

Cody Treft at Cleghorn Springs State Fish Hatchery with the first RAS system he and Brian Fletcher designed and built in their shop. (Submitted)

It started as a challenge. Over sunfish.

Five years ago, South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Secretary Kevin Robling set a goal for the state agency’s fish hatchery staff: grow catchable-sized sunfish in under a year. Typically, it would take three to four years in an outdoor pond, a process slowed by winter.

The sunfish — in this case a hybrid between bluegills and green sunfish, a technique perfected in Nebraska — is used to stock urban and community fishing waters. They are easy to catch, even for youth anglers, a gateway fish that GFP hopes will get kids hooked on a lifetime of fishing.